Jesus Christ could return at any time: maybe today, in ten years, or in ten thousand years.
Christ cannot return for at least 3-1/2 years...
Mat 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand
Mat 24:16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
Mat 24:17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
Mat 24:18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
Mat 24:19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
Mat 24:20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
Mat 24:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Rev 12:14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
The tribulation lasts 3-1/2 years and the two witnesses are in Jerusalem for 3-1/2 years...
Rev 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Most of us believe we will be able to recognize the "season" of His return and of the end of this present "Church Age" or "Age of the Gentiles."
We all think that but Christ gave some very pointed warnings...
Mat 25:1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
Mat 25:2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
Mat 25:3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
Mat 25:4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
Mat 25:5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
Remember this is a continuation of the teachings of the Olivet Prophecy.
Luk 17:26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
Luk 17:27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
Luk 17:28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
Luk 17:29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
Luk 17:30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
There are currently millions of Israeli Jews making all the preparations to rebuild on the Temple Mount. Their major obstacle is the Dome of Rock, one of the most important sites for Islam, which has been built at the location of the fallen First and Second Temples.
There does not HAVE to be a Temple. Notice I did not say there would NOT be a Temple (I expect something to be built) but there does not HAVE to be one...
Remember the story of David when he numbered Israel? The death angel had killed 70,000 and was standing ready to destroy Jerusalem...
1Ch 21:16 And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
David bought the threshing floor of Ornan at full price, built an altar of stones and then this happened...
1Ch 21:26 And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.
Now David says something very interesting...
1Ch 22:1 Then David said,
This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel.
And the first stone had not been laid yet. Does there have to be a Temple built? Past history indicates it does not.
If the Jerusalem temple is rebuilt, animal sacrifices are expected to resume. Unlike the First and Second Temples, this rebuilt Jerusalem temple will NOT be God's true temple. Christians have been blessed with the knowledge that our bodies now compose God's temple and that Jesus Christ sacrificed His body for the redemption of all sin.
Yes and no, the Old Covenant has not completely passed away...
Heb 8:13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old.
Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
Is there a difference between being ready to eat dinner and have already eaten? You bet. Judah is blind and cannot enter the New Covenant yet...
Rom 11:8 (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear
unto this day.
God has blinded them...
Rom 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
They will turn to God in the only way they know how.
Most of us who expect a "great tribulation" period (either 7 years or 3.5 years), expect that a man, the Antichrist, will stand in a temple in Jerusalem and proclaim himself to be God.
Will he, or will this antichrist, more correctly the man of sin, do this from a church?
2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
This falling away is not from Judaism, it is from the church...
Rev 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Rev 13:12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Rev 13:13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
Rev 13:14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
It might pay us to be on the lookout for a wonder working, miracle producing, fire calling down from heaven religious figure who is the head of a great universal church.
So, knowing that it will not be God's true temple, will you consider a rebuilt Jerusalem temple a significant sign that we are in the season of the end?
Rather, maybe we should look for this...
Dan 8:10 And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them.
Dan 8:11 Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.
Dan 8:12 And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.
Dan 8:13 Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?
Dan 8:14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
Dan 8:19 And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be.
Dan 8:25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.
Dan 8:26 And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days.
