Zone, maybe I'm missing something, what does the Babylonian captivity have to do with the Ez. temple and Rev. 21 New Jerusalem? Remember, Ez. temple is 40 miles square, New Jerusalem is 6000 miles sq. that's vastly different. Shalom
hey avinu.
i'm going to try to tackle this
whew.
ezekiel (and jeremiah) went to Babylon when the people went.
as well as being shown the vision of a temple, ezekiel was told:
Ezekiel 39:25
“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name.
and, He followed through, as always:
2 Chronicles 36:23
“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up.’”
Ezra 1:5
Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem.
so....was the nw temple the one ezekiel saw? no, not really. not right away.
Zechariah 4:10
"Who despises the day of small things? Men will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. "(These seven are the eyes of the LORD, which range throughout the earth.)"
~ i believe its around here that the FUTURE PROMISE of THE GLORY OF CHRIST and NEW JERUSALEM comes into view again. the children are told that the second temple will be more glorious than Solomon's!:
Haggai 2:3
The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the LORD Almighty. 'And in this place I will grant peace,' declares the LORD Almighty."
and eventually it was: because of the taxes and offerings brought from the disapora, AND BECAUSE OF HEROD:
The accession of
Cyrus the Great of
Persia in 538 BCE made the re-establishment of the city of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple possible.
[1] According to the Bible, when the Jewish exiles returned to Jerusalem following a decree from Cyrus the Great (Ezra 1:1-4, 2 Chron 36:22-23), construction started at the original site, which had remained a devastated heap during the approximate 70 years of captivity (Dan. 9:1-2). After a relatively brief halt, brought about by peoples who had filled the vacuum during the Jewish captivity (Ezra 4), work resumed c. 521 BCE under the Persian King
Darius (Ezra 5) and was completed during the sixth year of his reign (c. 518/517 BCE), with the temple dedication taking place the following year.
Around 19 BCE,
Herod the Great renovated the Temple, which became known as
Herod's Temple.
~ and, as we know: THE TRUE TEMPLE, THE LORD JESUS eventually replaced Herod's Temple.
(remember Daniel had been shown all this...including the destruction by Titus (70AD) after Messiah was cut off):
Daniel 9
24Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
25Know therefore and understand,
that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince
shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
26And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof
shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
27And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make
it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
~
John 2:19
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
~
and then what?...moving forward into the expansion of the TEMPLE, the CHURCH on earth, jew & gentile (patterned after the Heavenly, and in preparation for the New Jerusalem, world to come world without end):
Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Romans 10:18
But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”
Colossians 1:6
which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,
~ and....we are seeing the Everlasting Kingdom growing as sinners are saved and translated from this world (which is passing away) to the world to come.
here's that FANTASTIC church epistle which reveals the MYSTERY of the CHURCH:
Ephesians 1
Greeting
1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful
a in Christ Jesus:
2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Spiritual Blessings in Christ
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
4even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
5he predestined us
b for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
6to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
8which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight
9making known
c to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ
10as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
11In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
12so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
13In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
14who is the guarantee
d of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,
e to the praise of his glory.
Thanksgiving and Prayer
15For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love
f toward all the saints,
16I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,
17that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,
18having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might
20that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
21far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
22And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church,
23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Ephesians 2:6
For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.
~
BUT: what about ezekiel's temple?
it wasn't exactly like Herod's, and it was MUCH SMALLER than New Jerusalem....of course it was: because the Kingdom has been expanding both in Heaven and on earth all this time.
but: isn't there a millennium between the Second Advent and New Jerusalem, time to build ezekiel's temple and have more temporal stuff? no. THERE WILL BE NO MORE TEMPLE APPROVED BY GOD.
but there is a period the believing JEWS understood in between the First and Second Advents, the MESSIANIC (Kingdom) PERIOD called figuratively
a thousand years (meaning complete...you know this, right avinu?)
that's where we are now....much nearer the end of it than the beginning, but this is why we can not know the day or hour, the time of the end is not known until the cosmic signs....the entire messianic (salvation) period is simply called
a thousand years (Rev 20).
Revelation 20 is a parenthetical chapter: it stops the show and zooms out to see what's taking place in HEAVEN throughout
the thousand years.
SO WHAT HAPPENS AT THE END OF THE "
THOUSAND YEARS" (Messianic portion of the Kingdom)?
Matthew 24:14
And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
2 Thessalonians 2
The Man of Lawlessness
1Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers,
a 2not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.
3Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness
b is revealed, the son of destruction,
c 4who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
5Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?
6And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time.
7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.
8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.
9The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,
10and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
11Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false,
12in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
~ this is the same event...even including the Lord Coming to Save and Judge.:
Revelation 20
The Defeat of Satan
7And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison
8and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea.
9And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven
b and consumed them,
10and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Judgment Before the Great White Throne
11Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
12And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
13And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.
14Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
15And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Revelation 21
22And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it,
25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.
26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
CONCLUSION:
ezkiel's temple was a pictoral vision of hope and future promises, ultimately pointing to Jesus, The Church, and The Eternal Kingdom, & New Jerusalem, the same city john saw.
~ whew.
that's
kind of the amillennial covenant (non-dispensational) eschatological view. any damage i did to it is my fault.