Explaining what the temple of God is does not explain how a profane place sits next to the temple of God. Nor does it explain what it is or why it is there. Would you be kind enough to explain what this profane place is and how this profane place fits in with your view concerning eschatology?
The words that are translated “sanctuary” (kodesh) and “profane place” (chol) simply mean “holy, consecrated, hallowed” and the opposite which means “profane, common, unholy.” The term profane does not mean defiled, it simply means something or someplace that is for common use as opposed to something or someplace that is consecrated for holy use.
And they shall teach my people [the difference] between the holy (kodesh) and profane (chol), and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. Ezekiel 44:23
This verse uses the same Hebrew words but are translated “sanctuary” and “profane place” in Ezekiel. It doesn’t mean something or someplace that is defiled, but simply that it is not consecrated or set apart for holy use but is rather for common use, such as land.
In the days when the land was being divided and the Lord gave instructions how the Levitical cities were to be laid out, the open ground around the city walls was to belong to the city for the grazing of cattle and was never to be sold. This was “profane” land only in the sense that it was intended for common use … to graze cattle and other animals, as opposed to the area within the city walls which was consecrated for the use of the priests.
This common land that surrounded a Levitical city was called in Scripture
migrash, translated "suburbs."
Command the children of Israel, that they give unto the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in; and ye shall give [also] unto the Levites suburbs for the cities round about them. And the cities shall they have to dwell in; and the suburbs of them shall be for their cattle, and for their goods, and for all their beasts. And the suburbs of the cities, which ye shall give unto the Levites, [shall reach] from the wall of the city and outward a thousand cubits round about. And ye shall measure from without the city on the east side two thousand cubits, and on the south side two thousand cubits, and on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits; and the city [shall be] in the midst: this shall be to them the suburbs of the cities. Numbers 35:2-5
Jerusalem too had an area outside the city walls that was common or unconsecrated land and in another passage from Ezekiel where the walls of the city are being measured it also gives the measurement of the area of land outside the city walls that was to be used for this common purpose.
And the five thousand, that are left in the breadth over against the five and twenty thousand, shall be a profane [place] for the city, for dwelling, and for suburbs: and the city shall be in the midst thereof. Ezekiel 48:15
Notice that the verse says that the city “shall be in the midst thereof,” in the midst of the common land. And that these “suburbs” would be for a “dwelling” for the citizens of the city.
(During New Testament times the number of pilgrims to the city for the three annual feasts overwhelmed the city and there was simply not enough room within the city walls to house the entire festal population, so the common ground, which was designated by God for a dwelling for the people, became a virtual tent city that covered the valleys and slopes of the surrounding hills so that those who dwelt outside the city walls were still considered to be "in Jerusalem" because they were within the city's Levitical boundaries.)
The eschatological fulfillment of this is that the New Jerusalem is not located “out there” beyond some star or in another galaxy. It is here, in the midst of the earth, but separated from the common or unconsecrated land around it, common land that belongs to the city and is for the use of the citizens of the city, and for a dwelling for the citizens of the city, but is separated from the city by the walls that enclose the sacred ground.
We are such creatures of time and space that sometimes it isn’t easy to get our heads around the idea of God and His Heaven existing above and beyond the limitations of time and space. We are so accustomed to thinking of God “up there” in heaven and yet we know that in truth, God is omni-present, that is, He is everywhere present at the same time, as close to us as our own breath. It isn’t distance that separates man from God, but state of existence.
In the same way it isn’t distance that separates the Celestial City from the common ground of the earth, it is the difference in the state or realm or dimension in which each exists. So just as with the Old Jerusalem which sat “in the midst of” the common ground that lay round about the walls of the city and yet was separated from it by those walls, so too the New Jerusalem sits “in the midst” of the earth and yet is separated from it by the walls of the city.
And this “common ground” is for the use of the citizens of the city, places to graze our cattle (earn our living), and also for “dwelling places” even while we are citizens of the city and are free to enter the gates of the city and walk it’s golden streets and even ascend up to the inner courts and come into the very presence of the Father and Son seated on the throne of Heaven.
Now knowing what, or rather who, is the chief cornerstone of those walls, and knowing what, or rather who, those walls are, and what, or rather who, the gates into the city are, you can extrapolate from there to see that God’s handiwork is not far from us, but only one small step away in the spirit … and you can see as well “through whom” we each must pass to enter in …
In Christ,
Pilgrimer