Revave, a newly-organized Jewish group, has joined other groups to work toward returning the Temple Mount to its former glory by restoring Jewish sovereignty over the area. Each month the group attempts to take up to 10,000 Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount to pray. Each time they are met by Muslims protesting their presence. Muslims from all over the world are calling for continued Islamic dominance over the Mount. This has made the 35-acre area the most volatile piece of real estate on earth. In spite of the world-wide resistance to their efforts, the Jews of the Middle East are expressing an interest in rebuilding the Jewish Holy Temple. So will a Temple be built in Jerusalem? Consensus within the Institutional Church holds that a temple will be built prior to Christ’s return. But is this so?

Daniel 9:24-27/Matthew 24:15/2 Thessalonians 2:4 and Revelation 11:1,2;13:14,15 seem to indicate that a physical temple will indeed be built before the return of the Lord. However, God’s New Covenant Temple is His church (1 Cor. 1:2;3:16,17). In 1:2 Paul shows that he is addressing his letter to the Church of God in Corinth. In 3:16,17 he tells the church that she is the temple of God. Question: Will Jesus return to a physical temple that has been built by the Jews of the Holy Land or to His church? There may indeed be a new Jewish Temple built in the Old City of Jerusalem prior to His advent. But that will be the Jew’s Temple. Jesus is coming back to His Temple–the Church of God–the Israel of God (Gal. 6:16). Whether a physical temple will be in existence when He returns is irrelevant. At the end of the millennium God the Father will accompany New Jerusalem down from heaven to a new earth (Rev. 3:12;21:1-30). Here we are told of the new earth and new heaven that will come from heaven to where Jerusalem stands today, which will be the headquarters for the Kingdom of God. See the postings of that name. We are also told that God will be with His people, who will be in the kingdom. In Revelation 21:22 we are told that there will be no temple in New Jerusalem, for God the Father and Jesus the Lamb will be its Temple. Where or if a physical temple fits into the pre-New Jerusalem scheme is subject to conjecture.