I am wholeheartedly convinced in the importance of eschatology (popularly defined as the “study of the last things,” or more commonly “end times”). I believe that, from the moment of the Fall, everyone in Scripture looked forward to that final day when everything would again be made right. If you have gazed across the Evangelical landscape ever, at all, surely you know that eschatology holds a looming presence. We live on the Late, Great Planet Earth and we certainly don’t want to be Left Behind.

While I am glad that people are studying Scripture and prophecy in particular, and I am glad that people are looking for Jesus to come again, I worry that what many people are looking for is actually unbiblical:

Did you catch some of the phrases in the video?:

“We come again to the temple mount ‘to meet our God.”

“The temple mount is the seat of God.”

“May it be Your will that the temple be speedily rebuilt in our own time.”

“resumption of service in the holy temple”

“a new generation of Levite priests”

“stones for the house of God”

“the third temple will be when the Messiah comes and both Jews and Christians are waiting for him”

“are we supposed to build the temple and then the Messiah will come or are we supposed to wait and then the Messiah will build the temple?”

I’m not here to try to convince you of my own eschatological position (others are more capable of that), but what I do want to do is provide you with three questions that I think should drive all theological study and which point us in the direction of understanding why Christians should not be watching for the rebuilt temple:

1) What position makes the most of the most Scriptures?
2) What position makes the most of the Glory of God?
3) What position makes the most of the Cross?

Based on these questions, can you see why Christians might not actually think the rebuilding of the temple is a good thing? Or are you one to adamantly say: “That’s literally what the text says, so that’s literally what we should look for?” (ahh, but God owns the cattle on the 1,001 hill, doesn’t He?!)

But what was the point of the temple? What happened in the temple and what was the point? The temple was the “meeting place” between God and man and sacrifice happened inside the temple, to remind of the consequence of sin that that God Himself ultimately could not be appeased by the blood of bulls and goats (Hebrews 10:4).

But we need to back up a bit and remind ourselves how God reveals Himself to His people. He does so progressively, in unfolding and related pieces. For example, in Genesis 3:15, we find the hope that there will be a Seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent (He will set things right). Later, we learn that He will be a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Judah, from the line of David, He will fulfill the roles of Prophet, Priest, King, He will be born in Bethlehem, of a virgin, etc. There is a forward trajectory to God unfolding Himself and His plan. The tabernacle and then the temple were part of this forward-looking trajectory, but it does not look forward indefinitely. Each piece of God’s revelation was pointing to The Revelation of Jesus. Jesus is the fulfillment. Everything in the Old Testament points to Jesus.

This is absolutely of the utmost importance, because, each prior piece points to Jesus. This means that we do not go backwards in the process. Paul says in Colossians 2:16-18 that the former things were “shadows” and that Jesus is the “substance.”

If this is the case, then the rebuilding of the temple is actually a step (more than one actually) backwards in God’s revelation because the temple pointed us to Jesus. If Jesus has come, then the temple is no longer necessary and neither, of course are the animal sacrifices that took place in the temple.

Jesus, of course, understood this and that’s why so many of the “religious” people of His day were so mad. They understood that He was saying the temple itself would no longer play a central part in Israel’s religious life (Matthew 26:59-65, John 4:7-26, etc.). Jesus is the fulfillment of both the animal sacrifices and the temple where they took place. I’m not looking for the rebuilding of the temple because Jesus fulfilled its purpose.

From the people at mothlightcreative.com:

Few doctrines are perhaps as divisive or contentious as election. And after all, why not? Who naturally likes the idea that we bring nothing to our salvation? It flies against our natural sensibilities to believe that we are wholly dependent, even in matters of salvation. We like to say that it’s all of grace, but we wink a bit, knowing that we did a little of it, right? After all, we accepted Jesus into our hearts.

But the longer I follow Jesus, the more beautiful this doctrine becomes, the more precious it blooms and the more apparent it shines. I often find it curious that the people who most object to the doctrine of election, that God chooses who will be saved, are those who spend more of their time with Christians than non-believers. Perhaps they have been raised in Christian homes and subculture or perhaps they have quickly immersed themselves in it after professing faith.

As a pastor planting a church, I am continually and sometimes painfully reminded of the disconnect between “Christian” and “non-Christian” culture. The way I was raised, it was a big deal to miss church on a Sunday. It was a big deal not to go. But the more people I meet, the more I realize that, for a good portion of our population, it is not just a big deal, it is a shock to go to church even once. The whole notion: getting up on the one day many have to sleep in, getting dressed in clothes you don’t normally wear, and aren’t really you, going to pretend like you’re happy and everything’s OK, singing with people when it’s not a concert and songs you don’t really know, closing your eyes and praying, sitting and listening to some guy talk for 35 or more minutes, then being asked to give money on top of it all!? All this when I could be sleeping or watching football?!

We need to remember just how odd our subculture can be to those outside. But we also need to pay more attention to the life and lives going on around us. Good doctrine, real doctrine bears itself out in life, helping to make sense of what happens around us. Good doctrine makes sense out of life and makes God shine brighter for us in a dark generation. Though good doctrine can be twisted, don’t rail against the real doctrine because of the twistings, go to the real thing and examine it. Election makes us uncomfortable, but it bears itself out in ife and is found at every turn of the page in Scripture.

The doctrine of election might crash violently against our pride, but it bears itself out in daily life. If you don’t believe in the doctrine of election, just go talk to people. Sit across a table from someone who could care less about the things of God, pour your heart out, use all your best, most persuasive arguments, believing that it’s up to you to convince that person, and it’s up to your quick-wit to save that person from eternal damnation.

How is it that such beautiful things can simply fall on deaf ears? It could be my lack of convincing presentation, but I think it goes much deeper than that. Scripture says that, apart from Jesus, we are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2) and that “the dead do not praise the Lord” (Psalm 115:17). Scripture says that, apart from God, every intention of the thoughts of our hearts is wicked (Genesis 6) and, of course, we think otherwise, because our hearts are so sinful that we can’t even trust our own hearts (Jeremiah 17:9). In case you’re still unclear of what this means, apart from Jesus, we are God’s enemies (Romans 5:10), and no one seeks God on their own (Romans 3:11).

It should not surprise us that our most persuasive sales presentations of God often fall on deaf ears. That’s exactly what God tells us will happen. Salvation belongs to the Lord (Psalm 3:8) and at the right time (Romans 5:6), God awakens the sleeper (Ephesians 5:14), raises the dead (Ezekiel 37, Ephesians 2). Just as Jesus’ call raised Lazarus (John 11), God’s call to His people brings them to faith.

Indeed, salvation belongs to the Lord. If you doubt this, simply go out and talk to people. Remind them that the heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1), the trees of the field clap their hands (Isaiah 55:2), that Jesus shows us the Father (John 6:46) and has come to set things right. Tell them that Jesus proclaims good news to the poor, freedom to the captives sight to the blind and liberty to the captives (Luke 4:16-21). Tell people that in Jesus: “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them” (Luke 7:18-23). Tell someone that in Jesus, our sins can become white as snow (Isaiah 1:18) and be cast as far as the east is from the west (Palm 103:12), watch the blank, uncaring, unmoved stare and tell me that God doesn’t move us to Him.

One of the criticisms of the doctrine of election is that, if God chooses, then I don’t have to preach the Gospel and I certainly don’t have to weep over lost sinners. But the reality is exactly the opposite. As Paul says: “we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). God saves people through our feeble preaching of the Gospel. Rather than become detached from spreading this good news, we should become energized, knowing that, ultimately, I can’t persuade anyone, I can simply be faithful to the Scriptures. I can never be clever enough, but I can be true to the Word.

The doctrine of election empowers evangelism because it reminds us that God’s Word will not return void; it will accomplish that which He sends it forth to do (Isaiah 55:11). It also endears our evangelism, because it reminds us that we are indeed wholly dependent. There is nothing good in us and we deserve wrath, not salvation. It ought to bring tears to our eyes, crying out, “Why me, Lord?!” It ought to fill us with passion to preach this news to the ends of the earth.

Yes, God is sovereign and man is responsible. We are responsible to come repent and come to Christ and those who do not will face the judgment their rejection of Jesus warrants. But it is God’s grace that grants repentance (Acts 11:18, 2 Timothy 2:25) and all we have to do is talk to people, stare in to their unmoved eyes and plead to God. If you don’t believe in the doctrine of election, just go out and talk to people and watch them turn a deaf ear to the only news worth hearing.