My favorite sermon this year is from Matt Chandler, preaching at my Alma mater, Southern Seminary. No, I don’t think hell has frozen over, though Chandler himself makes a joking reference to the fact that he is preaching there at all. A powerful sermon made all the more so after subsequent revelations of Chandler’s cancer:

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.

By Adam Groza

From what I’m told, the numbers don’t look good. Churches are baptizing fewer people. Jimmy Carter isn’t alone: More and more people are losing their religion. In the past few years, several long-time friends who grew up in the faith have renounced the faith and opted for some amorphous spirituality or naturalism. Sure, I could tell stories of people who have converted. But lots of people are also deconverting. A recent dissertation by Steve Henderson found that two-thirds of professing Christians abandon their faith . . . in Christian Colleges!
As a result, evangelicals are trying to re-think, re-evaluate, and re-tool: fewer programs, more authenticity, more preaching, and less entertainment. Plant more churches, give more money, and pray more often. Get back to the Gospel; get missional, de-centralize, or increase transparency.

Let me just say, I am all for evaluating process. If there is a money leak lets plug the hole. Ending opulence is a good idea. But what exactly is the goal? My fear is that religion has become a machine such that when the machine breaks down we just retool: Tinker with this, adjust that, and get the desired results. I suspect the desired result (for some) is that same old idol; numbers. Better numbers! Quite simply, we want charts and graphs that are showing upward momentum. Until we get the right numbers, we must be doing something wrong. I know, I know, those graphs represent souls who will either go to heaven or hell. But our goal isn’t just souls; it’s an ever increasing number of souls, specifically, more souls than last year. My contention is that this impulse for constant increase is fueled more by our market mindedness than Scripture.

Why do we think doing the right things will bring about an ever increasing number of saved people? God says the Gospel will bring about conversions, but there is no promise of an ever increasing number of converts. Jesus did things the right way, and in John 6, was abandoned by everyone but the twelve. When the disciples saw the masses leave, John tells us (61) that the disciples complained about the exodus. Jesus’ response to them is essentially to remind them that the Gospel is offensive and that the Father is capable of overcoming the offense by being granted faith from the Father (65).

I suggest we prepare ourselves for this truth: Increased numbers are not the norm, even for Jesus. The church will continue, but as churches take membership seriously, practice church discipline, and proclaim the narrow way, numbers will most likely decline. The offensive message of John 6 is still offensive. By all means, reorganize, retool to save money for missions, witness more, etc. But we may do things in a way that honors God and the numbers might just keep going down. Christianity does not judge its success like 4th quarter earnings. Do we want growth; yes! Should we worry when it doesn’t happen and assume we are doing something wrong? No.

Our victory is in the resurrection, not ever-increasing numbers.