GOD HAS LEFT THE BUILDING

Study 4 — Does the Bible Predict Another Temple and Animal Sacrifices?

We have followed the story so far.

God dwelt among Israel in the tabernacle and temple.

Christ came as the true Temple.

At the cross, God tore the curtain.

Christ offered one sacrifice for sin.

God now dwells in His people through the Spirit.

And Revelation ends with God dwelling openly with His people—with no temple at all.

That seems to be a clear direction:

From separation toward complete access to God.

But there is a serious objection.

Many Christians believe the Bible predicts that a physical temple will someday be rebuilt in Jerusalem. They expect Christ to reign on earth for a thousand years while temple worship resumes, including priests and animal sacrifices.

They have Scriptures they believe teach this.

So we shouldn't dismiss the idea.

Let's read the texts.

What About Ezekiel's Temple?

The strongest argument for a future temple probably comes from Ezekiel 40–48.

Ezekiel describes an enormous temple complex in remarkable detail.

There are gates.

There are priests.

There is an altar.

There are offerings.

There are animal sacrifices.

There is even land divided among Israel's tribes.

If we read only Ezekiel, it is understandable why someone might conclude:

This temple must someday be built.

But there is an important rule of Bible study:

Don't stop reading your Bible at Ezekiel.

We have a New Testament.

And the New Testament tells us what happened when the things anticipated in the Old Testament reached their fulfillment in Christ.

Ezekiel Was Speaking to People Who Had Lost Everything

Context matters.

Ezekiel was speaking to Jewish exiles.

Jerusalem had fallen.

The temple had been destroyed.

The people had been carried away from their land.

Everything that had represented God's presence among them appeared to be gone.

Then Ezekiel receives a magnificent vision of restoration.

God had not abandoned His purpose.

At the climax of the vision, Ezekiel says:

“And the name of the city from that time on will be: THE LORD IS THERE.”
— Ezekiel 48:35

That is the heart of the vision.

God will dwell with His people.

Keep that thought in mind, because that same promise appears again at the other end of the Bible.

Must Every Detail Be Literal?

This is where we need to be careful.

Ezekiel was a prophet, and prophets often communicated God's promises through pictures familiar to their original audience.

Temple.

Priests.

Land.

Sacrifices.

Jerusalem.

But Ezekiel also describes something unusual.

Water flows from beneath the temple.

It becomes deeper and deeper until it becomes a river that cannot be crossed.

Wherever the river goes, it brings life.

It even turns the Dead Sea fresh.

Along its banks grow trees bearing fruit every month, and their leaves are for healing.

Read Ezekiel 47:1–12.

Does that sound familiar?

It should.

John Saw Ezekiel's River Again

Near the end of Revelation, John writes:

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”
— Revelation 22:1

And beside the river is:

“the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”
— Revelation 22:2

John is using Ezekiel's imagery.

But notice something remarkable.

John's final vision doesn't contain Ezekiel's temple.

He specifically tells us:

“I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.”
— Revelation 21:22

The river remains.

The life remains.

God's presence remains.

But the building is gone.

That should make us think carefully before insisting that Ezekiel's vision requires another stone temple in Jerusalem.

What About the Animal Sacrifices?

This creates an even larger problem for a strictly literal interpretation.

Ezekiel describes animal sacrifices.

Some interpreters therefore believe animal sacrifices will resume during Christ's future earthly reign.

Sometimes it is said that these sacrifices will be memorials of Christ's death, somewhat as the Lord's Supper remembers Christ today.

But we need to ask a Text B4 Tradition question:

Where does the New Testament say that?

More importantly, what does the New Testament say about sacrifices after the cross?

Hebrews says:

“We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
— Hebrews 10:10

And:

“For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”
— Hebrews 10:14

Then Hebrews says:

“And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.”
— Hebrews 10:18

Once for all.

No longer necessary.

Those words matter.

What Would Another Altar Accomplish?

Under the Old Covenant, priests stood continually because their work was never finished.

Hebrews deliberately contrasts that with Jesus:

“But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.”
— Hebrews 10:12

Jesus sat down.

His sacrifice doesn't need to be repeated, supplemented, or accompanied by another system of sacrifices for sin.

So we have to ask:

If God deliberately ended the repeated sacrificial system because Christ's sacrifice accomplished what animal blood never could, why would He restore that system under Christ Himself?

Where does the New Testament tell Christians to expect that?

What About the Priesthood?

There is another difficulty.

A rebuilt temple with Mosaic sacrifices requires priests.

But Hebrews tells us that Jesus has a different and permanent priesthood:

“Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood.”
— Hebrews 7:24

Christ is not a Levitical priest.

He is from Judah.

Hebrews explains that with a change of priesthood comes a change of law:

“For when the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed also.”
— Hebrews 7:12

The New Testament doesn't point us back toward Levi.

It points us to Jesus.

And Peter describes God's people themselves as:

“a holy priesthood”
— 1 Peter 2:5

Again, the direction is forward.

What Temple Did the Apostles Expect?

This question is worth asking.

After the resurrection, the apostles had decades to teach the Church.

They wrote about Christ's return.

They wrote about resurrection.

They wrote about judgment.

They wrote about the Kingdom.

They wrote about the New Creation.

But when they explain God's temple, where do they point?

Paul says:

“You yourselves are God's temple.”
— 1 Corinthians 3:16

Peter says:

“You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.”
— 1 Peter 2:5

Paul says Jew and Gentile together are:

“being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”
— Ephesians 2:22

The New Testament's emphasis is striking.

God's temple isn't waiting for construction crews in Jerusalem.

God is building it now.

And He is building it with living stones.

Does This Mean Ezekiel Was Wrong?

Not at all.

Ezekiel's vision was God's Word.

The question is not whether Ezekiel was right.

The question is how God intended Ezekiel's promise to reach its fulfillment.

And the New Testament gives us something Ezekiel's original readers didn't yet have:

Christ has come.

The sacrifice has been offered.

The High Priest has entered.

The Spirit has been given.

Jew and Gentile are being built together into God's dwelling.

And Revelation takes Ezekiel's own river, trees, healing, and presence-of-God imagery and carries it all the way into the New Creation.

Look at Where the Story Is Going

This is the part I don't want us to miss.

Genesis begins without a temple.

God and humanity are together.

Then sin brings separation.

Later, the temple allows God to dwell among sinful people—but behind barriers.

Then Christ comes.

The curtain is torn.

God moves into His people.

And Revelation ends:

“God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.”
— Revelation 21:3

Then:

“I did not see a temple in the city.”
— Revelation 21:22

Why would the Bible's story move:

from temple → to Christ → to God's people → to no temple at all

only to require us to move backward again?

God Isn't Rebuilding the Barrier

This is the question at the heart of God Has Left the Building.

God tore the curtain.

Christ opened the way.

Christ became our High Priest.

Christ offered the final sacrifice.

God made His people His dwelling.

And ultimately God will dwell openly with them forever.

No curtain.
No barrier.
No animal sacrifice.
No earthly priesthood.
No separation.

The old system wasn't bad.

It was a shadow of something better.

And the better thing has come.

God isn't restoring the shadow.

He is completing the reality.

And when His work is finished, Revelation doesn't show God moving back into a temple.

It shows something infinitely better:

God and His people together.

Just as the story began.

Except this time there will be no serpent waiting in the Garden.

NEXT STUDY

Study 5 — What Happened to God's Promises to Israel?

If the temple system isn't coming back, another question immediately follows:

What about Israel?

Did God break His promises to Abraham?

Does the modern nation of Israel still have a separate covenant with God?

And what did Paul mean when he said:

“All Israel will be saved”?

Those questions deserve careful answers from the text.