The Temple

Over at John Loftus’ blog I’d mentioned that according to prophecy, the Messiah must come to the Temple. Obviously this means He would come to the Temple before its destruction, which took place in 70AD.

To save time and space I’ll just touch on the main points.
1) Isaiah 52:13- 53:12: This tells us that the Messiah will be highly exalted BUT not before He suffers terribly. He would be beaten beyond recognition, lifted up (crucified) and would live again after being crucified.

Only a prior commitment to a world-view that is hostile to Jesus could prevent someone from recognising the life of Jesus in this passage.

The rejection of Jesus as the Messiah by the Jews as a whole was also prophesied in this very same Isaiah passage. The Jews’ preconceived ideas of what the Messiah would do (see tomorrow’s post) made it possible for them to not recognise Him as Messiah. At the same time, thousands upon thousands of Jews DID accept Jesus as Messiah and all of the first missionary efforts took place in Jewish places of worship. From that time until now there has always been a remnant of Jews who recognise Jesus as their Messiah.

2) Now to the question of the Jerusalem Temple.
There have been two Temples in Jerusalem.
a) In 2nd Chronicles 7:17-22 Israel was warned that if its sin reached a certain level the first Temple would be destroyed. Its sin did reach that level and the Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, just as predicted.
b) In Daniel chapter 9, Daniel prophesied that a second Temple would be built and that Temple too would be destroyed. It did get built and it was destroyed by Rome, again as prophesied.

According to prophecy, several things regarding Messiah were going to happen prior to the destruction of the second Temple.
a) Haggai 2:6-9 - This prophecy tells us that the glory of the second Temple would be greater than the first. That sounds like a “so what” kind of statement. Build a bigger Temple and you get your greater glory. Problem - the physical structure of the second Temple was pitiful in comparison with the first Temple that was built by Solomon. Yet, this passage tells us that the glory of the second Temple would be GREATER than the first. While the word for glory can sometimes mean “wealth” (was the Temple filled with coins?) for the passage to say - “I” will fill the [second] Temple with glory,” clearly implies the presence of God Himself.

b) Malachi 3:1-5 - This prophecy tells us that prior to the destruction of the second Temple, the Messiah would come to the Temple. “The Lord you are seeking will come to His temple.” The Jews were looking for a human Messiah. However, since the word used for “Lord” always and only refers to God Himself, they COULD have known that Messiah would be God Himself.

c) Daniel 9:24 - This prophecy tells us that before the second Temple is destroyed the Messiah would provide for an everlasting atoning sacrifice for all people. No more temporary sacrifices would need to be offered.

If prophecy is accurate then these things had to happen and in fact they did happen prior to the Temple being destroyed in 70AD.
Since the death and resurrection of Jesus 2,000 years ago, religious Jews have had:
NO atonement system,
NO functioning priesthood and
NO functioning Temple.
That is because all of the above found their fulfilment in Jesus. The Jews were expecting Messiah to come and rescue them. He did come, He did provide the means for spiritual rescue (the only kind that’s important), but they did not recognise Him.

Are you getting this?

1. According to prophecy of the Jewish Scripture, the Messiah would come to the second Temple before it was destroyed.
The second Temple was destroyed in 70AD.
If Messiah didn’t come to the Temple prior to its destruction then Messiah isn’t coming at all.

2. According to prophecy of the Jewish Scripture, atonement for sins would be made by Messiah prior to the destruction of the second Temple.
The second Temple was destroyed in 70AD
If atonement for the sins of the world didn’t take place prior to the destruction of the Temple in 70AD it isn’t going to happen.

But
. One claiming and proving to be the Messiah - Jesus - did appear prior to the destruction of the second Temple in 70AD.
. One providing atonement for sins - Jesus - did appear prior to the destruction of the second Temple in 70AD
. Jesus visitation to the second Temple was the only visitation by Messiah to take place.
. Jesus glory, the very presence of God incarnate, was the only way that the second Temple’s glory was greater than the first.

Because of a prior commitment to a different belief system, you may not like the idea of Jesus being Messiah, but if Jesus isn’t Messiah then nobody is Messiah.

If none of this took place prior to the destruction of the Temple which took place in 70AD then we may as well say that atheists are correct because the prophecies were not fulfilled and it’s all a lie.

However:
All of this did take place in the person of Jesus.
The prophecies were fulfilled.
The Messiah did come right on schedule.
This is not speculation. This is historical fact!
Once again atheists are wrong on all counts.