Saturday, February 25, 2017

Why Still No Temple Yet? (LG08)



‘Last Generation’
Mal 4:5-6 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
    Before the great and dreadful day of the Lord for the Jews, Elijah must come first to bring them back to repentance and righteous living.

Luke 1:17 “He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
    John the Baptist was Elijah, confirmed by our Lord Jesus.
    Mat 17:12 “But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise , the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.”

Mat 27:24-25 When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.” And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.”
    All the Jews especially the priesthood knew that Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of prophecies for they had heard and seen with their own eyes from the birth of John the Baptist, birth of Jesus till His crucifixion, yet they refused to accept God’s will. They even condemned themselves and their descendants to the greatest sin of killing the Son of God who came to be their Saviour. No sacrifice can cleanse this sin except the blood of Jesus.
Mark 15:37-38 And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last. Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
    Immediately after the death of Jesus, God departed from the temple by tearing open the veil. The killing of Jesus was the great and dreadful day of the Lord for the Jews as prophesied by Malachi. Without Yahweh as their God, the Jews were no longer His people.

Lev 26:14, 31-34 ‘But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments,...I will lay your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas. I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it. I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolated and your cities wasted.
    Because of their disobedience, in 70 AD God allowed General Titus to conquer Jerusalem and completely destroyed the Second Temple to prevent any further sacrifices which God abhorred. Without Yahweh as their God and without a temple to offer sacrifices for sins and feasts; Judaism is over.
    In 131 AD, God allowed Hadrian to forbid the Jews from entering Jerusalem; His Holy city.
    In July 19, 362 AD, Emperor Julius (the Apostate) ordered the Jews to rebuild the temple of God. It was recorded that the day after they started clearing the debris of the former temple, there was a great earthquake. Many continued the rebuilding but God stopped them by killing Emperor Julius the following year and replacing him with a Christian emperor.

Brethren, our Lord had completed His salvation work on the cross. As such, do not be another Emperor Julius by bringing back Judaism (sacrifices, feasts, Jewish cultures).