New Testament InterpretationAnswered

Will there be a third temple, and who are the two witnesses of Apocalypse 11?

A viewer asks whether there will be a third temple in the Holy Land, which leads into the meaning of the two witnesses of Apocalypse 11.

Answer

I would not be surprised at all if a third temple came someday, because it would fit the prophecy in 2 Thessalonians 2 that the man of sin takes his seat in the temple. That could be a double meaning: 'temple' can refer to the Church, which Paul calls the temple of God in 1 Corinthians 3 and 6, and the apostasy comes first, a falling away from within; but since the man of sin is a literal man, it seems he would sit in a literal temple as well. Apocalypse 11 fills this out. The two witnesses represent the Church going out to preach the gospel two by two, as Jesus sent the disciples. The Beast that ascends from the bottomless pit, the second manifestation of the devil after the dragon was defeated at the cross, makes war on them and kills them near the end, when the devil is loosed for his little season (Apocalypse 20). Their dead bodies lie in the street of the great city, allegorically called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified: Sodom for the homosexuality that has destroyed civilizations, Egypt for bondage to sin, and 'where the Lord was crucified' because the Church began in Jerusalem before it was transferred to Rome. They lie unburied three and a half days, a deliberately precise short time (paralleling the 1,260 days of Apocalypse 12), while all peoples gaze and rejoice that the gospel has been silenced. The point is that this apostasy and silencing of the gospel is real but brief; God ends it and Christ returns on the clouds of glory. So the temple fits into that whole end-time scenario, with the man of sin in the temple while the two witnesses lie dead, and then the second coming ends it all.

Dr. Robert Sungenis

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