A THIRD TEMPLE?

Many eyes are looking towards Israel for what they believe is a sure sign of the soon return of the Lord, - the building of a third Temple. This is because of a particular interpretation of a verse in Daniel 9

Vs 27 ”Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;

but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.”

 

This interpretation goes like this:- The Antichrist makes a peace pact with the Jews. After three and a half years he breaks the covenant and stops the sacrifices at the temple. From this they assume that a third Temple has been built. This all happens during the last seven years of the Age, which is a time of God’s special dealings with Israel. Meanwhile Christians will be ‘raptured’ out. The seven years are the final ‘week’ of a prophecy in Daniel 9:24 in which God told Daniel:-

               

“Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.”

 

The weeks are weeks of years, so a week is seven years. According to this interpretation only 69 weeks have been fulfilled and there is another week to go. They teach that between the 69^th and 70^th week, God has inserted the Church Age. When the Church is ‘raptured’ out there is a time of great tribulation coming on the world. The promises contained in vs 24 have not yet been fulfilled.

 

This is the popular end time teaching in many evangelical and Pentecostal churches. It has made its way into the notes of the Schofields, Dakes and other Bibles and thus assumes the authority of holy writ. God told Daniel that some end time truth is sealed until the time of the end; (Daniel 12:9) but about 200 years ago, there were those who went ahead of the Spirit and put together an end time scenario which doesn’t leave a lot of room for the Holy Spirit to bring revelation on the real plan of God for the Church. Getting raptured out any moment may sound exciting but what God has for the Church is even more exciting.

 

The truth is that the seventy weeks were seventy consecutive weeks; the last ‘week’ was the week of Jesus’s ministry. In the middle of the week, after 3 and a half years of ministry Jesus brought an end to the sacrifices as far as God was concerned, by making the one perfect sacrifice for all time. By His death on the Cross He confirmed or strengthened the Abrahamic covenant and He fulfilled all the promises contained in vs 24. God has only one answer for this world’s condition, and that is the Cross of Christ. Anything that He is going to do was accomplished there. We just haven’t yet understood the full extent of all Jesus achieved there. Jesus work is a finished work. He is now seated at the right hand of God “waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.” (Hebrews 10:12-14)

 

Jesus moved with a sense of purpose. He knew the plan of Redemption and worked within the will of the Father. He often said ‘it is not time yet’ because He was working to the plan. He said “I am sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”(Matthew 15:24)) That is because the work of redemption had to be first demonstrated in Israel, the pattern nation and priestly nation. The whole sacrificial system and the commemorative Feasts and all God’s redemptive acts for Israel were set up as a platform for the work of Redemption. The time came when God told Peter to take the gospel to the Gentiles. (Acts 10 and 11) The seventy “weeks” were completed.

 

There is no specific seven year period of tribulation, though persecution and tribulation may come. The Jews may or may not build another temple, though one would expect that they would want to. The third temple as far as God is concerned is the Living Temple that Jesus is building, (Ephesians 2:19-22). There was, at one time in the days of Solomon, three places of worship which are a type of the present time: –

*The tabernacle of Moses at Gibeon which represents the Jewish people. It had lost the Ark, the Presence of God, but the sacrifices were still made there and Solomon went there when seeking God at the beginning of his reign. (2 Chronicles 1)

* The tabernacle of David, a tent in Jerusalem which now housed the Ark. It was open and the Ark was in full view of the people. David organized continual worship to be held there. There was none of the rituals connected to Moses tabernacle and the sacrifices were sacrifices of praise. This tabernacle represents the Gentile Church. (Acts 15)

*The great golden temple under construction being built at the command of Solomon, son of David. This represents the Living temple being built by Jesus Son of David.

 

When Solomon’s temple was finished, the Ark was brought up and placed in the Holy of Holies. Also the old tabernacle of Moses was brought from Gibeon and placed in the temple, probably in one of the store rooms. (2 Chronicles 5:5) Then the Temple was filled with the glory of God.

 

Jesus is still building the Living Temple. When it is finished, the gentile church and the Jewish people are going to come together as ‘one new man’ (Ephesians 2:15) and the glory of God will fill it. Jesus said “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18) The Living Temple is going to be filled with God’s glory and the nations will flock to it.

 

“’I will shake all nations and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord of hosts.” Haggai 2:7-9

 

We are experiencing some of this shaking now. Don’t be perturbed; God is shaking the nations to reveal the things that cannot be shaken.

 

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12:28, 29

 

THE MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD

Recently in the news was the report of a man attacking someone with an axe. He said that a demon   told him to start the rise of hell on Earth. Undoubtedly he was regarded as being mentally ill but I believe that his experience was real.  What we are witnessing is the rise of the satanic realm in the Earth. Most people will shrug that off as ridiculous, but Spirit filled Christians know the reality of the spiritual realm and understand the nature of the conflict we are in right now.

During the temptation of Christ, Satan showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and boasted that all of this was his. He would give it all to Jesus if He would bow down worship him. Jesus didn’t dispute Satan’s claim. Authority over the world was delivered to the devil when Man submitted to him in Eden. Now ‘the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.’ 1 John 5:19. Jesus went to the Cross to bring Satan’s boast to nothing. The Cross is about more than taking you to heaven when you die; it’s about reclaiming the Earth for the Kingdom.

Satan had legal claim to the Earth because of Man’s rebellion but the Cross of Christ has changed all that. God now has a new breed of Man in the Earth - cleansed, restored, eternally alive in Christ and given authority in Jesus Name. Since the Resurrection, Satin has been working frantically to maintain his hold on the Earth. The Bible speaks of him as having great wrath, knowing that he has but a little time. We are witnessing the rise of hell in the Earth. The values and principles which undergirded our nations are being cast aside, faith in God is derided and more and more we see the persecution of Christians.

Yes hell is rising in the Earth, but the good news is that Heaven is coming down. The Holy Spirit of God is going to rise up in the people of God and bring them ‘unto the measure of the stature of Christ.’ [Ephesians 4:13] Romans 8 speaks of the ‘manifestation of the sons of God,’ a time that all creation is waiting for, because at that time it will be delivered from corruption also.  When Man fell, creation fell; when sin grew in the Earth, there was a further cataclysmic change at the time of the great flood. Whenever there is reviving and renewal there has been a measure of restoration seen in the surrounding area as seen in the Transformation series – the crops yield abundantly, pollution recedes, the fish come back in the streams. The spiritual state of Man is reflected in the physical state of the Earth. With the moral breakdown of our society, we see the escalation of the devastation of the Earth – more earthquakes, more drought, more fires and destructive hurricanes.

The ‘manifestation of the sons of God’ speaks of a time when God’s people rise to live out of their position in Christ.  In Him we are righteous and holy; ‘seated in heavenly places in Him.’[Ephesians 2;6] i.e. having spiritual authority in the Earth. ‘As He is, so are we in this world.’ [1 John 5; 17]. What kept Israel in the wilderness for so long? They didn’t know who they were. God called them ‘My Son’ [Exodus 4:22] but they saw themselves as only grasshoppers. When they finally believed they were who God said they were, they rose up in victory and the walls began to fall. What God has done in Israel is there for the instruction of those ‘upon whom the ends of the ages have come.’ [1 Corinthians 10:11]

The time has come when the sons of God will rise up and really BE the sons of God. Then we will see the Victory of the Cross expressed in the Earth and the Kingdom of God begin to be established in preparation for the Coming of the King. The Battle of the Ages is upon us! Amen! Come Lord Jesus.

TRUTH HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

 I am so tired of the prophets of doom and gloom. I’m just as tired of the run-away ‘rapturists.’ It short changes the Cross. Jesus died a terrible death to give us Victory. He said that His Church would demolish the gates of Hell. Where did He say that? Matthew 16:18,19. This is just one of the many Scriptures that we pass over with ‘O, that just means so and so…..’ when it means far more than that, when we take a closer look.

 The ongoing truth which the Spirit brings is hidden in plain sight, in the Word, but our spiritual eyes are often closed to it. Mostly because we have our end time truth all sorted out and we don’t want to know any different. If we took time to meditate on the Word and asked the Holy Spirit to show us what it means, we may be surprised with what He reveals.

Other Scriptures we tend to pass over are Ephesians 4:11-13 which tells us that Jesus has set some ministries in the Church to bring it “to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Also Ephesians 5:27 that tells us that Christ’s Church is going to be “a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Surely not! That must mean after Jesus comes back.

The truth is encapsulated in the Types of Israel – the pattern nation. They show that the people of God, having been set free through the blood of the Passover lamb, eventually becoming a glorious, victorious Army which possesses its inheritance [The Promised Land] and establishes the Kingdom. Until they understood who they were and what they were redeemed to do, they wandered in the wilderness. That’s where the Church is now!

The inheritance of the spiritual descendants of Abraham is the Earth. [Romans 4:13] We are redeemed to reclaim it for God. Then the Kingdom will come on Earth as it is in Heaven. That is our Promised Land. This involves spiritual warfare in Jesus’ Name; but the victory is assured. Jesus has done everything necessary in order for the Church to rise up and enforce the victory He has won.  One generation will; and that generation is already born into the Earth. How do I know that? By studying the Types. It’s all there if we care to look and study it through.

I have endeavoured to put all this into my books “The Other Bible Code – Unlocking the Glorious Destiny of the Church of Jesus Christ.” And “End Time Insights – The Cloud moves On.” They are available at Amazon, Booktopia, Koorong and most Book Stores. The following link will take you to my author page at Amazon and you can navigate from there. Let’s open our eyes to see the wonderful things God is going to do in the Earth. – and SOON

Visit Amazon's Val Pym Page       [ctrl plus click]

"YOU HAVE NOT PASSED THIS WAY BEFORE"

                                                                           

New territory up ahead.

After many years of wilderness wanderings, the nation of Israel was on the move into new territory. Their instructions were to watch the Ark carried by priests as it approached the Jordan River; “Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.” Joshua 3:3,4. This is a word from the Lord, intended, not just for Israel centuries ago, but also, and more especially, for the people of God today. Just why, I hope to make clear in these few pages.

The basis of my books is Typology, i.e. understanding the purposes of God by studying the redemptive types [maps, patterns] of the Old Testament. Israel is the pattern nation. Every redemptive act, event or object in the Old Testament finds its spiritual counterpart in the New Testament and in the ongoing journey of the Church. Jesus said that the Spirit would lead and guide us into all truth. Revelation by the Spirit is ongoing. By the Word and the Spirit God unlocks the truths which will bring us into maturity. “The Lord has yet more light and truth to break forth from His Word.”  AHB 335

The principle of Typology is: ‘First the natural, then the spiritual.’ Before the coming of the Spirit, people couldn’t understand spiritual truth. Such truth can only be ‘spiritually discerned’ [1 Corinthians 2:14].  God gave them physical things which represented the spiritual truths which would then be revealed in the New Testament after the coming of the Spirit. The spiritual descendants of Abraham are the nation of Israel; the spiritual descendants are all true believers, i.e. the Church. [Galatians 3:16,29]The redemptive events in Israel are paralleled in the Church. They are physical in Israel and spiritual in the Church. God’s purposes are: Demonstrated in Israel; Activated by the Cross; Manifested through the Church. 

 Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” The Scriptures He was referring to were the Old Testament Scriptures.  Since the Cross is God’s only answer, everything God did in Israel pointed to it and everything since the Cross issues out of it. Most Christians know that Jesus is the fulfilment of the Passover Lamb; however not many follow the Type through to its conclusion; therefore we have not yet come into the ultimate outcome of the sacrifice of the Lamb. We have understood the truths of Passover; but not yet entered into the truths of the Feast of Tabernacles. Likewise with the Type of the Tabernacle we have been to the Altar in the Outer Court but have yet to enter into the Glory in the Holy of Holies beyond the Vail.

 At a Lay Preacher’s Retreat, I commented on the many Old Testament Scriptures which don’t make it into the Lectionary. Someone asked me “Well would you want to preach on the furniture of the Tabernacle?” She was obviously unaware that the Tabernacle with its furniture is a pattern of spiritual truth of great significance. When God gave the pattern of the Tabernacle to Moses He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” [Hebrews 8:5] It was “the copy and shadow of the heavenly [or spiritual] things.”

The Tabernacle with its furniture is a map showing the spiritual progression of the people of God into the completion of God’s purpose. If we study it alongside the Journey to the Promised Land and the Feasts of Israel we will understand the way God is taking us and the spiritual truths whereby we arrive at our destination. God chartered this map by the Cloud of the Spirit as He led His people into the Promised Land. Jesus did all things ‘according to the pattern,’ and in bringing the Church into its destiny in the Earth, God is doing all things ‘according to this same pattern. ’

Jesus often said “My time is not yet” E.g. John 7:6.  Because He was working according to the pattern of Redemption laid down in the Old Testament Scriptures.  We will not come into the fullness of truth unless we study the whole Bible. This is the pattern or the map of the journey the Church is on:-

ESCAPE FROM BONDAGE -PASSOVER: Egypt with its tyrant ruler is a Type of the Kingdom of Darkness ruled by Satan where Man is in bondage to sin and death. We escape through faith in the shed blood of the Passover Lamb. The truths of Passover are; Justification by faith,[Passover] Sanctification [Feast of Unleavened Bread], and Baptism into Christ [Feast of Firstfruits]. God had his infant Son brought out of Egypt to fulfil the Type. [Check out Hosea 11:1]

COMMISSIONED: Israel, Jesus, and the Church have all been commissioned. The Church has an assignment to complete in the Earth before the Coming of the Lord. Our deliverance was accomplished at Passover ; the rest of the Journey is about coming into the fullness of our deliverance [the ‘manifestation of the sons of God’] and completing our assignment.

 EMPOWERED TO FULFILL THE COMMISSION – PENTECOST: Pentecost is about equipping the people of God to fulfil their commission.

Israel’s Commission. God called Israel to possess their inheritance, [Canaan] and be a ‘kingdom of priests, a holy nation.’ They were to dispossess the inhabitants of the Land and establish the rule of the Kingdom. They were equipped for their assignment at Mt Sinai with the Law and the Tabernacle.                                                  

 Jesus’ Commission was to ‘destroy the works of the devil.’ [I John 3:8] By the Cross, He stripped the devil of his authority and gave it to His Church. He stated ‘I will build My Church and the gates of hell will not stand against It.’ Which brings us to our commission.

The Commission of the Church.  Our commission is to make all the nations Jesus’ disciples. In essence it is the same as Israel’s commission – dispossess the enemy and establish the

 . Kingdom. The Earth is our inheritance. [Romans 4:13]At this present time ‘the whole world lies under the sway of the evil one.’ [1 John 5:19] Looking at our world it can be clearly seen that this is so.  It is gross error to pass off all the terrible things that happen in our world as the will of God.  That's why the priority prayer is that God’s name be honoured; His will be done; His Kingdom come ‘on Earth as it is in Heaven.’ Our Promised Land is the Kingdom of God on Earth. The Holy Spirit is given to us to bring down the ‘gates of hell,’ free the nations to receive the gospel, and thus establish the rule of the Kingdom, before the return of the King. The Types show us how this is to be accomplished. For Israel it was a physical journey; for the Church it is a spiritual journey.

WILDERNESS WANDERINGS.  Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years because they had an identity problem. God said “Israel is My son, My firstborn.” [Exodus 4:22] Israel’s faith confession when they saw the giants in the Land was, “We are as grasshoppers.” [Numbers 13:33].  They didn’t know who they really were or believe that they could do what God had commissioned them to do. They still operated in the slave mentality they acquired in Egypt.  It was right here that God made the vow that one day His glory would fill the earth. [Numbers 14:21]Taken in context; this is dependent on the people of God possessing their inheritance.

 Jesus was also tested in the wilderness and the temptation He faced was also an attack on His identity. He came from His powerful encounter at the River Jordan with the Father’s affirmation, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” to face the insinuations of the Tempter “IF You are the Son of God…..” He came out of the wilderness after 40 days, ‘in the power of the Spirit,’ ready to begin the attack on the strongholds of the enemy.

This is where the Church is at right now. Like Israel, we don’t know who we really are or what it is we are to do. Some are preparing to get away from it all in a space flight called the ‘Rapture.’ Some are opting to go with the flow and be ‘progressive.’ For others it’s just business as usual.  What we need to do is to get back to the Word of God and wait on the Spirit for revelation. There is a cache of revelation that is reserved for the end time, as Daniel was told. [Daniel 12:4-13]At a time when ‘many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase’ God will bring the revelation that is needed. He sees the way ahead and will show us if we earnestly ‘ask, seek and knock.’

We have come to a way which we ‘have not passed before’. The Early Church set out on this Journey and became a powerful Church of whom it was said ‘they turned the world upside down;’ but like the first generation of Israel from Egypt, they didn’t complete the Commission. Error entered the Church and it went through the ‘Dark Ages,’ sometimes called ‘the devil’s millennium.’ For many years the Church wandered in the wilderness of spiritual blindness. God again began the process of restoration with the foundational

 4. truth of Justification by Faith and brought us to this place where we now stand. The final generation of the Church Age will come into the ‘all truth’ that Jesus promised and complete the Commission.

COMPLETING THE COMMISSION – THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES  The final Feast is the Feast of fullness and completion. It is the Feast of the final harvest.  Israel came out of the wilderness under the leadership of Joshua. They crossed Jordan and began the attack on the strongholds of the enemy by bringing down the walls of Jericho. Eventually they conquered the Land and Solomon, son of David, came to the throne. For a short time the nation became a faint earthly Type of the Kingdom of God. The Land was at the height of prosperity, the rule of the Kingdom was established and its king [a Type of Jesus, the greater Son of David] was famed throughout the world for his wisdom and understanding.  On the Feast of Tabernacles, Solomon dedicated the great golden Temple which was filled with the Glory of God, a picture of the ‘Glorious Church without spot or wrinkle.’ [Ephesians 5:27].  This glorious Church will draw the nations in. As Isaiah said,(Isaiah 61:1-3) -

‘Arise, shine, for thy light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people;

But the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

And Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising…..”

The truth which is encoded in the Day of Atonement will be revealed. It is a deeper understanding of all that the Cross accomplished; the truth of the finished work of Christ.    Jesus is now seated at God’s right hand waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. [Hebrews10:12-14]. That’s our job! And it will involve spiritual warfare. The truths of the completed work of the Cross will cause the Church to rise up in power and glory and bring the nations in. A short paragraph like this cannot do justice to this. I have written about it in my books and it needs the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

In the Scripture at the beginning of this paper, Israel was coming out of the wilderness. They were told to ‘Watch the Ark’ so that they would "Watch the Ark" now which way to go, because they were about to traverse new territory. The Ark is the highest Type of Christ in the Tabernacle. It was to precede Israel by ‘about 2,000 cubits.’ Every detail that God gives is important when interpreting the Types. Nothing is whimsical. This mostly overlooked detail shows that about 2,000 years after Jesus came out of the wilderness ‘in the power of the Spirit’ to begin bringing down the strongholds of the enemy; the rest of the Army of the Church will follow. That is soon! Much more could be said and is said in my books. The truths that God is unlocking are the truths we need in these difficult days.

The times are difficult but they are also very exciting. It is my firm belief that in spite of all the trouble and persecution we encounter; this generation will see the rise of the Church in power and glory.  “CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY! “ [Colossians 1:27]