Comments are open and welcome…

My History With Michael Rood

I’ve known Michael Rood for ten years, almost as long as I have been living in Costa Rica. He came to Costa Rica in the Spring of 2000 and it was posted on his website (the old 6001.com). This was when he was on the Prophecy Club hosted by Stan Johnson and promoting his groundbreaking Spring and Fall Feasts of the LORD video tapes.

A bunch of us went to the hotel advertised for where he would have a get together and he never showed up. Not a great start to a great relationship. We missed him that time but we soon hooked up and invited him to stay at our home as he explored TV opportunities in Costa Rica.  He visited a few times in 2000 and 2001 and even wrote some of the original A Rood Awakening TV script at our home.

In 2002, when he announced his first tour of Israel, we considered it. Katrina and I had never been to Israel and to go with someone who would take you to Gomorrah where you could mine your own brimstone was hard to resist. We put down the deposit and my employer promptly cut my hours and then laid me off completely. I was short $5000 for the trip and had no way of paying it. Yet Michael and his then partner Jamie decided to let us go anyway and pay the balance when we could afterward.

Needless to say, we had a blast for eleven days touring Israel with them. I met Nehemia Gordon and made some discoveries as a result of the tour that later ended up in my book (such as the Elijah insight).

After that we did not see too much of Michael as he was filming A Rood Awakening in Israel. He only came back to Costa Rica for a few short trips, never staying with us like in the early years. He now stays with a couple who have a car and plenty of room. (We did not and still do not own a car because of the higher expense to own and maintain a car in Costa Rica.)

In fact, this visit from him is the first one since his ministry problems a few years back.

Withholding Judgment

Not surprisingly a few Facebook friends had negative comments about Michael Rood to share. One expressed surprise at me having anything to do with him. Do I follow him or believe the way he did? This person elaborated:

I put Michael Rood in a whole different category. While not being judgmental I feel it is important before you believe, follow ones teachings, or just read and study their materials you need to research this person. Their are many false prophets and teachers out there. I have serious reservations about Michael Rood.

I completely understand these sentiments and do not judge the person for feeling uncomfortable with Michael. I used to have similar ones for teachers, even including Michael himself when some of the events of recent years came out and hurt even my own friends and associates.

However, in recent years I have gained some perspective that helps me to embrace Michael for his good and the good he does and let go of the bad. We have had people live with us a lot in 2008 and 2009. If you have ever tried living with people for an extended period, you quickly have problems come up. Oftentimes you are the cause of the problem. If you are aware and teachable, you have to face the fact that you are not perfect and you do things that at best are less than effective and at worst annoying, insensitive or offensive to others.

From this, I see that I am really not much different than Michael or anyone else. We all are a mixed bag. We all have limited experience that leaves blind spots in our awareness leading us to make choices that hurt others. Yet nearly all the time, we are well-intentioned and feel justified in what we do. I have not asked Michael, but I have no doubt he felt justified in what he has done that has hurt others and feels justified in what he does and says today.

This is summed up in a quote I have heard from him a few times over the decade I have known him. He likes to say with a smile, “You know, I do not teach anything that I believe to be false….Think about that a minute.” In other words, people can accuse him of being a false prophet or leading people astray but in reality he is only teaching what he is sincerely convicted of from his personal diligent study. I can relate to that as I do the same thing. Yet every time I send out a newsletter, I get unsubscribe notifications with comments accusing me of purposely misleading people. People do not have the experience needed to realize that yes people can come to different conclusions on the Bible than they have and yet be good sincere diligent truth seekers like themselves. The Bible is just that way (on purpose, as I cover in my book).

So because of this perspective, I accept Michael Rood for Michael Rood. I do not agree with everything he teaches nor everything he does. To quote another face book friend, Jason Vick of www.JewsAndJoes.com, who expressed it well:: “I think most everyone puts Rood in a different category. Personally, I like him… even though I don’t agree with everything he teaches… nor everything he has done in his past.”

By the same token, I do not censor him completely just because he has said or done things I disagree with.

And, by the way, some might be happy or surprised to know that Michael Rood has been reaching out to reconcile with the people he has had his public controversy with. He has apologized to a friend of mine and now they are going to work together again in the future on A Rood Awakening, a definitely mutually beneficial reconciliation and relationship.

I hope my comments can help some of you to withhold judgment on our brothers just as Jesus/Yeshua said. We do not know what is in their heart and usually we do not know all the facts, or even both sides of the story. Someone like Michael Rood who goes out every day trying to wake people up from their religious trance cannot be all bad. He is still learning and always has a much to share that I find worth listening to, ten years later.

Now on to the questions and answers promised.

Questions and Answers to Michael Rood

Here are the questions I asked Michael Rood:

• Q. Is The 2010-2017 Timeline Still Viable?
  A. His answer was that he has not ruled it out yet, however he reminded me that there is something yet missing for it to happen: global economic collapse. See, just as I teach, he does not see the attack on Israel that results in Damascus getting nuked being able to happen the way things are today. He believes that America has to be neutralized from being able to help Israel, leaving her isolated. Seeing this, the Arabs would have an opening to attack and fulfill Zechariah 12, Isaiah 34, and other parallel prophecies.

• Q. Is Damascus’ Destruction Expected This Fall?
  A. I did not get to ask him this directly, but what he said was “Damascus could be nuked as early as nine months from now”. He is referring to a fulfillment in the Hebrew month of Tishrei, 2010, which is the month the 70^th Week of Daniel begins (and ends, seven years later). This is what he calls the Confirmation of the Covenant. He has been waiting for this event to kick off the final seven years for as long as I have known him. Thus, the answer is that Damascus’ doom is not “expected” as much as it is “possible”. I presume he would expect it only if a global economic collapse happened this spring or summer.

Michael Rood’s Wheelchair Debility…and Recovery

Some of you may have seen that in recently years Michael Rood has been sick and even in a wheel chair. That is all we knew ourselves due to our lack of contact. Yesterday we finally heard the skinny on his illness.

It started with his trip to Rwanda. After coming back he started to have problems with pain in one leg. He had to pile on ice to keep the pain down in his hotel room. Next he had to be in a wheel chair. He was meeting people later with the same symptoms that was labeled as “Gulf War Syndrome.” The problem was that none of them including Michael had been in the Gulf War!

Then he kept seeing families with autistic children who last time he saw them the kids were fine. In each case, the children went bad right after vaccinations. Then Michael remembered that he himself had just had vaccinations for a recent trip to Rwanda that preceded his whole health decline.

Long story short, he found an amazing doctor (with a great story of his own) who specialized in conditions like Michael’s. He put him on a special detox program at the beach of (disgusting tasting) green vegetable juices for chelation, steam baths for sweating out toxins and other things I cannot recall. Over a long period of weeks and months he gradually got better. Today he is almost fully recovered. He expressed the intent to go back and detox more to finish his recovery. (I will try to get more details on this detox program because I know it is of interest to many.)

It will not surprise readers that he does not approve of the swine flu/h1n1 vaccination. He related stories he had heard of pregnant women having dead babies taken out of them after receiving the h1n1 vaccine.

Conclusion

Needless to say, Katrina and I enjoyed our visit. We honestly did not expect him to ask to see us this time with how busy his schedule usually is. That felt very nice. He shared some great insights as you can see, and I was able to give him some gems from my experience running my site and forums that may be seen soon on www.michaelroodministries.com and http://aroodawakening.ning.com/. I look forward to seeing Michael again and helping each other in our passion for teaching the truth (as we understand it) to truth seekers like you my readers.

When I was younger, I struggled to understand the Book of Revelation. It was so fascinating and cryptic that I longed to peek behind the veil of its sealed language. But I could not and nobody could help me.

Today, I do understand it very well and I consequently know why I failed to understand before. I had not learned back then that most of the Bible is more literal than we ever imagined. To read literal passages allegorically will lead you to wrong conclusions every time.

But it gets worse. These wrong conclusions will cloud your understanding of still other passages, kind of like a spreading infection. The false views you hold constantly contradict any true interpretations you think of or come across. Because you view truths as wrong, you reject or disregard them. As a result, you are unable to truly understand any of the deeper teachings or mysteries of the Bible properly. This includes the mysterious Book of Revelation.

The Mark of Beast and the Mark of Torah

Revelation’s Mark of the Beast is a good and instructive example in this regard.

Revelation 13:16-17 (HCSB) ¹⁶ And he requires everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to be given a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, ¹⁷ so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark: the beast’s name or the number of his name.

This seems straightforward. A mark consisting of a name or number on either your forehead or right hand. The mark will serve kind of like a credit card does today. Without it you cannot buy or sell everything you want. For example, you cannot rent a car or good hotel room without a credit card.

However, how does your view of Revelation 13′s mark change when you incorporate these verses:

Exodus 13:9 (HCSB) Let it serve as a sign for you on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead, so that the Lord’s instruction may be in your mouth; for the Lord brought you out of Egypt with a strong hand.

Deuteronomy 6:8 (HCSB) Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead.

It is because of these commands that Orthodox Jews put phylacteries or little Torah scroll boxes and straps on their forehead and hands. That’s a literal interpretation. Yet, most instead see this verse as an injunction by God to make his instructions tied to your thought and your actions always.

Mark of the Beast: Spiritual Mark?

Don’t these verses sound similar to Revelation? They associate God’s commands with the forehead and hand. This can cause you to question your literal view of Revelation’s mark. Perhaps it is not a literal mark, but it is a spiritual mark. Perhaps the mark really represents obeying the commands of the Beast in place of God’s commands?

At least that’s what the Seventh Day Adventist church teaches. They consider the mark of the beast to be symbolic. The symbolic meaning to them is a law to keep Sunday, or “Sunday Law”. Of course, they are the biggest Christian group that believes we are required to keep a Saturday Sabbath. They believe keeping Sunday instead of Sabbath is a  serious sin before God.

The SDA interpretation looks reasonable especially with its “let the Bible interpret the Bible” methodology. Yet we will see that it is no accident they spiritualize the mark as they do. Their Sabbath view helps them to gloss over some important differences between the marks of Revelation and Exodus.

Mark of the Beast: Literal Mark

Here’s the main problem with equating Exodus 13:9 with Revelation 13:16. Exodus is taking an abstract thing (God’s instructions) and asking them to be “frontlets”, a “sign” or a “memorial” between the eyes and the hand. The most reasonable way to view this is figuratively as a command to always think and do according to God’s instructions. It is not practical or useful to fit a tiny Torah scroll on those body parts and go around with them in the way all the time.

Revelation, on the other hand, is taking a physical thing (a mark on the skin) and specifying where it can be located on the body. Indeed, all incidences of “mark” in the contexts of Revelation treat it as a physical and visible thing that you receive from the False Prophet. Visibility is required for the mark to work in commerce. One cannot look at you and tell if you kept Sunday when deciding whether to sell you food.

Notice also that Exodus 13:9 does not says “right” hand. Exodus does not specify which hand because it would be odd to do this when either hand is associated with work or action.

Further, in Revelation the mark is always a “mark” on the skin. It is not sometimes a sign, a frontlet, or a “mark” like God’s commandments are characterized by the Torah itself. Revelation 13 even specifies the mark as the name or number of the beast. Names and numbers are commonly written down. They would even fit on a person’s forehead or skin. The definition of the mark as the name or number of the Beast hurts the SDA view. This plain explanation of the mark contradicts assigning any other explanation to it. Their case would be better if the mark was left ambiguous by Revelation. But it is not.

Thus, when we allegorize the mark as “deciding to rest on Sunday instead of Saturday”, we are choosing to ignore the most natural and reasonable interpretation of the mark of the beast. The mark is a mark on the skin consisting of the name or number of the beast.

So why choose the weaker allegorized interpretation. There must be some other benefit to the weaker view in order to choose it. For SDA’s this false view supports their Sabbath-keeping doctrine. It puts some additional importance and fear behind their teaching. I can imagine them thinking that by keeping sabbath today, they are antichrist-proofing themselves.

Conclusion

Only a sabbath-keeping religion would come up with the idea that the mark of the beast will be “keeping Sunday instead of Saturday”. This interpretation presupposes that sabbath is required by God and by not keeping it you are sinning before God. However, the sabbath was part of the Old Covenant made with the nation of Ancient Israel. SDAs rip this single command out of its original national context and transplant it upon believers today scattered outside the land of the Torah. Ignoring the context of a verse is not the way to to get to “the truth no matter what it says”, as our goal should be.

This goes back to my original point. When you have even one wrong doctrine (e.g. “sabbath is required”), it will lead you to reject the true meanings of other verses (e.g. the mark is the name or number of the beast) and create even more wrong doctrines (e.g. “the mark is keeping Sunday”). And all of these errors are based on not accepting the Bible for what it plainly says (e.g. the Torah is for the nation of Israel in the land of Israel, not for Gentiles today – Acts 15).

In covering this example, I have not meant to pick on the SDAs. Other groups come up with other meanings that break the literalness of the mark of the beast, too. Indeed, we all fall into allegorizing verses that were meant literally. Hopefully, the next time you catch yourself thinking a verse does not mean what it plainly says you will stop and ask yourself two questions.

1. What doctrine do I hold that is causing me to think this verse is not literal?
2. Have I proven through diligent study that that doctrine itself is really correct?

See also: Can you Take the Mark of the Beast Today?

Hey Tim I got one more question. We are 100% sure we are in the last generation right? If this is true then do you have any idea how long a generation actually is? It seems like no one has a clear cut answer. Ive heard 40, 50, 70, but no one really knows.

Answer: Actually there is no “last generation” described in Scripture. That concept came from a popular misapplication of the Parable of the Fig Tree (Mt 24:32-35).  This view posits that the thing to watch is the fig tree (Israel) putting forth leaves (take Jerusalem) and that “this generation shall not pass until all is fulfilled” refers to the people alive when the fig tree does this still being alive when Jesus returns.

If this were true, then again we’d have a calculation for the absolute single time of Jesus’ return far in advance which contradicts what he expressly said about the impossibility of no man knowing the time (“day or hour”) of his return (Mt 24:36). This is the reason all such calculations have failed throughout history: Jesus said they never will work since even he the Son of God (and the entire Word of God) does not know. The Bible is just a subset of the Word of God and so we can never use it to figure out Jesus’ return (further in advance than 1290 days from the Abomination of Desolation probably).

In truth, the Parable of the Fig Tree does not refer to Israel at all. It tells us to watch for “all these things” that the Olivet Discourse listed as the precursors to his return. Just as seeing leaves on any tree (not just a fig tree—Lk 21:29) tells you summer is nigh, so do all these events happening tell you Jesus’ return is near.

Read Mt 24 to see what all those things listed are. Ironically, none of them match Jerusalem getting return to Israel and instead one of them is Jerusalem taken from Israel by the Antichrist (Lk 21:20)!

Now that you know it won’t help you figure out the Second Coming’s timing, do you still want to know the length of a biblical generation? It’s established at 40 years from more than one precedent (Heb 3:9-10; Ps 95:10). Sign up for my free newsletter for a series on the Seven Prophecy Pitfalls that discusses this in more detail.

The ten nations of Psalm 83 are the ten kings that have not yet received power but shall reign one hour with the beast. They are the ten toes of the statue of Daniel chapter 2.
[..snip...]

It’s great that you notice Psalm 83 is an unfulfilled prophecy. Few people have. I was lucky that I had a very wise pastor who pointed it out to me in my early 20s as a prophecy that seems to fit the 10 nations of the Beast’s kingdom.

I went for a while still believing this was the case until I began to study prophecy on my own daily with a foundation in the Torah. Then I noticed something: Psalm 83 does not fit Armageddon when the Beast and his army of all nations assembles to fight the returning Jesus at Jerusalem. Psalm 83 shows Israel repelling its enemies whereas Zechariah 14 = Revelation 19 shows the Beast armies (including “even Judah”) overcoming Jerusalem and putting half there into exile (apparently the Jewish half).

Psalm 83 is Pretrib, not Post-trib

Instead Psalm 83 fits a pretrib event when the sons of Ishmael and other surrounding nations one last time try to wipe Israel off the map, also described in Zechariah 12, Isaiah 17, 29, et. al. They will fail, but not without bringing a needed sea-change in Israel which I believe will herald in Elijah the Prophet of Malachi 4 who will gather God’s servants to safety before the 6th seal.

This Middle East war seems to be brewing now with Iran’s nuclear aspirations and is the next major prophecy expected in my timeline, especially now that Gaza has been given back to enemies so it can be judged with Damascus as Amos 1 = Isaiah 17 portrays

Historicists believe that the Great Tribulation is 1260 years long and that there is no gap in the 70 weeks of Daniel. Believing the 70th week has already been fulfilled years ago, the Antichrist then must also be history. Who was he? Since the papacy arose out of the 10 horned kingdom of the Roman Empire, they conclude that the papacy is the Antichrist.

Is this right? Once again, this site tries to raise awareness that prophecy is not to be read any differently than the rest of the Bible. We are not allowed to break scripture, i.e. come up with an interpretation that breaks the plain face value meaning of it. Does Historicism pass this test? We will see that to believe any of these things you have to give very strained interpretations of many plain passages.

Is the Beast a Man or an "Institution"?

It says the Beast of Revelation 13 is a man who later in Revelation 19 is cast into the Lake of Fire with the other beast of Revelation 13, the False Prophet. Historicism changes this from a literal man to a symbol representing a manmade institution, the papacy. This unauthorized allegorization of the plain text breaks scripture and must be rejected, even if throwing the papacy into the lake of fire where it is “tormented” with smoke rising as a result made sense (Rev 20:10).

Tribulation 1260 Years?

Another problem is in believing that the Great Tribulation is 1260 years long instead of 3½. I have already written on how to determine the length of the Great Tribulation, step by step.

Other passages are simply unfulfilled and unexplainable by Historicism, such as

What Happened To the Heavenly Signs of Jesus’ Return?

Matthew 24:29 tells us that, immediately after the Great Tribulation, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give her light, the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. If the Great Tribulation has already happened, as the Historicist viewpoint contends, when did all these things come to pass? Obviously, they haven’t. Verse 30-31 continues right on to tell us:

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

This passage clearly states that, immediately after the tribulation, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give her light, and the stars will fall from heaven. It continues on to say that, right after that, Jesus will come in the clouds, the people of the earth will see Him, and he will send his angels with a sound of a great trumpet to gather His elect.

Are we to believe that Jesus has already come back? Has He in some mysterious way secretly gathered His elect? Of course not! The conclusion is simply unavoidable. The Historicist view that all these things have already happened is simply not true.

Conclusion

As you can see, if you consistently apply the principle of not allowing any interpretation to break plain scripture, then you will be able to discern erroneous interpretations for yourself. Historicism requires a heavy dose of broken scripture and should be rejected for that reason.

After All That Money, Why Don’t You Know More For Sure?

You may have spent even more than I have, perhaps with multiple trips to Israel or with dozens of prophecy books on your books shelf. But the question I want to ask you is, what else do you have to show for it all and when will this expense category in your budget go away? In other words, why haven’t you understood it yet or at least figured out enough to feel like you know the important things you need to about the End Times to make better plans. I mean, putting the satisfaction of your curiosity aside, isn’t the real practical application of studying Bible prophecy to know the future and to then be able to plan better for it? (If you like spending the money because the many divergent teachings entertain or fascinate you, then you may not be looking for how to change that.)

Or after all these years of hearing one plausible interpretation after another have you lost any hope in actually concluding what the right sequence of end times events are, when the rapture falls in that sequence, who the Antichrist is, or even what year Jesus will return? Can we know these things or not? Why are we studying book after book and never really getting solid answers to these questions? The reason for our lack of real results with this is not because there is no way to find out solid answers to these questions. If you believed that was the case then you would not be wasting time and money on this area of study. If after all this time you are starting to doubt this assumption, then let me remind you that God specifically told Daniel that his prophecies (which even he could not understand), would be understood by the wise in the End Times when knowledge was increased, but the wicked would not understand (Dan 12:7-11).

Is there any doubt that we are in those End times now when many would go to and fro and knowledge would be increased? Also, since I don’t know too many reprobates who have a hobby of studying Bible prophecy, let’s rule out that wickedness on your part is the problem here . If you want to study Bible prophecy then you probably are a good person who wants to understand all God has to say, not just the parts you like.

Flawed Prophecy Interpretation Model

That leaves us with the matter of being a Biblically wise person. There is always a good chance we lack wisdom in an area because we all start out in any field as beginners with lots to learn. A lack of success in any endeavor can often indicate that we are missing essential wisdom for succeeding in it. But what wisdom do we need to unravel Bible prophecy?

There is one piece of wisdom that most Bible prophecy teachers don’t seem to know. They usually start out with some unique insights that carefully explain some plain passages of the Bible that others have not addressed as well. However, in fitting their theory in with the rest of the Bible or even just related prophecies, at some point just about every prophecy teacher will say, “that passage does not mean what it plainly says.” Because if they took that passage at face value, they would be forced to change all or part of their theory! You may not have noticed this because you may feel that given the symbolic nature of prophecy, especially the Book of Revelation, this is acceptable handling of God’s word.

Prophecy: Primarily Symbolic or Primarily Literal Like the Rest of Scripture?

What if that assumption is wrong and we have not taken things literally enough? I’m not saying that the Book of Revelation is not symbolic. It certainly does make use of symbols that are usually only explained plainly elsewhere in the Bible. However the question we need to ask before we interpret prophecy is whether it is primarily symbolic or allegorical or is it primarily literal. Put another way, is it a special case or is it just like the rest of the Bible of which Jesus said “[the face value meaning of] scripture cannot be broken” by any interpretation of any other scripture?

More importantly, if we really believe it’s a special case where the “scripture cannot be broken” rule does not apply, then how do we have any hope of ever coming to the right understanding? And if we somehow do, how do we have any way of verifying that it is right if it cannot be validated by being held to not breaking the face value of other scripture? A person can then just find ways to spiritualize or typify other scriptures to a meaning that fits his teaching and no one can say its wrong because one persons imagination of what a passage can mean is just as valid as another’s if there is no standard to hold them all to. This is how we have ended up with innumerable seemingly plausible eschatologies and books explaining them. They are all to some degree breaking (or ignoring) scripture to arrive at yet another different interpretation.

Do you begin to see the problem? If prophecy does not have a primary, usually literal face value meaning with the symbols adding extra detail or depth built on top of that face value meaning rather than contradicting it and replacing it, then we are wasting our time and money studying it because we’ll never really be able to know what it means short of another Holy Spirit-filled prophet coming to literally pull the answers out of a hat. By the way, I said “usually literal” because I’m not saying all prophecy is literal. There is some clear allegorical use of language found but these things are always explained as such right there or elsewhere in the Bible. The problem is when a teacher does not understand this and treats everything like an allegory or freely-definable symbol he supports by using typological interpretation of other scriptures such as the acts of the patriachs in the Old Testament. For example, a famous pretrib rapturist teacher once freely admitted that the pretrib teaching is based on allegory and typology rather than any clear plainly read passages of the Bible. He clearly saw nothing wrong with this situation.

The Solution

The only thing that the status quo gives us is an endless stream of tantalizing new prophecy books limited only by the imaginations of each new prophecy writer. Since most of them contradict each other, not all can be right—but all can be wrong. Are you ready to find out how to avoid wasting time and money on such fundamentally flawed theories? Here’s how:

1. Be willing to change how for years you have treated prophecy differently than the rest of the Bible and begin rereading the Bible afresh with the new “primarily literal prophecy” paradigm.
2. Study the articles on this site like How To Understand Bible Prophecy for Sure which gives several examples of mistreated prophecies that can be taken at face value.
3. When you have confirmed that there is something to the approach to Bible prophecy I advocate, go ahead and purchase one of my $10 books which are written following this model of interpretation. I promise you’ll never find me say in my books, “that doesnt mean what it plainly says” and then proceed to offer some contradictory meaning for it. At most I will say it doesn’t mean what you thought it says and direct you to read the passage more carefully and notice a few easily missed details that are really there and change the meaning significantly so that the face value properly meshes with the face value of the rest of the Bible.

Can $10 spent on one of my manuals really save you $100s on lots of other prophecy materials down the road? I wholeheartedly believe so (and I have a money back guarantee if you think I’m wrong). It is difficult to see things differently than you have been taught for years. But a little guidance can go a long way in saving you further trial and error.

See, once you let me show you how several major prophecies such as Wormwood or the 144,000 make literal plain sense as written, you will find it easier to break the old patterns and to apply this approach to other prophecies on your own for finding solid, satisfying answers. And when you see an offer for a new typical allegory/typology-based prophecy book and look into its premise and assumptions and find that they contradict your new foundation based on plain reading of all scripture including prophecy, you will not even think “maybe they have the answer…maybe i should get that..”

Hi Tim,

Malachi 3:1 states “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming ” says the Lord of Hosts. NASB. To which temple does this refer, and who constructed it?

Without a doubt the NT is clear that John the Baptist fulfilled this prophecy (Mark 1:2 = Malachi 3:1). In that case the temple that the Lord or Messiah visited would be Herod’s temple. History shows that Herod The Great demolished and renovated this Second Temple originally built by the returning Babylonian exiles (but it was still called the Second Temple because the altar service and other ceremonies were never interrupted).

Dual Prophecy

However, we must always keep in mind with prophecy that usually they are dual. The former or intermediate fulfillment will fulfill certain aspects but not all of the entire prophecy. Later, the entire prophecy will be fulfilled in a latter or final fulfillment.

A classic example of this is Isaiah 61:1-2 which Jesus read in the synagogue of Nazareth at the start of his ministry in a sabbath year. He proclaimed the sabbath year and the start of his ministry by reading those two verses saying that they were now fulfilled. However, he stopped short of finishing verse two because it contained something he was not going to fulfill until his second coming, namely, “the day of vengeance of our God,” a clear reference to the Day of the Lord, or Yom Kippur at the end of the Great Tribulation.

It’s clear that Malachi 3 is another case of a dual prophecy of Jesus’ first and second comings because if you keep reading to Malachi 3:2-5 it, too, speaks of his coming at the time of God’s judgment and wrath right before the tribes of Israel are returned and purified for service in the Millennial Temple.

Who Will Build the Malachi 3:1 Temple?

If you want to know who I think will build that temple, I would have to guess the Jews of this generation. We’re told by prophecy that a Third Temple will be built before the Great Tribulation (Rev 11:1-3) so that the Antichrist can sit in it and declares himself God (2The 2:4) and delude the whole world in this way (2The 2:11). This temple is already slated for prefab construction by the current Sanhedrin in Israel, if it has not already secreted been. This must be the temple that is referred to as the Lord coming suddenly to, rather than the Millennial Temple of Ezekiel 40 which will be built later under the purified Levites mentioned in Malachi 3:3.