Animal sacrifices during the Millenium

[theophilus]

The laws God gave to Israel through Moses included a requirement that they sacrifice animals as an atonement for their sins. These sacrifices didn’t actually take away sins but only served as a picture of what Christ would do when he died for sin. Hebrews 10:11-14 says,

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Now that Christ has come these sacrifices are no longer needed.

The last part of Ezekiel, from chapter 40 through the end, describes what life will be like in the Millenium. The land will be divided among the twelve tribes. A new temple will be built. And animals will once again be sacrificed in accordance with the Mosaic law. But if Christ has paid for sins what will be the purpose of these sacrifices?

Before his crucifixion Jesus established a new practice which was to take the place of the sacrifices.

    For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

    In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
    1 Corinthians 11:23-25 ESV

But there was to be a limit on how long this practice would be in effect. The next verse says,

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

After his return animal sacrifices will apparently be resumed to serve as a reminder of what he did. The purpose of the Old Testament sacrifices was to show what Christ was going to do; the purpose of the Millennial sacrifices will be to remind them of what he has done. The present age, in which the sacrifices aren’t offered at all, separates the two.

There is another possible reason for the resumption of animal sacrifices. The Bible’s descriptions of life in the millenium show that death will be extremely rare. It may be possible for those born during this time to go through their whole lives without any personal contact with death. But the salvation message will be the same, that Christ died for our sins. In this age we don’t have any problem understanding this because we see death all around us and know what happens when someone dies. But those who lack our personal knowledge of death will probably find it harder to understand the message. Perhaps one of the purposes of animal sacrifices will be to show them what death is like so they can understand better what Christ did.

 

[Timotheos]

Or you've missed the Christological point of Ezekiel completely!!!!!!!!  Read Beale's book on the Temple & the Church's mission.  Read his JETS article on the temple in the garden and the church's mission.  I dare you!

 

[prophet]

You bunch of ungodly reprobates. I cannot believe that any child of God would even consider going to a Hellywood movie. Me, on the other hand, I cannot wait for this to come out on DVD so I can watch it in the privacy of my home.

Same here probably. There are very few movies I'll go to a theater for.

I don't really see much of a difference. Are you thinking you can "fast forward" through the "bad" parts?

There won't be any death, in the Millennial Kingdom, until Satan is loosed...and Timotheos was right, Christ type went strait over yer head.

Anishinaabe

 

[cubanito]

Sorry, there will be death during the millenium:

Isaiah 50: 20 “No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days,
Or an old man who does not live out his days;
For the youth will die at the age of one hundred
And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred
Will be thought accursed.  NASB

Since the time of Isaiah to now, there have always been children who die after a few days, and never has a 100 year old been considered a youth. This may have been the case PRIOR to the flood, but lifetimes rapidly shortened to the Hayflick maximum of 120 years thereafter. Isaiah is clearly stating a FUTURE time, so this can not be pre-flood history. Also this can NOT be the state of man after the final resurrection and judgement, for then there shall be no death at all. Thus we hace an in between time where deat IS around, but greatly delayed as in the times prior to Noah.

JR

 

[prophet]

Sorry, there will be death during the millenium:

Isaiah 50: 20 “No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days,
Or an old man who does not live out his days;
For the youth will die at the age of one hundred
And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred
Will be thought accursed.  NASB

Since the time of Isaiah to now, there have always been children who die after a few days, and never has a 100 year old been considered a youth. This may have been the case PRIOR to the flood, but lifetimes rapidly shortened to the Hayflick maximum of 120 years thereafter. Isaiah is clearly stating a FUTURE time, so this can not be pre-flood history. Also this can NOT be the state of man after the final resurrection and judgement, for then there shall be no death at all. Thus we hace an in between time where deat IS around, but greatly delayed as in the times prior to Noah.

JR

This is correct.

I was wrong, and don't remember why I stated that, earlier, but you are correct, death will be scarce, but still here.

All I can think of, is that the officers of the Kingdom will be already resurrected, and will not see death twice.

Haklo

 

[cubanito]

Eschatology is a subject we should give wide latitude to differing interpretations without condemnation. That said, however, I am a mid-trib premillenial futurist. As I understand the millenium, after the rapture some will convert. Some of these converted people will survive the holocaust as it states in Zechariah that if God would not stop the battle of Meggido everything that breathes would perish. Thus some still sinful Christians, neither raptured nor physically dead, will enter the next age. They will repopulate a "cleaned up" Earth with [re-flood conditions (lions eat grass like oxen, people routinely live hundreds of years ect).

After more than 1,000 years (the millenium is a MINIMUM of 1K, nothing prevents it from being 1,001 yeas or 10K) there will be many nations and yet Jerusalem the world capital, with people eagerly seeking after Jews. During this time sinless humans in glorified bodies will be the worldwide Government administrators. I believe communism could very well work at that time because all Government officials will be immortal, sinless and totally divided to King Jesus who will physically sit in Jerusalem's throne.  That one world Govt the antichrist tried to set up and failed will be accompplished by God and some of us will be there to help. If Christ allows it, I would like to be a jester, going from town to town with a travelling side show poking fun at everything.  My wife, being under 5 feet, says she will be one of the clowns in the little cars...

Then Satan will again be loosed and deceive the nations, and that final conflagration will result in the final physical death of all, and a final resurection. Revelations specifically mentions a FIRST resurrection, so dispensationalists did not invent multiple ones. Then the final books are opened, all enter their final resurrection, some to remain in glory on a GINORMOUS building 2K miles on each side AND straight up (cube? pyramid?) and others to the lake of fire. At this final state all distinctions between Jes/Gentile, men/women will pass away and something beyond our capacity to imagine will be made.

 

[S.T.Ranger]

Eschatology is a subject we should give wide latitude to differing interpretations without condemnation.

Because I view Eschatology as important as any other knowledge given in Scripture, I do not take the same attitude as you do, hence this response. There is but one correct interpretation in regards to Eschatological Events, though we do see multiple fulfillment of Prophecy at times (i.e., the Coming of Messiah, Antichrist, and the Return of Christ (in the Rapture, and at the end of the Tribulation)).

That said, however, I am a mid-trib premillenial futurist.

I am not sure how you could be Mid-Trib if you view the "First" Resurrection as the "First" Resurrection. More about that in a bit but I will just say, even though the Mid-Trib View is wrong, it is preferable to the Post-Trib View, because we do see a Rapture at the Mid-Point of the Tribulation, namely, the Two Witnesses (Revelation 11).

As I understand the millenium, after the rapture some will convert. Some of these converted people will survive the holocaust as it states in Zechariah that if God would not stop the battle of Meggido everything that breathes would perish. Thus some still sinful Christians, neither raptured nor physically dead, will enter the next age. They will repopulate a "cleaned up" Earth with [re-flood conditions (lions eat grass like oxen, people routinely live hundreds of years ect).

While we might speculate that the Christians who enter into the Millennial Kingdom are "still sinning" (which is a given, seeing they have not yet been glorified as the Church has been in the Rapture), we should distinguish that the Rapture involves everyone from the Church Age, both living and dead.

The Christians that arise from the Tribulation are separated into two categories, those who live through the entire Tribulation and are the Sheep of Matthew 25, and those who die, who are those resurrected in the First Resurrection of Revelation 20.

All of these are born again during the Tribulation.

After more than 1,000 years (the millenium is a MINIMUM of 1K, nothing prevents it from being 1,001 yeas or 10K)

Scripture prevents it from being anything other than what we are told. In Revelation 20, as most are familiar with, we are told there is a 1,000 year time-frame from the time of Christ's Return until Satan is released from bondage.

Now here is something interesting to consider:


Daniel 12:7-12
King James Version (KJV)

7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.

8 And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?

9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.

11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.

12 Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.

The Abomination of Desolation takes place at the Mid-Point of the Tribulation, and the time is fixed at 3 1/2 years. However, there are 75 days added to this, and I would suggest that this period is the time in which Christ Returns, judges the unbelieving that lived physically through the Tribulation, and that the Kingdom begins at the end of this 75 days in earnest. That is where the thousand years begins. Satan, having been tossed into the Pit at Christ's Return, will have 75 days prior to the end of the Millennial Kingdom to set about garnering a following among the innumerable unbelievers that arise during the Millennial Kingdom.


Continued...

 

[S.T.Ranger]

there will be many nations and yet Jerusalem the world capital, with people eagerly seeking after Jews. During this time sinless humans in glorified bodies will be the worldwide Government administrators.

Where do we read that in Scripture? That glorified Saints are the "worldwide Government?"

I believe communism could very well work at that time

Communism will never work.

because all Government officials will be immortal, sinless and totally divided to King Jesus

How does a Christian Government equate to Communism?

who will physically sit in Jerusalem's throne. 

Where do we read that in Scripture?

That one world Govt the antichrist tried to set up and failed will be accompplished by God and some of us will be there to help.

Christ's rule over the earth during the Millennial Kingdom will neither be similar to the Antichrist's reign of terror, not even when he uses political correctness and intrigue to beguile folk. Nor will it be similar to Atheism.

If Christ allows it, I would like to be a jester, going from town to town with a travelling side show poking fun at everything.  My wife, being under 5 feet, says she will be one of the clowns in the little cars...

He is allowing it now...

Just kidding.

Then Satan will again be loosed and deceive the nations, and that final conflagration will result in the final physical death of all, and a final resurection.

Am I to understand you that you are implying believers are resurrected twice?

Revelations specifically mentions a FIRST resurrection,

This is true, however, consult the Greek and we find that protos does not demand a sequential meaning. In view is not that it is the "first" resurrection to take place, but that it is the chief resurrection, seeing there are only two resurrections taught in Scripture, the resurrection unto life, and the resurrection unto damnation (and this is of course in a context dealing with Revelation 20).

We know that the Tribulation Martyrs are not the "first" to be resurrected in glorified bodies (implied because they "reign" with Christ for the entirety of the thousand years), because the First Resurrection would of course be Christ's Own Resurrection, then the Church in the Rapture, then the Two Witnesses in REvelation 11, then fourthly the Tribulation Martyrs.

so dispensationalists did not invent multiple ones.

Agree whole-heartedly.

Then the final books are opened, all enter their final resurrection, some to remain in glory on a GINORMOUS building 2K miles on each side AND straight up (cube? pyramid?) and others to the lake of fire.

There is no "final resurrection" for those who were already resurrected, so again, I would ask you clarify whether you believe believers are "resurrected twice" (and I am not speaking of the resurrection which is spiritual, new birth, which takes place when men are immersed into God).

At this final state all distinctions between Jes/Gentile, men/women will pass away and something beyond our capacity to imagine will be made.

While men and women may not be married, it seems they will still retain their gender, even as Christ did. Perhaps you could show me where Scripture teaches we will be gender neutral in the Eternal State.


God bless.

 

[robycop3]

  Ladies & gentlemen,  remember that orthodox jews today don't recognize Jesus as Messiah.  Even now, they're breeding animals such as red heifers to be used in temple ceremonies, & they just recently "consecrated" an altar to be placed in their new temple. And, I've read in several sources that they have all the materials needed to construct it, as well as having all the instruments made.

  The main holdup right now for constructing the temple  is that its  proposed location is very near the Muslim shrines in Jerusalem, such as the Dome of the Rock & the Al-Aqsa Mosque. (I saw that some Hebrew University professors who illegally explored under the Dome found that the location of the old temple was right beside the Dome.)

  Now, I don't know how that obstacle will be overcome, but somehow it  WILL, by God's power. And, once built, the Old testament system of sacrifices will be revived in it. (I don't know how the Jews will get by not having a fire kindled by God on the altar, as they had in the old temple, but I'm sure they'll come up with something!)

  Now, I'm NOT saying this'll actually be a "temple of GOD", as JESUS won't be honored & worshipped in it,  but the world will recognize it as such. its construction is necessary for the "beast/antichrist/man of sin/that Wicked" to commit the "abomination of desolation" in, by setting up his statue in it, and, while in this temple, proclaiming himself to be God. Likely, all the news broadcasters will cover that event!

  But to deny these events are coming is downright silly!  The Jews fully intend to build a new temple, & the ONLY thing now keeping them from doing it is not wanting to start WW3 with the Muslims. Once a solution is found, the temple will go up in a matter of days.

  Perhaps the "beast" will broker some kind of deal between the Jews & Muslims to allow this to happen peacefully. After all, he 's gonna make some kind of treaty that'll cause Israel to become "a land of unwalled villages", in other words, disarmed. (Right now, Israel is the "pound-for-pound" military champ of all time, stronger than any one Muslim nation, with many of her pilots training in OUR 'Top Gun' school!)

  Before anyone says "Bah! Humbug!", remember that our grandfathers & great-grandfathers said that when it was suggested to them that the Jews would have their own sovereign nation again, with jerusalem as its capital. God's prophecies have, and will, come to pass to the letter, despite man's attempts to make history go otherwise!

 

[illinoisguy]

The New Scofield Reference Bible (1967, not the 1917 Old Scofield) has an interesting note on Ezekiel 43:19: "A problem is posed by this paragraph (vv. 19-27).  Since the NT clearly teaches that animal sacrifices do not in themselves cleanse away sin (Heb. 10:4) and that the one sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ that was made at Calvary completely provides for such expiation (cp. Heb. 9;12, 26, 28, 10:10-14), how can there be a fulfillment of such a prophecy?  Two answers have been suggested: (1) Such sacrifices, if actually offered, will be memorial in character.  They will, according to this view, look back to our Lord's work on the cross, as the offerings of the old covenant anticipated His sacrifice.  They would, of course, have no expiatory value.  And (2) the reference to sacrifices is not to be taken literally, in view of the putting away of such offerings, but is rather to be regarded as a presentation of the worship of redeemed Israel, in her own land and in the millennial temple, using the terms with which the Jews were familiar in Ezekiel's day."
 
Personally, based on the teaching of Hebrews 9-10, I would lean toward a non-literal fulfillment of the animal sacrifices.  I think we should give each other wide latitude on such issues as future events, since we don't really know exactly what is going to happen.  I don't know if there will or will not be a future temple with animal sacrifices in Jerusalem.  Such a temple is not something I see as essential to fulfill Bible prophecy, especially not at the cost of starting World War 3, but hey, that's just me.

 

[Twisted]

The New Scofield Reference Bible (1967, not the 1917 Old Scofield) has an interesting note on Ezekiel 43:19: "A problem is posed by this paragraph (vv. 19-27).  Since the NT clearly teaches that animal sacrifices do not in themselves cleanse away sin (Heb. 10:4) and that the one sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ that was made at Calvary completely provides for such expiation (cp. Heb. 9;12, 26, 28, 10:10-14), how can there be a fulfillment of such a prophecy?  Two answers have been suggested: (1) Such sacrifices, if actually offered, will be memorial in character.  They will, according to this view, look back to our Lord's work on the cross, as the offerings of the old covenant anticipated His sacrifice.  They would, of course, have no expiatory value.  And (2) the reference to sacrifices is not to be taken literally, in view of the putting away of such offerings, but is rather to be regarded as a presentation of the worship of redeemed Israel, in her own land and in the millennial temple, using the terms with which the Jews were familiar in Ezekiel's day."
 
Personally, based on the teaching of Hebrews 9-10, I would lean toward a non-literal fulfillment of the animal sacrifices.  I think we should give each other wide latitude on such issues as future events, since we don't really know exactly what is going to happen.  I don't know if there will or will not be a future temple with animal sacrifices in Jerusalem.  Such a temple is not something I see as essential to fulfill Bible prophecy, especially not at the cost of starting World War 3, but hey, that's just me.

Interesting thread.  One point that seems to have been missed is that the sacrifice is for the atonement of a nation, not individuals.  However it works out, it will be interesting to see.  Will we remember our questioning of the events?

 

[illinoisguy]

I am a "panmillennialist" - anyway it pans out is okay with me. 

 

[robycop3]

  Even now, as the Jews in Israel prepare the materials to build a new temple, they're breeding animals such as red heifers to use in temple rites. Just recently, they consecrated an altar to be placed in their new temple.

  I believe the coming antichrist will broker some sorta deal between Muslim & Jew so the temple can be built without starting a war. This temple MUST be built for the antichrist to perform the "abomination of desolation" in.

 

[Ransom]

After his return animal sacrifices will apparently be resumed to serve as a reminder of what he did.

Which is dumb. I mean, he returns bodily. He's right there. You can see the holes.

Communion itself is the reminder. When we have the Messiah with us in person, there is no need for a reminder. The only reason one reminder would be replaced with another is to prop up a theological system.

 

[robycop3]

  Remember, the Orthodox Jews still worship under the Old Covenant & don't believe Jesus is Messiah. When they build their new temple, they'll resume animal sacrifices in it.

 

[prophet]

  Remember, the Orthodox Jews still worship under the Old Covenant & don't believe Jesus is Messiah. When they build their new temple, they'll resume animal sacrifices in it.

Not only are they no longer under the old covenant, which defaulted at Calvary, when God took it upon himself to have his blood shed, though Israel had broken the covenant, and not Him...

But they worship under the star of their god, Remphan, to this day.

Of course, it's entirely possible that some of the 144,000 are alive at this present time, who will worship Jesus, not some future "Messiah".

Sent from my moto g(6) (XT1925DL) using Tapatalk

 

[Ekklesian]

Don't forget that the re-establishment of the Levitical priesthood would disqualify Christ to serve as the High Priest, coming, as He did from Judah, and not from Levi or, more specifically, Aaron.

The testimony of a standing Temple is that Christ has not come. (Hebrews 9:8) To re-establish that which was done away is to transgress. (Gal. 2:18)

God dwells in a temple of living stones. Not only are we the true Temple, but we are also the true priesthood, and the true sacrifices are spiritual, not carnal. (1 Peter 2:5)

This teaching of future temporal kingdom, temple, priesthood and sacrifice might be anti-christ.

 

[Vince Massi]

It is a surprising doctrine that Ezekiel nowhere teaches that this is a Millennial Temple. Among other problems, God would have raised unfaithful Levites from the dead to serve in the Temple.