Last week, my pastor, Phillip Sizemore, addressed the world’s main theological dispute, now and for the foreseeable future, which is “Christian Zionism.” It is an excellent sermon.
Pastor Sizemore and I both discovered something in the last two or three weeks that neither of us ever knew before, namely that Julian the Apostate, the last pagan Roman Emperor, who reigned from 361 to 363 AD, ordered the Jerusalem temple to be rebuilt. He did this not because he was sympathetic to the Jews but because he disliked the Christians intensely, and he knew that rebuilding the temple would be a major affront to them.
The Christians of Julian’s day, unlike our “Christian Zionists” (the quotes should only be around “Christian,” since these people really are Zionists), understood that the rebuilding of the temple would be a serious rebuke to Christianity, because all of the temple ceremonies pointed to Christ, and were fulfilled by Christ.
To rebuild the temple is to maintain, in the strongest and most permanent possible terms, that Jesus Christ was not really the “lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” John 1:29.
To rebuild the temple is to deny that “you were redeemed . . . with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or spot.” 1 Peter 1:18-19.
To rebuild the temple is to deny, in the most dramatic way possible, that Jesus Christ is the Lamb who was slain and is worthy to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. Rev. 5:12.
To rebuild the temple is to deny, in the most dramatic way possible, that Jesus Christ ministers for us in the heavenly sanctuary, as we are taught in Hebrews 9. You would think that the denial of the doctrine of the heavenly sanctuary would wake Seventh-day Adventists from our coma, even if nothing else would, but it seems the coma is deeper than I had imagined.
Back to Julian the Apostate. The most powerful man in the world might have wanted the temple rebuild, but God had other plans. Strange things started happening at the temple mount:
Julian thought to rebuild at an extravagant expense the proud Temple once at Jerusalem, and committed this task to Alypius of Antioch. Alypius set vigorously to work, and was seconded by the governor of the province; when fearful balls of fire, breaking out near the foundations, continued their attacks, till the workmen, after repeated scorchings, could approach no more: and he gave up the attempt.— Ammianus Marcellinus, The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus, Book 23, Chapter 1, Line 3
Did I read that right? Fireballs came out of the foundations and burned the construction workers? Yes, that is what Ammianus says happened. But this Ammianus guy was a Christian apologist, right, making up tall tales to help Christianity? No, Ammianus was a pagan and a retired soldier who had been an officer of the Praetorian Guard, the emperor’s personal bodyguard. He was not a Christian apologist. Moreover, this happened during his lifetime, because he was born in 330 AD and died some time between 391 and 400 AD.
A few months later, Julian died fighting the Parthians; the next attempt to rebuild the temple was after the Western empire fell, and shortly before Jerusalem fell to the Muslims.
The sermon begins at the 45 minute mark, and I have it cued: