TopCat54 I hope you are speaking to BigFin? Because I have never said that the temple will be rebuilt before Christ returns. All of my questions have been rhetorical towards BigFin.
The temple will not be rebuilt, period.
After Christ returns the new Jerusalem is established in final form and we are told, "But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple." Ezekiel's temple was a spiritual picture of the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ during this age as He has attoned once for all for the sins of His people (Matt. 1:21).
Even now there is no earthly temple because the true temple is in heaven (where it always was; Heb. 8:5). We inhabit the new Jerusalem, the heavenly Mt. Zion (Heb. 12:22). The earthly temple was just a temporary pattern to point the Old Covenant church to Christ. One He appeared the temple no longer served a useful purpose, and so God destroyed it so the people would not confuse the temporal/carnal with the eternal/spiritual.
But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. (Luke 21:20-22)Most of the church, including the 1st century Jewish believers, understands this fact. A segment of the premil camp does not, and so they still look for a future temple just like the apostate Jews who have missed the coming of the Messiah for the last 2000 years.