Question: There is much talk about the Jewish temple being rebuilt in Jerusalem, but it seems to be ...

Question: There is much talk about the Jewish temple being rebuilt in Jerusalem, but it seems to be mostly speculation. Is there any solid basis in Scripture for believing that the temple will be rebuilt?

Response: That there is a strong desire on the part of the Jewish people to rebuild the temple and to reinstate animal sacrifices is a fact—all the more astonishing in view of the 1,900 years that have passed since the temple’s destruction in A.D. 70 and the fact that so few Jews and even Israelis believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Can tradition be that strong? The Israeli soldiers who took the old wall and temple mount in 1967 wept uncontrollably. Religious Jews around the world look to this 35-acre parcel in the heart of old Jerusalem as the holiest place on earth, while secular Jews (the majority worldwide) see it as symbolic of Israel’s survival. The temple will be rebuilt! Of course, there will have to be an astonishing change of heart in the Muslim world.

As for biblical support for the above, there is no question. Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians:2:3-4 [3] Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; [4] Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
See All... that “the man of sin,” when revealed, “sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” On this basis alone we know that the temple must be rebuilt for the revelation of Antichrist. He will eventually be worshiped as God by the whole world: “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life....” (Rv 13:8). An image will be made of him and all who will not bow down and worship his image will be killed (vv. 14-15). Where would that image be placed but in the newly reconstructed temple where Antichrist will sit, declaring himself to be God?

Surely this is the event to which Christ referred: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee to the mountains....For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not...nor ever shall be” (Mt 24:15-22). Daniel’s remarkable prophecy was first fulfilled in June, 168 B.C., when Antiochus Epiphanes defiantly polluted the altar of burnt offering by sacrificing thereon swine flesh and dedicating the temple to the pagan god Jupiter Olympius. Christ confirmed a double fulfillment, the second one being the Antichrist’s desecration of the temple during the Great Tribulation.

That Antichrist will enforce a “peace” agreement on the world, part of which will include the rebuilding of the temple and return to animal sacrifices, is clear from Daniel:9:27And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
See All.... Equally clear is the fact that in the “midst of the week” (three and one-half years into Daniel’s seventieth week, i.e., in the midst of the seven-year tribulation period) Antichrist will doublecross Israel, causing the sacrificial system to be aborted, and will place his image in the temple:

And he shall confirm [enforce] the covenant with many for one week [seven years]: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate. ...shall take away the daily sacrifice...shall place the abomination that maketh desolate...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 [three and one-half years to the end of the Great Tribulation plus another thirty apparently to cleanse the temple]” (Dn 9:27; 11:31; 12:11).