A Covenant Response to Gary DeMar on the Third Temple

A Covenant Response to Gary DeMar on the Third Temple — offered under Fair Use for commentary, teaching, and theological analysis.

Fair Use Statement

This response quotes from and critiques My Response to a Third Temple Rebuilder by Gary DeMar, published on American Vision (August 21, 2025). Quotations are used under the fair use provision of U.S. Copyright Law (17 U.S.C. §107) for commentary, teaching, and theological analysis. All rights remain with the original author and publisher.

The Strength of DeMar’s Position

Gary DeMar is correct to insist that the New Testament contains no command, prophecy, or expectation that a Third Temple of stone will ever be built. Yeshua’s words about Herod’s temple are decisive: “Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down” (Matthew 24:2). The apostolic writings confirm this transition. The temple of God is no longer a building but Messiah Himself and His people:

• “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19–21).

• “You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5).

• “We are the temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians 6:16).

  
  

To pursue a new temple of stone would be to regress to shadows that the New Covenant has already transcended (Hebrews 10:1).

DeMar is also right in his treatment of Daniel’s seventy sevens. The prophecy is continuous. Jeremiah’s seventy years were counted without interruption (Daniel 9:2), and Daniel’s pattern follows the same covenantal logic. The popular theory of a gap between the sixty-ninth and seventieth week has no textual foundation.

He is further correct that “antichrist” was not exclusively a single, distant end-time figure. John states plainly: “Even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour” (1 John 2:18). The assemblies of the first century already faced deceivers who denied Messiah and betrayed the covenant.

Where His Case Overextends

Although DeMar stands on solid ground in rejecting a future temple and a prophetic gap, his conclusions extend beyond the boundaries of the text.

The Ministry Timeline

He rejects the gap theory but still assumes a three-and-a-half-year ministry for Yeshua. Scripture never establishes such a duration. The Synoptic Gospels record one Passover prior to the Passion, not three.

The extension comes only from assumptions about John. John 5:1 speaks of “a feast of the Jews” without naming it as Passover. John 6:4 introduces a Passover that places Yeshua in Galilee at the very season when Torah required all males to appear before YHWH in Jerusalem (Exodus 23:14–17; Deuteronomy 16:16).

To maintain Yeshua’s perfect covenant obedience, this cannot stand. The conclusion is simple: John 5:1 refers to Shavuot not Passover, and John 6:4’s Passover notation does not carry weight as it implies Yeshua violated Torah. When these assumptions are corrected, the extended three-and-a-half-year timeline collapses, and Daniel’s prophecy aligns with covenantal precision.

Compressing Prophecy into AD 70

The destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 was indeed the covenant judgment that Yeshua warned would fall upon that generation (Matthew 24:34). Yet DeMar reduces all prophecy to this single event.

The sixth seal of Revelation describes a global upheaval: the sun turned black, the moon like blood, the stars falling, the heavens rolled back, and rulers of the earth crying for the mountains to cover them (Revelation 6:12–17).

This was not fulfilled in AD 70. Hebrews 12:26–27 looks forward to a shaking not only of the earth but of the heavens also. Isaiah 17:1 foretells the destruction of Damascus, a city which remains. To compress all prophecy into the first century creates contradictions that Scripture itself does not allow.

The Man of Lawlessness

DeMar confines Paul’s “man of lawlessness” (2 Thessalonians 2) to the first century. Yet Paul describes this figure as destroyed “by the appearance of [the Lord’s] coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:8).

That event is not behind us but still before us. John’s testimony of “many antichrists” and Paul’s description of a final son of perdition are not mutually exclusive.

The spirit of antichrist was active in the first century, but a final personal figure remains to be revealed before the end.

The Thousand-Year Reign

Finally, DeMar reduces the millennium of Revelation 20 to symbolism. Yet John repeats six times that Messiah will reign for “a thousand years.” This is not careless metaphor but a deliberate echo of the creation pattern: six days of labor followed by a seventh day of rest.

The prophets foretell this reign with concrete promises, Israel restored to the land (Ezekiel 37:21–28), the nations taught righteousness (Isaiah 2:2–4), and creation itself restored (Isaiah 11:6–9; Romans 8:19–23). AD 70 did not fulfill these realities.

Daniel’s Prophecy in Covenant Fulfillment

When stripped of artificial gaps and false extensions, Daniel’s seventy sevens reveal the covenantal order of Messiah’s work. From the decree to restore Jerusalem until Messiah’s appearance are sixty-nine sevens (Daniel 9:25).

The seventieth week is not deferred to a distant future; it is the week of the Passion when Messiah is “cut off in the midst of the week” (Daniel 9:27). His ministry mirrors a 490-day arc, from His baptism in the Jordan to the outpouring of the Spirit at Shavuot.

In this pattern the covenant is sealed in His Blood and written on the hearts of His people (Jeremiah 31:33; 2 Corinthians 3:3). The prophecy is fulfilled at every scale, years, days, and the climactic Passion week, without contradiction or delay.

Conclusion

Gary DeMar rightly dismantles the false expectation of a Third Temple. He is also correct in rejecting a prophetic gap and in reminding us that antichrist was already present in the first century.

But he presses beyond Scripture when he extends Messiah’s ministry beyond what the Gospels record, when he compresses all prophecy into AD 70, when he restricts Paul’s man of lawlessness to the past, and when he reduces the thousand-year reign to a symbol.

The testimony of Scripture is greater than DeMar allows. Yeshua is the true Temple, and His people are living stones. Yet the Covenant also testifies that He will shake heaven and earth, that the Son of Perdition will be revealed and destroyed at His Appearing, that He will Reign upon the earth for a thousand years, and that He will bring His Bride into the New Creation forever.

The Bride is not waiting for stone and mortar. She is waiting for her King.