Marion, thanks for asking why I believe that it's not necessary to build a physical temple in Jerusalem before Christ returns!
I want everyone to understand that I do not expect anyone to believe anything just because it's what I believe. The Bible is given to all of us to read and study for ourselves and all I know to do is to show why I believe what I do based on the understanding I have now! I reserve the right to change my mind if I am proved to be in error because I have had to change my mind on so many things in the past! I will say that God has been very merciful and kind to me!
As to why I don't believe a physical temple in Jerusalem is necessary is partially because of what Jesus said to the woman at the well in John 4 which I've already posted on this forum.
Add to that John 2 beginning in verse 18. You may remember that Jesus had just chased the money changers out of the temple when the Jews who questioned His authority came to Him and asked in verse 18, "What sign do you show us, since you do these things?"
In verse 19, Jesus answered their question by saying, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."
What Jesus did was use a play on words to answer their question!
The physical temple was indeed the temple of God and used by the Jews for worship according to the directions given under the Old Covenant!
Jesus didn't come to perpetuate the Old Covenant, He came to initiate the New Covenant. Under the New Covenant Jesus Himself would replace the Old Covenant physical temple.
Notice in verse 19 He did not say, "I will raise it up again." He just said, ".....I will raise it up."
In other words if they destroyed God's temple, Jesus would raise it up in three days but He was referring to the time between the time that He would be crucified and the time that He would be resurrected.
As we continue to read in verse 20, "Then the Jews said, 'It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"
Then in verse 21 the Apostle John interjects under the inspiration of God's Spirit, "But He was speaking of the temple of His body."
Before we go to verse 22, keep in mind that Jesus raised up His church to be "His Body" which is made up of all true believers!
I ask you, the reader---Was it His church that was to become the temple that would replace the temple that once stood in Jerusalem?
Verse 22 ending this paragraph says, "Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said."
Now if we will turn to 1 Corinthians 3 and read verses 16 and 17 we see this, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is Holy, which temple you are."
1 Corinthians 6:13b-20 tells us this, "Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For 'the two' He says, 'shall become one flesh.' But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's"
There are many more Scriptures that I could include but I hope you see why I believe that Jesus Himself replaced the physical temple and He is alive now and forever more so there will not ever be a need for a physical temple to worship God again!
Let me end this with one more reference that shows that we who are Christ's are very much a part of Him! Perhaps this will connect well with what Paul said in 1 Corinthians.
This comes from John the 17th chapter where Jesus' prayer to the Father is recorded just shortly before He was crucified. His prayer is specifically for you and I!
John 17:20, 21 begins right after Jesus had been praying for the eleven disciples that remained after Judas was no longer with them and says, "I do not pray for these alone but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may know that You sent Me."
All the above Scriptures were taken from the New King James Version of the Bible.
May God grant us all a good understanding as we seek to know the truth which has been promised to set us free!
I love all of you,
J.V.