Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple. (1 Corinthians 3:16,17)
By "you", Paul meant Christians. The point here is, in my opinion, that God's presence is around Christians, who are his temple now, and not around the ruins of an ancient, man-made temple.
And I'm still unclear as to how the renewal of animal sacrifices at the temple will be of any benefit to Christians. I believe that Christ's sacrifice was sufficient.
As so often in discussing earthly events with my fellow believers, a confusion arises because if I see anything as interesting or important, someone is sure to say that it does not affect their salvation, which is already sure in Jesus, whose blood is sufficient for us all. In that sense, my discussant is always the winner, for God's grace as made known in that sacrifice of Jesus on the cross IS sufficient to save us. But does that necessarily keep me from thinking other matters might be interesting, even fulfilments of prophecy, or might help many others not (yet) so saved to find their way to Him?
...Just as surely as I am sure God will use the events of 9/11 to lead many to Christ, just so surely how many would be led to Him and to a better understanding of who He is and was, if the Temple He so loved and in which He spent so much time, were again in existence...
For you to call this temple "man-made" as if it were pagan and existed for the service of a false deity, or existed by the will and hand of man only, is very poorly received by us Bibliophiles. Every stone in it was placed under the guidance and permitting and will of God...who worked many miracles in its construction and in its daily operations...
Malachi tells us that the Messiah whose coming we all seek (however sure we are that our own personal destiny is assured by our pre-acceptance of Jesus--our own potty little petty asses being saved, as a religion teacher of mine used to say...)...will suddenly come TO HIS TEMPLE...and that this will be the redemption of the world, and of Israel...However much I have my own little hidey hole and feel my own potty little self is eternally saved, I am still interested in the outcome of the world and the salvation of others including the nation and people Jesus belongs to...and in Him we all belong to...
I say again, the presence of God is to me palpable at the Wall and among the stones there, stones Jesus saw...the presence of the God who worked so many miracles, little and big, from a child's confession of sin, his little string turning white, up to the redemption and reparation of the world, and God concerned with it all, small (petty/potty) and great alike...
As Paul said, if the sin (failing, falling away) of Israel has meant life and salvation to billions, how much more so will their return to observance mean! And that is caught up with a place, and a practice, the ritual sacrifices soon to resume. Those could occur even if the Temple were not rebuilt, on a bare hill. Isa. 13. But not with the obscene Dome there.
When Islam took over the land of Israel, in 638/9 AD, there were 4 million residents there, mostly Christian, whether of Jewish or Greco-Roman ancestry, or Armenian etc. When Napoleon got there in 1798, only some 45,000 people were left. That is what I call desolation. As Jesus said, when you see this abomination standing there in the Holy Place where it ought not to be, let him that is in Judea flee! Sure enough, they DID! As Paul says in 2 Thess, Muhammad the Man of Sin is in the person of this building, standing in the place of God and showing himself to the World as if he WERE God!
Study, brother, study for the time is short. And be concerned not only smugly with the fact that you and I are aboard the life boat already, but with an Israel and a World that may not yet be. (The British saying, "Sod you, Jack, "I'M" all right!" ) which is implied in your tone, if you forgive my saying so...may not be a sin large enough to undo your salvation, but a sin it still is, let us having assured ourselves of our own acceptance yet dare to be then concerned with the world, especially that dear holy land and place, so central to salvation history and eternity.
Maranatha.
Frankly, Yardstick, I fail to see how replacing a temple to one false god with a temple to another false god can benefit anyone. Except of course the temple rats who set up that sacrifice scam in the first place so they could get for free the meat the shepherds had to work for.