If you take the position that this refers to the second temple, you will also have to conclude the anti-christ has been revealed already and set himself in the temple as God. If so, who is he? When did this occur?
Saying it was referring to the church is not an option, since the church is never a temple in Scripture. Individual believers are referred to as the temple of God, since the Holy Spirit lives inside believers. It also presents the problem that the anti-christ would have to have presented himself as God inside believers. Never going to happen.
For these reasons, it cannot be the second temple. And of course, the reasons below.
3. Since Ezekiel was written after the destruction of the first Temple (587 B.C.) but before the construction of the second Temple (537 B.C.), why do you insist on a fourth Temple on earth?
The second temple does not fulfill the rest of the passage in Ezekiel:It cannot be the Second Temple, since the Glory of God never filled the this temple, as Ezekiel described in chapter 43:1-3. God's glory did not return when Zerubbabel rebuilt the Temple or when Herod the Great remodeled it.
God says in Ezekiel, 43:7–8 The one speaking from the temple, undoubtedly the Lord, told Ezekiel that the temple was His throne, the place where God would rest His feet (take up residence) and live among the Israelites forever. This has not happened yet. Since the second temple was destroyed, this was not fulfilled by the second temple.
In this new millennial temple - the fourth temple - Zadokite Priests ( 44:15–16 ) will have special privileges since Zadok and his sons had served the Lord faithfully in the past (cf. 40:46; 1 Sam. 2:35; 2 Sam. 8:17; 15:24–29; 1 Kings 2:26–35; 1 Chron. 6:7–8). This was not exclusively true in the second temple before it was destroyed.
The land of Israel will be distributed to the Zadok Priests, which has never happened (chapter 45)
An entire system of offerings will be required in the millennial temple that were not required before (chapter 45:9-46:24). This never happened before.
Thank you for the nice discussion and for making me outline the reasons. I've kept them short, since complex posts are difficult to respond to in forums. If you have additional points or questions, I'm game.
Shortly after the death and resurrection of Jesus, the mad Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus - nicknamed Caligula ("little boots") - attempted to desecrate the Temple. Everywhere else in the Roman empire subjugated peoples had been forced to conform to the cult of Rome and acknowledge not only Caesar as Lord but also fall into line by adopting the Roman pantheon of gods. The Jews had been left alone and it was time they began to conform. Caligula gave an order to set up his statue in the Holy of Holies in the Temple:
Now Caius Caesar did so grossly abuse the fortune he had arrived at, as to take himself to be a god, and to desire to be so called also, and to cut off those of the greatest nobility out of his country. He also extended his impiety as far as the Jews. Accordingly he sent Petronius with an army to Jerusalem to place his statues in the temple, and commanded him that, in case the Jews would not admit of them, he should slay those that opposed it, and carry all the rest into captivity.
>http://www.templemount.org/destruct2.html<
Important to read at the link, as it is too long to post here.