Some Christians think there will be a third temple. The temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem. The Millennial Temple. They base that on Ezk 40-48.
That's possible, but inconclusive. Let's take a comparison:
9 Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me” (Gen 37:9).10 The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. 11 The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. 12 Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.13 “I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. 14 He proclaimed aloud and said thus: ‘Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches. 15 But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. 16 Let his mind be changed from a man's, and let a beast's mind be given to him; and let seven periods of time pass over him (Dan 4:1-16).
These are prophetic dreams. Inspired dreams and visions are forms of pictorial revelation. It's just that dreams happen when the individual is a sleep rather than awake. And there's an intermediate category: night visions.
These two prophetic dreams are allegorical. They envision a future event, but the way it happens is different from the dream. The fulfillment is analogical. Likewise, there's no presumption that Ezk 40-48 is a preview of a physical temple. It might just as well be an allegorical vision.
In the NT, Christians are miniature temples (1 Cor 3:16; 6:19). And Jesus is the new temple. The true temple (Jn 2:19-21). Put another way, the temple was a placeholder for the Incarnate Son. The temple was a temporary token of God's presence on earth. Rebuilding the temple is theologically retrograde.
