Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 123:491 (Jul 1966)
Article: The Necessity of Blood Sacrifices in Ezekiel’s Temple
Author: Clive A. Thomson

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BSac 123:491 (Jul 66) p. 237

The Necessity of Blood Sacrifices in Ezekiel’s Temple

Clive A. Thomson

[Clive A. Thomson, Barrister, Gibson, Thomson and Gibson, Toronto, Ontario.]

Chapters 40—48 of Ezekiel, describing the millennial temple with its ordinances and animal sacrifices, have been the cause of much confused and contradictory teaching not only by liberals, but also by those orthodox expositors who reject dispensational divisions. Patrick Fairbairn’s interpretation of these nine chapters, for example, is not worthy of a man of his caliber. Although his exegesis is confused, he seems to believe that the description of Ezekiel’s temple and its ordinances is a mystical representation of the future glories of the church.1 Fairbairn begins: “May no blinding prejudice, or narrow purpose of our own, prevent us from following the path of enlightened research and honest interpretation.”2 He then proceeds to show clearly that his preconceived determination that Israel is the church is indeed a blinding prejudice. For he dismisses the literal interpretation of such a temple in the millennial reign of our Lord as unworthy of any consideration,3 although it is the only interpretation which the language reasonably permits. Nevertheless this is the interpretation of the majority of those orthodox expositors who reject dispensational divisions. Those who believe that Israel as a nation has been repudiated by God and has been replaced by the church, are faced with the problem of explaining not only the many detailed prophecies of Israel’s future, and especially her glories in the millennium, but also explicit statements in the New Testament, such as the 9th, 10th, and llth chapters of Romans.

BSac 123:491 (Jul 66) p. 238

It is refreshing to turn from this confusion, which arises from a refusal to accept the plain meaning of God’s Word, to the interpretations of this part of Scripture by Merrill F. Unger,4 and John L. Mitchell,5 which honor God’s Word. Other expositors who have declared themselves in favor of a literal interpretation of this part of Ezekiel, including animal sacrifices, are Arno C. Gaebelein, Adolph Saphir, David Baron, William Kelly, and Horatius Bonar of Scotland.

The animal sacrifies described in Ezekiel have troubled many sincere believers. Some ask: “Does this not contradict chapters 7, 9 and

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