Other Passages from the Old Testament    113 

including a chief church for the worldwide Church and a place for the Pope 

to reside. This rebuilding will be delayed. It will not occur until the 2040's, 

during the reign of the great monarch. 

    David wanted to build the house of the Lord (2 Samuel 7:1 17), but the 

Lord would not allow it, because of all the bloodshed (1 Chronicles 28:2 3). 

David represents the Church of the present time until the end of the Forty 

Years (ending  in  A.D. 2039/2040). There will be much bloodshed during 

the Forty Years. So, when the Church wishes to rebuild a house for the 

Lord, like the present Vatican City, it will not be allowed until the time of 

peace after the Forty Years (in the A.D. 2040's). 

    David made the plans for the building of the house of the Lord, but David 

was not allowed to build it. God gave Solomon the duty and honor to build 

the temple (1 Chronicles 28:4 21). And so, the Church during the Forty 

Years will plan the rebuilding of a new Vatican City, the seat of the Church. 

But it shall not be built until the Forty Years is over and a new time, the 

time represented by Solomon's reign, begins (in A.D. 2040). 

    For forty years the Israelites wandered in the desert without a home and 

without a Jerusalem, a center of worship and religious leadership. The 

Church, too, will wander  without a center of worship, without a Vatican 

City. The city of the Vatican and all its buildings will be destroyed during 

the Forty Years  (in July of 2013). It shall not be rebuilt until after the Forty 

Years, and will take some years to rebuild. And so, for approximately one 

generation, the Church will have no Vatican City. Christians will be 

scattered among the nations (Ezek 12:14 15). Many Christians will be either 

driven out of their homelands or strangers in their own lands. In a sense, the 

Church shall wander in the desert for forty years, just as the Israelites did, 

and for the same reasons. 

    Vatican City is a place and a set of buildings. The Holy See is the spiritual 

authority of the Pope and the cardinals who assist him. Vatican City will be 

destroyed, but the Holy See will  not be destroyed.  Sometimes the word 

 Vatican  is used to refer to the Holy See, because Vatican City is the 

location of the Holy See at the present time. But when I say that the Vatican 

will be destroyed, I mean the buildings of Vatican City, not the Holy See. 

    Solomon was holy and he built the temple, the house of the Lord. 

Solomon likewise built a house for himself, the king (1 Kings 6:1 7:51). 

Therefore, in the years after the Forty Years (after A.D. 2039), the Church 

will build a new church to be first among the churches of the world, and a 

new place for the Pope, to be the seat of authority in the Church. The reigns 

of David and Solomon were a foreshadowing of the future of the Church.