This was also the opinion of Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohein Kook (1865-1935). I remember reading about this in Simcha Raz's biography on Rav Kook, titled "An Angel Among Men."
Can't find my copy of the book, but found the same idea attributed to Rav Kook in a Times Of Israel article: (among other results)
According to Rabbi Kook, the process of national revival of the Jewish people was perceived as a Revealed End, and was ultimately due to lead to the full redemption of Israel, namely: the establishment of the religious kingdom and the renewal of the rites on the Temple Mount. To this end, [Rav Kook] established the Torat Cohanim yeshiva in 1921. This institute of religious higher learning was intended, as its declared intentions stated, to study “the talmudic order of Kodshim, the regulation of worship in the Temple, the commandments that relate to the Land of Israel and the religious laws relating to the state.”
The yeshiva was founded on the basis of the expectation that the movement of national revival led by Zionism, which was characterized by a disconnection from religion, would rapidly return to the fold of sanctity, the completion of ultimate redemption and the building of the Temple. As is clear from his pamphlet “Sefatei Cohen,” (Lips of a Priest) in which he described the goals of the new yeshiva, Kook believed that the revival of the Hebrew nation, despite the fact that it constituted primarily a secular initiative by Jews who rejected religious authority, was nevertheless intended to secure a sublime spiritual purpose. It would ultimately emerge that the final purpose of this revival was to bring the religious redemption of the Jewish people, the zenith of which is the building of the Temple:
“The anticipation of seeing the priests at their worship and the Levites on their stand and Israel in their presence — this is the foundation that bears this entire revival.”
According to Rabbi Kook, this day was steadily emerging, and preparations must therefore be made. Torat Cohanim yeshiva was thus intended to attend to the practical preparation of priests and Levites for their worship in the Temple, based on the acute messianic expectation that the Temple would indeed be built “speedily and in our days.”
Rabbi Kook taught the tractate of Kodshim in the context of this hope that the sacrifices would be reinstated, and this seems to have formed the background for the establishment of Torat Cohanim yeshiva.