(This is an update on my previous post concerning the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Also see here.)
Spearheaded by the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement, the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple and restoration of the ancient Jewish sacrificial system are making great strides in Israel's progress towards the fulfillment of her prophesied redemption. According to the former's website, 'Israel's redemption will proceed in an orderly fashion according to God's plan. First, is the foundation of the modern state of Israel and the miraculous victories that God gave the people of Israel in the wars against 22 Arab enemy states. Second is the regathering of the people of Israel from all over the world to the Promised Land. Third is the liberation and consecration of the Temple Mount and fourth is the building of the third Temple. The final step is the coming of the King of Israel, Messiah Ben David.'
On June 17, Sheikh Salah, leader of Islamic Movement's northern branch, issued a warning to Muslim students at Haifa University that Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had fully intended to complete plans to gain control of the Temple Mount from his first tenure. He went on to suggest that the Prime Minister's desire was complete during his current term what he did not complete during his first one – “to dig additional tunnels under al-Aqsa and rebuild the Temple on the Temple Mount.”
Netanyahu was quite ostensibly echoing the sentiment of millions of Jews who reside within and without Israel. I might add that this sentiment represents, as well, the desire of the majority of Bible-believing, Israel-supporting evangelical Christians around the world.
Jerusalem had seen the destruction of two Jewish Temples prior to the rebirth of Israel in 1948. The first Temple, built by King Solomon, was destroyed by the armies of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The second, which was built by King Zerubbabel, was destroyed by the armies of the Romans in 70 AD, as foretold by Jesus Christ before His death on the cross.
From the time of the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD, the world's Jews, both out in the diaspora and back in Eretz Israel, have lamented the loss of their holy place of worship and longed to rebuild their Temple. This is, thence, a 1900-year-old desire. A recent report by the Ynet-Gesher survey apprised that nearly two-thirds of Israelis believed that the time was right to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple, and half of non-religious Jews favored rebuilding the Holy Temple. [1]
However, from a political perspective the idea of a restored Jewish Temple has been unthinkable, even impossible – at least, it appears, until this millennium. The site of the most sacred of Jewish holy places, which is the Temple Mount area, has been in Arab hands under the Waqf, a Jordanian-controlled Muslim trust, since Moshe Dayan handed it to the Arabs. Touted the most prized real estate on earth, the Temple Mount is untouchable without the permission of the Waqf – what a bane to the devout Jews who are still longing for a third Temple. What's more, the Western Wall, the last remaining remnant of Solomon's Temple, and sacred to Jews for over 2000 years, has been in Jordanian-controlled Jerusalem since 1949.
Nevertheless, Scriptures imply that the political balance of power must shift some time soon, within this generation, I believe, and the Temple Mount will be dramatically seized from Islamic control and assured for Israel. This shift is imperative; nevertheless, a Mideast peace is a necessary requisite for Israel to go ahead with the building of the Temple on the oft-fought-over Temple Mount area. Which begs the question: how will this peace come about? (Possible answer in a moment.)
The prophet, Isaiah, foretold that in the last days God would regather His people from all the lands where He had scattered them (Isaiah 43:6 - 7). Israel's redemption was initiated with the first wave of Aliyah in the 1800s, and the Jewish people started returning to, and rebuilding, Zion. This has been happening for the past one hundred years. This tiny nation's redemption will be complete when the Jews seize control of the Temple Mount and all of Jerusalem and, as prophesied in Scripture, are once again worshiping God in their Holy of Holies. And current events in the Mideast, as well as the ongoing development of Temple affairs, all point toward this coming to pass.
(For the latest update on the progress of the third Temple, see here.)
The rebuilt Temple – or Temples – will have a significant role to play in prophecy and Endtimes scenario. For one, the new Jewish Temple has to be in place and functioning in order for the Antichrist to enter and defile it. This event is known biblically as the Abomination of Desolation and will occur, in the Dispensational view, before the seven-year Great Tribulation, but after the Rapture of the church. In Daniel 9:27 we read:
“He (Antichrist) will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven' (year period). In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him."
Antichrist is prophesied to sign a peace covenant with Israel, bringing about the period called the Great Tribulation. Midway through the Tribulation he will enter the Holy of Holies of the Temple and proclaim himself as God, setting up an image of himself there and making it mandatory for the whole world to worship it. This is the defilement known as the Abomination of Desolation.
The Jerusalem Temple will also be the scene of worship during the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Ezekiel is one of many Old Testament prophets who have described the Millennial Temple in Jerusalem as the seat of the Messiah and it is upon this seat that Messiah will reign on the throne of David in Jerusalem forever and sit in judgment of the world during the Millennium to come:
“I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. Then the nations will know that I the LORD make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.” (See Ezekiel 37:26 - 28; and 40 - 48.)
At this juncture, let me qualify the above by explaining that the Millennium Temple may be a different one from the third Temple; it is one that will be built by the Messiah, and apparently not by unsaved Jews since, according to Ezekiel 43:7 and 44:9, "no foreigner uncircumcised in heart or in flesh shall enter My sanctuary." Therefore, probably, the Antichrist cannot have set foot on the Millennial Temple.
In any case, I have no doubt that the third Jewish Temple will be built in this generation and this is one of the prominent signs of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, first for His church at the Rapture, and then on His blessed Second Coming, as a Warrior King to battle and destroy the armies of the Antichrist. Many believe that the Messiah will return to Jerusalem via the eastern gate of the Temple, for His Second Coming has been prophesied to be in the direction from Edom and Bozrah, which are areas to the east (Isaiah 63:1 - 6).
In the meantime, as mentioned above, a number of events must be actualized to propel the Mideast peace process forward: someone must arise on the scene, possibly presenting himself as pro-Israel and with much political clout, in order to broker this Mideast peace so that the foundation stone of the third Temple may be laid on the Temple Mount. It is quite likely that the Roadmap to Peace, which sets incremental steps on a path toward Middle East peace, is this process that will successfully lead to some semblance of Mideast peace – albeit a false compromising peace – being brokered between Israel and the Arabs. It is also not far-fetched to predict that some conflict, or threat of conflict, will have to be waged in order for peace to be forcibly secured in the Middle East.
For the Lord Himself told His disciples that wars and rumors of wars are yet another sign of the last days:
"You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end" (Matthew 24:6).
Maranatha!
