Kindgo
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By Charles Pack
"He (the Antichrist) as God, sitteth IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD, showing himself that he is God." (2 Thess. 2:4)
Five temples are mentioned in the Bible.
Three have been built and destroyed. One will be built in the near future.
The Antichrist will set himself up in it as God according to 2 Thess. 2:4. it will be destroyed.
Then Jesus Christ will have I His temple during the Millennium which is described in Ezekiel, chapters 40 through 47.
The "tabernacle in the wilderness" lasted from the Exodus until the monarchy. David then had a desire to build God a house. Because he was a "bloody man" God told him that his son, Solomon, must build the I . first temple.
(1) Solomon's temple was built about 950 B.C. It was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar about 586 B.C.
The "Western Wall" of today is the last vestige of Solomon's temple, not the third, or Herod's temple.
This proves the exquisite accuracy of prophecy. in Matthew 24:1-2, we read: "And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and His disciples came to Him to show Him the buildings of the temple (Herod's temple).
And Jesus said unto them, See you not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down".
In A.D. 70 this third temple or Herod's was completely destroyed as predicted. Today's Western Wall is not a part of that temple, but of the retaining wall of Solomon's temple, or the first temple.
(2) After a period of fifty years, Zerubbabel's temple was begun 535 B.C. In Zech. 4:8-9 we read: "Moreover, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also,, finish it". In spite of sieges and desecrations by enemies it stood until thirty years before Christ.
(3) The third temple was known as Herod's temple. it was a restoration, enlargement and improvement of Zerubbabel's temple.
It was built by Herod in sections, tearing down the old, and building the new part by part, so that it took man years and was completed only ten years before it was destroyed by Titus in A.D. 70.
The Jews were referring to this temple in John 2:20: "Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days?"
It was completely destroyed (not one stone left upon another) in A.D. 70 as Jesus prophesied. its restoration was attempted many times but never finished. Its site is now occupied by the Mohammedan "Dome of the Rock", often, but erroneously' called the "Mosque of Omar". This is inside the walled city of Jerusalem adjacent to the Golden Gate.
(4) The fourth temple will be the Tribulation temple. T is temple may be built in our lifetime. This is a "key to prophecy" because THIS WILL BE THE TEMPLE IN WHICH THE ANTICHRIST sets himself up as God. (2 Thess. 2:4). Should there be any indications that this temple may be started soon, then we are very near the end of the church age! What do we know about its construction?
Numerous magazine and newspaper articles have appeared about the passion for the Jews to rebuild their temple.
Orthodox Jews pray THIS PRAYER DAILY: "And to Jerusalem, Thy city, return in mercy, and dwell therein as Thou has spoken; REBUILD IT SOON IN OUR DAYS as an EVERI ACTING BUILDING, and speedily set up therein Thy throne of David.
Blessed art Thou, 0 Lord, who rebuildest Jerusalem" (From the Authorized Daily Prayer Book by Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz.)
The rabbis have young, male, theological students in training in Israel to learn how to offer the animal sacrifices as done in the Old Testament. Coming events cast their SHADOWS BEFORE.
About one mile west of the walled city of Jerusalem a new synagogue is built. it is next door to the chief rabbinate's office of the nation of Israel. Will this become the Tribulation temple? I do not think so, because:
(1) God told the Jewish people of "THE PLACE" where they could offer their sacrifices: "But unto THE PLACE WHICH THE LORD YOUR GOD SHALL CHOOSE ...... THERE SHALL YE BRING YOUR BURNT OFFERINGS, AND YOUR SACRIFICES.. . " Deut. 12:5. This is mentioned four times in verses 5, 11, 14 and 18. This place is near the Muslim Dome of the Rock today.
(2) The chief rabbinate of Israel has placed a sign in four languages above the entrance to the earthen platform on which the Dome rests. It says: "Entrance to the area of the temple mount is forbidden to everyone by Jewish law owing to the sacredness of the place." The religious leaders of Israel know that this is the place for the rebuilt temple.
(3) When the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, they found one which showed the exact location of the temple. The Jewish nation now possesses that scroll ... For these reasons I do not believe the "Great Synagogue" about one mile west of the old city is the Tribulation Temple.
THE TEMPLE SITE
The fourth temple, the Tribulation temple, will be built inside the walls of Old Jerusalem. The Dome of the Rock is believed to be over the spot there on Mt. Moriah, where Abraham was willing to offer up Isaac. "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of " (Genesis 22:2).
This holy spot of ground, where Solomon built the first temple, was also the exact place that David bought for a threshing floor from Ornan the Jebusite. "Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David, his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite." (2 Chronicles 3:1). (For details see 2 Samuel 24:18-25 and 1 Chronicles 21:18-30).
Every, archaeologist and Bible scholar has his own pet theory about where the Temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem. Some say it must be located where the Dome of the Rock one of the holiest sites in the Muslim world-now stands. Others theorize that it can be rebuilt a little to the north of the Dome of the Rock, over a site which is called the Dome of the Winds or Spirits or the Dome of the Letters. Which location is correct?
We know that the Eastern (or Golden) Gate of the city looked directly into the Eastern (or Beautiful) Gate of the Temple. This Golden Gate is visible today and identifies the location of the eastern side and entrance to the Temple. We also know that the Holy of Holies was directly beyond the entrance to the temple placing it on the Western side of the Temple Mount.
Since all the gates around the Temple were built directly opposite each other it therefore follows that if we could find a gate in the Western Wall directly opposite the Eastern or Golden Gate then that gate would fix the location of the Holy of Holies.
In June, 1967 after Israel reunited Jerusalem, Israelis discovered such a gate while excavating a tunnel alongside the Western Wall.
Israel's most venerated rabbis began to worship at this gate - nearer than ever before to the original Temple. Since this gate was only accessible through the tunnel- the tunnel became known as the "Rabbis' Tunnel. "
This gate within the western wall, accessible today only through the Rabbis' Tunnel positions for us the exact location of the temple.
What stands above the tunnel, on top of the Temple Mount, in the path of a straight line drawn between the Eastern Gate found near the Rabbis Tunnel? Amazingly, it is not the Dome of the Rock.
THE WAILING WALL
Adjacent to the Dome of the Rock is the Western (or wailing) Wall, the last vestige of Solomon's Temple. it is holy also to Muslims for they say that Mohammed himself had reconsecrated the place for his believers. Tradition has it that there is the chamber within it in which Mohammed's horse named Burak was kept when the Prophet made his journey to heaven from the Rock of the Dome. it is for this reason that the Wailing Wall is known to the Moslems as the Burak. This wall is only about 151 feet long. When the Six Day War gave the Jewish soldiers possession of the Wall, they stood and prayed, they knelt and prayed, they caressed and kissed the stones, their faces drawn with emotion of 2,000 years of flight and persecution. Said Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, "We have taken the City of God. We are entering the messianic era for Jewish people." "We have waited 1,897 years for this moment,"
cried a paratrooper, beating his campaign hat in the dust. "Think of it: 1,897 years. Now they will never take it from us. Never!" "We have returned to the holiest of our holy places, never to depart from it again." said Moshe Dayan. Titus demolished the other walls in 70 A.D. But the first Roman general who approached the west wall fell dead, tradition says. Titus himself then raised a sledge to smite the wall but his right hand withered.
Why is the "Western Wall" so important to the Jews? It is a symbol to the Jewish people. it is a symbol of the day when, under Solomon, Israel was foremost among the nations. They turned their back on God, and God turned the holy place over to the Gentiles. They have been "Wailing" for the REBUILDING OF THE TEMPLE, because they want to be back where they once were -as head of the nations, in their own land. Remember the temple contained "the holy of holies" the very heart of Jewish life. For many days the children of Israel have abode "without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice," as Hosea prophesied in Hosea 3:4. They want a temple to renew the animal sacrifices. The next verse says that they will do this "in the latter days". Beloved, we are in the latter days-nearing the end. When the Western Wall area was opened to the Jewish populace on one day 200,000 pilgrims came to pray. Every section of the Jewish people was represented.
WHEN WILL THE TEMPLE BE REBUILT?
Jerusalem, Aug. 5, 1986 - New York Times - In a step that defied both, civil and religious law in Israel, a group of prominent rabbis issued a formal call today for the construction of a synagogue on the Temple Mount, an area sacred to Moslems and forbidden to Jews. They also called for public prayers on the site. The rabbis buttressed their call today with a 1967 survey map purporting to show the exact location of the original First and Second Temples as well as the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant. The call for prayers and the construction of Synagogue came at a meeting led by Rabbi Shlomo Goren, a former Chief Rabbi. He was rabbi of the Israeli Army when it seized the Wailing Wall in 196 7 .... In their statement today, the rabbis called on "the Jewish nation and the Israeli authorities to guard and implement Jewish control of the Temple Mount and prevent its being turned over to and desecrated by foreigners ".
WHY MUST IT BE REBUILT SOON?
The Scriptures prophesy of the rising of the Antichrist who will both make and break covenants. His maneuvers are definitely related to the Temple worship: "And he (Antichrist) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause THE SACRIFICE and OBLATION to cease" (Daniel 9:27). Also, Malachi predicted B.C. 397 "The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple" (Malachi 3:1). The temple must be rebuilt soon, because in Rev. 11:1-2 we read: "And there was given me a reed like a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure THE TEMPLE OF GOD, and the altar, and them that worship in it. But the court, which is outside THE TEMPLE, leave out, and measure it not; for IT IS GIVEN UNTO THE NATIONS, and THE HOLY CITY shall THEY TREAD UNDER FOOT FORTY AND TWO MONTHS."
The temple of God must be rebuilt before the Antichrist sets himself up in it as God in the middle of Daniel's seventieth week of years. The Antichrist will take Jerusalem (the holy city) according to verse two, signaling a period of forty two months, or three and one half years, when the Gentiles will once again control the Old Walled City of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is another "key" to prophecy.
GOD'S ATTITUDE TOWARD THE TRIBULATION TEMPLE
Many Christians think that God will be delighted with Israel's plans to rebuild the temple and to offer up animal sacrifices. Will God be pleased? No! How could God, who gave His Only begotten Son, the darling of His heart, and "that holy thing", to pay the penalty for Christ-rejecting Jews and Gentiles, be joyful over a temple in which animal sacrifices are once again offered in worship! "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4). "By which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; But This Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God" (Hebrews 10:10-12).
Isaiah predicted how God would look upon the fourth or Tribulation temple and its sacrifices: "Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool: where is the house (the temple) that ye build unto Me? and where is the place of My rest? For all those things hath Mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word. HE THAT KILLETH AN OX IS AS IF HE SLEW A MAN: HE THAT SACRIFICETH A LAMB, AS IF HE CUT OFF A DOG'S NECK: HE THAT OFFERETH AN OBLATION, as if he OFFERED SWINE'S BLOOD: HE THAT BURNETH INCENSE, AS IF HE BLESSED AN IDOL. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their ABOMINATIONS" (Isa. 66:1-3).
How could God be happy for the Jews to build a temple and offer animal sacrifices again in THE VERY SHADOW of that hill called Calvary, where God's Only Son shed His life's blood for the sins of the world?
Are you a born-again Christian? If you are not a Christian, you should "prepare to meet thy God" (Amos 4:12). When the Jews are determined and planning on building the temple in our days, it means that the return of Christ for His own is very, very near. Listen! God says: "There is no difference (between the Jew and the Gentile): For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:22-23). "He that believeth not is condemned already (to Hell), because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18). "But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His name" (John 1:12). Will you receive Him and believe on His name today?
If you are a Christian,
"Keep looking up!
He's coming soon! it could be today!"
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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