END TIMES: JERUSALEM TEMPLE WILL BE BUILT

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


“The Third Temple will be rebuilt. Our prophets have assured us that the Third Temple will stand forever. Although prophets no longer roam the streets of Jerusalem, their words still ring loud and clear” said Rabbi Gil Eisenbach at Yeshiva Aish Ha Torah in The Old City of Jerusalem.


“The Sanhedrin is researching ways to renew the deepest roots of our faith – to renew Temple service, reunite Jewish legal tradition and inspire the Jewish people to aspire to greatness. Our people have one path before us, and we will continue to march toward our destiny.”


So spoke Sanhedrin spokesman Rabbi Chaim Richman in delivering detail to media. Arutz-7 News reports that the Sanhedrin, that body of 71 rabbis and scholars who claim eventually to be Judaism’s “top legal assembly, will not cease until the temple is constructed.”


The Sanhedrin admits the present-tense mix of despair and elation within the Jewish populace of Israel. However, they will proceed without hesitation. They believe that it is the command of deity that presses them upon their mission. Also, it is the spiritual dimension of their nation that must come more prominently to the fore. Therefore, the temple will be. No matter the obstacles.


So it is that earnest Jews long for the rebuilding of the temple.


Jerusalem’s temple was destroyed by Roman General Titus in AD 70 when he sacked the Holy City. Since then there has been no temple there.


Jesus stated in Matthew 24:15 that there will be the desecration of the Holy of Holies in the next temple to be constructed. The AntiChrist will commit the abominable act of paganizing the Holy of Holies at the about-seven year tribulation’s mid-point.


At the same time, while in Jerusalem the AntiChrist per Revelation 11 will slay God’s two prophets who preached for the tribulation’s first 3 l/2 years, no mortal able to murder them till he lays them low.


The ungodly will celebrate their deaths, exchanging gifts, celebrating the power of the AntiChrist.


However, after 3 l/2 days, God’s prophets return to life, ascend into heaven, leaving an earthquake killing seven thousand in Jerusalem. Many turn to the God of the Bible in that quake, realizing that the AntiChrist is usurped by God Almighty.


Where will the next temple be built? It will be built alongside the Dome of the Rock, the latter now existing in the original temple’s courtyard area, not on the temple’s original building site.


Building the temple alongside the Muslim edifice will excite extreme conflict between Jews and Islamics; however, prophecy will be fulfilled, therefore, the temple will be built.


The temple does not need to be standing prior to the tribulation’s start. The temple is not large or complicated. It can be constructed in the first half of the tribulation, thereby readying it for the AntiChrist’s desecration at the tribulation’s halftime.


After the AntiChrist slays God’s prophets and levels the temple, then follow the “days of vengeance,” to use Jesus’ terms in the Gospels. In other words, the most severe time in world history will be set loose.


All of this is particularly interesting to biblical Christians. They scour the Bible for the latest detail concerning prophecies regarding the Second Coming of Christ. With like ardor, they scour the news for any specific related to Israel, the temple reconstruction plans, the Temple Mount, and military conflicts increasing or decreasing in the Middle East.


Christians research such primary passages as Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 for Jesus’ clear, literal statements regarding signs which will precede His rule upon the Earth. Then they research the symbolic passages in the Book of Revelation, the vision given by Jesus to John the Beloved Apostle when the latter was on the Isle of Patmos off of Greece.


There are Old Testament passages as well, specifically Ezekiel 36-39, which sets forth the return of Jews to their homeland in the “latter times.” Such took place on May 14, 1948, when the UN established Israel as a nation.


Last Saturday I, a Gentile Christian, decided to attend the city’s most popular Conservative synagogue. The service began at 9:30. It closed at noontime. The female cantor conducted the proceedings. There were about 50 gathered in the chapel, not the main sanctuary. There were two youths present. The rest were adults of varying ages, some couples attending together.


I listened to the worshipers recite Hebrew from their Service Books. The main accent of course is studying and worshiping from The Torah — the first five books of the Old Testament. These are the Books of Law provided by divine inspiration to Moses.


It was an enriching experience for me. The Jews were most cordial to me, knowing I was a guest from a village church outside the city. They were more than willing to explain various details concerning worship to me. Afterward, there was a brief fellowship sharing alongside the chapel.


As I sat there in the synagogue, I thought of these Jews’ counterparts there in the Holy Land, the Sanhedrin especially. There was like ardor half way across the world, those Jews in the old country preparing for the next temple, its rituals returned, its prayers offered.


ADDENDUM: REVELATION 11


1 Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told: "Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there,


2 but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two months.


3 And I will grant my two witnesses power to prophesy for one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth."


4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands which stand before the Lord of the earth.


5 And if any one would harm them, fire pours out
from their mouth and consumes their foes; if any one would harm them, thus he is doomed to be killed.


6 They have power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.


7 And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends from the bottomless pit will make war upon them and conquer them and kill them,


8 and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which is allegorically called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.


9 For three days and a half men from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb,


10 and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.


11 But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.


12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up hither!" And in the sight of their foes they went up to heaven in a cloud.


13 And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.


MATTHEW 24:15-16


Jesus said: “So when you see the desolating sacrilege spoken of by the prophet Daniel (see Daniel 9:27), standing in the holy place, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. . .”