THE THIRD TEMPLE
THE TEMPLE IN PROPHECY
One cannot fail to note the allusions to a Temple in the events which must still unfold in Bible prophecy.
But there is clearly no Jewish Temple in Jerusalem today.
THE TEMPLE IN PROPHECY
For example Jesus says, “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel – let the reader understand – then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” (Matt 24:15 (NIV)
The “holy place” is a reference to the Jewish Temple. But for the Temple to be desecrated – it must first be rebuilt and be in active use.
The Futurist view is that it is a
future 3rd Jewish Temple to be rebuilt in Jerusalem.
THE ANTICHRIST
The Bible predicts that in the End
Times a world ruler will emerge. He
is referred to as the Antichrist (1
John), the Beast (Revelation) and the
man of lawlessness (1 Thess).
He will exercise power for a 7-year
period (The Tribulation).
Initially (the first 3 ½ years) he will be
a hero to all.
Rev 13:3 (NIV) …The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast.
THE ANTICHRIST
He will broker a 7-year peace treaty with Israel as one of the parties.
Daniel 9:27 (NIV) He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.
This is most likely a peace treaty in the Middle East between Israel and her hostile Muslim neighbours.
A PEACE TREATY
People will have an expectation of peace when the Day of the Lord comes:
1 Thess 5:2-3 (NIV) for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety”…
The phrase regarding people saying “Peace and safety” at this time seems to indicate that the treaty may be a Middle East peace treaty.
With our current political climate and instability in the Middle East this seems a very plausible option. Prominent political leaders today (both US and European) are forever trying to broker peace treaties in the Middle East.
So it’s quite likely that the 7-year Tribulation will start with the signing of a 7-year Middle East Peace treaty.
TREATY BROKEN
The Antichrist will break the treaty midterm.
Dan 9:27 (NIV) He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering…
1 Thess 5:2-3 (NIV) for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
THE ABOMINATION
Paul mentions that the Day of the Lord will not come until the antichrist proclaims himself to be God in the temple.
2 Thess 2:2-4 (NIV) … not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
John seems to be speaking of the same event when he speaks of the false prophet setting up an image:
Rev 13:13-15 (NIV) He ordered them to set up an image in honour of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.
THE ABOMINATION
THE ANTICHRIST
The Antichrist is a political and military leader. His religious sidekick is known in Scripture as the False Prophet.
The Jews who reject Jesus as Messiah will regard the Antichrist (or the False Prophet) as the Messiah. Jesus said:
John 5:43 (NIV) I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.
Matt 24:21-23 (NIV) For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.
THE ANTICHRIST
Orthodox scholars and rabbinic authorities generally believe that rebuilding should occur in the era of the Jewish messiah. *
Hippolytus (AD 217) saw the Antichrist as building the Temple in order to curry favour with the Jews:
And after that he will build the temple in Jerusalem and will restore it again speedily and give it over to the Jews. **
As the Antichrist (or False Prophet) will be a false Messiah, this seems to strengthen the case for the Antichrist sponsoring the building of the Temple - in order to bolster his claim to messiahship.
* https:// en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Third_Temple
** Discourse on the End of the World 23-25
Why is there no Temple anymore?
In Matthew 24 Jesus predicted the Temple’s destruction.
Do you see all these
things? I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.
TEMPLE’S DESTRUCTION
In fulfilment of this prophecy, the Temple was destroyed in AD 70 by the Roman military commander, Titus.
HADRIAN
In the early 2nd century, there were messianic groups in Judea who believed that Jeremiah’s prophecy promising the rebuilding of the Temple 70 years after its destruction would be repeated. (Jeremiah was speaking of the restoration of the First Temple after the Babylonian exile)
These hopes were cruelly dashed by the Emperor Hadrian when he decided to build a new Roman city
called Colonia Aelia Capitolina on the ruins of Jerusalem.
When a Jewish revolt broke out because of Hadrian’s attempted Hellenization of Judea, Roman armies were sent to crush the resistance. Bar Kokhba, a man hailed as Messiah, was the leader of the resistance.
Roman losses were heavy but Hadrian’s army eventually crushed the rebellion in AD 135,
leaving some 580,000 Jews dead.
After the war, Hadrian continued his persecution of Jews and defiantly erected a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus on the Temple site. In an act of contempt, he also attempted to erase the memory of Judea by renaming the province Syria Palaestina. *
* This is the origin of the term “Palestine” and was a deliberate ploy to minimize Jewish identification with the land of Israel by naming it after their old enemies - the Philistines.
In the 4th century the first Christian Roman (Byzantine) Emperor Constantine most likely destroyed the pagan temple of Jupiter built by Hadrian when he destroyed the temple of Venus in the city.
JULIAN THE APOSTATE
In AD 363, support for a rebuilt Jewish Temple came from a most unlikely source, namely the Emperor Julian “the Apostate”, the last pagan emperor of Rome and a Christian apostate. Because of his opposition to Christianity, Julian gave permission to the Jews to rebuild their temple, supplying the necessary funds. Jews from all over, who had hopes of seeing a 3rd Temple built, also contributed financially to the project and many came to Jerusalem to assist.
Ammianus Marcellinus, a pagan friend of
Julian’s, wrote that Julian committed this task
to Alypius of Antioch, but on commencing the task “fearful balls of fire, breaking out near the foundations, continued their attacks, till the workmen, after repeated scorchings, could approach no more: and he [the architect] gave up the attempt.” *
Then when, within the year, Julian was
killed while retreating in battle, the
temple project was abandoned.
* The failure to rebuild the Temple has been ascribed to the Galilee earthquake of AD 363 and some speculate that the cause of the flames was explosive noxious gasses in the subterranean
passages. But the prevailing view among Christian historians
of the time was that it was an act of Divine intervention.
ISLAMIC RULE
In AD 637 the Arab Muslims besieged and captured Jerusalem from the Byzantine Empire.
According to tradition Umayyad Caliphs commissioned the construction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock on the site (completed in AD 692).
For centuries Christian pilgrims were still able to visit the Temple Mount, but escalating violence against pilgrims to Jerusalem instigated the Crusades. The Crusaders captured Jerusalem in AD 1099 and the Dome of the Rock was given to the Augustinians, who turned it into a church. The Knights Templar later set up their headquarters in the Al-Aqsa Mosque for much of the 12th century. *
* https:// en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Dome_of_the_Rock
CRUSADERS
SALADIN
Almost a century after the Crusader’s arrival in Jerusalem, Saladin (a Sunni Muslim of Kurdish origin) took the city in AD 1187.
The Dome of the Rock was reconsecrated as a Muslim shrine and the cross on top of the dome replaced by the Islamic crescent.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque
was also restored to its original function as a mosque.
RICHARD I
While the English knight-king Richard the Lionhearted inflicted major damage to Saladin’s armies elsewhere, all his military attempts to retake Jerusalem failed. *
Nevertheless, Richard and Saladin shared a mutual respect and admiration for each other and came to an agreement in 1192, whereby Jerusalem would remain in Muslim hands but would be open to Christian pilgrimages. *
* https:// en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Saladin
THE OTTOMANS
In 1517, the Ottoman Empire conquered Jerusalem and the rest of Palestine from the Mamluks during yet another fierce and bloody battle for the Holy City.
The Ottoman authorities continued the policy of prohibiting non-Muslims from setting foot on the Temple Mount until the early 19th century, when non-Muslims were again permitted to visit the site. *
* https:// en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Temple_Mount
THE OTTOMANS
The recent claim that Jerusalem was always highly revered by Muslims, is not borne out by the condition of the Dome of the Rock in Ottoman times, when it clearly was in a state of neglect - as is evident from these pictures of the area taken around 1875
Allenby entering Jerusalem on foot in 1917 to show respect for the holy place
During World War 1 (1914–18), an Arab uprising and the British Empire’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force under General Edmund Allenby drove the Turks out of the Levant during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. *
** https:// en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Mandatory_Palestine
As an ally of Germany, the Turkish Ottoman empire was defeated by the Allied Powers in World War 1 and this resulted in the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire.
** https:// en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Mandatory_Palestine
In the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence the British had agreed to honour Arab independence if they revolted against the Ottomans, while at the same time the Balfour Declaration of 1917, promised British support for a Jewish “national home” in Palestine.
BRITISH MANDATE
At the war’s end the British and French set up a joint “Occupied Enemy Territory Administration” in what had been Ottoman Southern Syria. *
The land west of the Jordan River, known as Palestine, was under direct British administration from 1920 until 1948. *
The British mandate included the land east of the Jordan River, known as Transjordan. In 1928, Britain officially provided King Abdullah with full autonomy over this area.
BRITISH MANDATE
The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al Husseini, used the Wall as a focal point for his anti-Zionist campaigns. He incited Muslims by proclaiming the Western Wall a holy Muslim site which Jews were trying to seize. *
Muslim riots in 1929 against Jewish worshipers at the Wall were instigated by the claim that Jewish prayer endangered the mosques holy to Islam. *
* SOURCE: CAMERA - Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
JORDANIAN CONTROL
After the 1948 War of Independence, Jerusalem became a divided city. Israel only gained control of West Jerusalem, the newer Jewish Section of the city. The Old City of Jerusalem, the Biblical city, fell into the hands of Jordan. Jordan subsequently refused Jews access to their holy sites (including the Temple Mount and Western Wall) in violation of the Armistice Agreement.
During Jordan’s 19-year occupation of eastern Jerusalem (1948-1967), Jewish holy places were desecrated, vandalized and destroyed. Christian churches were prohibited from buying property in Jerusalem and Christian religious organizations were restricted from owning property near Holy places. *
* Ibid.
On 7 June 1967, during the Six-Day War, Israeli forces took control of the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount. Chief Military Rabbi, Shlomo Goren, led the soldiers in religious celebrations on the Temple Mount and at the Western Wall.
Rabbi Shlomo Goren at the Western Wall in 1967 shortly after the liberation of Jerusalem
Many Jews saw the capture of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount as an event with messianic significance, while many Christians recalled the words Jesus spoke:
They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
TIMES OF THE GENTILES
Jesus foresaw the church age where the whole world had the gospel preached to them:
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matt 24:14)
What will signal the end of the time of the Gentiles?
“Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” (Luke 21:24)
Premillennial Christians view see the retaking of the Old City of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War as a significant milestone, which will ultimately usher the Second Coming of Jesus to establish his millennial kingdom on earth.
REMAINING OBSTACLES
Beside the rise of the Antichrist world leader, there are currently a few remaining obstacles which stand in the way of the fulfilment of the prophecy of the Abomination of Desolation and the abolition of sacrifice.
1) No Jewish Temple in Jerusalem
2) Muslim control of the Temple Mount
3) No sacrificial system in place
4) 10th red heifer
For the Futurist, at the end of the age there will be a defilement of the Temple (by the image of the Antichrist), which triggers a genocide of the Jews when this event causes them to reject the Antichrist as a false Messiah.
1) No Jewish Temple in Jerusalem
2) Muslim control of the Temple Mount
3) No sacrificial system in place
4) 10th red heifer
REMAINING OBSTACLES
1) No Jewish Temple in Jerusalem
REMAINING OBSTACLES
(1) NO JEWISH TEMPLE
The most obvious obstacle is that there is no Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. As the abomination is set up in the temple of God (Matt 24:15) and the Antichrist must be able to sit in the temple of God in Jerusalem (2 Thess 2:4 = Daniel 11:45), obviously a temple must be built first.
Futurists believe that a Third Temple will be built and that the sacrifices must be reinstituted.
The 18 July 2010 edition of Arutz Sheva (Israel International News) reported that half the Israeli public wants the Temple to be rebuilt. *
* http:// www.israelnationalnews.com/
News/ News.aspx/ 138655
LOCATION OF 3RD TEMPLE
Because the temple was levelled to the ground by the Romans, and the site has been so extensively modified during the Roman, Byzantine, Sassanid, Muslim and Crusader eras, considerable doubt exists as to where the Jewish temples actually stood.
Of course, the debate could easily be settled if the Waqf would permit archaeological work by anyone besides themselves.
The general intent of religious Jews
is to build the Temple on the
original site of the 1st and 2nd
Temples.
Some of the proposed locations for the Temple
THE TEMPLE MOUNT
North
South
Dome of the Rock
Al-Aqsa
East
N
S
E
W
THE PROFANE PLACE
In his vision Ezekiel measures the courtyard of the sanctuary and notes that a wall has been constructed across the area to make a separation between the Temple and a “profane place” (possibly the Dome of the Rock):
Ezek 42:20 (KJV) He measured
it by the four sides: it had a wall round about, five hundred
reeds long, and five hundred broad, to make a separation between the sanctuary and
the profane place.
It’s possible that the Dome of the Rock is that “profane place”. Surely the Antichrist would try appease both Jews and Muslims in order to effect his Middle East Peace Treaty?
As a master politician and peacemaker, this option seems more likely to be seen as a gesture of peace to both Jews and Muslims (contrasted with destroying the Dome of the Rock or Al-Aqsa and replacing it with a Jewish Temple).
THE PROFANE PLACE
If the proposed Southern location is correct, this satisfies Revelation 11, because they place the Dome of the Rock or Al-Aqsa respectively in the outer court (Court of Gentiles).
Rev 11:1–2 (NIV) I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshipers there. But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles.
THE OUTER COURT
1) No Jewish Temple in Jerusalem
2) Muslim control of the Temple Mount
3) No sacrificial system in place
4) 10th red heifer
REMAINING OBSTACLES
2) Muslim control of the Temple Mount
REMAINING OBSTACLES
The biggest obstacle to the rebuilding of the Temple anywhere on the Temple Mount is that the site is currently under Muslim administration.
When Israel liberated Jerusalem and regained control of the Temple
Mount in 1967, for the first time in millennia, some 200,000
Jews flocked to the Western Wall.
Iconic photo of Israeli paratroopers at the Western Wall after the Six Day War
Then Israeli Minister of Defence, Moshe Dayan, instructed soldiers to remove the Israeli flag which had been hoisted over the Dome of the Rock.
Israeli Prime Minister, Levi Eshkol, turned control of the Mount to the Jordanian Islamic Waqf. Yet despite this gesture of peace, Muslims continue to use the Temple Mount as a pretext to muster world support against Israeli ultimate authority over Jerusalem.
(2) CONTROL OF MOUNT
In an attempt to keep the status quo, the Israeli government still enforces a controversial ban on prayer by non-Muslims on the Temple Mount.
The Temple Mount can be accessed by 11 gates, but tourists and non-Muslims are only allowed to enter through the Mughrabi Bridge next to the Western Wall. Security is tight and signs at the entrance list strict rules for visitors not to engage in any religious activity.
REMOTEST SANCTUARY?
Muslims claim that during the “Night Journey” a winged steed called Buraq carried Muhammad from Mecca to the “farthest mosque”. After praying at this location, Buraq then took him to heaven to meet the earlier prophets and then Allah.
Many Muslims today identify the “farthest mosque” with the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and they claim that Muhammad tethered Buraq at the Western Wall.
REMOTEST SANCTUARY?
Based on this bizarre story, Muslims stake a religious claim to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
But in fact, the Quran never even mentions Jerusalem once and even the story in question does not explicitly state the location, only referring to a place called the “remotest sanctuary”. Placing it in Jerusalem today is an attempt to bolster their claims over the Temple Mount.
The trip is said to take place 10 years after Muhammad became a prophet, but the Al-Aqsa Mosque was non-existent at that stage. Even if a creature like Buraq existed it couldn’t have taken Muhammad to Al-Aqsa which was built years after the death of Muhammad.
SOLOMON’S STABLES
Since Muslims control the Temple Mount, no archaeological surveys are allowed which could invalidate their claims. Yet the Islamic land trust is destroying Judeo-Christian ruins beneath the Temple Mount so as to deny any connection between Judaism and Christianity and Jerusalem.
Typical of the duplicity practiced by modern middle Eastern Muslims are the events surrounding the area formerly known as Solomon’s Stables.
SOLOMON’S STABLES
Solomon’s Stables was an underground vaulted space some 500 square metres in area, at the bottom of stairs which lead down from the al-Aqsa Mosque. which features 12 rows of pillars and arches. These vaults were believed to originally be storage areas for the Second Temple. *
In 1996 the Waqf acquired a permit to use Solomon's Stables as an alternative place of worship on the pretext of the occasional rainy days of the holy month of Ramadan. Later the Waqf declared that it aimed to create a mosque for 10,000 worshippers, making it the largest mosque in the country. This move was clearly designed to strengthen the Muslim claim over the Temple Mount. *
* https:// en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Solomon%27s_Stables
SOLOMON’S STABLES
The Waqf began digging a huge hole in the south-eastern area of the Temple Mount, without a permit from the Jerusalem municipality or archaeological supervision using tractors and heavy vehicles. This action drew criticism from archaeologists, who said that archaeological finds were being damaged in the process and the excavations weakened the stability of the Southern Wall. *
The excavations are thought to have been responsible for creating a large, visible bulge in the Southern Wall that threatened the structural integrity of the Temple Mount, necessitating major repairs. In 1996 the new mosque was officially inaugurated as El-Marwani Mosque. *
* Ibid.
The El-Marwani Mosque previously Solomon’s Stables
Needless to say, before the 3rd Temple can be built, control of the Temple Mount must be wrested from Muslim hands. This may well be a critical part of the future peace treaty negotiations that the Antichrist will broker.
1) No Jewish Temple in Jerusalem
2) Muslim control of the Temple Mount
3) No sacrificial system in place
4) 10th red heifer
REMAINING OBSTACLES
3) No sacrificial system in place
REMAINING OBSTACLES
The breaking of the treaty will be triggered by a stopping of sacrifice and a setting up the Abomination of Desolation in the temple.
Dan 9:27 (NIV) … 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…
Dan 11:23,31 (NIV) After coming to an agreement with him, he will act deceitfully, and with only a few people he will rise to power… His armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination that causes desolation.
(3) SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM
(3) SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM
As Daniel’s prophecy entails the abolition of sacrifices at the time of the Abomination, and there are no sacrifices performed by Jews today, it goes without saying that the sacrificial system must be resumed before it is possible for the Antichrist to stop the sacrifices.
While Christians believe that Jesus did away with the sacrificial system by offering one perfect sacrifice to God, mainstream Judaism rejects Jesus as the Messiah and is still looking for a future Jewish Messiah.
(3) SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM
To many practicing Jews, the reestablishment of a Third Temple will necessitate the reinstatement of the sacrificial system in accordance with the Mosaic Law.
As one Jewish website notes:
And when the Messiah comes, the Holy Temple will be rebuilt, and once again we will bring sacrifices on the Holy Altar there, as it says “And the sacrificial offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to Hashem, like in the olden days years ago” (Malachi 3:4). *
* http:// www.beingjewish.com/ unchanged/ sacrifices.html
(3) SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM
Jesus brought in the Dispensation of Grace or the Age of the Church. This period referred to by Jesus as “The Time of the Gentiles” will end with the Rapture of the Church.
God will then restore Israel as prophesied in Romans 11. But it will be a 2-stage restoration as predicted by Ezekiel in his vision of the valley of dry bones. The first stage will involve the restoration of the form of Judaism practiced in the time of Jesus, which included the priests and Temple ordinances along with animal sacrifice. The second stage will entail the ultimate acceptance of Jews en masse of Jesus as Messiah.
THE ANTICHRIST
The generally accepted position among Orthodox Jews is that the full order of the sacrifices will be resumed upon the building of the Temple. This belief is embedded in Orthodox Jewish prayer services. Three times a day, Orthodox Jews recite the Amidah, which contains prayers for the Temple's restoration and for the resumption of sacrifices, and every day there is a recitation of the order of the day's sacrifices and the psalms the Levites would have sung that day. *
* https:// en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Third_Temple
THE VESSELS
The Temple Institute has reconstructed many of the vessels required for the Temple sacrifice rites.
Just as Moses used Betzalel, a master craftsman chosen by God to oversee the task of the construction of the vessels and the priestly garments for the synagogue, the Temple Institute has likewise called upon Israel's finest craftsmen and artisans to recreate the sacred vessels and vestments. *
* http:// www.templeinstitute.org/ vessels_gallery.htm
THE ALTAR
In late 2014 the Temple Institute completed the construction of the stone altar required for the sacrificial service. The altar was designed to be disassembled and quickly reassembled in its correct position on the Temple Mount.
(Photo: The Temple Institute)
According to the Temple Institute, “The people of Israel are required to build an altar exclusively on the site of the original altar on Mount Moriah, the Temple Mount. When circumstances become favourable, this new altar can be quickly re-assembled on the proper location, enabling the Divine service to be resumed without delay.” *
* http:// breakingisraelnews.com/ 33583/ new-details-emerge-rebuilt-holy-temple-jewish-world/ #Scgz9pUS2xW0RoFX.99
Since the Torah forbids the use of hewn stones in an altar, it “consists of an outer frame of earthen bricks, oven-baked to withstand the extreme heat of the altar when in use. This outer frame is filled with natural stones, untouched by metal implements, as per Torah imperative. (Photo: The Temple Institute)
THE PRIESTS
Conservative and Orthodox Jews still acknowledge the division of Israel into Leviim, Kohanim and Yisraelim.
People with the surname Levi trace their roots to the tribe of Levi who were set apart from the rest of the Israelites to perform religious administrative duties.
From the tribe of Levi, Aaron and his descendants were singled out to be the priests and serve in the Temple. A Kohen (plural, Kohanim) is a descendant of Aaron. The Jewish family name, Cohen, usually denotes that its members were priests.
Other Jews are assumed to come from one of the other tribes and are called, simply, Yisraelim.
So people who can fulfil the role of priests in the third Temple are already in place in Israel.
THE PRIESTS
The Temple Institute is preparing for the Third Temple by inaugurating a workshop that manufactures priestly garments. Years of diligent research was needed to create the garments in conformance with Jewish law.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, a Kohen himself, gets measured for his own set of Kohanim garments. Photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski
1) No Jewish Temple in Jerusalem
2) Muslim control of the Temple Mount
3) No sacrificial system in place
4) 10th red heifer
REMAINING OBSTACLES
4) 10th red heifer
REMAINING OBSTACLES
4) THE 10TH RED HEIFER
The Red Heifer was a cow used by the priests as a sacrifice according to the OT law, whose ashes were used for the ritual purification of an Israelite who had come into contact with a corpse.
Num 19:2 (NIV) “This is a requirement of the law that the LORD has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke.”
4) THE 10TH RED HEIFER
A heifer is a young cow which has never borne a calf. The Mosaic Law in Numbers 19 stipulated that the cow must be red in colour, without blemish, and it must not have been used to perform work.
According to Jewish tradition, only nine red heifers were actually slaughtered in the period extending from Moses to the destruction of the Second Temple.
4) THE 10TH RED HEIFER
In his commentary to the Mishna, Maimonides, one of the greatest medieval Jewish scholars, states “the tenth red heifer will be accomplished by the king, the Messiah”.
4) THE 10TH RED HEIFER
While some believe that they should wait for the Messiah others follow Maimonides opinion that they should try to rebuild the temple themselves, whenever possible.
Many religious Jews see the red heifer as a prerequisite for the dedication of the Third Temple and the purification of the priests who will serve in that Temple.
The search is thus on for the elusive tenth red heifer, whose ashes are believed to be vital for the initiation of the Third Temple.
4) THE 10TH RED HEIFER
The Temple Institute, has been actively attempting to identify Red Heifer candidates. Their website states that “the fate of the entire world depends on the red heifer. For G-d has ordained that its ashes alone are the single missing ingredient for the reinstatement of Biblical purity - and thereafter, the rebuilding of the Holy Temple.”
4) THE 10TH RED HEIFER
The Red Angus is a breed of cattle which some hope might produce a red heifer that meets the stringent requirements of the Mishna. *
* According to Mishnah Parah, the presence of two black hairs invalidates a Red Heifer. The animal must be entirely of one colour, and there is a series of tests listed by the rabbis to ensure this; for instance, the hair of the cow must be absolutely straight (to ensure that the cow had not previously been yoked, as this is a disqualifier).
4) THE 10TH RED HEIFER
In closing, let us remember the words of Jesus:
CONCLUSION
Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. (Matt 24:40-42)
AUTHOR: Gavin Paynter
For more sermon downloads: https://agfbrakpan.com
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