THE JERUSALEM TEMPLE - WILL IT EVER BE REBUILT? by Horace LaVell Sylvester. Chapter 5 When Titus Caesar destroyed both the city and the temple, it was his intention to save the temple intact, but God had other plans. This temple was to be completely destroyed. Both Daniel and Christ prophesied it. It was Christ who told Daniel the prophecy. Neither of them made any mention of ever rebuilding it. In John 3:19 Christ did say: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Christ spoke of Himself as the temple, and He did raise that temple in three days i.e., His resurrection. It has been the orthodox Jew and pseudo Christians who have desired to see the Jewish Temple back in operation because they love the pageantry of the services and the beauty of the temple buildings. They have turned their backs on the real temple, having never known it. Since the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, the Jews have tried, unsuccessfully, to rebuild it. Their first attempt was in A.D. 135. The Roman Emperor Hadrian allowed a Jewish leader by the name of Bar Kikhba to build a temple on the temple mount. Later, Hadrian reneged on his promise to help, and as a result, Bar Kikhba and his followers rebelled against Rome. This caused Hadrain to retake Jerusalem, destroy the partially built temple and erect his pagan temple on the mount. In 363 A.D. Emperor Julian allotted funds and materials for the reconstruction of the temple, and he appointed Alypius of Antioch to oversee the project. According to recorded history, they accumulated all the material on the temple mount and on the morning the work was to start, an earthquake opened the ground and fire came from the opening, burning all the material. An act of God to cease the building? It appears that each time someone attempts to rebuild the temple it has been met with some sort of calamity. In 691 A.D. the Muslim Caliph Abd Al-Malik built the Dome of the Rock on the temple mount. Since that date, no one has attempted to reconstruct the temple. It is as though God put it into the heart of Caliph Omar, who actually began the Dome and it is named after him, to build the Dome over the spot where the temple originally stood. God has made it clear that He is finished with the temple and the law that separated God and man from the time of man’s fall until Christ went to the cross. It is no longer a part of God’s covenant with His people. One of the strongest organizations supporting the Jewish movement to rebuild the temple is Israel My Glory. This organization consists primarily of supposedly converted Jews, still in support of the Orthodox Jews and their return to the Holy Land to rebuild the temple. They hold to all the old Jewish sacrificial and temple worship traditions practiced in the early church. In reality, these people are Judaizers, not Christians. The many ministers on their staff are highly educated and well-versed in both Old and New Testaments. One of the ministers, the author of several books on the Bible, wrote on the book of Daniel, titled “THE MOST HIGH GOD,” This author is Dr. Renald E Showers, graduate from Philadelphia College of Bible. He holds a Bachelors degree in history from Wheaton College and a Th.M. in church history from Dallas Theological Seminary, plus a Th.D. in theology from Grace Theological Seminary – quite qualified to present a documented, informative book. Using Daniel 9:20-27, he calculated the seventy weeks of years in the traditional method, using the decree given by Artaxerxes in 445 B.C. to rebuild the temple. Showers deduced that this decree was given on March 14, 445 B.C., and ended on the 69th week of years on April 6, 32 A.D. (Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem). According to his calculations, this is four hundred eighty-three years. Using the Old Testament three hundred and sixty days per year calendar, he counted the exact days between those dates, a total of one hundred seventy-three thousand, eight hundred and eighty days. He divided that by the same three hundred sixty-days calendar, reaching the figure of four hundred eighty-three years. The 445 years, plus 32 years, (the year Showers claims Christ was put on the cross), totals 477 years. A year in that time is the same as it is today, especially if you count a full rotation of the earth as a day. In reality, Dr. Shower5s falls short in his calculation of the sixty-nine weeks of years by about seven years. What Dr. Showers should have done was to divide his 173,880 days by 365 (the number od days in a year by today’s calendar) and he would have immediately seen his error. Another error in his calculations is that the Jewish calendar is based on the lunar month and starts with the year 3761 B.C., the traditional date of creation. The Jewish year has about 360 days (twelve months). They add a month of 30 days every six years to bring the months back in line with the lunar cycle. Dr. Showers did not consider these extra months in counting days to get 483 years. There is no way you can come up with any more than 476 years out of 173,880 days. God has fulfilled His promise to Egypt to remove their idols and turn Egyptian against Egyptian. Isaiah 19:1-4 predicts the takeover of Mohammed. “The burden of Egypt. Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come to Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it. And I will set the Egy0ptiansagainst the Egyptians and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbor: city against city and kingdom against kingdom. And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof: and I will destroy the counsel thereof; and they shall seek to idols, and to charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards. And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts.” Mohammed was born in Mecca, Arabia, in 570 A.D., but the religion he originated did not engulf Egypt until about 650 A.D. The Islamic religion spread throughout all the countries surrounding Israel. It fulfilled Isaiah 19:1-4 in that they destroyed their idols, wizards, charmers, neocramancers and those with familiar spirits. They were decisively given over to a cruel lord, and a fierce king. You will not find any type of idol in any Islamic country, for it is an abomination to these people. There is not as much as a drawing of a tree or shrub in any of their decorative work. Naturally, all of their holy sites are sacred to them, including the temple mount in Jerusalem, the site of their Dome of the Rock. They are committed to protect these holy sites and their faith with their life. They consider ALL other religions to be of Satan. The Islamic fundamentalists are the most fanatical religion on earth; therefore, they sway neither left nor right from their Koran. They consider everything that has ever been in their possession to have been given to them by Allah, and to give it up would be breaking the law. This includes all of Israel, and specifically, the temple mount. The land may be taken away from them by force, as in the case of Israel, but they continue to fight to regain the lost land. They are experts at terrorism, which they use, even to this day. It is extremely difficult to fight against this type of warfare., especially since Muslims are convinced that Allah will bless them above all others for giving their life in defense of the Koran and their country. They have no problem committing suicide; to inflict great harm on their enemies. These people feel honored and privileged to do this. How can one fight against such determination? The Israeli Times (4-4-98) sets forth a good example of what the Israelis are up against, in an article entitled Palestinian Hatred Perpetuated. “The Shalom Pedorot (Peace for Generations) movement has released a video cassette containing samples of hate and incitement by the PA (Palestinian Authority). The video shows scenes from children’s programming shown on Palestinian Television, in one of which a little girl cries out, “I will become a suicide fighter when I walk the streets of Jerusalem, wearing the uniform of a fighter, and we will march as fighters of Jihad (holy war).” A young boy is filmed saying, “Sing, my sister, of my life as a fighter who wants to die for the sake of his hole homeland...My desire is to go out to a Jihad.” A woman next appears on the show saying, “Oh, those who perform acts of glory, and those who do shihada (kill themselves in terrorist attacks), we bless you with the best blessing, for you are on the highest level, together with the prophets and the righteous. Do we say good-by to you? No, we say we will see you in paradise, the meeting place for the loved and loyal ones.” Yasser Arafat, featured on the video in a speech he made in Jericho in 1997, said, “The purpose of all of us is to go in their ways (those who do shihada), we are all candidates for this, and I say this in the memory of those Abul yyad, abu jihad and Yichye Ayash . . .” This speech also was on the official Palestinian television. In this connection, the Shalom Ledorot organization notes the seventh article of the Palestinian National convention (which has not been changed to date): “It is a national duty to bring up individual Palestinians in an Arab revolution manner. All means of information and education must be adopted in order to acquaint the Palestinian with his country in the most profound manner, both spiritual and material, that is possible. He must be prepared for the armed struggle and ready to sacrifice his wealth and his life in order to win back his home land and bring about its liberation.” (Arutz Sheva) This is the situation the Israelis face constantly, and will continue to do so as long as they are determined to establish their Zionism, which has been denied them for the last nineteen centuries.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 14:40:29 +0000
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