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Trending Temple Tensions
Author’s Note: I use some text, to some extent in this article, from my recent book with Tom Horn—ANTICHRIST and the Final Solution.
It is the most contested land in all the world. Diplomats fear it is the one place on earth that could ignite war that couldn’t be stopped. If conflict ever got started over this piece of real estate, nuclear exchanges could ultimately result in and bring about World War III.
God Himself considers this promontory the most important point on the planet. In Heaven’s economy, it is His touchstone to His creation called man.
All of this was fulfillment of prophecy. Daniel the prophet was told centuries earlier that the city, Jerusalem, and the sanctuary, the Jewish Temple, would be completely thrown down, with not one stone left upon another (Daniel 9: 26–27). The Temple Mount remains without a Temple of God until this day.
Muslim structures dot the flattened surface, with the Dome of the Rock, the golden, domed structure so familiar to anyone who has seen Jerusalem’s skyline, the central feature.
Tensions between Jews and Muslims constitute the fuse that makes this landmark the singular most volatile point on earth.
The Jewish Temple will, God’s Word promises, again dominate the promontory. But the next Temple—the Third Temple—will be the center of history’s most horrific era, the Tribulation, also known as “Daniel’s seventieth week.”
The Temple that Solomon built had at its heart the Holy of Holies, a 15-foot cubed inner sanctum wherein sat the Ark of the Covenant, the elaborately prepared container wherein the shekinah glory, the very presence of God, would dwell.
That spot is still somewhere upon the Temple Mount—Mt. Moriah, most scholars believe. Religious Jews still are afraid to walk upon the Temple Mount grounds for fear of accidentally treading upon that one spot on earth where God chose to reside.
The Temple and the Holy of Holies constituted God’s touchstone to humanity—and particularly to the Jews. It is the place where Abraham was to offer Isaac, before God intervened with the ram caught by its horns in a thicket, thus providing the sacrifice Abraham made to the God of Heaven.
Not far from the spot of the Holy of Holies is Golgotha, where the Son of God—Jesus the Christ, the once-and-for-all sacrifice for all the sins of mankind—hung on the cross. When Christ died, the veil in the Temple’s Holy of Holies tore from top to bottom, giving man direct access to God the Father through that sin-sacrifice, God’s only Begotten Son.
There will be a Third Temple built at a future time, Bible prophecy says.
The Third Temple is foretold to be in place during the last seven years of human history prior to Christ’s return.
Exactly when the Third Temple will be built is an unknown factor. The prophetic Word tells only that it will exist during the seven years of Tribulation—specifically, at the three and one-half-year mark of those seven years.
Many who study the Third Temple matter believe that structure must begin well in advance of the Tribulation era. The completion of such an edifice, they believe, will take quite a measure of time. Others hold that the Jews are even now contemplating the building of a tent-like structure like Moses’ tabernacle.
They believe that worship, with sacrifices reinstituted, could be going on in such a place while the more grandiose Temple is constructed around the temporary structure.
With such history and Biblical prophecy that is involved with this place called the Temple Mount, then, it is no wonder that at this late hour we see such tensions developing. Satan and his minions—both supernatural and human—are determined to exert earthly power and authority over this promontory chosen by God to bring salvation to the fallen human race.
And tension there is at this late hour of the age.
The following report chronicles those mounting troubles.
Clashes broke out between Border Police and Palestinian worshipers at the Temple Mount on Friday, Israel Police said in a statement.
Video footage taken at the compound shows Palestinians throwing rocks at a unit of Border Police officers, who in turn responded with firing rubber bullets to quell the unrest.
Nine Palestinians were injured, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Israel Police notes that the clashes began after Friday afternoon prayers, when several hundred worshipers made their way into the compound via the Chain Gate.
At the end of prayers, several dozen youths began to throw stones at the police officers stationed at the entrance to the compound.
The Jerusalem District Commander of the Border Police force ordered officers to locate suspects involved in disturbing the peace.
Police said 16 people were arrested for throwing stones and rioting.
The unrest occurred after the Air Force conducted airstrikes on Hamas targets throughout the Gaza Strip on Thursday night in response to Palestinians continuing to launch arson balloon attacks against Israeli communities near the strip.
Clashes at the Temple Mount were one of the purported reasons that Hamas and its allied terror groups in the Gaza Strip began firing the opening salvos resulting in the IDF’s Operation Guardian of the Walls, and have since warned that Jerusalem is a “red line.”…
Meanwhile, violent confrontations erupted between Palestinians and IDF soldiers near Beita in the West Bank, with at least 47 Palestinians hurt from tear gas inhalation and rubber-tipped bullets, according to the Red Crescent. (“Temple Mount: Clashes Breakout between Israeli Police, Palestinians,” Jerusalem Post, Israel News, June 18, 2021)
Here is an excellent video analyzing the situation:
Israel and in particular the Temple Mount are at the very heart of Bible prophecy yet future. Things developing at a tremendous pace must certainly mean that major fulfillment for the wind-up of the age is at hand.
Again, it is crucial that we alert our family, friends and all within our spheres of influence that they must know Jesus Christ for salvation to avoid the most terrible times of human history just ahead.
That heavenly formula for escape of that coming Tribulation and from Hell for eternity is the following:
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)
End-of-Days Scenarios – Part 4
We will have a look at how the endtime stage is set for the scenarios we will explore.
America is –although in rapid decline—still at the top of the food chain, so far as nations of Planet Earth are concerned. She is the richest, most materially blessed nation-state ever to exist. Her achievements in almost every facet of human endeavor are without peer in the annals of the ages.
The European Union is developing rapidly into a colossus that will challenge the U.S. for the title of world champ, so far as superpowers are concerned. But Europe lacks one ingredient in order to achieve America’s superpower status, no matter how economically strong the EU becomes. That one missing element is the military might–particularly the high-tech military complex, firmly entrenched and fortified by (likely) the most horrific thermonuclear capability and the most sophisticated means to deliver total devastation to any other nation foolish enough to initiate such conflagration.
Russia is –under the Gog-like Vladimir Putin– again beefing up for super power military status. It, too, however, lags far behind in high-tech matters –things that prevent it from achieving the degree of hegemony over parts of the world formerly under the dictatorial eyes of the USSR. The Russian economy continues to be in shambles, and achieving the high-tech needed is thus impeded.
China is biding its time, building a strong economic base for one purpose: to attain a level of fiscal power that can buy and/or develop the high-tech sophistication essential to superpower status. The Chinese raw manpower capabilities unquestionably present potentially the greatest threat, in terms of sheer numbers, of any military force in human history.
All other nations are bit players in the scenarios we will examine. But, combined, they present massive–even insurmountable–problems for the prophesied frightening world of the perhaps not-too-distant future.
Israel is smack in the center of all this global chemistry. That nation will be –according to the very Word of the Creator of all things—the catalyst that will galvanize earth-dwellers into rebellion against Him, thus, will bring all armies of the world to Armageddon. Here is what the One who knows the end from the beginning has to say about Israel and all other nations at the time of the end of days:
“And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it” (Zech. 12: 3).
So, with the world stage set, as far as geopolitical matters are concerned, let’s begin to try to look into the future, again with the crucial caveat that this is all speculation, though well-studied and prayed-over speculation on the part of yours truly. Daniel the prophet gave the endtime wrap up in one concise prophetic passage:
“And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate” (Dan. 9:27).
Will the consummation as foretold in that passage begin to rumble upon this judgment-bound earth something like this? Business will be going along at a dynamic clip, despite occasional blips, flare-ups, and glitches. Jesus tells us that in Luke 17: 26-29. The rich will be getting richer, the poor will be going further into poverty –despite the socialist-elites promises to the contrary. Terrorism will be pervasive, and increasingly so, just as Paul the apostle foretold when he said that men and seducers would grow worse and worse, and just as Jesus prophesied when He said things would be just like in Noah’s day, a time when violence filled the whole earth (Gen. 6:11,13).
The Arab Islamic states, wanting–as they have for millennia–to erase the Jews from the earth, will be looking for ways to penetrate Israel’s protective shell, fearful of direct assault because of Israel’s lethal nuclear arsenal. The world of diplomats–the so-called international community—will, led by the American State Department— be looking for a way to placate the hostile Islamics. Israel’s territory, as always, will be the offering on the altar of Mid-East peacemaking. This, while giving Israel little or no say in the offering.
Every major Mid-East terrorist organization, with headquarters in Damascus, Syria, will beat the drums of hatred against Israel as never before. Concern that Israel will take preemptive action will trouble the Jim Bakers of the times in this scenario. Even some who call themselves evangelical Christians will join with other religious entities to point a finger at Israel as the obstinate party in the growing threat to regional, maybe even world, peace. Come to think of it, we have watched this exact scenario develop to the point it’s hard to imagine a world more set up for the next great intervention God will make into man’s rebellious history. If the Rapture hasn’t occurred by next posting, we will explore further…
Terry James Prophecy Line 