ISRAEL - The first two Holy Temples of the Israeli city ceased to exist centuries ago, having been demolished at the hands of the Babylonians and later by the Romans. Despite multiple calls to rebuild the temple, they have remained largely unheard. Biblical conspiracy theorists have voiced a warning that the erection of a third Holy Temple in Jerusalem, which religious activists have recently called for, inevitably carries with it Jesus Christ’s imminent return.
Jewish eschatological teachings have it that the Holy Temple will rise up from the ground for the third time when Armageddon nears. The concerns were fuelled last week by the powerful Jewish rabbi community known under the name Sanhedrin, who penned a letter ahead of an approaching election for two mayoral candidates, requesting to finally rebuild the temple, after the first two Holy Temples constructed on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount centuries ago were wiped out by the Babylonians and then by the Romans. The location has housed no temple since then.
In 2016, Breaking News Israel reported that the community Nascent Sanhedrin also called in letters to Russian President Vladimir Putin and US president-elect Donald Trump to join forces and “fulfil their Biblically-mandated roles” by rebuilding the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.
According to the Bible, at the end of the age, we are told that the invading European army stops the daily sacrifices in Jerusalem. There does not need to be a physical Temple for the sacrifices to have started. Back in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, the sacrifices were started on the Feast of Trumpets, several years before the Temple was built (see Ezra chapter 3).
The focus of the prophecy is on the stopping of the daily sacrifices. Here is what Mr Armstrong had to say on this important subject:
“But, [Daniel 12] verse 11, ‘from the time the daily sacrifice shall be taken away…’ Consider this a moment. This does NOT imply a material temple to be built in our time in Jerusalem. It does seem to imply the Israelis may restore the daily (twice daily) sacrifice – possibly at the Wailing Wall. The indication is the armies of the ‘beast’ of Revelation 17, entering Jerusalem (Dan. 11:41, Zech. 14:2), will stop this daily sacrifice. ‘…And the abomination that maketh desolate set up.’
What is this abomination?
This refers to Daniel 11:31 and Matthew 24:15. In Daniel 11:31, the armies of Antiochus Epiphanes were at Jerusalem, and some commentators have interpreted it as Antiochus placing a statue of Jupiter in the Holy of Holies in the Temple. Not only does Matthew 24:15 also refer to this, but in a parallel New Testament scripture, Luke 21:20 speaks of the same thing as ‘Jerusalem compassed with armies.’ This is the correct meaning of this abomination. It is the armies – not a statue – that make Jerusalem desolate.” (Pastor General's Report - 20 November 1979)
“Just what is an APOSTLE?”
Today we find the Church of God in a “wilderness of religious confusion!”
The confusion is not merely around the Church – within the religions of the world outside – but WITHIN the very heart of The True Church itself!
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