BIRTH PANG NUMBER 25
Chapter 27 – God Forms a Spring on a Temple
Mount
November 30, 2001
Ezekiel 47:1
[1] Afterward he brought me again unto the door of
the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house
eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters
came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the
altar.
Birth Pang Number 24 ended with the creation of the
fault scarp shown in Figure 42 (click on Figures above). God has been creating thousands of fault
scarps, just like this one, all across the earth since
the dawn of creation. Figure 42, in the
lower right hand corner, pictures an extract, from a standard geological text,
that shows a normal fault scarp. Please
note that God has been using fault scarps for countless centuries to produce
springs of water. The text states: “A
fault line is sometimes indicated on the surface by a succession of springs
which emerge along the line of displacement.”
It was not by accident God made a basic limestone formation as the first
one thousand feet of rock strata under Jerusalem. Limestone is the perfect rock for the
generation of beautiful, clear springs, when uplifting of limestone layers
occurs.
When rain falls upon limestone it forms a weak,
carbonic acid, which slowly eats away at the basic composition of limestone, so
that the water permeates downward through the limestone. It is this process which eventually forms
vast underground water reserves and streams on top of impermeable rock layers
below the limestone. The topography of
Jerusalem and its environs is one of permeable limestone over impermeable rock
layers. This karst type of landscape has
produced a system of underground water reserves and streams. This system slopes downward from the middle
ridge of the Judean Mountains eastward under the city of Jerusalem. It is the watershed zone for the springs in
and around Jerusalem. The royal cistern
of Solomon’s Temple, which now underlies the courtyard immediately to the north
of the Dome of the Rock, is supplied by permeation and limestone springs. This system is only a part of a vast
underground water supply stretching north, west, and south of Jerusalem. Sorek
Cave is located just fifteen miles west of Jerusalem within the Avshalom
Reserve. Permeation of water downward
has created this great limestone cave, and upon the floor of this great cavern
are pools of clear water. These types of
underground water reservoirs exist all across the earth’s surface. Figure 43, from a geological text by Tarr
shows the immergence of springs at the surface from underground
reservoirs. In his text, New Physical
Geology, Tarr states: “Water percolating through soluble rock, like limestone,
dissolves the rock along joint planes and bedding planes. This often results in the formation of long,
irregular, underground valleys, or caverns, such as the Mammoth Cave in
Kentucky. In such places much of the
drainage is underground. There are large
surface streams and few tributaries, the chief water supply coming from the
springs that bring the cavern water to the surface.” There are numerous springs to the immediate
south, west, and north of Jerusalem, as well as one under it, and another under
the old city of David.
Figure 42 shows the exposed scarp (or bluff)
generated by the lifting along the line through the Tyropoeon Valley. This lifted zone consists of layer after
layer of permeable limestone, and at its base is a thick layer of impermeable
flint and hard dolomite. When this layer
of permeable limestone is lifted, its water zone, flowing above the flint and
dolomite, will suddenly burst forward as a limestone spring just to the north
of the Dome of the Rock. This is the
spring of Ezekiel 47:1. Figure 44 shows
the geological formation that will exist after the lifting. There will be a continuous feeding of
meteorologically stored water into the system throughout the millennial reign
of Christ. As rain falls upon uplifted
western Jerusalem, and its Judean watershed, it will seep slowly downward
through the limestone to constantly re-supply a great invisible reservoir
perched above an impermeable layer of rock.
This is quoted from a standard earth science text, concerning this type
of spring: “However, one type of hillside spring is likely to flow
continuously. This is a spring formed at
the zone of contact between permeable and impermeable rocks. Water filters down through the permeable rock
and comes to the surface on a hill side when it meets the impermeable rock
layer.” The Bible indicates Ezekiel’s
spring will flow continuously throughout the millennial reign of Christ, and
this is exactly what happens when strata, like that under Jerusalem, is lifted.
There are some commentaries that identify the waters
found in Ezekiel 47 as “spiritual” waters, not literal waters. But this is not the case, for we are told in
this chapter that: (1) the waters empty
into a river, (2) the river empties into a salty sea, (3) the fresh water
eventually removes most of the salt, and (4) fish will live in the freshened
water. I have great difficulty in
accepting “spiritual” water that has “physical” fish living in it.
Once the spring has been formed, the remnant of
Israelites, which God brought through the Tribulation Period, will see the
spring where Solomon’s Temple once stood.
They will take the blueprint narrative instructions, contained after
chapter 39 in Ezekiel, and will build the Millennial Temple such that the
waters will issue out “from under the threshold of the house eastward,” and
such that they come “down from under from the right side of the house, at the
south side of the altar.”