Forecast of Trouble on the Temple Mount
December 16, 2009
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
MY COMMENTS WILL FOLLOW THE JERUSALEM POST EXCERPT
Excerpt from THE JERUSALEM POST
Activists planning Temple Mount ascent
December 16, 2009
Abe Selig , THE JERUSALEM POST
A group of activists dedicated to bringing Jews to the Temple Mount told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that they were hoping to see hundreds of participants take part in a planned “mass pilgrimage” to the mount scheduled for Thursday morning in honor of Hanukka, which celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple after it was recovered from Hellenist Greeks more than 2,000 years ago.
The pilgrimage, which will include guided tours of the area throughout the morning, will also be a litmus test for the shaky calm that has prevailed in Jerusalem’s Old City since October, when rumors of a “Jewish takeover” of the mount sparked fierce clashes between Arab rioters and security forces in and around the sensitive holy site and in various neighborhoods of east Jerusalem.
The rumors were fueled in part by calls at the time, from a number of Knesset members and prominent national-religious rabbis, that Jews ascend to the Temple Mount with increased vigor.
Those calls were p ortrayed, in turn, by Palestinian clerics as nefarious plans to invade the site
or build a synagogue there.
The mount, which was the location of both the First and Second Jewish Temples from 960 BCE until 70 AD, is also home to the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aksa Mosque, which is considered the third-holiest shrine in Islam.
Nonetheless, a representative of the Organization for the Renewal of the Temple (ORT) – which is organizing Thursday’s event – told the Post on Tuesday there had been no indication the planned pilgrimage would cause renewed disturbances, even though tensions around the site are always high, and Tuesday was no exception.
Members of the group who had gone up to the mount on Tuesday were reportedly accosted by a group of Arabs as they exited the site and headed into the Old City’s Muslim Quarter.
Yosef Rabin, an ORT member, told the Post that the scuffle broke out after a number of Arabs standing nearby became enraged when his colleagues started to sing Hanukka songs and dance as they departed.
“And that was completely legal,” Rabin said. “We were no longer on the mount itself, and the police officers who were with us said it was okay to begin singing.”
Police were quick to break up the fighting, Rabin added, but detained two of the group’s members. A police spokesman contacted on Tuesday evening was unable to immediately verify Rabin’s account.
Nevertheless, Rabin said, the trip had been calm and quiet up until the fighting broke out, and he added that his group was pursuing its goal of promoting awareness of the mount “through legal means only.”
“We do everything legally and in conjunction with the police,” Rabin said. “And as long as we do, there shouldn’t be any problem.”
Rabin also said that the violence seen in October had been mostly instigated by the leader of the Islamic Movement’s northern branch, Sheikh Raed Salah, who has been markedly less vocal since the riots and his subsequent arrest and temporary banishment from the Old City.
“Even the Wakf (the Islamic authority that holds custodianship over the mount) was against Salah’s provocations,” Rabin said. “They didn’t say it out loud, but it was reported that the Wakf was privately pleased with his arrest. They don’t want problems like that, but there are instigators from other parts of the country who do.”
Still, Rabin said he had personally spoken with police about Thursday’s pilgrimage and that they had told him there was no reason to believe problems would occur.
“Our focus is on bringing people to the Temple Mount, nothing else,” Rabin said. “And we’ve been making hundreds of phone calls, using lists we have, and sending out e-mails and Facebook messages to try and get as many people as possible to come.”
“Little by little, we’re going to take back the mount,” he continued. “And it will be done without violence or force.”
In a related development, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Monday issued a restraining order against Hatem Abdel Kader, a senior Fatah official and advisor to PA president Mahmoud Abbas for Jerusalem affairs, which prohibits him from entering the Temple Mount for six months.
Kader was released on bail after being arrested over the weekend for violating a previous restraining order, when he entered the Temple Mount to attend prayers there.
The senior Fatah official was banned from the mount for three weeks in October, after being arrested on suspicion of incitement during the riots that were taking place at the time.
THE FOLLOWING IS A BLOG I ISSUED THREE YEARS AGO IN RESPONSE TO AN ARUTZ SHEVA EXCERPT
Will the Temple be rebuilt Before Messiah Returns?
December 10, 2006
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Before I began to study the languages of the Bible and the history of Israel’s three Temples some 36 years ago, I taught a Temple would be built on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem before the Second Advent of Messiah. However, I changed my mind shortly after graduating from Seminary and University in the mid-seventies.
A lot of believers are anxiously waiting for the temple to be built before the rapture, but I am confident it will not be built until the beginning of Messiah’s reign. Any attempt to place a Jewish religious edifice of any kind is doomed to failure prior to the return of Christ. My reasons for these statements may in found in Archive Prophecy Update Number 79.
BEGIN PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 79
August 3, 2002
WILL THE TEMPLE BE REBUILT IN JERUSALEM?
I long ago lost count of the number of men and women who have reminded me that the temple MUST be rebuilt before Jesus returns. A majority of believers are certain that it must be rebuilt because antichrist must set in it “showing himself that he is God.”
As a young man I believed that it would be rebuilt before Jesus returned.
But as I studied the Greek language in Seminary, I began to say it would “probably” be rebuilt. I now do not believe it will be rebuilt until the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ.
Why?
Much of what follows is quoted primarily from the “New Testament Greek-English Dictionary of the Complete Bible Library,” Volumes 13 and 14.
In the New Testament the word “hieron,” translated as “temple,” is found ONLY in the Gospels, in Acts, and in I Corinthians 9:13, where Paul’s ONLY use of the word appears as “temple.”
I Corinthians 9:13 – Jerusalem’s Literal Stone Temple
Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple (hieron)? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar
?
“Hieron” refers to the entire temple including its precincts and the temple hill or, in a limited sense, any portion of the temple, such as the court of the women (Luke 2:37) where Jesus stood before the altar after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Mark 11:11), the court of the Gentiles out of which Jesus drove the money changers (John 2:15), or the temple proper where the veil separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies (Matthew 27:52). “Hieron” is ONLY used in a literal sense in the entire New Testament. This is in very sharp contrast to its closely related term “naos,” which is used both literally and figuratively in the New Testament.
It is used figuratively at times to refer to the human body or a local church body.
I Corinthians 6:19 – The Human Body – Naos
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not
your own?
I Corinthians 3:16,17 – The Local Church Body – Naos
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? [17] If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
(All the “ye’s” in this verse are plural, and the “in” of verse 16 may be translated with equal validity as being “among” you, because “you” is plural.)
Now, let’s take a look at the word “naos,” translated as “temple” in the New Testament. “Naos” denotes the “dwelling place of a god.” Consequently, the “naos” was the inner “sanctuary” of a temple where the image of the God was placed, or where he dwelled. It is frequently translated as “temple,” but the association with the word “sanctuary” should not be overlooked.
The following verses contain ALL the uses of the word translated “temple” in the writings of the Apostle Paul.
TEMPLE – HIERON – I CORINTHIANS 9:13
Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?
(This is absolutely referring literally to the great temple of stone in the city of Jerusalem)
TEMPLE – NAOS – I CORINTHIANS 6:19
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
(This is absolutely referring to the body of someone who has experienced the new birth as figuratively being a temple)
TEMPLE – NAOS – I CORINTHIANS 3:16,17
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? [17] If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
TEMPLE – NAOS – II CORINTHIANS 6:16
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
(All the “ye’s” and the “them” and “they” are plural, and the two “in’s” may be translated as “among”)
TEMPLE – NAOS – EPHESIANS 2:21,22
In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: [22] In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
(The “ye” in verse 22 is plural)
It is perfectly obvious in the verses in the two books of Corinthians and Ephesians that Paul was not referring to the literal temple in Jerusalem, and it is also equally obvious he knew the distinction between “hieron” and “naos.” That is why his ONLY other use of the word “naos,” occurring in I Thessalonians 2:4, is so puzzling.
I am convinced that if he meant the literal stone temple in Jerusalem, then he would have used the word “hieron.”
TEMPLE – NAOS – II THESSALONIANS 2:4
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
The precise meaning of “naos” in this verse is uncertain. I believe Paul pictures the antichrist s itting on the temple mount
in a sinful body of flesh, w
ith his inner soul and spirit claiming he is God to prove it to himself, and to show the world he is God.
This would parallel his use of the word “naos” in I Corinthians 6:19. In any case, I Thessalonians 2:4 falls far short of proving that the temple must be rebuilt before the return of Jesus.
The companion Old Testament Scripture often used to link with I Thessalonians 2:2 to prove the temple must be rebuilt is Daniel 11:45.
Daniel 11:45 – And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
However, the word translated “palace” is “appeden.” It is never translated as “temple” in the entire Bible. So it means, in the context of this verse, that antichrist returns to Jerusalem just before the battle of Armageddon, and puts up a command post palace pavilion on the temple mount, from which he plans to sit and direct the final battle. The tents (tabernacles – ohel) are the tents of all the troops from Europe, Eurasia, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa which have poured into Israel in answer to his call, and he will direct their final attack against Israel in the Negev from his “appeden” on the temple mount. I have heard about the rebuilding of this temple for some 54 years. For better or for worst, I do not believe the temple will be rebuilt until Jesus returns.
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