The Temple Time Bomb

"In this provocative work, seasoned journalist Gershom Gorenberg portrays a deadly mix of religious extremism, violence, and Mideast politics, as expressed in the struggle for the sacred center of Jerusalem. Known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, this thirty-five-acre enclosure at the southeast corner of Jerusalem's Old City is the most contested piece of real estate on earth. Here nationalism combines with fundamentalist faith in a volatile brew. Members of the world's three major monotheistic faiths—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—hold this spot to be the key to salvation as they await the end of the world, and struggle to fulfill conflicting religious prophecies with dangerous political consequences. Adroitly portraying American radio evangelists of the End, radical Palestinian sheikhs, and Israeli ex-terrorists, Gorenberg explains why believers hope for the End, and why prominent American fundamentalists provide hard-line support for Israel while looking forward to the apocalypse. He makes sense of the messianic fervor that has driven some Israeli settlers to oppose peace. And he describes the Islamic apocalyptic visions that cast Israel's actions in Jerusalem as diabolic plots. The End of Days shows how conflict over Jerusalem and the fiery belief in apocalypse continue to have a potent impact on world politics and why a lasting peace in the Middle East continues to prove elusive.”- Amazon.com Review

The Temple Time Bomb
By Jay Gary
Can it be diffused? Or will the Middle East explode in war?

Defying all logic, a 35-acre landmass surrounded by ancient walls is ground zero to the end-time dreams and fears of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Known by Muslims as the Haram esh-Sharif or Noble Enclosure since A.D. 638, these fortress walls guard Islam's third holiest site, the golden"Dome of the Rock" and Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Despite thirteen centuries of Islamic heritage, Jews today consider the Haram as their Temple Mount. Tradition calls it"The navel of the world ... situated in the center of the world.”

The Temple Mount, thought to be the site of the First and Second Jewish temples, abuts the Haram's"Western Wall"—-considered by Jews to be the only stones left intact from the Roman sacking of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The outcropping under the Dome of the Rock is thought to be the crest of Mount Moriah where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son.

Increasingly, zealous Jews in Israel and End-Time Christians in America are calling for the rebuilding of a"Third Temple"Where the Dome of the Rock stands.

In his book, Arabs and Jews: Wounded Spirits In A Promised Land, New York Times journalist David Shipler reports," During my five years in Jerusalem, the idea of building a Third Temple in place of Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock evolved from a wild notion held by a very few fringe militants into a goal embraced and legitimized by parts of the established right wing.”

Shipler continues," Some groups had a letterhead printed with a composite aerial photograph of the Old City as it is today and the Temple Mount as they wish it to be tomorrow: clear of mosques and dominated by a huge temple.”

End-Time Temptation

In a recent book, The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount, Israeli journalist, Gershon Gorenberg writes," The Temple Mount beckons seductively to believers eager to restart redemption.”Although journalists or theologians often mock them, Gorenberg claims governments need to take their apocalyptic schemes seriously. According to messianic groups in Jerusalem such as the Temple Mount Faithful, three events must take place before the Jewish messiah comes: the reconstitution of Israel, the return of the Jews to their homeland; and the construction of a Third Temple.

As religious Jews tell it, the first two events came about through the founding of the Jewish State in 1948. They believe the third has become possible due to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Israel found herself capturing the West Bank and East Jerusalem.”The Temple Mount is in our hands," proclaimed Motta Gur, the Israeli commander. But on the fourth day of occupation, then Defense-minister Moshe Dayan decided to return control of the Haram compound to clerics from the Islamic Trust or Waqf.

Despite the control of the Haram by the Waqf, the continued occupation of the Old City of Jerusalem by Israel has transformed the rebuilding of the Temple for extreme Jews from a divine prophecy into an attainable human endeavor.

Palestinians have always felt the goal of Jewish Zionism is, as its name implies, control of the Temple Mount and the construction of the Third Temple. In 1995, an Arab editorial declared," The weeping of the Jews by the Wailing Wall and their kisses do not come of their love for the wall itself, but from their secret desire to win control of the Haram esh-Sharif, as everyone knows.”

Palestinian uneasiness about Jewish extremism is understandable. On more than one hundred occasions since 1967, members of the"Jewish underground"have initiated plots to siege or destroy the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque, acts that would have rendered peace with the Arab world unattainable.

Igniting World War III?

The rhetoric about the Temple Mount has inflamed passions on all sides. Indeed, it was a principal factor, if not the key factor, in derailing the U.S. brokered Camp David peace talks in 2000. Israelis insisted on dual ownership of the Haram, something Arafat said no Arab leader could accept.

Making matters worse, Israeli hard-liner Ariel Sharon entered the Haram several weeks later with an armed security force of 1,000 Israeli soldiers, provoking a new round of violence in which nearly 500 people have died, largely Palestinians.

Amidst these fears, a new film was released in Israel. By December, Hahesder, or "Time of Favor," became a hit movie. The film revolves around a plot by ultra-religious Jews to blow up Islamic holy places on the Temple Mount. The Israeli Shin Bet followed up the movie's release with warnings about the possible eruption of Jewish violence centered on the Temple Mount.

One Israeli security official told the BBC," To harm the mosque, it means a global war between the Arab world and the Islamic world against Israel, and no doubt that it could be a war that may bring destruction to the state of Israel.”

Israeli academics have been equally alarmed by"Third Temple"Ideas. In January, Keshev—the Center for the Protection of Democracy in Tel Aviv issued a 12-page report entitled," Targeting the Temple Mount," which examined current threats to the Temple Mount from extreme militant and messianic groups. The report said, "Threats to the Temple Mount have reached a critical stage.”The danger, the report said, comes from some ten organizations who influence tens of thousands of people and who are acting to reinstitute Temple practices and rituals.

The secular research continued," In the event of damage to the holy sites, all the blame will be placed on Israel and apocalyptically destructive forces may be unleashed.”It urged the Israeli government"to stop all support and funding of Temple lovers' organizations and institutions"And"publicly disassociate themselves from rabbinical calls to 'destroy the mosques.' Our lives depend on it.”

www.bibleprobe.com/templebomb.htm

A Temple WILL BE BUILT in Jerusalem Before Messiah Returns
by Roy A. Reinhold

In 1993, there was a great controversy between the former Chief Sephardic Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu and Rabbi Yisrael Ariel who heads the Temple Institute, concerning whether it is the responsibility of Jews to build a third Temple or whether the Temple will be brought down from heaven when the Messiah comes. Rabbi Ariel stated that the commandment obligates every Jewish man and woman to rebuild the Temple.

The commandment referred to are the 613 commandments of Judaism. Rambam (Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, also called Maimonides, 1135-1204 AD) listed the building of the Bais Hamikdash as one of the 613 commandments of the Torah. Since a commandment implies a deed performed by man, then it is obvious that the Rambam maintains that the Temple will be built by man. Mr. Israel Eldad, historian, was quoted in TIME magazine after the 1967 war when Jerusalem was captured, as saying," From the time that David captured Jerusalem until the building of the Temple it was but one generation; so it shall be with us.”

Meanwhile, Rabbi Eliahu began teaching that the Temple need not be rebuilt, but that the Temple would descend from heaven when the Messiah comes. Rabbi Ariel asserted that Rabbi Eliahu was relying on the Apocrypha and Revelations for support of his view that the Temple need not be rebuilt. So the debate rages on among the orthodox Jews, whether or not the Temple should be built by this generation.

The Temple Foundation has been soliciting donations to build the Temple since the 1970's. Later, at least two yeshivas (training schools for rabbi's) began indexing people who are descended from the priests and levites to train to conduct Temple services and rituals. Yeshiva Torat Haim and Yeshiva Aterit Cohanim both train students in Temple practices and have since the mid 1980's in Jerusalem. The Temple Institute has sponsored the creation of musical instruments, and the implements to be used in the Temple. Behind the scenes, these and many other organizations have laid the groundwork for a 3rd Temple to be constructed in very short order and be fully operational. Once construction of the 3rd Temple begins, all these opposition views will quickly melt away as Jews around the world realize that this is their opportunity to participate in an historic event, the rebuilding of the Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

www.ad2004.com/prophecytruths/Articles/Prophecy/temple.html

Israel will rebuild the Temple to fulfil End-Times prophecy

*** American Jews are preparing to rebuild for the ancient Temple in Jerusalem to be rebuilt. If they are familiar with the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, then they must surely be aware that in Bible prophecy the rebuilding of the Temple is the final sign before Judgement Day and the End of the World. You may not believe in prophecy but, among the leaders of nations, there are men who do.
*** Orly Benny-Davis has come a long way from her youth in Ramat Gan. Today a well-known US political activist, Benny-Davis ran for the senate last year in her home state of South Carolina. On Monday night, she was in Jerusalem to attend the 11th annual Temple Mount dinner and to help speed up the construction of the third temple.

Close to 1,000 right-wing religious activists converged on the Jerusalem International Convention Center to celebrate Tu Bishvat and listen to speakers on various topics ranging from what the economy will be like in the time of the third temple to what type of government is ideal according to the Torah.

"The temple is part of our history," Benny-Davis, who sponsored the festivities, told The Jerusalem Post.”When I argue with people who criticize us that we are occupying another nation, I explain to them that the land has been ours for thousands of years. Just look at the Temple Mount.”

The Jews, she says, deserve a temple just like the Christians and the Muslims.

"Look at what the Italians did in Rome with the Vatican and how much money they make," Benny-Davis, who spent 15 years living in Italy, said. "The Muslims also have a temple, and we, who came back to our land 2,000 years later, don't have one, which is needed to initiate the final return to Israel.”

Calling her 2004 bid for the senate"A battle for God," Benny-Davis said she is in the process of lobbying congressmen to pass a resolution that would ensure Israel retains sovereignty over all of the holy sites, including the Temple Mount.

The point of the festive dinner, she said, is to get people excited about their Jewish heritage.”We need to get the ball rolling and to get people excited to make things change," she said.

Prior to the festive dinner, the Temple Mount Faithful met in the foyer to look at the most recent temple artifacts Rabbi Menahem Makover, of the Temple Mount Institute in the Old City, has constructed.

Makover said his institute has already completed constructing all of the artifacts except for the altar, which needs to be physically constructed on the Mount.

How will the temple be rebuilt while the Muslim mosques are currently standing?

"No one knows how the temple will be built," he said. "But that is not the main issue. What we are here to do is to inform people of the importance of the temple and to show them it is not a theoretical idea but is real and alive.”

Not everyone agrees with Makover that the way to rebuild the temple is not known.

"Maybe there will be a tsunami-like disaster similar to the one in Southeast Asia which killed hundreds of thousands of people," said Baruch Ben-Yosef, a member of the Temple Mount Faithful.”The mosques will be moved to Mecca where they should be, and we will climb the Mount to build an altar and conduct sacrifices.”

SOURCE
Jerusalem Post," US politician hopes to speed building of third temple", 25 January 2005.
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer&cid=11065378001\ 19
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1106537800\ 119

FURTHER READING
The Insider," Israel calls the world's Jews to gather in the Holy Land", 18 July 2004.
www.theinsider.org/mailing/article.asp?id=0523
Heeding Bible Prophecy - New Jerusalem
www.watch.pair.com/new-jerusalem.html

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