Yesterday, I
turned on the TV to watch the
evening news and instead of
viewing Channel 40, my regular
news channel, the TV reset to
Channel 4 because the electricity
had gone off. So, imagine my
surprise when I saw Benny Hinn
instead of Brit Hume! Since I had
not heard Benny Hinn speak for
some time, I thought I would
watch his program for a few
minutes to see why he was so
excited. He was animated about
recent developments in Israel.
From what I gathered, he was
overjoyed at the preparations
made by a group of Jews who intend
to rebuild their temple.
Evidently, a number of Jewish
“rebuilders” are ready
to go to work at a moment’s
notice-if and when a political
solution or military action makes
construction possible. To
demonstrate the passion of the
rebuilders, Benny Hinn showed a
video clip of four men carrying a
golden replica of the Ark of the
Covenant on their shoulders. He
also mentioned that schools have
been set up in Israel to train
priests for the sacrificial
rituals that will be conducted
once the temple is rebuilt. Benny
Hinn said that Bible prophecy
predicts the temple will be
rebuilt and he was excited about
developments that were quickly
moving toward that great day. I
know, from watching other
broadcasts by Benny Hinn, that he
also believes the efforts of the
rebuilders in Israel indicate the
rapture of “the church”
is very near.
During
the program, Benny Hinn showed a
video clip that particularly
fascinated him. The video clip
showed a rabbi standing before a
crowd of people making a
declaration that went something
like this: “We [the Jews]
believe in a coming Messiah. If
it turns out that the Messiah is
Jesus, we will accept Him.”
Benny Hinn said he “shivered
all over” when he heard
these words. Perhaps he shivered
because he believes that 144,000
Jews will indeed become believers
in Jesus after the rapture
and millions of Jews (and others)
will be given a second chance to
receive Christ as Messiah and
Savior during the Great
Tribulation. The willingness of a
Jewish Rabbi to accept Jesus as
the Messiah gave Benny Hinn the
shivers because he sees a shift
in Jewish attitudes and he thinks
this is a prophetic fulfillment
in the making.
One of
the Last Prophetic Signs
For millions of
Christians, the rebuilding of the
Jewish temple is one of the last
prophetic signs that occur about
the time the seventieth week
begins. These Christians have a
prophetic schematic that makes
the nation of Israel central to
end time events. They believe the
temple in Jerusalem has to be
rebuilt for several reasons, and
here are two. First, they believe
that Paul predicted the
Antichrist will physically enter
the Jewish temple and declare
himself to be God. “He [the
Antichrist] will oppose and
will exalt himself over
everything that is called God or
is worshiped, so that he sets
himself up in God’s temple,
proclaiming himself to be
God.” (2 Thessalonians
2:4) Second, they also believe
that the words of Jesus in
Matthew 24:15 point to the
Antichrist standing in the
rebuilt temple: “So when
you see standing in the holy
place ‘the abomination that
causes desolation,’ spoken
of through the prophet Daniel
– let the reader understand
– then let those who are in
Judea flee to the
mountains.” (Matthew 24:
15,16) (The abomination that
causes desolation, they say, is
the Antichrist.)
The
“Rock” of Impasse
The Most Holy
Place of Israel’s first
temple was built on the same rock
where Abraham offered up Isaac.
God specifically directed King
David to this rock when the time
came to build the first temple.
(1 Chronicles 21) This rock is 39
feet by 56 feet in size and it is
the highest point on the temple
mount (2,450.42 feet above sea
level). Nebuchadnezzar destroyed
the temple Solomon built on
August 10, 586 B.C. A
second temple was built around
515 B.C., but the construction
was nothing compared of that of
the first temple. The second
temple was
“reconstructed” several
times and the Romans eventually
destroyed it on the same date the
first temple was destroyed, A.D.
70, August 10. Roman soldiers
pulled the great stones of the
second temple apart to find gold
that melted and ran into the
cracks during the great fire that
consumed the temple.
For centuries
following A.D. 70, the temple
mount laid in ruins and Jerusalem
was ruled by various Arab
caliphs. In A.D. 692, Abd
al-Malik completed the
construction of the Dome of the
Rock. It is believed that the
Dome of the Rock was built by Abd
al-Malik for political reasons.
He wanted to relieve a rival
caliph in Mecca of some of his
influence and authority.
Therefore, Abd al-Malik built a
beautiful edifice that would
serve as a holy shrine for
Moslems ands it would also serve
as a place of prayer for Jews and
Christians. To make the Dome of
the Rock a “holy”
shrine for Moslems, Abd al-Malik
made the claim that Mohammed was
taken up into the seventh Heaven
form the rock one night to meet
with Allah. When Mohammed
returned to Earth, he was
anointed to spread the teaching
of Islam and tell everyone that
one prayer was better than many.
Thus, Abd al-Malik hoped to draw
pilgrims away form his
rival’s Kaaba Shrine in
Mecca by offering another holy
shrine, or place of the Hajj.
About 20 years
ago, two attempts were made to
prove that the Holy of Holies,
the most sacred room in the
Jewish temple, was not located on
the rock where The Dome of the
Rock now stands. If it could be
proven that the Dome of the Rock
is not sitting on the site of the
Holy of Holies, a third temple
might be built on the exact site
required by God without
disturbing a sacred shrine of the
Moslem world. Dr. Asher Kaufman,
a Jewish physicist, presented a
theory that the original site of
the Holy of Holies was some 300
feet northwest of the Dome of the
Rock. Conversely, a Jewish
architect, Tuvya Sagiv, presented
a theory that the site of the
Holy of Holies was located to the
south of the Dome of the
Rock. Archeologists have
not widely accepted either of
these views. Archeology aside,
putting the Holy of Holies on a
mountain prominence that is
physically lower than the Dome of
the Rock would be equivalent of
putting the God of the Jews in a
lower position than the God of
the Moslems, and human nature
predicts this is not going to
happen.
Of course, the
Jews remain perplexed about
rebuilding their temple. If
possible, Israel would be willing
to pay a very great price for
possession of the rock (or the
Holy of Holies as they call it).
This point was underscored in
July 2000 when Palestinian Yassar
Arafat and Israel’s Ehud
Barak met with President Bill
Clinton at Camp David to see if
peace could be negotiated. The
world watched anxiously to see if
peace in the Middle East would be
forthcoming and after several
days of negotiations, the three
leaders found that peace was not
possible. Shlomo Ben-Ami,
Israel’s top negotiator
during the Camp David summit,
expressed Israel’s desire
for possession of the rock in an
interview on September 13, 2001,
when he said: “The Temple
Mount would be under full
Palestinian sovereignty, with
Israel getting the Western Wall
and the Holy of Holies.”
Moslems are the
world’s largest religious
group and in an interesting way,
they have a very powerful
influence over the world’s
economy because of oil.
Currently, there are more than
1.3 billion Moslems and hundreds
of millions of them would
immediately go to war if they
thought that the Jews would
defile The Temple Mount in
Jerusalem. The size (and
ferocity) of the Moslem world is
important because it is important
to remember that The Dome of the
Rock is religiously
connected to 1.3 billion people.
This rock is not a geographical
matter over which the
Palestinians have control, and
the Jews know the Holy of Holies
is not just limited to
Palestinian control. I may be
wrong, and this is speculation on
my part, but I believe that
Iran’s unstoppable efforts
top produce atomic bombs is a
response to Jewish and Christian
overtures for rebuilding the
temple.
Do you remember
Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad’s recent remarks
on October 30, 2005 saying that
“Israel should be wiped off
the map,” and then again, on
December 14, 2005 he said that
the Holocaust was a
“myth.” I think these
inflammatory statements (which
received worldwide attention) are
calculated to forcibly remind
Jews and Christians alike that
The Temple Mount is
non-negotiable. Evidence abounds
indicating that President
Ahmadinejad is a deeply devoted
Moslem. He takes his religion
seriously. He lives modestly, and
he recently banned Western style
music in Iran because he believes
it is decadent. Is he telling the
world in veiled language that any
efforts to rebuild the temple
will have to take place over the
dead body of his nation? If the
legacy of President George W.
Bush is a “war on
terror,” is it possible that
the legacy of President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad’s will be the
“destruction of Israel”
if anyone attempts to defile the
third holiest shrine of Islam? I
do not know what
Ahmadinejad’s thoughts are,
but it is widely known that
Israel has atomic bombs and I
would not be surprised if
Ahmadinejad is determined to have
“atomic party” with
Israel because he feels The Dome
of the Rock is threatened by talk
of rebuilding the Jewish
temple.
Summary
Last month, I made
a comment in the last article
that the temple in Jerusalem will
not be rebuilt. I believe God has
set an airtight seal on The
Temple Mount that cannot be
broken by political or military
means. For reasons presented in
other articles placed on this
site, I believe the
pre-tribulation rapture
schematic, which millions of
Christians have embraced, is
fatally flawed. The rules of
interpretation they use to arrive
at this conclusion are not valid
or warranted. There will not
be a pre-tribulation or
mid-tribulation rapture. The
seventieth week is not in the
future. The Great Tribulation
will not be seven years in length
because Daniel 12:12 says it will
be 1,335 days. You may ask,
“What difference does it
really make if a person believes
in the rapture or not?” Actually,
there is a huge difference
lurking within Christianity.
Millions of Christians
believe that Plan A* events will
occur during the fulfillment of
Plan B and the consequences from
believing this will be terrible.
For example, under Plan A, Jesus
would have stood on the Mount of
Olives and divided the mountain. “On
that day his feet will stand on
the Mount of Olives, east of
Jerusalem, and the Mount of
Olives will be split in two from
east to west, forming a great
valley, with half the mountain
moving north and half moving
south.” (Zechariah 14:4)
Under Plan B, this will not
happen! At the Second Coming,
every island and mountain will be
moved from its place! However,
when the devil appears
masquerading as God, I believe
this is one of the things he will
do! In fact, the devil will do
many things that were predicted
under Plan A. With cunning
deception, he will lead the world
into the greatest “con”
the world ahs ever known using
the same Bible that explains
God’s plan!
Sadly, people fail
to understand that the Jewish
roll (Plan A) in end time events
is over. The New Testament Plan B
actually tells us when the
Antichrist, the devil, will
appear. Unfortunately, when the
Jews see the devil’s
glorious appearing, they will
receive him as the anticipated
Messiah. What else can Benny
Hinn’s Rabbi say when this
event occurs and sees such power
and dazzling glory? When the
Moslems behold the glorious
appearing of the devil, attended
by millions of angels (albeit
fallen angels), what else can
they say except the promised
“Deliverer” has
arrived? When confused and
bedazzled Christians see the
glorious appearing of the devil,
when they hear him quoting
lengthy texts from the Bible and
fulfilling them right before
their eyes, they will believe
that he is Jesus! In short, the
greatest deception ever to occur
is coming and few Christians have
a clue. The devil will expertly
use the Bible and the Koran (and
other holy writings) to prove
that he is God. The devil knows
how to twist and distort these
books very well. He has had
millenniums to study them. These
matters should make us very
sober. Every seeker of truth
should be carefully searching and
researching the Bible. The Bible
and the Bible only gives a
correct view of coming events.
