Monday, January 27, 2014

Israel to Give Certain Ancient Jerusalem Lands to Non-Jewish Owners

The government is planning to cede several sites in ancient Jerusalem to Muslim and Christian ownership, and Israel’s rabbis remain silent, Rabbi Yisrael Ariel has accused.
“There is a terrible plan, called the ‘holy basin,’ to split Jerusalem between Christians, Muslims and Jews,” Rabbi Ariel said, speaking to Arutz Sheva.

Rabbi Ariel, who heads the Temple Institute, continued, “The Christians will get the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Mount Zion, the Muslims will get the Temple Mount, and we Jews will need to visit the Kotel (Western Wall) under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority.”

The Palestinian Authority (PA) denies the Jewish connection to the Western Wall, and PA TV has labeled Jewish worship at the holy site “sin and filth.”Even if Jewish worship at the Kotel were to continue freely, the loss of access to the Temple Mount would be highly significant. The Temple Mount is the holiest site on earth according to Judaism, and is the place where the First Temple and Second Temple once stood.

The plan to split Jerusalem’s holy sites between various religions “has existed for some time, and now they’re going to implement it in stages,” Rabbi Ariel warned, adding, “During the Pope’s next visit they plan to transfer the Cenacle on Mount Zion to him, turning it into a pilgrimage site.”
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/176629#.UubBNRbnaHs

April 2013: Third Jerusalem Temple imminent!

The First and Second temples, also known as Solomon and Herod’s temples were located on a piece of land referred to as the Temple Mount. This is the place where Almighty God chose to let the Divine Presence rest, where God gathered the dust to make Adam and the place where the ‘binding of Isaac’ took place.
Both temples were destroyed on the same day of the month on the Jewish calendar, the 9th day of Av - albeit 656 years apart! Solomon’s Temple was far more impressive aesthetically and housed the Ark of the Covenant and thus the Shekinah or Divine Presence.
It is important to keep in mind then that since 70 AD (that’s a whopping 1943 years by now) there has been no Jewish temple. The closest Jewish people now get is to pray at the Kotel or Western Wall which is a remnant of the ancient wall that surrounded the Jewish temple’s courtyard. The Temple Mount proper was liberated from Jordanian control in the Six-Day War of 1967, but then returned by Israel to the custody of the Muslim Waqf (Jordan).
Israel, these days, is a daily feature in world news and it is hard to believe that a mere 70 years ago the State of Israel did not even exist! If someone wrote an article in 1930 stating that Israel will be a state or nation again, it would have been hard to believe. Now in 2013 and 65 years later, there remains an important outstanding matter for the Jewish people: the rebuilding of what would be the Third Temple.
http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/Third-Jerusalem-Temple-imminent-20130408

Feb 2008: Rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem

The Jews anxiously await the day that they will be able to rebuild the Jerusalem temple, often referred to as the third temple, as a holy house of worship of God. There has been a Jewish institute established, The Temple Institute, in Jerusalem for the very purpose of researching the history of the temple and its eventual reestablishment on the temple mount, and making steps toward that end goal. The Jews plan to reinstitute or “restore” daily temple prayer and sacrifice, as was prophesied in the Bible, and they speak with fervor about the “restoration” of the divine service of worshiping Almighty God in His holy house. It is interesting that in ancient Israel the building of the temple was always directed very carefully by abundant revelation of God to His prophet on the earth. In a different sense, The Temple Institute today seeks understanding in ancient prophesy and tradition as found in the Torah to restore the architecture, vessels, ordinances, worship, and other characteristics that will accompany the temple of God.1
The Latter-day Saints also see the reconstruction of a temple in Jerusalem as one of the signs of the times of the Second Coming of the Savior. Whether it will be built by the Church or the Jews or the Jews under the direction of the Church or will later come under the direction of the Church after the Jews are converted to Christ is unclear (Do you know of any studies clarifying this?). What is clear is that the saving ordinances of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ will be performed therein at some point, under the authority of the priesthood of God, as they are performed currently in 125 temples around the world.
Joseph Smith once taught:
What was the object of gathering the Jews, or the people of God in any age of the world? …The main object was to build unto the Lord a house whereby He could reveal unto His people the ordinances of His house.2
In addition to the scriptural prophesy, specifically in Ezekiel 40-48, consider the following quotations from latter-day prophets and apostles:3
Judah must return, Jerusalem must be rebuilt, and the temple, and water come out from under the temple, and the waters of the Dead Sea be healed. It will take some time to rebuild the walls of the city and the temple, Etc.; and all this must be done before the Son of Man will make his appearance.4 The work is moving on for the gathering of the Jews to their own land that they may build it up as it was in former times; that the temple may be rebuilt and the mosque of the Moslem which now stands in its place may be moved out of the way; that Jerusalem may be rebuilt upon its original site; that the way may be prepared for the coming of the Messiah, who shall be seen in the midst of those whose ancestors nailed him to the cross, and who, when they see the marks in His hands, shall say in answer to their inquiries, “These are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”5
 ...
 By and by there will be a Temple built at Jerusalem. Who do you think is going to build it? You may think that it will be the unbelieving Jews who rejected the Savior. . . . The Temple at Jerusalem will undoubtedly be built, by those who believe in the true Messiah. Its construction will be, in some respects different from the Temples now being built. It will contain the throne of the Lord, upon which he will, at times, personally sit, and will reign over the house of Israel for ever.10
http://www.templestudy.com/2008/02/29/rebuilding-the-temple-in-jerusalem/

1967: Israel gave the Temple Mount back to Islam (True Temple is Spirit)

Many Christians taught that the return of the Messiah was imminent, when the Israeli army took control of the Temple Mount in June 1967.
Many got more than a surprise, when the Zionist Government gave the control over the most holiest site in Judaism, back to the Islamic Waqf.
Why?
Those who believe in mainstream Orthodox Judaism, believe that God of the Bible will rebuild a Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.And since we believe that God gave Israel the victory, why was God so weak, that he lost the Temple Mount?
Did God loose the 1967-war?
For a Christian, this issue should be very simple. God do not longer live in buildings made by the hands of men. Our body is now the Temple of the Holy spirit of God.
So whats the point, of building a new Jewish temple on the Temple Mount?
And since a man of lawlessness is going to set him self up in “God’s temple” before the return of the Messiah, why should we long to be in control of this place?
John 2:21
But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 
 Acts 17:24
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.
 1 Corinthians 6:19
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 
It is indeed strange, that Jews and Christians criticize Islam for making the Temple Mount a Jew-free zone. Since it was the Israeli Government who gave Islam this authority in June 1967.  And to make this topic even more interesting. Many Ultra Orthodox Jewish group agrees with Islam, that Jews shall not enter the Temple Mount. Simply because they are not “clean enough”.  So the ban of Jews entering the Temple Mount even has Jewish supporters. 
This what Wikipedia has recorded:
An Islamic Waqf has managed the Temple Mount continuously since the Muslim reconquest of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1187. 
http://ivarfjeld.com/category/jerusalem-temple-mount/?blogsub=confirming

October 19, 2008: Third Temple Preparations

The Jerusalem Post has a long, but very good, article on the preparations being made for the construction of the Third Temple by the Temple Institute.  If I had an extra couple of hours, I’d enjoy commenting on various statements made.  Since I don’t, I’ll simply refer you to the article, which begins:
For centuries Jews have remembered and mourned the destruction of the Temple through traditions such as crushing a glass at weddings or leaving unpainted a patch of wall opposite the entrance to one's home - each stressing that nothing can be perfect or complete without the Temple.
Built by Solomon in about 950 BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, the Temple was rebuilt about 70 years later but finally razed by the Romans in 70 CE.
Talmud scholar Rabbi Yohanan wrote: "During these times that the Temple is demolished, a person is not allowed to fill his mouth with laughter. This is because the verse [Psalms 126] says, 'Then our mouths will be filled with laughter,' and does not say 'Now our mouths will be filled with laughter.' And when is 'then'? 'Then' will be when the Third Temple is rebuilt."
In other words, "Jewish life without the Temple is like fish out of water," says Rabbi Chaim Richman, head of the international department of the Temple Institute.
An author of 10 books on the Temple, Richman adds: "Do you realize that 202 commandments out of 613 must have the Temple to be fulfilled? Without the Temple, Judaism is a skeleton of what it's supposed to be."
To this end, the Temple Institute was founded in 1987 with the explicit goal of rebuilding the Temple. Located in the Jewish Quarter, some 100,000 visitors, about half of them Christian, visit the institute each year to learn about the First and Second Temples and preparations for the Third Temple.
The institute is presently involved in education, research and constructing vessels for use in the longed-for Temple.
http://blog.bibleplaces.com/2008/10/third-temple-preparations.html

January 2011: Blueprints for the Holy Temple and Seat of Great Sanhedrin in Jerusalem

BLUEPRINTS FOR THE HOLY TEMPLE IN JERUSALEM: Sanhedrin’s Chamber of Hewn Stone
In his recent USA speaking engagement tour, (January 2011), Rabbi Chaim Richman of the Temple Institute revealed to the public for the very first time detailed construction plans for the Chamber of Hewn Stone: the seat of the Great Sanhedrin which is a central component of the Holy Temple complex on the Temple Mount.
These complete and highly intricate plans constitute the first stage of an historical undertaking of the Temple Institute: the drafting of blueprints for the entire Holy Temple complex. These plans, drawn up by a top Israeli architectural firm hired by the Temple Institute, take into account the specific requirements of the Sanhedrin assembly hall, known historically as the Chamber of Hewn Stone
FULL STORY, SLIDESHOW, & VIDEO at
http://www.templeinstitute.org/blueprints-for-the-holy-temple.htm

The Jerusalem Temple (Not on Temple Mount)

The Jerusalem Temple (Not on Temple Mount)

The two Jewish Temples were not located on the current location known as the Temple Mount.  That location is where the Roman Fort Antonia was built.
Archaeology, history, and Jewish Rabbis make the case that the Temples were built adjacent to the City of David above the Gihon Spring.
Here is a link to Ernest Martin’s book The Temples that Jerusalem Forgot.  I put a link for the Associates for Scriptural Knowledge in the links section on the right.
http://holdtl.org/2014/01/17/the-jerusalem-temple-not-on-temple-mount/

January 21st, 2013: JERUSALEM TEMPLE MAKES APPEARANCE AS ELECTION TOPIC

all the pre-election arguing over diplomatic, security and economic issues, the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem made a brief appearance as a topic of fiery debate between two Israeli candidates.The episode began when Israel’s Channel 2 News in its Friday evening coverage of the election aired a video showing a member of the right-wing Jewish Home party purportedly stating that it “would be incredible” if the Dome of the Rock were to be blown up and a Jewish Temple rebuilt in its place.
The remark was made by American-born Jeremy Gimpel, who places number 14 on Jewish Home’s party list, and therefore has a very real shot at becoming a Knesset member.
The way Channel 2 edited the clip made it sound as though Gimpel was calling for someone to blow up the Muslim structure. But the full statement, which Gimpel delivered to a group of Christian Zionists in 2011, was as follows:
“Imagine today if the golden dome, I’m being recorded so I can’t say blown up, but let’s say it was blown up, right, and we laid the cornerstone of the temple in Jerusalem. Can you imagine what would be. None of you would be here. You would be going to Israel. It would be incredible.”
To further put Gimpel’s words in context, he had just finished quoting from a passage in the Book of Ezra that deals with Israel’s rebuilding of the Temple following the nation’s exile in Babylon and Persia.
None of that mattered to Tzipi Livni, head of the new left-wing party The Movement, who immediately demanded Gimpel be disqualified from the election. Livni also used Gimpel’s remarks to attack Jewish Home as a party of fanatics.
“The strange list that Jewish Home is taking to the Knesset seeks to inflame the Middle East and to bring on a third World War with its crazy visions of building a temple,” Livni said.
http://www.davidhocking.org/blog/?p=3595

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Dec 2013: Singing Jews cause near-riot on Temple Mount

Israeli Jews on Sunday were again denied freedom of religion at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, of all places, when a near-riot by Muslim worshipers resulted in police closing the holy site to all but the followers of Allah.
A Muslim mob became enraged when a small group of visiting Jews began singing songs commemorating the holiday of Hanukkah, an extra-biblical festival very much centered on the Temple Mount.
In the video below, the irate Muslims can be seen violently confronting the Jewish group’s police escort, even as at least one man sings holiday songs in Hebrew.
A subsequent scuffle led to the arrest of two Jews and two Muslims.
Last week, Israeli lawmakers demanded that police make the Temple Mount more accessible to Jews over the Hanukkah holiday.
“Just because some Muslims throw stones when Jews go up to the Temple Mount is not a reason to prevent them from going, as happened over Succot,” Knesset Members Miri Regev (Likud), chairwoman of the Knesset Interior Committee, told police officials during a committee session.
Regev noted that “special arrangements are made for Muslim prayer [on the Temple Mount] during Ramadan and similar arrangements must be made for Jewish visits on Jewish holidays.”
http://www.thejerusalemconnection.us/blog/2013/12/01/video-singing-jews-cause-near-riot-on-temple-mount.html

Dec 2013: Jordanian Anger over Israel’s Temple Mount Security

Jordan, the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, demanded on Tuesday that Israel remove surveillance cameras at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the Temple Mount, the AFP news agency reports.
“Jordan rejects Israel’s installation of surveillance cameras on December 8 to monitor waqf officials and worshippers, particularly women,” Information Minister Mohammad Momani told state news agency Petra.
“Jordan does not accept that Israel has set up a police station inside the compound. It is a flagrant military violation of the freedom of worshippers as well as an interference in the affairs of the Jordanian Islamic waqf [Islamic endowment],” he argued.
“Jordan will not stop efforts to prevent Israel from imposing a new status quo in Jerusalem,” Momani said.
Police have had to deal with many recent security disturbances at the Temple Mount as Muslim worshipers attack Jewish visitors. The attacks follow incitement from Muslim leaders, including calls to physically prevent Jews from visiting the holy site.
Israel arrested a Hamas-linked terror cell that carried out attacks at the site in March, and in September, a wing of Fatah announced that it, too, plans to attack Israelis over Jewish visits to the Temple Mount.
http://www.thejerusalemconnection.us/blog/2013/12/19/jordanian-anger-over-israels-temple-mount-security.html

June 2007: Archeologist: Ancient cistern proves location of Second Temple


An Israeli archeologist said Wednesday that he has pinpointed the exact location of the Second Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount.

The site identified by Hebrew University archeologist Prof. Joseph Patrich, based on the study of a large underground cistern on the Temple Mount and passages from the Mishna, places the Temple and its corresponding courtyards, chambers and gates in a more southeasterly and diagonal frame of reference compared to previous studies.

Patrich based his research, which is about to be published, on a study of a large underground cistern on the Temple Mount that was mapped by British engineer Sir Charles Wilson in 1866 on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund, along with passages from the Mishna.

The giant cistern, 4.5 meters wide and 54 meters long, lay near the southeastern corner of the upper platform of the Temple Mount. Examining the location and configuration of the cistern together with descriptions of the daily rite in the Temple and its surroundings found in the Mishna, Patrich said that this cistern is the only one found on the Temple Mount that can tie in with the ancient rabbinic text describing elements involved in the daily purification and sacrificial duties carried out by the priests on the altar in the Temple courtyard.

On this basis, he says, one can reconstruct the placement of a large basin that was used by the priests for their ritual washing, with the water being drawn by a waterwheel mechanism from the cistern.

After this purification, the priests ascended the nearby ramp to the sacrificial altar.

By thus locating the laver, the water wheel, the ramp and the altar, one can then finally map, again in coordination with the Mishna, the alignment of the Temple itself and its gates and chambers, he said.

These considerations led Patrich to place the Second Temple further to the east and south than earlier thought, and at a southeasterly angle relative to the eastern wall of the Temple Mount, and not perpendicular to it, as earlier assumed.

Patrich said that his research indicates that the rock over which the Dome of the Rock was built in the 7th century CE is actually outside the confines of the Temple.
http://templemountnews.blogspot.com/2007/06/archeologist-ancient-cistern-proves.html

The Great Secret of Solomon's Temple - Part 1 of 11 - By Michael Rood


What events will have to happen before the temple can be rebuilt in...


July 2013: Israel: Third Temple Coming "2014" Possibly?


Sept 2013: Israel Will Build The Temple Soon!


Palestinians clash with police on Temple Mount

By MELANIE LIDMAN
03/08/2013

Jerusalem police entered the Temple Mount on Friday following afternoon prayers, after Muslim worshipers began throwing rocks at officers on the Mugrabi Bridge that leads to the Western Wall Plaza.
Police used stun grenades to disperse the crowd. Nine police officers, a number of protesters, and a photographer from Yediot Aharonot were lightly wounded by the rocks.
Paramedics treated nine police officers on the scene, and six of those required further medical attention at hospitals. Rioters also threw two fire bombs at police, and a number of Muslim youth barricaded themselves inside a mosque and refused to leave. Police arrested four Muslim worshipers and additional arrests are expected.
On Thursday, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said officers were “on high alert” for disturbances on Friday but did not issue age restrictions for Muslims wishing to enter for Friday prayers.
When police are worried about violence there, they prohibit men under the age of 40 from entering the Mount and require Jerusalem residency of other Muslims wishing to visit.
Last week, police twice closed the Temple Mount to non-Muslim visitors. 
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Palestinians-clash-with-police-on-Temple-Mount

Temple Mount visits by Jews will lead to intifada, Arab MKs warn

(JNS.org) Arab Members of Knesset furiously protested the standardization of Jewish visitation rights to the Temple Mount at a session of the Israeli Knesset Committee for the Interior on Monday.
Deputy Minister for Religious Services Eli Ben-Dahan said during the meeting that he is seeking an agreement on the visitation rights with Israel’s chief rabbinate. But MKs Ahmad Tibi, Jamal Zahalka, and other Arab MKs who attended the meeting threatened dire consequences, including a new intifada, if any proposals on the issue would be agreed upon.
“There is no Temple Mount. There is only the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” shouted Zahalka, according to the Jerusalem Post. Tibi said another intifada “will break out again, also because of Al-Aqsa.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, and Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat address reporters on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations at the U.S. Department of State. The U.S. will resort to an "intervention" if peace talks fail. Credit: State Department.
http://www.jewishvoiceny.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5720:temple-mount-visits-by-jews-will-lead-to-intifada-arab-mks-warn&catid=115:politics&Itemid=298

Secret Israeli report on Temple Mount, buried by government, published in U.S.

Report on Israeli authorities' negligence regarding Muslim digs at Temple Mount has been buried by the Israeli government.

By | Dec. 27, 2013 | 7:11 PM |
The American news website The Jewish Voice has published an Israeli State Comptroller's report on Israeli authorities' conduct regarding digs at Jerusalem's Temple Mount in 2007. In Israel, a gag order was placed on the report due to fears it would harm Israel's foreign relations and spark violent confrontations at the Temple Mount. News of the Jewish Voice report was first published in the Israeli weekend newspaper Sof Hashavua.
     
The State Comptroller composed the report in 2008, after it was ordered by the State Control Committee in the Knesset. The committee sought to examine the conduct of government authorities following the construction work carried out by the Waqf on the Temple Mount. The Waqf, the Muslim trust that is custodian of the Temple Mount, carried out the construction in order to repair a power line, which included the digging of a 1.5-meter-deep trench at the heart of the site.
     
The maintenance work was carried out despite the damage that was done to Temple Mount antiquities in 1999 when the Waqf did construction work to allow for a new opening for the mosque in Solomon's Stables.

Various bodies, including the Public Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, claimed that the authorities were negligent when it came to preserving the antiquities and overseeing the construction carried out by the Waqf. The report includes damning conclusions regarding government authorities such as the Jerusalem Municipality, Israel Police, the Israel Antiquities Authority, and the government's legal adviser. The government requested that the report will not be published, which brought about claims from the political right that the government is using excuses such as security in order to avoid embarrassment...
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.565857