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.
