
Let's talk for just a moment the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. I might (if there is any interest) bring some documentary evidence to say what I believe, but I think that there are some sharp rabbis in Jerusalem right now who have recognized the truth.
The Islamic "Dome of the Rock" (Qubbat al-Sakhra) is believed to be built on top of Israel's (and actually Yahweh's) most holy site on Planet Earth. Muslims always did that by the way. If they found a church or Temple having anything to do with Christianity or Judaism, they would take claim to it (basically religious squatters) trying to show that their Allah was greater than Yahweh or Yeshua. Sorry, but Allah is not even close to Yahweh even though they say that they serve the God of Abraham... NOT TRUE.
Allah is a bastardized religious mixture of the ancient Arabic Desert Warrior's Religion which worshipped the Moon God (Allah) who was married to the sun goddess (very primitive pagan religion based in demonic worship), and certain stars (who were goddesses also) were his daughters. This is why you see the crescent moon as the Islamic religious symbol. It is pre-Islam and goes to when they served the moon god of war. There is a whole pantheon originally in the ancient religion, which is why you see many times the crescent moon (and sometimes the full moon within it showing his many sides-the man in the moon is this idol) and the stars, his daughters of which Ishtar (Ashtoreth and Venus, etc. in different cultures) is included.
Muhammed just took their religion a little farther in order to be real competition to the expanding church and Christian Influence and of course in opposition to their "OLD ENEMY", Israel who were the children of promise from Isaac. That old blood feud from Ishmael to Isaac had never been forgotten and the resentment Arabs felt for the promised race of Israel and the true God of Abraham was strong. They already believed that Allah the Moon God was the strongest of all the other "gods", so Muhammed did this: He told them that Allah wasn't just the strongest, that he was the only god. Then he told them that this is the same "God" that their father Abraham had served (LIE), and that now Allah was having them wage Jihad to convert all into believers to Islam (Peace through submission), and to murder all Infidels who dared not believe this HERETICAL MIXED PAGAN RELIGION of Muhammed. Okay, now having said all of that...
The point is that the Muslims thought they were pushing the nose of the Jews and Christians into the dirt when they built the Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhra - think this is the last time I will look that name up to copy). BUT THE DOME OF THE ROCK IS NOT ON THE TRUE TEMPLE MOUNT.
HERE IS THE IRONY: Jesus said in Matthew 24:1-2 that not one stone that they saw of this great fortress, the Temple (Herod's Temple technically) would be left upon the other and that it would all be destroyed, which it was in A.D. 70, over 35 years later.
Matthew 24:1-2 (NKJV) 1 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. 2 And Jesus said to them, "Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down."
There are some problems with this. The FIRST PROBLEM IS THAT THE WAILING WALL ARE STONES LEFT UPON ANOTHER even after the Roman Destruction by Titus in A.D. 70 and the later Byzantine destruction. These problems are compounded when you look at what has been written about the Temple both in the Bible and other sources about its location in trying to make it the same place where the "WAILING WALL" still stands and the Dome of the Rock as being the correct location. The sad, sad, sad, sad irony is that Jews have gone and cried to God (nothing wrong with that), but they have gone to a "place" where they thought a few stones of this Temple still stood and it isn't even the right structure. That doesn't mean that God has not heard them, for I believe God has heard. And though it has given them a place to have unity in seeking God's face, they are still doing it in the wrong place and the Holy of Holies was not near where they think it is.
THE JOKE IS ON THE MUSLIMS WHO THOUGHT THEY WERE OVERCOMING THE JEWS by putting the Dome of the Rock on top of where they thought the Temple stood, and they were WRONG! Yes, I said that they were wrong! Why is everyone convinced this is the right place? Note that I can bring more if anyone wants it, but there are a "number" of archaeologists and Jewish and Christian Scholars who have been amazed to find that the location is not on the high place (high places are more for pagan altars, which fits Allah, the Moon God) where they think it is. Guess what the stones of the wailing wall are? Oh, go ahead and guess. It was a very important (politically and militarily, but not religiously) structure in Jesus' day. What fortified structure would be at the very high point of the city? THE FORTRESS OF ANTONIA. Yes, the very fortress where the Roman Guard was housed is where the Muslims built their shrine and that structural wall that supported it is the Wailing Wall. I am sure that it has become a place (the Wailing Wall that is) that is precious to God for this is where much of Israel still comes to seek Yahweh's face in mourning. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem... for Jesus Christ is soon to come and bring that peace and in that day, all of Israel shall be saved. He who endures to the End, the same shall be saved!
Where did the confusion come from? Now remember that Jerusalem had been razed several times by both Roman and Byzantine Armies by the time they thought they had found the site of the ancient Temple of Yahweh. The Romans literally left no stone on top of another and burned it all as Jesus had predicted. In fact, many of the stones were carted off because the gold from the Temple burned so hot that it melted onto the stones, so the golden-covered stones were removed from Jerusalem. The highest point was the site of the Roman Fortress of Antonia. There was a great "flood" of people (diaspora) as the Jews were forced to leave and run into all the world away from their promised and "given by God" home. By the time that the Muslims took the city and started looking around in A.D. 700, there was confusion of the actual site. They thought they found it, but was wrong. So, what happened?
After the Temple was quite literally destroyed in 70, Roman Emperor Hadrian in A.D. 135 filled in the area under the current area accepted as the Temple Mount Site with about 50 feet of earth so that he could build this huge Temple to Jupiter (talk about blasphemy). He wanted to put Jupiter's Temple on the site where Solomon's Temple once stood. It seems there is a need by Satan's religions to try and get one better on the True and Living God. So the area of the true Temple has been covered by dirt to extend the hill above it so that the other structure could be built upon it level with the earlier structures (fortress).
Then comes Constantine. Constantine (along with some confusion that Hadrian caused in doing earth-moving landscaping to build his pagan temple) had assumed that Hadrian had built the Temple of Jupiter on top of Solomon's Temple. Understand, hundreds of years had now passed since the actual Temple had been broken completely down. Constantine then built an octagon-shaped church on top of the Jupiter Temple's ruins thinking that this is where the original temple stood in trying to rededicate the site to God, and also through a church... the worship of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It was understandable, but he got the wrong place. In A.D. 700, the Muslims found the octagon stone foundation of Constantine's church and assumed they had found the Temple Site. The rest you can put together... they built their own mosque and the Dome of the Rock bringing their own mythos to bear trying to overcome the truth. BUT THEY BUILT IT ON THE WRONG SITE. SOMETIMES IT SEEMS THAT GOD LETS MAN RUN AROUND THINKING HE KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING, AND IN THE END GOD WINDS UP BRINGING HIS WILL REGARDLESS OF WHAT PUNY MAN HAS PUT SO MUCH EFFORT IN STOPPING.
See, the Bible makes it clear that the Temple will be rebuilt, and by the middle of the Tribulation, it will be built and taken over by the Antichrist and his peace keeping forces after a horrific world war and invasion by Islamic Countries and Russia (Magog). Revelation 11:1-2 (NKJV) "1 Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, "Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there. 2 But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months. "
This is going to happen, and the Levitical Priesthood has already been trained today and they have even been building the "holy furniture" that will go into the Temple (which is kind of frightening when you consider what they are planning). It is believed by some that a few know where the true Ark and the rest of the furniture of the Temple is hidden and waiting for the day (soon) when they can bring it out in a rebuilt temple (which the Antichrist will take over and even have an interactive virtual version of himself sitting in that temple and that all will see on their phones, computers, tvs, and anytime they want to buy or sell anything) from the middle of the Tribulation until Jesus Christ returns on the Day of the Lord at Armageddon! Revelation 13:15-18 (NKJV) " 15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666. "
Quickly ending this (I have to go continue to study for Sunday School tomorrow), why do I (and more and more these days) think that they have the wrong site besides what I have already given? First, the site of the Temple was where David bought the Threshing Floor... remember? 2 Samuel 24:18-25 (NKJV) " 18 And Gad came that day to David and said to him, "Go up, erect an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." 19 So David, according to the word of Gad, went up as the LORD commanded. 20 Now Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. So Araunah went out and bowed before the king with his face to the ground. 21 Then Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" And David said, "To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people." 22 Now Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing implements and the yokes of the oxen for wood. 23 All these, O king, Araunah has given to the king." And Araunah said to the king, "May the LORD your God accept you." 24 Then the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25 And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel. "
The barn where the threshing floor was was not on the very top of the mountain, but they were built in the valleys underneath the tops of the mountains. They were high enough to catch the wind to blow the chaff away, but were built on the more stable gentle valleys underneath.
There are some very strong ideas about where the actual site is. Research it... but the original temple was not left intact at all, and that includes the Wailing Wall. The mountain range there of Moriah is correct, and they are in the neighborhood.
Ezekiel 43:4-9 (NKJV) " 4 And the glory of the LORD came into the temple by way of the gate which faces toward the east. 5 The Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the temple. 6 Then I heard Him speaking to me from the temple, while a man stood beside me. 7 And He said to me, "Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. No more shall the house of Israel defile My holy name, they nor their kings, by their harlotry or with the carcasses of their kings on their high places. 8 When they set their threshold by My threshold, and their doorpost by My doorpost, with a wall between them and Me, they defiled My holy name by the abominations which they committed; therefore I have consumed them in My anger. 9 Now let them put their harlotry and the carcasses of their kings far away from Me, and I will dwell in their midst forever. "
Perhaps more later... this is all the time that I can take on it for today.
James
