part0005

During this study, you will learn why I say this and of a secret plan to instigate it by building the Third Temple in Jerusalem. It’s happening right now behind the scenes in clandestine negotiations between global powers and religious leaders. These astonishing claims, regardless how incredible they may seem, will be unveiled over the course of this book.

Connected to all this, I will ultimately make the forceful argument that, when the time is right, US President Donald Trump will, as the rabbis in Israel hold, play a key role by speaking in favor of the Third Temple’s construction. When that happens, it will ignite the single most important and prophetic event in our lifetime. Unfortunately for those who at first find great joy in the Temple’s reconstruction, exuberance will be short-lived and will ultimately cave to terror.

On this order, did you know that:

These are just some of the revelations we will examine over the pages of this groundbreaking work, but suffice to say, since the 1980s, the Temple Movement has been steadily working in earnest to gather and prepare the critical elements and to even train the priesthood that will serve in this new religious complex seated in Jerusalem. The importance of these efforts throughout parts of the Orthodox Jewish community and machinations of global political interests will become clearer as we reveal the Temple’s role in what rabbis believe has already started—the first stage of the messianic process (Moshiach Ben Yosef, or “Messiah from the house of Joseph”), which is described as the practical and social precursor to the second stage of the Messiah’s appearing as Moshiach Ben David (“Messiah from the house of David”) that includes reinstitution of Temple services for the third and final sanctuary under a Davidic dynasty.

But, you may say, the Muslim Dome sits atop the Temple Mount over the very (ancient) spot where Jehovah’s Holy of Holies existed, and thus a Jewish Temple cannot be built, as it would start a world war if anybody tried to remove and replace the Al Aqsa Mosque, which rests on the far southern side of the Mount, facing Mecca, and/or the Dome of the Rock that currently sits in the middle where the Jews’ Holy Temple previously stood.

And yet, there are ways this substantial hurdle may soon be overcome.

For instance, a fault line near Jerusalem has been the cause of a half dozen major earthquakes over the last thousand years and may be strategically located to destroy the Islamic shrines at any point in time. Zechariah 14:3–4 reads:

Such a catastrophic event could wipe out the Muslim compound and provide a catalyst for rebuilding Solomon’s Temple (or a version of it as a global center for all faiths) under international (perhaps even United Nations) efforts. Recent quake activity throughout the Holy Land (some thirty tremors have shaken Israel this month alone as I write this chapter) [10] indicates that seismic activity could be building toward a prophetic eventuality. Reports in recent years have also featured scientific evidence and geological surveys warning that buildings in the Temple Mount area could be severely damaged if not demolished by an earthquake. The Associated Press, in what sounded particularly prophetic, reported, “Most at risk…is the Old City and the eleven-acre elevated plaza housing two major mosques, including the gold-capped Dome of the Rock. The site is known to Muslims as the Al Aqsa Mosque compound and to Jews as the Temple Mount—once home to the biblical Temples.” [11]

It is also entirely possible that an event such as an earthquake would not be required to bring about the dream of a new Temple in Jerusalem. The Middle East is a powder keg, and war with its missiles and bombs could take out the Islamic shrines in a single hour. Some claim the Muslim structures could even be intentionally targeted during a conflict as a way of facilitating the construction of a new Temple. Interestingly, the newest Mission: Impossible movie (Fallout ) depicts a renegade arms dealer named John Lark who works with a global gang of thugs called “The Apostles” who possess three containers of plutonium, which they plan to use to fulfill the very scenario first outlined in my best-selling books Petrus Romans and The Final Roman Emperor by bombing the Vatican, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and Mecca. In a recent Jerusalem Post article, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas charged that Israel is secretly planning to make that happen “to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to rebuild the Third Temple.” [12]

And then there is a third possibility involving how the Third Temple could be built. On June 18, 2009, it was announced in Jerusalem as a result of theological research that “a prophetic rabbi” could allow for an extension of the Temple Mount to be made, on which the third Jewish Temple could be constructed. In an article called “A New Vision for God’s Holy Mountain,” Ohr Margalit, rabbinical studies professor at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, wrote that “the scenario of a holy revelation given to an authentic prophet that the temple be rebuilt on the current or an extended Temple Mount in peaceful proximity to the Dome, Al Aqsa Mosque, and nearby Christian shrines” is all it would take to approve such a plan.

According to Jewish law…such a prophetic mandate would then be binding. It would also be in keeping with the words of the twelfth-century Jewish sage Maimonides that Christianity and Islam are part of God’s ultimate plan “to direct the entire world to worship God together.” Interestingly, Theodore Herzl, the preeminent secular Zionist, detailed the same vision for a rebuilt temple in peaceful proximity to Islamic and Christian shrines on what he called “the holy region of mankind.” [13]

As alluded in the bullet points earlier, due to the occult value or sacredness of the numerous elements surrounding Freemason versions of Solomon’s Temple (on which all Masonic lodges and ceremonial rituals are based), there has been an idea for some time that groups from among the Freemasons and illuminated fraternities intend to rebuild or to participate in the rebuilding of a glorious new Temple in Jerusalem fashioned after the one built by Solomon. Disclosure of this has occasionally reached the public’s ear. The Illustrated London News , August 28, 1909, ran a spectacular supplement detailing this goal. The article was titled, “The Freemason’s Plan to Rebuild Solomon’s Temple at Jerusalem.” Three years later, September 22, 1912, the New York Times published an outline by Freemasons to rebuild the Temple under the title, “Solomon’s Temple: Scheme of Freemasons and Opinions of Jews on Rebuilding.” By 1914, some publishers had begun adding unprecedented details, including a report that the land on which the Dome of the Rock now stands was secretly purchased and plans were already under design for the construction of the third and final Temple. Researchers since have produced intelligence that a hushed collaboration is firmly in place, held back only against the right time, opportunity, and circumstances when exalted Freemasons and their associates will move with haste to reconstruct a new Temple, and then their messiah will pass through the golden Masonic portals of the Temple, announcing to the world that the universal savior of mankind has come (Apollo incarnate, Antichrist).

In addition to occultists, groups including the Temple Mount Faithful and the Temple Institute in Jerusalem are busy restoring and constructing the sacred vessels and vestments that will be used for service in the new Temple at the arrival of their “Messiah” (see http://www.templeinstitute.org). Students of Bible prophecy recognize the importance of such plans as signaling the coming of Antichrist. Old and New Testament Scriptures explain that a false Jewish messiah will appear, enthroning himself as God in the Temple in Jerusalem, but afterward, he will defile the holy place by setting up a sacrilegious object—perhaps an image of himself—in the Temple and ordering the sacrifices and offerings to cease (see Daniel 9:27; 2 Thessalonians 2:3–4). For any of this to occur, it is necessary for the Temple to be rebuilt, thus making claims by Freemasons or other groups interested in fulfilling this monumental task highly suspect with regard to unfolding end-times events.

Whether or not circumstances will be sufficient to build the new Temple before America elects (or re-elects) its next president in 2020, what the rabbis in Israel believe Donald Trump started in 2016 may well have laid the foundation upon which this Man of Sin shall reign.

This raises a few serious questions.

Did God, who works all things together for good (see Romans 8:28), ordain the election of Donald Trump for a specific purpose and mission related to the Third Temple?

If so, did the year of his election—2016—hold specific prophetic significance? Did something start in 2016 like a clock winding down to this momentous event(s)?

“Those members of the clergy that laid hands on Trump and prayed at the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights, September 21, 2016 must have thought so,” I wrote in my book Saboteurs , “as did other prominent Christian leaders during the campaign and most of the clergy that offered invocations at his unforgettable inauguration. Some of these Christians trust in Trump’s statement of faith, while others simply see him as imperfect but chosen by God.”

I then connected the dots in Saboteurs between the year 2016 specifically and what prophets and seers down through time foresaw as related to that date in particular:

For instance, Dr. Lance Wallnau refers to Trump as God’s “chaos” president, a line he borrowed from Jeb Bush who had coined the phrase in describing Trump during the final Republican debate. Wallnau draws analogies between Trump and Cyrus “the Great,” the pagan Persian king that Isaiah prophesied by name 200-years in advance (Is. 44:28), saying he would conquer Babylon (happened in 539 BC), the waters of the Euphrates would “dry up” to make way for the army, the city’s gates would “not be shut,” and thereby the Jews would be liberated and return to Jerusalem where they would rebuild the temple, all of which happened just as the prophet foresaw many years in advance. According to Wallnau, Trump was chosen by God to similarly rescue America from its catastrophic alternative (Hillary) [and to initiate the building of the Third Temple]….

Curiously, Cyrus isn’t the only example of a pagan leader used by God to providentially influence the ancient Jewish nation. Nebuchadnezzar was also called “the Servant of the Most High God” and I understand why many modern believers prefer not to think about that example. Unlike Cyrus the deliverer, Nebuchadnezzar was the instrument of God’s chastisement against Judah, resulting in most of the people (approximately seventy thousand) being brought into captivity with desolation upon their land. This was the providence of God too, because they would not listen to His words (Jeremiah 25:8ff). The prophet Habakkuk bemoaned God using such a heathen to spank his own children, but God told him it was necessary and that Nebuchadnezzar would be dealt with later (Habakkuk 1:5-11; cf. Jeremiah 25:12ff).

Assyria and Babylon are two more examples of pagan entities used by God to correct His people after they had fallen into apostasy. The Assyrians went to war against Israel under Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings 15:29, 16:7–9), and again under Shalmaneser and Sargon all because they would not obey “the voice of Jehovah their God” (2 Kings 18:9–12).

These contrasting illustrations raise a serious question. If God did, through providence, choose Trump to become America’s president, is he our Cyrus (deliverer) or Nebuchadnezzar (agent of judgment)? I want to believe Trump was God’s way of putting His foot down on the socialist-globalist runaway agenda to allow a respite and opportunity for spiritual awakening in this country. But what if I’m wrong?

Speaking of Nebuchadnezzar, his example also illustrates how in times past God sometimes used pagans to utter divine insights. An amazing case in point is when God chose to reveal a prophecy spanning from 605 BC through the Second Coming of Christ to the arrogant, narcissistic, idol-worshipping Nebuchadnezzar. Of course, it required God’s holy servant, Daniel, to interpret the dream. Similarly, God used Balaam, a sorcerer hired by Balak, a Moabite king, who was exceedingly fearful of the encroaching multitude of Israelites. Accordingly, the king sent for Balaam, a darkened wizard who now lives in prophetic infamy (2 Peter 2:15; Jude 11; Revelation 2:14). Despite Balaam’s incorrigible status, God used him to prophesy, “I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel” (Numbers 24:17). Ronald Allen, professor of Hebrew Scripture at Western Baptist Seminary, writes, “In agreement with many in the early church and in early Judaism, we believe this text speaks unmistakably of the coming of the Messiah. That this prophecy should come from one who was unworthy makes it all the more dramatic and startling.” Thus, we see that God uses the most unlikely characters and situations to get His message across and work done. This Pethorian prophecy was well over one thousand years before the birth of Christ and from a hostile source, yet it is probably what led the magi to Bethlehem.

Another interesting thing about Trump and unlikely agents who lead wise men to Bethlehem is the mysterious and metaphysical logic some currently share involving God’s possible providence in the arrival of Trump as a “savior” figure. Nowhere is this language more pronounced than in the Holy Land itself where several respected rabbis and kabbalists have insinuated that America’s new president is a forerunner of Messiah and the final redemption.

Others, including Rabbi Matityahu Glazerson, who accurately predicted the Trump victory before the election using Bible codes, [15] have chimed in. Glazerson found various connections between Trump and moshiach (“messiah”) in the codes, which in Hebrew means “anointed,” and led Glazerson to conclude that his election is connected to the coming of Messiah.

Professor Weiss is a spokesman for the Sanhedrin and notes how Donald Trump made support for Israel and recognition of Jerusalem as their capital part of public discourse during 2016. Combining that with Putin’s expressed opinion that the Third Temple ought to be built now caused him to say that both men should do what King Cyrus did 2,500 years ago and build the religious complex for the benefit of all Jews and the world. “We are poised to rebuild the Temple,” Weiss said, and “the leaders of Russia and America can lead the nations of the world to global peace through building the Temple, the source of peace.” [17]

Rabbi Yosef Berger, who oversees King David’s tomb in Jerusalem, takes it a step farther. He believes Trump actually won the election through “the power of Moshiach [Messiah], which gave him the boost he needed” and is “connected to the Messianic process which is happening right now.” [18] , [19]

More recently, the Sanhedrin authorized the minting of two coins—the “Half Shekel Cyrus Trump Temple Coin,” and shortly thereafter, the “70 Years Israel Redemption Temple Coin,” both of which depict Donald Trump and the ancient Persian King Cyrus (who empowered the building of the Second Temple) on the front side with the Third Temple on the back.

In an article for Breaking Israel News , the reasons for the commemorative coins were tied specifically to the Trump administration as the catalyst for building the Third Temple. In fact, rabbis associated with the effort go so far as to say the success of Trump’s presidency depends on his efforts to initiate the building of the new Solomon-like house of worship.

“In gratitude to US President Donald Trump for recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Jerusalem, the nascent Sanhedrin and the Mikdash (Temple) Educational Center are minting a replica of the silver half-shekel Biblically mandated to be donated by every Jewish male to the Temple,” the report stated, before adding, “Rabbi Weiss stressed that Trump’s [US administration] goals will come to fruition only if they are geared towards rebuilding the Jewish Temple ” (emphasis added).

“Cyrus and Balfour, non-Jews who played an enormously important role in Jewish history fell short and their political success suffered as a result,” Rabbi Weiss said.

“Trump’s political agenda can only succeed if it is focused on building the Third Temple on the place that God chose: the Temple Mount. He must not advance any two-state solution or this will lead to his downfall.” [20]

To further stipulate the role that the rabbis see Trump divinely appointed to perform, the following amazing statement is published inside the official Sanhedrin sanctioned “70 Years Israel” Redemption Coin brochure:

President Trump is advancing a prophetic process that will usher in—when the time comes— the rebuilding of the Third Temple . It is as if he is following in the footsteps of King Cyrus who pronounced, after 70 years of Jewish exile, that: Hashem, the Lord of the World, charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem. (bold added)

All of this brings me to another important point involving messianic prophecies, political players, providence, the exact year of Trump’s election (2016), and the prophetic ramifications of where we may be headed.

In 2009 I released the book, Apollyon Rising, that was later updated and re-released as Zenith 2016 due to important information I came across after the initial publishing of the first version, which many consider my seminal work and magnum opus . I hope with the release of this book to find similar accolades, as I truly believe this to be the most important and timely research I’ve released since.

Besides having a full year in 2009 to travel, interview, and research related topics as well as taking the sabbatical I needed for the actual writing, what made Zenith unusual was the big question about why so many ancients—some from hundreds of years ago and some from much further back—foresaw the year 2016 specifically as the date when the Messiah, or, alternatively, the Antichrist, would manifest on earth, with most believing “his” presence would become known to a select few in 2016 but remain unrecognized by wider populations until slowly “he” is revealed for who and what he actually is at the appropriate time in the immediate years following. Even a major Sunni website set these dates years before Trump’s election after studying the ancient Quran and Hadith, saying: “Based on our numerical analysis…the official beginning of the End of Time and the coming of the Imam Mahdi [their messiah, but for others like Joel Richardson, the antichrist] will most likely be in…2016 and Jesus Christ will come down from Heaven to Earth in 2022.” [21]

Of all the most ancient prognosticators that intrigued me in Zenith for whom the year 2016 and the coming Third Temple appeared prophetically significant were as follows:

Widely considered the most important work of Jewish Kabbalah, the Zohar is a collection of books written in medieval Aramaic over seven hundred years ago containing mystical commentary on the Pentateuch (five books of Moses, the Torah). In addition to interpreting Scripture, the Vaera section (volume 3, section 34) includes, “The signs heralding Mashiach,” or, “The coming of the Messiah.” The fascinating date for “his” secret presentation to the rabbis in Israel was set in the Zohar for 2012–2013 (given the rejection of Jesus by Orthodox Jews as Messiah, evangelicals would say this seven-hundred-year-old prediction indicates the Antichrist could have arrived circa 2012–2013).

And, sure enough, on the heels of that date some of Israel’s foremost rabbis began behaving as if they know something the rest of the world does not involving the arrival of “Messiah.” In addition to the ones I quoted earlier in this chapter who believe the Messianic era has started, Chaim Kanievsky, one of Israel’s most prominent rabbis and a leader of the Haredi branch of Judaism and a recognized authority on Jewish law, has recently been warning his students not to leave the Holy Land, because, “The Messiah is already here. He will reveal himself very soon…. Don’t travel.” [22]

These same rabbis starting in 2016 using “messianic” and “Third Temple” language around the election of Donald Trump.

Ludwig Schneider, writing for Israel Today (March 2008), said, “Some 800 years ago in Germany, Rabbi Judah Ben Samuel was a top Talmudic scholar with an inclination for the mystical. Before he died in the year 1217, he prophesied that the Ottoman Turks would conquer Jerusalem and rule the Holy City for ‘eight Jubilee Years.’” A biblical Jubilee year consists of 50 years. Fifty multiplied by eight equals 400 years.

“According to Leviticus 25, the nation is reunited with its land in the year of Jubilee. Therefore, the Jubilee year plays an important role in Israel’s history. In this case, the Jubilee began with the defeat and conquest of the Mamelukes in Jerusalem by the Ottoman Kingdom in 1517. The Turks reigned over Jerusalem until the British General Edmund Allenby defeated them exactly eight Jubilees later in 1917.

“Ben Samuel’s prophecy was fulfilled precisely because 1517 to 1917 is exactly 400 years. Afterward, Jerusalem was a no-man’s land for 50 years during the time of the British Mandate (1917–1967) and the time of Jordanian rule (1947–1967), another Jubilee year. During the Six Day War in 1967, Israel captured Jerusalem from Jordan and the city returned to the Jewish people after nearly two millennia of exile. After that, the countdown for the Messianic age began.”

Among the turn-of-the-century Protestant reformers, an astonishing number of theologians believed that the False Prophet and Antichrist would assume places of authority in 2016 and shortly thereafter ascend the world stage. The famous preacher Jonathan Edwards was convinced of this possibility and held a postmillennial view based on the 1,260 days the woman is in the wilderness in Revelation 12:6. He interpreted those days as the years that the true Church was to be oppressed by the papists. Clarence Goen writes of this, “Edwards considered that the most likely time for the…reign of Antichrist was 1260 years after AD 756 (the acceding of temporal power to the Pope),” [24] which would place the (beginning) of Antichrist’s power squarely in 2016. When we were doing research for the book, Petrus Romanus: The Final Pope Is Here , we learned of this belief by Edwards and sought to verify it by examining a collection of his personal voluminous writings. We found confirmation within a series of his sermons, preached at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1739, on how history and prophecy coincide.

As we endeavored to demonstrate in Petrus Romanus , the pope’s rise to temporal power began when Pope Stephen began courting Pepin around 751 and then became a reality in 756 with the expulsion of the Lombards. We wrote how 756 placed the target sometime in 2016. Around that same time during our investigation, we became aware of a sermon collection from the 1800s, titled, “Lectures on the Revelation,” by the Reverend William J. Reid, pastor of First United Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which were given over a period ending in March of 1876. Like Jonathan Edwards had over a hundred years earlier, Reid deduced that the False Prophet and Antichrist would arrive sometime around 2016. Soon we uncovered numerous other ancient examples in which the year 2016 was specifically foreseen as when the False Prophet and the Antichrist would be on earth, followed by the destruction of Rome. These included: