part0013

Such an action seems impossible at present. To destroy that shrine of Islam would bring immediate, worldwide, Muslim rage and, likely, war against Israel. The question has also been raised: Will the Dome fall as the result of an act of God—i.e., an earthquake or some other even more dramatic event?

A principal authority within the organization said the following:

“God’s Holy Mountain Vision” project hopes to defuse religious strife by showing that Jews’ end-of-days vision could harmoniously accommodate Islam’s present architectural hegemony on the Temple Mount…. This vision of religious shrines in peaceful proximity can transform the Temple Mount from a place of contention to its original sacred role as a place of worship shared by Jews, Muslims and Christians. [115]

The program, including interfaith studies and educational programs of various sorts, is sponsored by the Interfaith Encounter Association at the Mishkenot Sha’ananim’s Konrad Adenauer Conference Center in Jerusalem.

The Dome of the Rock, according to Islam, covers the rock from which Muhammed ascended to Heaven. Jewish tradition has it that the Dome of the Rock now covers the stone on Mount Moriah where the First and Second Temples’ Holy of Holies sat.

Until recently, Jewish tradition held that the Dome of the Rock would have to be somehow removed in order to construct a Third and final Temple in its proper location. However, an alternative position emerged when a young scholar named Frankel presented the idea that Jewish doctrine regarding the rebuilding of the Temple emphasizes the role of a prophet, which puts forth a different option than the traditional. His work was presented in an article that appeared in 2007 in Tehumin , an influential journal of Jewish law.

This prophet would have almost supernatural authority, including the discretion to stipulate exactly where the Temple will be situated. The prophet would have this authority no matter what other Jewish tradition involved in the matter of Temple reconstruction might specify.

Frankel formed this belief based upon a supernatural, holy revelation being given to a genuine prophet saying that the Temple will be rebuilt on the present Temple Mount or extended area that is in peaceful proximity to the Dome of the Rock and other structures of prayer, such as the Aksa Mosque and nearby Christian shrines. Muslims and Jews alike have raised opposition to the idea, however. Founder of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Abdulla Nimar Darwish, stated that it was pointless to conjecture about things that would take place when the Mahdi, the Muslim messiah, comes upon the scene (you can learn the important facts regarding Mahdi’s connection to the return of Jesus and the Third Temple in our book The Final Roman Emperor, the Islamic Antichrist, and the Vatican’s Last Crusade ).

Darwish said in a telephone interview with the Jerusalem Post : “Why are we taking upon ourselves the responsibility to decide such things? Even Jews believe that it is prohibited to rebuild the Temple until the messiah comes. So what is there to talk about. The mahdi will decide whether or not to rebuild the Temple. If he decides that it should be rebuilt, I will go out to the Temple Mount and help carry the rocks.”

He warned that any attempt to rebuild the Temple before the coming of the Mahdi would mean trouble. “As long as there is a Muslim alive, no Jewish Temple will be built on Al-Haram Al-Sharif [the Temple Mount]. The status quo must be maintained, otherwise there will be bloodshed.”

Perhaps presaging such trouble that would almost certainly arise, Baruch Ben-Yosef, chairman of the Movement to Restore the Temple, minced no words in expressing that the Temple had to be built where the Dome of the Rock presently stands. “Anybody who says anything else simply does not know what he is talking about,” he said. “A prophet does not have the power to change the law which explicitly states the location of the Temple.”

Ben-Yosef rejected the notion that rebuilding of the Temple had to be done by a prophet. “All you need is a Sanhedrin,” he said.

The Temple Mount came under Israeli control in 1967 following the 1967 Six Day War. Mainstream Orthodox rabbis have opposed attempts to rebuild the Temple since that time. A decree prohibiting Jews from entering the area because of matters involving purity was issued by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. Nonetheless, a number of fervently dedicated organizations have called to take steps to renew the sacrifices on the Temple Mount and rebuild the Temple.

These include such organizations as the Movement to Restore the Temple and outspoken rabbis, like Rabbi Israel Ariel, head of the capital’s Temple Institute and a top cleric within the revived Sanhedrin, whose leader is Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz.

Temple intrigues continue to manifest while this generation moves more deeply into times nearer Christ’s return. Conditions surrounding God’s chosen people and His chosen nation are changing moment by moment. Attention of the entire world is drawn on an hourly basis toward the one spot on earth most focal in considering Bible prophecy.

This being the case, it is appropriate to ask: Do the Jewish people notice the lateness of the prophetic hour?

A remnant does, it seems. The following news report makes the point:

On Tuesday, the holiday of the Ninth of Av, a record-breaking 1,300 Jews ascended to the Temple Mount, turning a day of deepest mourning for the destruction of the Temples into a catalyst to bring the beginnings of the Third Temple.

“I know that if there had been an announcement on the radio to go up and build, thousands more Jews were ready for that,” Rabbi Yisrael Ariel , the Chief Rabbi of Hebron told Breaking Israel News of the awe-filled atmosphere on the Mount. [116]