© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com

WEDNESDAY
AUGUST 1
2001

Every year, it seems, I write that title, and every year the same copy follows it. This year, the only thing significantly different is that the Arabs aren't claiming the uprising was "spontaneous." In fact, the PA-controlled media and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem had begun preparing for this uprising weeks in advance.

A group of religious Jews attempt to place a cornerstone for a Third Temple on Temple Mount. Every year, Gershon Salomon applies for the necessary permits from the Israeli government. Every year, his group is refused permission. Salomon's group, known as the Temple Mount Faithful, carries the four-ton cornerstone as close as they are allowed to go.

And each year, huge rocks and chunks of concrete rain down on the worshippers at the Western Wall from 70 feet above.

The event takes place during the fast of Tisha B'av, the day of mourning for the destructions of the First and Second Temples on that date. It was also the anniversary of the deportation of the Jews from England in 1290 and Spain in 1492.

There is a specific irony in that Gershon Salomon, of all Israelis, should be denied access to the Temple Mount by his own government. Gershon Salomon was among those who captured the Temple Mount area during the 1967 War.

Gershon Salomon is widely regarded as the leader of a fringe element, but his is a remarkable story. A 10th generation sabra¸ he served in every war since 1948 when he was still a child. He was wounded during a battle with the Syrians in 1958. Salomon was accidentally run over by an Israeli tank. It folded him backward, breaking his spine. He learned to walk again on crutches, and, during the Six Days War, to fight on them. It was on those crutches that Salomon participated in the battle to capture the Temple nine years later. And on those crutches that he became one of the first Jews to set foot on Temple Mount in nearly 2000 years.

Salomon is an ardent Israeli nationalist – no doubt about it. But what makes him a "fringe" nationalist is the reason for his patriotism. Salomon believes he was chosen by God to build the Third Temple of Israel. He believes he must accomplish it in this generation because this is the generation in which the Messiah will come.

Salomon bases his beliefs on Old Testament prophecy. He argues that there are three Biblical conditions for the coming of the Messiah and the redemption of Israel:

• the re-gathering of Jews to the Land of Promise;
• the foundation of Israeli State; and
• the rebuilding of the Temple.

Two of three prophecies have been fulfilled. His group intends to bring about the fulfillment of the third. Then, he argues, the Messiah will come.

I admire Gershon Salomon for his great faith and commitment to what he believes is God's call for him. It is true that the three conditions he names above are necessary predicted events that have to take place before the Messiah comes. But I have to disagree with Salomon on the significance of the fulfillment of these events. The rebuilding of temple is not the cause of the Messiah's coming. It is an essential part of the world conditions that must exist at the time just before Messiah's coming. But the temple will not be His temple. It will be a false Temple that will be destroyed when the Messiah returns. According to Hebrew prophecy, the Messiah Himself will build the true Temple, after He comes.

The well-meaning Israelites that rebuild this coming temple will be double-crossed by a person known in prophecy as the Antichrist who apparently negotiates the political conditions for it to be rebuilt. The Prophet Daniel and the Apostles Paul and John all predict that the Antichrist will cause the normal sacrifices and offerings to cease after three and a half years in order to set up an image of himself in the holiest place of the Temple. This is technically called in Hebrew prophecy "The Abomination of Desolation."

I have been questioned in the past as to why I am so interested in the rebuilding of the Temple. The answer is that it absolutely must be rebuilt to set the stage for the climactic events that will bring Jesus the Messiah back. The return of the Israelites to the land and the rebirth of the state of Israel were the beginning of the prophetic signs that have come together into a precisely predicted scenario. The beginning of the rebuilding of the Temple will be one of the final predicted signs that signal the Messiah's coming is only a little more than seven years away. It will also mean that those who have come to a personal faith in Jesus Christ are about to blast off into another realm.

Many preparations have already been done by groups like the Temple Mount Faithful and the Temple Institute. Most of the intricate furniture for the Temple has already been made. Priests have been trained in the precise Mosaic method of offering the various sacrifices. Plans for rapidly building the Temple have been prepared.

All this, along with the fact that a man of the caliber of Gershon Salomon believes that God has called him to rebuild the Temple in this generation, shows us just how breathtakingly close the Messiah's coming must be.