According to Bible prophecy, the event that will clearly mark the start of the Antichrist?s seven-year reign is the signing of a pact or ?covenant?: ?He [the Antichrist] shall confirm a covenant with many for one week [seven years]? (Daniel 9:27a). Because the pact is called a ?holy covenant? in Daniel 11:28-30, it appears to have something to do with religion or religious rights.
One widely held view is that the covenant will, in part, make it possible for the Jews to rebuild their Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. The rebuilding of the Temple is an important Endtime event because it is crucial to the fulfillment of other key Bible prophecies, some of which also involve the ancient Jewish practice of blood offerings, which can only be carried out in the Temple in Jerusalem. (Blood offerings ceased in 70 AD, when the Romans razed the last Temple.)
There is now a drive in Israel and among Jews worldwide, spearheaded by the Temple Institute situated in Old Jerusalem, to rebuild the Temple as illustrated by the article bellow.
— Joseph Candel
In a recent documentary a leading rabbi in Jerusalem says that he believes the next Jewish temple will be rebuilt on the Temple Mount in his lifetime and he says everything is ready to build that temple today.
Rabbi Nachman Kahane, the rabbi who has guided many Jewish students of the Scriptures on the subject of the temple has been the main source of serious study and preparations to build the Jewish temple basically because that is what the Bible calls for from the religious Jews.
In Rabbi Kahane’s Yeshiva, which is a place of learning for Jewish young men, the rabbi trained all the leaders of this effort to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and it was his students that started the Temple Institute who has accumulated all the implements for the next temple and train the men to operate that temple.
All the preparations have been made to rebuild the next Jewish temple in Jerusalem which is in essence a page out of Bible prophecy for the end of times. Twenty years ago I sat with Rabbi Nachman Kahane as he was beginning his quest to rebuild the Jewish temple in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount.
Now twenty years later the rabbi believes that the temple will indeed be rebuilt in his lifetime. That is a quote from the rabbi on a documentary released on the subject that shows the rabbi plus many others who also agree that the temple could be standing in Jerusalem in the very near future.
Rabbi Yehuda Glick, the former head of the Temple Institute, says even the priestly garments are ready and the temple will stand in full operation very soon. Rabbi Chaim Richman, who is the leading authority on the red heifer, says the temple will be built at the spot of the original site of the Garden of Eden which he says is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Rabbi Yoel Keren says that there will be a Jewish temple in Jerusalem that follows the details in Ezekiel 40-46 but first the Jewish people will build a less extravagant temple as they did when the Second Temple was rebuilt 2500 years ago. The priests have been trained, the implements made to operate the temple, even the Menorah, the seven branched candelabra, and there are ten stringed harps for the Levites to play as called for by King David in I Chronicles 23:5.
Since the geneologies have been destroyed for almost 2000 years, how does anyone know if they are from the line of Aaron in order to perform the priestly duties? That’s impossible.
The whole of the Biblical Scriptures and Biblical Theology strongly leans against a rebuilt third temple. The desire for a new temple is a smack in the face to the work of Christ and shows little regard or concern for the people who would be caught up in false temple worship. Instead of showing concern for the Jewish people, this and other areas of dispensationalism simply make them pawns in a fantasy game of what appears to be fictional theology. Not only is the idea of a rebuilt temple theologically problematic, it is politically problematic and would increase tensions between Jews and Muslims. Christians should stop letting highly questionable theology guide their opinions and views of Jews and Arabs and their desired approaches to public and foreign policy.
What will happen in Jerusalem?and on the Temple Mount, in particular?is the subject of several key prophecies in the Bible about the days in which we are living. In order to understand current events and know what to expect next, it?s important to understand these prophecies that deal specifically with the Temple Mount.
When Jesus told His disciples what signs would lead up to His Second Coming, He referred to a prophecy in the Old Testament book of Daniel, written over 500 years earlier: ?When you see the ?abomination of desolation,? spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place ? then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be? (Matthew 24:15,21).
The prophecy Jesus was referring to says: DANIEL.11:31 And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength (Temple), and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.
What Jesus called the ?holy place? and Daniel called the ?sanctuary of strength,? is the Jewish Temple area & Jewish Temple.
?Daily sacrifices? refers to the ritual of Jewish faith in which the blood or flesh of a specified animal is offered in the Temple to God as a substitute payment for sin. This primary ritual of the Jewish faith was suspended when the second Temple was destroyed.
The Jews have not sacrificed animals to God since their Temple was last destroyed in 70 A.D., and the only place where they would consider resuming sacrificial worship is on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem?the site now occupied by the Muslims? Dome of the Rock.
Before the Antichrist can take away the daily sacrifices, sacrifices must resume. Before the sacrifices can resume, there must be a Jewish Temple. For the Temple to be rebuilt, something has got to give. Either the Dome of the Rock must come down, or the Jews must agree to rebuild their Temple elsewhere?possibly on another part of the Temple Mount. With both sides refusing to budge on the issue of sovereignty over the Temple Mount, it would take a superman to broker a deal. Enter the Antichrist!
Paul also mentions the Temple, ?Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day [the Second Coming of Jesus Christ] will not come unless ? the man of sin [the Antichrist] is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God? (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). This is another key passage showing that the Temple will be built again.
For more information about the Temple Mount go to the templeinstitute website http://www.templeinstitute.org.
By the way regarding genealogies, who?s to say that individual Jewish families can?t trace their roots back to Aaron? This could be handed down from generation to generation, because of strong religious beliefs & there?s the possibility of other birth records besides the Bible?s genealogies. But the main point is, there?s enough evidence pointing that the Jewish Temple will be rebuilt a third time as mentioned in endtime Bible Prophecy. In fact this event will temporarily bring peace among the Jews & Palestine/Arabs as it will be a big compromise on both sides & the Jerusalem problem will also temporarily be resolved. So a political & religious compromise deal is coming.
Good! Certain… GBY, Joseph!
As far as knowing whether there are priestly families still around descended from the Levites:
Many Westerners mostly know of Jews who lived in Eastern Europe(Ashkenazi Jews) before moving throughout the western world and some to Israel. Most of the Jews who have Russian/German/Yiddish last names would hardly be able to trace a genealogy back further than a few hundred years.
There are however ancient Jewish communities that never left the middle east that had genealogies traced back to two thousand four hundred years. Ancient Synagogues in Baghdad(Iraq), Aleppo(Syria), Cairo(Egypt), Djerba(Tunisia), Esfahan and Tehran(Iran) had ancient family trees and birth records.
Certain Jewish families from Iraq and Iran can trace their family trees back two thousand years easily because their ancestors hardly left those middle eastern cities since the Babylonian carrying away into captivity.
From 1949 till 1951 almost the entire Iraqi Jewish population that resided in Iraq since Babylonian times moved to Israel. From the late 1970s onward most Iranian Jews moved to Israel as well.
The majority of Israeli Jews are of Middle Eastern Jewish heritage and NOT European heritage(and most Jews in France are of Middle Eastern/North African heritage).
It is not difficult to imagine that certain Iraqi, Syrian, Iranian, Egyptian Jewish families can trace ancestry to Levite priests.
Especially the Iraqi Jews and Iranian Jews. Most of them are in Israel now.
Thanks Chris for sharing this as it was very helpful & interesting!