(WND) - The International Temple Mount Awareness Day is being planned by a coalition of Jewish groups, including The Temple Institute, the Organization for the Renewal of the Temple (ORT), Women in Green, the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation and Israel National Radio.
"We call on Jews and Gentiles around the world to mark March 16th as a day of solidarity with the Temple Mount and the prophetic vision of 'a house of prayer for all nations,'" reads a statement from the organizers of the event...
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THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: This is how it's being sold to us. Christians are being told it's a human rights issue, and that it's not just about the Jews. We're being told the Temple Mount is for all of us, and that everyone (particularly Jews and Christian) should be able to pray there 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. We're being told that it's "unfair" that Muslims are allowed to pray there almost 24/7 and people of other religions are not.
What we're not being told is that it is the Israeli government that has made this arrangement, that it is the Israeli government that backs it, and it is the Israeli government that helps to enforce it. The policy that is so "unfair" to the Jews is in fact put upon them by their own supposed "Jewish" government. True, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Israeli police must make provision for public Jewish prayer on the site. However, the policy of banning all non-Muslims from the site on certain days originally came out of the Ariel Sharon administration. Israeli police continue to refuse to abide by the Supreme Court ruling due to safety concerns. Notice however, the Supreme Court ruling doesn't necessarily deal with Christian or adherents of other religions. Rather, it deals specifically with Jews and their supposed "right" to organize public prayer on the Temple Mount site.
What we have here is a covert attempt by certain Zionists to co-opt Christians (and others) into pressuring their own government into implementing a Supreme Court ruling that primarily deals with not only letting Jews onto the Temple Mount 24/7 but also organize public prayer there. One of the reasons why Palestinian Muslims are so hostile toward letting non-Muslims (particularly Jews) pray on the Temple Mount during Jewish holy days (Sabbath, Passover, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles, Hanukkah, etc.) is the fear that over time the Jews will co-opt the site and pave the way for the rebuilding of the Temple itself. Of course Muslims don't want this for fear of how that might interfere with Islamic worship on the site, and how it further stakes the Jewish claim on the Temple Mount, Jerusalem and the Palestinian West Bank. What the Muslims see in this, coupled with expanded Jewish settlements in the Palestinian West Bank, is a Zionist strategy of relentless incrementalism.
Now 'The Catholic Knight' is not taking the side of the Muslims here. I could care less about their silly mosque on that arid hilltop and what goes on inside there. It is built on the site that God judged and destroyed nearly 2,000 years ago, using a Pagan Roman army as punishment upon the Jewish leaders of that time, for the rejection of their Messiah, HIS Only Begotten Son, and the gospel preached by his apostles. Upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Temple ceased to be a place of authentic worship of God. While the Jews of that time attempted to worship God in that Temple, God himself was actually hanging on a cross outside the city walls - despised and rejected. God gave the Jewish leaders forty years (one Biblical generation) to repent of this. They failed to do so. Instead they rebelled against their Roman occupiers demanding independence. Convinced that God would rise up to help them as he did for the Maccabeans centuries before, they believed themselves capable of defeating the Roman army. God rose up all right, on the side of the Pagan Romans, and revisited his people once again in the form of judgment and destruction. The purpose was to put an end, once and for all, to the sacrificial system set up under the Old Covenant, so as to chide future generations of Jews into accepting the permenant sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Rebuilding the Temple Mount into another symbol of rejection of the true Messiah has always been the goal of many Jewish leaders throughout history, and history tells us they have been willing to collaborate with literally ANYONE to make it happen. Perhaps one of their greatest allies was the Pagan Roman emperor "Julian the Apostate." In AD 363, Julian agreed to help the Jews rebuild the Temple because he (as a Pagan) understood how it's very presence undermined the Christian gospel message, and created confusion about the legitimacy of Jesus Christ's claim to be the Jewish Messiah - and therefore by extension anybody's Messiah! Interestingly enough, God had other plans. As work on the foundation began, strange "balls of fire" (probably methane gas eruptions from seismic activity) continually burst forth from the rocks, scorching workers and bringing construction to a stand still. Eventually the work was abandoned. Some 1,500 years later another emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, agreed to help the Jews rebuild their Temple for similar reasons as Julian the Apostate. However, a little military defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in June of 1815 put an end to that plan. Of course the rabbis have a saying that "coincidence is not a kosher word" and for Christians there ought to be a lesson in these historical events. What is that lesson? It's simple really. God DOES NOT want the Jewish Temple rebuilt! God knows it will be used as a means to undermine the Gospel message and ultimately create a false religion that claims to worship HIM, but in reality rejects HIS Only Begotten Son, and therefore rejects HIM by extension.
In the video above, and the story cited as well, please pay special attention to the pitch line. Worship on the Temple Mount, and later of course the rebuilt Temple itself, is not just a "Jewish thing." According to the Zionist pitch men, it's for ALL PEOPLE - everyone - to become a central place a worship and a conduit if you will, between the human and the divine. Stop and think about that for a second. Exactly what are they saying? They're saying the Temple Mount and their rebuilt Temple (not Jesus Christ) is to become the conduit (or mediator) between God and man. Is this not the ultimate heresy for a Christian? Can this be anything else but apostasy?
As if that were not bad enough, there is more. Already the ancient Jewish Sanhedrin has been reformed (learn more here), and with it a new extension of Judaism has been created for Gentiles called Noahidism (learn more here). It's based on the Biblical account of the covenant between God and Noah after the Great Flood. The gist of this new religion is simple. Noahidism is for Gentiles, while Judaism is for Jews. Of course Jews have the more difficult covenant to keep with 613 commandments. While Gentiles (under Noahidism) need only keep 7 commandments. Of course, this makes it easier for Gentiles to be accepted and categorized in a purely Jewish context. Under Noahidism, a Muslim could theoretically be accepted as a Noahide. The same could be said for Deists or Theists, which is what most non-religious Westerners espouse as their most common belief in divinity. Of course Noahidism would also be very compatible with Freemasonry. However, a doctrinally orthodox Christian could not be accepted as a Noahide because of his belief in the Trinity, which allegedly violates the Noahide command to worship only God, and of course God is defined by the rabbinical Talmud. Theoretically, a Jehovah's Witness could be a Noahide, but not a Catholic or a Protestant. All that aside, what is really interesting is how this plays out once the Temple is rebuilt, because you see there would have to be different courtyards on the Temple Mount separating Jews from Noahides. Can you see a religious caste system developing here? It's similar to what existed during Jesus' time, and in the centuries before, wherein practicing Jews held a more privileged position in the Temple than God fearing Gentiles, no matter how devout they were.
Christian prophecy makes it clear that the Jewish Temple will not be successfully rebuilt until the last days of the end times just before the bodily Return of Jesus Christ. Historically speaking, every previous attempt to rebuild the Temple has resulted in disaster, postponement or cancellation for various reasons. Christian prophecy also indicates that when the Temple is rebuilt, it will be used by the final Antichrist (a Jewish messianic figure) to lead the world into total rejection of Jesus Christ and outright rebellion against God's plan. Unless we are to believe the coming of Antichrist is right around the corner, we can only conclude that this latest Zionist attempt, to reclaim the Temple Mount and rebuild the Temple, will only result in disaster. While we may now have the framework for the final last days scenario, there are still some key end times prophecies that must be fulfilled first...
- The world's economic and political power base must shift to the middle east.
- The Gospel must be preached to every corner of the world and made widely available for anyone to accept. Nations all over the whole world must be converted.
- Sometime after this, there must be a worldwide apostasy of Gentile Christians. (What we have right now is only a regional apostasy in the western world, as Christian missionary work in Africa and Asia is booming!)
So we should keep in mind that ANY Christian cooperation with Jews on the Temple Mount project will only result in cooperating with an anti-Christian agenda. Right now the Zionists are preparing to fool the world into believing the situation on Jerusalem is a human rights issue that affects people of all religions. It does not. There is no religious reason for Christians to worship on the Temple Mount on any day of the year. Likewise, the rabbis have created a religious system in the Talmud that allows Judaism to function as a religion even without the Temple Mount, or even the Temple itself. Their innability to worship there when they want to is not our problem, nor is it any kind of priority for Christians to get involved in. The Israeli Jews are contending with THEIR OWN government on this issue. In other words, it's an internal problem within the Jewish world, and Christians should stay out of it.
As a general rule of thumb, Christians should avoid all matters relating to Zionism, as it is by definition a movement against the Spirit of God. Evangelical Protestants in the United States are quick to point to Israeli military victories, such as the Six-Day War an the Yom Kippur War, as "signs" of God's blessing on the Israeli state and an indication that God wants Christians to support Zionism. However, they fail to point out that Israel has been in a state of perpetual war against Muslim regimes and sects for almost the entire duration of it's existence, and did not have such golden success in the Israeli-Lebanon War in recent years. To claim that military victory is tantamount to God's blessing is arrogant and stupid. So was God blessing the Pagan Roman Empire when he allowed it to destroy the Jewish nation in 70 AD? Was God blessing Russia when he allowed it victory over the tiny nation of Georgia recently? Was God blessing Germany when he allowed it to take over Bravaria? Was God blessing England when he allowed it to take over Northern Ireland? Was God blessing Vietnam when he allowed the Communists to defeat the Americans? Was God blessig North Korea when he allowed the Communists to keep American forces in the South? The list goes on and on, and I think I've made my point. Military victory does not equate God's blessing on a regime. What it means is that God has allowed that regime to survive for now (either to his liking or not) for reasons related to this providencial plan.
Zionism, in all it's forms, leads to an anti-Christian gospel, because it's ultimate design is to rebuild a Jewish nation and the Jewish Temple against the will of God. If you're a Christian, especially a Catholic Christian, then you're supposed to believe salvation comes through Jesus Christ for all people, especially the Jews. If you're a Christian, especially a Catholic Christian, then you should understand why God has been dealing with his people (the Jews) the way he has for the last 2000 years. He is trying to chide them into understanding that Jesus of Nazereth is their Messiah. If you're a Christian, especially a Catholic Christian, then you should understand that any effort to restore the ancient Temple and it's ceremonies is counterproductive to that end. If you're a Christian, especially a Catholic Christian, then you should know that if the Zionists are successful in obtainig their goals, it will only serve to confuse many Christians regarding the nature of Christ's sacrifice, and will become a counterpoint to Christian missionary work if potential converts think their is another (seemingly simplier) way of approaching the God of Israel through Noahidism and the restored Temple. If you're a Christian, especially a Catholic Christian, then you must understand that any support of Zionist goals is counterproductive to the missionary work of the Church and may possibly be a mortal sin.
So what should be the Christian attitude toward Zionism, the Temple Mount campaigns, and the Nation of Israel itself? Well, probably the best thing Christians can do is just be Christians. We should be indifferent toward Zionist political goals, and Muslim counter resistence to them. Rather we should simply recognize that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the ONLY real solution to all of these problems, and we should show love and respect toward both Muslims and Jews without endorsing or supporting their political agendas.
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