Is a New Wave of Worldwide Terror at Hand?/Program 6

By: Dr. Jimmy DeYoung, Dr. Renald Showers; ©2004

The signs of the times. What is happening in Israel right now that’s also part of biblical Prophecy, the Jews’ desire to rebuild the third Temple. Jewish law says that the Temple, if it’s going to be rebuilt, it has got to be rebuilt on the site of its predecessors. It’s now occupied by two of Islam’s holiest shrines: the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Are we on a major collision course?

Contents

Introduction

Announcer: In the last few months, terrorist bombings are increasing. How far will they reach? Is America at risk?

Dr. Jimmy DeYoung: Well, that’s exactly what we’re seeing. And we see a non-tangible nation, a group of peoples—militant Islam, basically—rising up, involved in a war against those who are opposed to their philosophy of life, opposed to an Islamic rule that would control the entire world.

Announcer: One year has passed since the war in Iraq began. Is the Middle East a safer place?

Dr. Renald Showers: I think what a lot of people don’t realize, at least in the Western World, is what Islamic theology teaches—that once an area of the world has been ruled over by Muslim rulers, if some non-Muslim power drives out those Muslim rulers and confiscates that land, that’s a smack in the face, that’s a dishonor to their Muslim god, Allah, and so for the sake of their Muslim god and his honor, they’ve got to eliminate that non-Muslim power that’s occupying that land.

DeYoung: I live in that part of the world. Before this program is over, everything could start to happen. I mean, the stage is set. Every nation we’ve talked about—Syria, Egypt, Iran, Sudan, Russia, Libya, Turkey—they’re all in position to make their moves.

Announcer: Clashes also continue to erupt in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. World leaders understand this conflict must be solved or it could pull the whole world into war. Will a new Palestinian state bring peace, or set the basis for an even greater conflict?

Showers: If there is a separate, sovereign Palestinian state there, side by side with Israel, once that becomes a sovereign state, then Israel is going to have another problem. If the Palestinians are developing weapons to use against Israel, the world will say it’s a sovereign state; Israel has no right to invade a sovereign state to try to put a stop to what they’re doing or take those weapons away from them.

Announcer: Today on The John Ankerberg Show, my guests are news correspondent Dr. Jimmy DeYoung, who has lived in Jerusalem, Israel since 1991, and has personally met and interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and many other international leaders; and respected Bible scholar, Dr. Renald Showers, who has taught at Moody Bible Institute and Philadelphia College of Bible. We will examine worldwide terrorism, Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in light of the Bible, and answer the question, “Is a New Wave of Worldwide Terror at Hand? Is America at Risk?”

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Ankerberg: Welcome. We’re talking with Dr. Jimmy DeYoung and Dr. Renald Showers. And we’re talking about world events and biblical prophecy, and specifically, we want to talk about one world event that is in the making right now that is also talked about in Scripture that has major implications on end-time events. You may not have heard this before, but the Jewish people, when they came back into their land, obviously wanted to go up to the Temple Mount and to rebuild their Temple. But there’s a little problem with that. But, the fact is, preparation is underway, and Jimmy, just set the scenario for us in terms of why this is important; why it could cause World War III all by itself. It’s a tinderbox, and yet there’s major preparations going on in Israel. Talk about the Temple.

DeYoung: The Bible tells us in Daniel 9:27, that, “he [the antichrist] will confirm a covenant [a treaty] with many [the Jewish people] for a seven week period of time”—or a seven-year Tribulation Period. And then it says that in the midst of that week, “he shall cause the sacrifice to cease.” That indicates to me, and all students of biblical prophecy, there has to be a Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for the sacrifices to cease.

And somebody says, “Jimmy, there’s not a Temple there.”

And I said, “Yes, I know. I live in Jerusalem. I’m very aware of that fact.” But I’m also aware of the fact that the preparations for that Temple have been unbelievable over the last five to ten years.

Now, there will be a Messiah’s Temple that will be standing—the book of Ezekiel, chapters 40 to 46—202 verses minutely detailed information about a Temple that Jesus Christ (Zechariah 6:12) will actually build in the Thousand Year Millennial Kingdom.” Jesus Christ, basically talking to Zechariah, I believe, there in the first chapter said, that “I am jealous. I am aggressively jealous, or aggressively possessive of my city Jerusalem. I’m upset with those who are at ease, who are arrogantly secure on the Temple Mount”—that Dome of the Rock we’re talking about, in the spot where the first and second Temples stood. And He said, “I will return and I will build my Temple there.” So there’s going to be a Temple built there. But again, the scenario is, the next Temple—the Tribulation Temple the Antichrist will desecrate, and then Messiah’s Temple which He, indeed, Himself will build.

Now, those preparations I’m talking about, I’ve got to tell you a little personal experience. I went to see a rabbi friend of mine named Nachman Kahane. He is the brother of Rabbi Meir Kahane who was killed in New York City, a very rebel-rousing Jew, who I had a great relationship with. I was in his home; he was in my home. We did television and radio programs together. But when he died, I met his brother. I actually called Nachman to tell him I was so sorry for the death of his brother. Rabbi Meir Kahane in my office in New York City one day said he had one driving desire, and I said, “What’s that, Rabbi?”

He said, “That’s to build the third Temple.”

I said, “Why?”

He said, “Because I know the day the third Temple is built, the messiah comes.” I leaned across my desk and said, “The second time, Rabbi.”

And so that was the situation we had. But then I talked to Nachman. I went into his Yeshiva—Yeshiva is a place of learning for Jewish young men. He was at the computer working. I said, “What are you doing with the computer, Rabbi?”

He said, “I’m studying the Torah”—first five books of the Old Testament.

I said, “Do you use that computer for anything else?”

He said, “I do.”

And I said, “What?”

He said, “I have a database on it.”

I said, “A database of what?”

He said, “The men qualified to be priests.” Well, I know from my study of Scripture you need approximately 28,000 men to operate the Temple when it’s standing. Not all of them at one time, but over the year. And I said, “You mean you have 28,000 names on that computer database?”

He said, “We do.”

I said, “Well, what are they doing?”

He said, “Well, we’ve got them here in Israel and they’re studying the priestly duties.” Well, that kind of got me excited. Then I said, “Well, don’t you have to have special garments for the priests?”

He said, “We have the garments all prepared.”

I said, “What about the implements?”

He said, “We’ve got that all in storage.” Man, I’m kind of getting more excited and more excited. And then I said, “Wait a minute! King David called for 4,000 Levites to play harps. What about the harps?” I thought I had him.

He said, “Go to Number 10 King David Street.” And I went over there and there was Micha and Shoshana Harrari, who had moved to Israel from the United States. Micha was a Finnish carpenter. He made the first harp, according to documentation from the Jerusalem Post reporter who did a story on it—the first harp made in 2,000 years in Israel. They’re making what they refer to as the biblical harps that will be used in the Temple, at that next Temple that stands.

So, the preparations are there. The Temple Institute is in place. Gershon Salomon, a dear friend of mine, has the cornerstone ready to go up onto the Temple Mount. He wants to erect it up there. Every single Jewish holy day he endeavors to go up there. I was with him last October when he tried to go up there. As you said, there’s only one problem and it’s that gold-domed building, the Dome of the Rock, on the place that most orthodox scholarship says is where the Temple is supposed to be.

Ankerberg: Before we get to that, I have to say, too, that it doesn’t strike you until you’re actually in Israel what’s going on. I mean, you can’t just convey this to American people because we don’t get the gist of it, and the excitement of it. I remember when we were filming in Israel, and somehow we ended up in the Jerusalem Diamond Factory. So I thought, well, this is one time where I can punt and I can just stay on the sidelines. And somebody told the owner, “That guy—he’s in television.” So he comes over and he said, “I want to show you something.”

So, you know, Darlene is looking at all the stuff and so I went with him, and he took me downstairs, below the diamond factory, and he showed me all of these baths, these ritual baths…

DeYoung: The mikvas.

Ankerberg: That’s right. And I said, “Why did you do all of this? Why did you build this right into the floor at the basement of your factory?”

And he said, “Because I believe the Messiah is coming in my lifetime and I want to have our workers ready so that we can make some of the things for the Temple.” And man, when he said that, and I was standing there, it just hit me! Here is a guy, that I wasn’t expecting would even be religious, he’s got the ritual baths already in there!

DeYoung: Yes.

Ankerberg: Okay? And you find Jewish people, even many of the people, you know, if Israel is at the most 20 percent orthodox, if at most maybe 18 percent, that means 80 percent are agnostic, if you want. But those that are agnostic have feelings about the Temple.

DeYoung: They’re God-conscious.

Ankerberg: Yes. Talk about that.

DeYoung: I think that—whatever the number is. I’ve heard as high as 29 percent are orthodox, and then about 25 percent are really secular humanists. They’re off the wall as far as secular is concerned. But then that middle 50 percent approximately, very God-conscious. They will go, for example, on the Jewish holy days, the pilgrim holy days which would be Passover and Pentecost and Tabernacles, they will go to the Temple Mount area, not because there’s a Temple there but because that was the command in days past to go up to the Temple Mount. And they’ll be very God-conscious and they will stand around, not necessarily supporting Gershon Salomon, but you ought to watch the crowds when he tries to take…maybe he has 30 or 40 or 50 people actually with him. But everybody gathers around in support of him, wanting to put that cornerstone up on the Temple Mount and start it. And the government will want to deny it.

I did a documentary on the rebuilding of the third Temple, and I called the Prime Minister’s office—at that time, a guy named Harry Horowitz was the special advisor to the Prime Minister on Christian affairs. And I said, “Hey Harry, I’ve just finished a 55-minute documentary that CBS television purchased parts of it from me on the building of the third Temple.” And his reaction was, “So?” I mean, he didn’t care. So the government is not necessarily excited, but the people on the street, they think about it, they anticipate it, and there’s an eagerness to see the Messiah come.

Ankerberg: Go back, Jimmy, before you leave that—and I want to come to you, Rennie, in a moment—but go back to when Moshe Dayan and the troops took the Wailing Wall. This, again, is something that has happened in our lifetime, and the emotion! I mean, our people don’t know the history. So talk about that.

DeYoung: Moshe Dayan at the time was the Minister of Defense. He was the black-patched man that we might remember in history. And his chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Force was a guy named Yitzhak Rabin, who later became Prime Minister. There were others. Chaim Hertzog and others. He became the president of the country. They made a decision that this sacred piece of real estate that they had just captured on the Six-Day War, June 7, 1967—they had just captured this holy piece of real estate that they had been eagerly praying for and having control of, having sovereignty over for 2,000 years. And about nine days later, they made a political decision, “Let’s give it back to the Islamic Trust, who has watched over it, been the custodians over it for years. Maybe this will appease them.”

Well, appeasement is not the way you deal with militant Islam. They made a mistake there. But at that point in time, I was talking about Gershon Salomon—he went up onto the Temple Mount. He met with the official Jordanian guide up there. And you know what the Jordanian guide said? He said, “I guess you’re here to rebuild the Temple.” Gershon, an orthodox Jew, said, “What are you talking about?”

He said, “Well, as we understand it from our writings, the Jews will one day rebuild a Temple up here.” And he said, “May I show you around to where we understand your Temple stood in days past?” And he actually took Gershon on a tour of the Temple Mount! Well, that wasn’t God’s time. Later on down the line, Gershon became very active and these others, the Temple Institute, all that’s going on in preparation to build the Temple.

Ankerberg: Alright, we’re going to take a break and when we come back, we’re going to finish this up. But Jewish law says that the Temple, if it’s going to be rebuilt, it has got to be rebuilt on the site of its predecessors. Okay? You’ve got 35 acres on the Temple Mount. But it’s now occupied by two of Islam’s holiest shrines: the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. So my question, Rennie, when we come back, is, you’ve got two world religions: you’ve got Judaism and Islam. Are we on a major collision course? Talk about that when we come right back.

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Ankerberg: Alright, we’re back. We’re talking with two of my favorite guests, Dr. Renald Showers and Dr. Jimmy DeYoung. We’re talking about world events and biblical prophecy and we’re talking about a key event in biblical prophecy, as well as what’s underway in world events right now and that is, the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple. It hasn’t started, but the preparations are being made. Rennie, you said that you had two more things you wanted to add to that, and then I want to find out, “Are we on a collision course with Islam and Judaism that could affect the whole world?”

Showers: Two or three years ago, National Geographic Magazine had a fascinating article on DNA genetic code research. As you know, biblically, in order for a Jewish man to be a priest offering sacrifices, he must be a biological descendant of Aaron, Moses’ brother—Aaron, the first High Priest.

National Geographic indicated, now through DNA genetic code research, they had found out that Jewish men who were biological descendants of Aaron have a unique marking on the “Y” chromosome of their genetic code. And they are the only men on the face of the earth that have that. And so all they do is, they take a cotton swab, run it on the inside of their cheek, and that gives the whole genetic code and that tells whether they qualify for that or not.

So now, they can accurately determine which men are qualified to be the priests for that Temple.

Ankerberg: Goodness!

Showers: The second thing is this. For many years there was a Jewish lady who lived in Paris, France. Her name was Suzanne Haik-Vantoura, a professional musician. That dear woman spent years of painstaking research through ancient Jewish documents to try to rediscover the Temple music to which they sang the Hebrew text of the Psalms and other portions of the Old Testament, and she has rediscovered it. And she has written a large book. The English language edition is entitled, The Music of the Bible Revealed, and other professional musicians around the world have studied her work. They’re absolutely convinced she has rediscovered the true Temple music. And she’s probably dead now because the last I heard, maybe six years ago, she was in her mid-80s. But she had already set the Hebrew text of many of the Psalms, the Hebrew text of the Song of Solomon, the Book of Ecclesiastes, major portions of the Hebrew text of the Book of Isaiah to that music. And I’ve heard recordings of it. It’s very unique. It’s somewhat different from what we’ve been accustomed to in the Western World, but very worshipful. And one of the recordings, it’s a man singing solos in the Hebrew language; another one is a woman; and then they have a choral group as well. But, so now they know who the priests can be; now they have the Temple music set to the Hebrew texts of the Old Testament. So again, these things are really for the next Temple when it is built.

Ankerberg: Goodness. Are we on a collision course here, Dr. Showers? I mean, you’ve got the Dome of the Rock, and the Jews have to build their Temple on the same place, and it seems like that’s where the Dome of the Rock is, so how can this all happen?

Showers: It is on a collision course, obviously. Because I mean, it’s very obvious that the Temple Mount is the number one most holy site to Jews in the world. But to the Muslims, it’s also the third most sacred site. Only the cities of Medina and Mecca are more holy to them. And the reason the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is holy to the Muslims is, they believe, according to their tradition, that the night that Muhammad rode his horse up into heaven to begin receiving revelation from God, the last place he stood upon Planet Earth was on that Temple Mount.

And so there are strong emotional feelings over who’s going to control that Temple Mount, and even that part of Jerusalem. As a report in U.S. News & World Report a number of years ago said: If all the other issues separating the Jews and the Palestinians and Muslims from each other could be settled except Jerusalem, if the issue of Jerusalem and involving, then, the Temple Mount and who is going to control that, cannot be settled peaceably, it said, that issue alone could lead to an all-out religious war between Jews and Muslims worldwide that can involve the whole world in an incredible conflict of fighting. And so, yes, it’s on a collision course. But the issue is, how would the Jews ever get permission to do that?

Ankerberg: Yeah. Jimmy, there’s a report right now that in Egypt, the newspapers are actually saying the place where that which Muhammad was supposedly doing—that is, ascending into heaven on his horse—actually they weren’t referring to Jerusalem. They were referring to someplace else. Therefore, possibly, the Islamic scholars themselves will remove the fact that this is one of their holiest places and might give it up. In what other ways could this thing be worked out?

DeYoung: Well, first of all, I don’t believe they’re going to give it up. This is a political statement as much as it is a religious statement. They have to have something in the center, the heart, of the Jewish State for which to motivate their fighters to come in.

For example, I took a camera up on the Temple Mount when I was doing that documentary I was talking about. We went underneath the Dome of the Rock. They don’t let cameras of any type. I took a television camera under there. And in the course of the time with the man who was showing us around, I asked him, “What would happen if the Jews came back to this Temple Mount and tried to remove the Dome of the Rock and start building their Temple?” He said, “We would put a million Muslims up here to kill the Jews off. And if the Jews were victorious, we’d put another million up here until we wiped out all of the Jews.”

I can tell you, during the Gulf Crisis back in 1991—and I keep referring back to that but it was an interesting time in my life—when the Jews would hear the alarm of an incoming SCUD, most of them would run into their sealed room and put their gas mask on. The orthodox Jews, living in the old city of Jerusalem, did not go into a sealed room; did not put a gas mask on. They got their clothes on. They ran to the Temple Mount; they ran to the Western Wall and they started to pray. That sounds funny, but they were literally praying, “Dear Lord, please let one of those SCUDs hit the Dome of the Rock!” In fact, they said that the S C U D stood for “Sure Could Use Direction.” Because Saddam didn’t know where the SCUDs were going, but they were hoping and praying that one of those SCUDs would hit the Dome of the Rock to remove it so they could move ahead.

It’s an interesting scenario. We’ve talked in previous programs about Daniel 11 and Ezekiel 38. When those battles are going on—there will be a lot of SCUDs, I believe, a lot of missiles flying in the Middle East—and one of them is the Antichrist, in Daniel 11:44, “goes out to make war against many.” In other words, I believe he usurps the victory that Jesus Christ is going to give to the Jewish people against those attacking enemies at that time. Then it says in the next verse that he goes up and tells the Jews, “Alright, let’s put our Temple up.” Basically—I’m paraphrasing the two verses—but basically, he says, “I’ve protected you from your attacking enemies, now go ahead and put your Temple up.” And of course, that’s the Temple that at the midway point he’s going to walk in and desecrate.

Ankerberg: Two things have happened just recently. One is, I think a lot of people don’t realize that Jerusalem gave to Jordan the control of the Temple Mount and they created a committee. What do you call that?

DeYoung: The Islamic Trust—the Waqf.

Ankerberg: Okay, and the fact is, so they control who goes up to the Temple Mount. And just in the last 30 days, the fact is, one of the Christians who lives in Jerusalem was arrested up there. A policeman saw him and said, “Are you praying?” And he said, “I could have lied,” but he said, “I didn’t want to lie, so I told him the truth: ‘Yeah, I’m praying.’”

So they arrested him. They took him over to the police station and the guys said, “What were you praying about?” And the guy said, “I was praying that the Messiah would come and bring peace to Israel.” And then they let him go.

It’s amazing to me that those in Islam will not allow anybody to come up there to pray, to look at their things. They only want Muslims up there. Then, while inside the mosque there are reports right now of what is being preached inside at the Temple Mount in the Dome of the Rock: anti-Americanism and the destruction of Israel is being preached in that mosque right from the Temple Mount. What else are you hearing?

DeYoung: Well, I’m hearing it from a horse’s mouth! Because on my most recent trip to Israel, I met, in the old city, with Sheikh Sabri, who is the Mufti of Jerusalem, the highest ranking Muslim in that part of the world. And in fact, when the Jewish government, under Moshe Dayan, gave custodial responsibilities to Jordan, basically when Arafat came in in 1993 he usurped that, and now he has established the Waqf, or the Islamic Trust, that’s there. He has put in place Sheikh Sabri, and I asked Sheikh Sabri about that: “What about the rights that the Jews have to this sacred piece of real estate?” Do you know what his statement was? “We have absolutely no evidence that there was ever a presence of a Jew on the Temple Mount, dating all the way back to the Garden of Eden.”

Ankerberg: Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

DeYoung: And so when he makes that statement, well, I said in my own mind, “Hello?! Yeah. For the last three years you’ve been taking all the artifacts and the evidence, the archaeological remains off the Temple Mount and throwing them in the city dump!” But he says, “We have no evidence. Thus, they have no right, not only to the Temple Mount, they don’t even have a right to the Western Wall, and we believe that they should not even come within six feet of the Western Wall!” And so that’s where we sit.

Here are a people—those people that Zechariah was referring to—when Jesus said, “I am very sore displeased with those who are at ease arrogantly in position,” arrogantly secure on the Temple Mount.

The first Temple stood where the Dome of the Rock is for 400 years. The second Temple stood for 600 years—a total of a thousand years. That Dome of the Rock, put up in 691, 1,300-plus years ago, has been standing there 300 years, at least, longer than the first and second Temples put together. They have become arrogant about the possession. And the book of Zechariah 12:2 says, “Jerusalem shall become a cup of trembling…”, they will become intoxicated with the power they have over this most sacred piece of real estate in all of creation.

Ankerberg: Dr. Showers, you know, the American press criticizes our President, George Bush, when he makes statements of faith. We have some of the people that are running for president and are starting to make statements about Jesus. I find it always “interesting” to hear that. In Europe, you find some of the leaders there just make straight-out atheistic comments, like the president of Russia, president of France and so on. They’re not even in the religious ball game at all. But when you come out over into Israel, there you have this sentiment of, “This is important to us.”

And the fact is, Paul talks about there’s going to be a political leader that’s going to make some religious noises in, of all places, the Jewish Temple; namely, Paul says, “He”—talking about this political ruler—“will oppose and exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s Temple….” And here’s where this thing comes in—there’s got to be a Temple there for him to do this. And you can see a politician, especially politicians from Europe that kind of have a braggadocio and a kind of an “I’m everything!” Okay? But they go further than that and they actually say, “I’m the one you ought to worship.” But they’re going to do it in this Temple, which means the Temple has got to be up.

So the fact that the preparation is underway, that the Jews have come from around the world and they’ve got a nation; they’ve got Jerusalem; they’re making plans for this Temple. The prophecy and world events come together at this point. And when people listen to us say this, what should they be thinking about in terms of their relationship with the One that it’s all about, namely, Jesus Christ?

Showers: They’d better be thinking, “Am I in a right relationship with Him?” And they’d better investigate and find out how they can tell that. The Scriptures tell them very clearly how they can do it. It tells very clearly that Jesus Christ is God’s eternal Son, whom God sent to the earth to become incarnated to human flesh through a virgin by the name of Mary, and He was born on that first Christmas, and that He came, He said, “I’ve come to seek and to save those that are lost”—those who are not in right relationship with God.

And that’s why He went to the cross at Calvary, and He died there in our place, as our substitute, and paid in full the penalty of sin that all of us as human beings owed because of all our rebellion against God, all of our sinful deeds and thoughts and words and all the rest. And then Jesus was buried in a tomb bodily, and three days later He was resurrected bodily from the dead, and then was seen by over 500 people after His Resurrection as a proof that He actually rose from the dead. And that proved that His death satisfied the cause of death—and that’s sin—and that dealt effectively with the sin problem.

So as a result of this truth, if a person wants to be right with God, that person has to acknowledge the fact that he or she is a sinful human being who stands condemned before a holy God. There are no works that they can do to make themselves acceptable to God, to cancel out their sins. They need somebody else to do that for them. They have to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the One who did that work for them in His work on the cross of Calvary.

And having acknowledged that, they must place their trust, their faith, in Jesus Christ and Him alone. Not their works, not baptism, not the Church, not giving to Christian ministries—it’s totally through Jesus Christ and Him alone, putting their faith and trust in Him. And God’s Word declares that if they do that, God declares them totally righteous and acceptable to Him. He forgives all their sins, gives them the gift of eternal life, and also gives them the assurance that someday they’re going to be caught up from the earth to meet Jesus in the air when He comes—and that could be at any moment. So it’s imperative they make that decision now before it may be too late for them.

DeYoung: You know, John, “He is not willing that any should perish, but all should come to Him.” The only reason, after all these programs we’ve done telling how close it is and He hasn’t come, He wants them to make that decision today.

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