Step by Step through End-time Events/Program 3

By: Dr. Jimmy DeYoung; ©2011

In this session, Dr. John Ankerberg and Dr. Jimmy DeYoung look at some of the prophecies related to the temple to be built in the Tribulation Period. You will also hear some of the information that is already taking place, indicating that the Rapture, an event that will occur before the temple is rebuilt, must certainly be near.

Contents

Introduction

Today, one out of every four Christian adults believes Jesus could return in their lifetime. Biblical prophecy is both God’s encouragement and warning to all who are concerned about the future. Jesus, the apostles and the Old Testament prophets reveal such important future events as the rapture, when Christ comes to take his own to heaven, the seven year tribulation on earth, the Ezekiel 38 war, and the terrible judgments that will take place on earth during the tribulation. The Bible also teaches us about the emergence of the Antichrist, the rebuilding of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, the Battle of Armageddon, the second coming of Christ to earth, the 1000 year millennium reign of Christ on earth, and the final judgment of every person who has ever lived. Today we will take you step-by-step through the future events God says are still up ahead in a clear and concise manner. My guest is journalist and prophecy scholar Dr. Jimmy DeYoung. We invite you to join us for this special edition of The John Ankerberg Show.

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Ankerberg: The Bible indicates that the Jewish temple will be rebuilt on the temple mount, after the rapture and during the first part of the seven year tribulation period. Are there any signs this temple is close to being rebuilt today? In our research in Israel, we discovered that the rebuilding of the Jewish temple is not just talk, but an extremely well-organized plan that is already being implemented by Jews in Israel today.

Alright, Jimmy, the temple is going to be rebuilt some day, but it’s certainly not in existence now. And it’s the most controversial piece of real estate in the world, what’s going to happen?

DeYoung: Well, let me just remind everybody of the Scriptures. Daniel 9:27. In the midst of the week, that seven year period of time between the rapture and the second coming of Christ, there has to be a temple there. Jesus confirmed that, Matthew 24:15, “When you see the abomination of desolation.” Apostle Paul confirmed it, 2 Thessalonians 2:4, Antichrist walks into the temple, the abomination of desolation takes place. And in Revelation 11:1, John is told to measure the space for the temple. So we have four proof texts there will be a temple on the temple mount.

The rapture has to happen. At that point, when the Antichrist appears in the beginning of that seven year tribulation period, he confirms a peace agreement. The Jewish people lay down their weapons. They think they are at peace. They think the Messiah has come. There is a coalition of nations coming into the area of Israel to wipe them off the face of the earth. Well, Jesus Christ intercedes. And in Daniel 11:45, it’s says that the Antichrist, after the Lord has given the victory to the Jewish people, the Antichrist usurps that victory and tells the Jewish people to put their temple up on the holy mountain of God there in the city of Jerusalem.

At that point they build a temple. The temple is built, and it has to be up before the midway point of the tribulation. And it’s going to be standing there. They restore the temple sacrifices and everything else. There is one problem though, John. Everything has been prepared. They have the utensils; they have the men who’ve studied the priestly duties. I met recently when I was Israel with the man who was the chairman of the Sanhedrin, the 70 wise Jewish scholars that operate the temple. He said he has his garment hanging in his closet, in his home, ready to put one and report to the temple now. So, all of the preparations have been made. There’s one problem: that gold domed building, the Dome of the Rock, sits on the spot where the temple has to be erected there on the temple mount.

And I’ve got to tell you, during the Gulf Crisis, when I first moved to Jerusalem, we would hear the siren warning of an incoming SCUD. Most of us ran into our sealed room, put on our gas mask. The Jews living in the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem ran to the temple mount, started to pray, “Dear God, let one of those SCUDs hit the Dome of the Rock.” Of course, SCUD is an acronym for “Sure Could Use Direction,” because Saddam didn’t know where they were going. But I believe that’s what’s going to happen. In that battle at the beginning of the tribulation period, when these nations are attacking Israel, one of their missiles is going to take down the Dome of the Rock. They put the temple up.

I mean, I could just go for the next hour or two about the personalities who believe it’s about to be put up. One of my dear friends, an orthodox Jewish man named Gershon Salomon, he has the cornerstones to put on the temple mount to start construction of all that God said will happen during the tribulation period. All the preparation, every player I’ve talked with, I know, I love them, they’re ready to put the temple up. All we need to do is wait for the rapture. The rapture happens first, then all of these things unfold.

Ankerberg: Okay, the Jewish temple is put up, and the fact is, the Antichrist goes in and desecrates it, the abomination of desolation, and then there’s persecution of the Jews. Then we come to the end, the battle of Armageddon. And then you have Jesus Christ coming back. And He’s going to come. And what’s He going to do on the temple mount?

DeYoung: Well, when he steps down on the Mount of Olives, Zechariah 14:4, it’s says that that Mount of Olives will split from the West to the East. That means the temple mount’s destroyed. That means that tribulation temple is destroyed. The book of Ezekiel, chapters 40 to 46, two hundred and two detailed verses of how Messiah will build His temple. Zechariah 6:12 says that Jesus will build the temple, and then verse 13, He will rule and reign from that temple. Zechariah 1:16, Jesus said, “I am coming back to Jerusalem to build my temple.” That will be the millennial temple; after His second coming, that thousand year period of time when Jesus will rule and reign from the temple in Jerusalem.

Ankerberg: Alright, we’re going to take a break. And when we come back, we’re going to talk about the Ark of the Covenant. Where is it? And we’re also going to talk about, what are the implements that are supposed to be made, and how is the progress going in making those implements for the temple. So stick with us. We’ll be right back.

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Video Clip from Israel Under Fire

DeYoung: This is another of the four quarters. This is the Jewish Quarter. I want you to notice: “Treasures of the Temple” here. This is the location where Rabbi Israel Ariel and Rabbi Chaim Richman, and all of their staff are putting together the implements that they are going to use in the next temple that will stand on the temple mount. They have, for example, the harps. And we’ll see in the harp factory how Micah and Shoshanna Harrari build the harps. They have all the items they need, the mizrak, which is the pitcher-shaped item made out of pure gold and pure silver they put the sacrificial blood in. All of the items there and the garments that have been made—everything in preparation for the erection of the temple itself.

Ankerberg: Yeah, I want folks that are listening to us right now to realize that you’re seeing a prime example in back of us of the messianic expectation right here in the Old City in Jerusalem, where you have Jews that have come from around the world. You’ve got folks that are right here studying for the priesthood. Not only are they studying for the priesthood, but they are actually making the utensils that they plan to use in the temple.

DeYoung: If he should come at any moment, they want to have everything ready so when the temple is up they’ll be able to go in.

Ankerberg: Yeah, and I can’t say it enough. The fact is this is happening in our lifetime while we are living. We’re seeing this!

DeYoung: That’s thrilling! Let’s go along.

Ankerberg: Jimmy, we know from Scripture there’s got to be another temple built before Jesus Christ comes back. And when you’re in Israel, in talking with the Jewish leaders, it’s just amazing to see the urgency that they have to rebuild that temple.

DeYoung: Especially in the Jewish Quarter where we just were, because that’s where the Temple Institute is. They’re making all the preparation. They’re training the people to serve in this temple. The urgency is there; the expectancy of a temple standing soon on the temple mount. It’s just evident wherever you may go in the city of Jerusalem, even among the leaders of the nation. But before, I think, we get into the preparations and all that’s going on to build that temple, we need to consider the previous two temples that stood there on the temple mount.

Announcer: As we visited the temple mount area, we recognized that King David, the author of many of the biblical psalms and one of Israel’s greatest kings, had planned the very site where we stood. David’s plans for the temple were implemented by his son Solomon. And, according to Scripture, this very location holds great significance in the end times. Walking along the top of the temple mount area, we talked about past events that have led to our present moment.

DeYoung: John, this is the temple mount area. Now, during the times of King David and King Solomon, this was simply Mount Moriah. And, actually, the city of David here was the location, this 10 acres down here below, was the location of where the original city of Jerusalem was, the Jebusite stronghold that King David captured. But he came here then to Mount Moriah. He purchased from Ornan the Jebusite this threshing floor which would ultimately then end up being the holy of holies for the temple that his son Solomon would build.

And so as we think about the rebuilding of the temple from this particular location, we have to go back in history. We have to understand the first temple. Solomon built the first temple; 400 years later Nebuchadnezzar would make his way off the slopes of the Mount of Olives here to the city. They destroyed that first temple, Solomon’s temple. Seventy years later Zerubbabel, because of a proclamation by Cyrus the Medo-Persian king, was allowed to bring about 50,000 Jews back here to this location. It took him about 25 years, a little bit slow, that is when Zechariah and Haggai, the two prophets, were encouraging the Jews, build the temple! Quit building your own homes, build the temple. They built the temple, it was a simple temple.

But then along comes Herod, and for about 46 years he actually refurbished the temple. That is why they refer to it as Herod’s Temple. Herod’s Temple then would have been behind these walls. This was a retaining wall, the southern retaining wall that Herod would have built. The Western Wall that’s so famous around the world, that was another retaining wall. They have the eastern retaining wall and they even have a short portion, a small portion, of the northern retaining wall.

That temple was, of course, destroyed in 70 AD. It is an interesting thought. In 586 BC, on Tisha B’Av, the 9th day of the Jewish month of Av, the temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. In 70 AD on that same calendar day of the year, Tisha B’Av, the 9th day of the Jewish month of Av, the Roman army came off of the Mount of Olives, came across the Kidron Valley, came onto the temple mount. They devastated the temple, they destroyed the city of Jerusalem, they dispersed the Jews to the four corners of the earth.

Ankerberg: According to the Old Testament prophets, the Jewish temple will one day be rebuilt. Part of this plan includes the highly-discussed Ark of the Covenant.

Jimmy, people want to know, where is the Ark of the Covenant, and have there been eyewitnesses about the Ark?

DeYoung: Well, it is very interesting. Many people think the Ark of the Covenant was taken into Ethiopia many years ago. And there have been specials on television explaining that is where the Ark is located. But when you go to the Bible, 2 Chronicles 35:3, it talks about King Josiah. At the time before the Babylonians would come in and capture Israel—take all the Jewish people into the Babylonian captivity—King Josiah had an idea that this was going to take place, so he knew he needed to protect the Ark of the Covenant. He told the Levites in verse 3 to take the Ark and put it in the house. Immediately you think that that’s referring to the temple. It was already in the temple. About 400 years earlier, King Solomon, when he built the temple, took the Ark and put it in the holy of holies. And the Bible says in 1 Kings 8, “the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord so much so that they couldn’t stand it.” King Josiah then gave the order to take it and put it in the house. And that word in Hebrew is bayith, which also can be translated “secret secluded hiding place.” And that was a place that was prepared by Solomon the king when he built that temple underneath the holy of holies.

Ankerberg: Right back here where the Dome of the Rock’s at.

DeYoung: Where the Dome of the Rock is. The foundation stone underneath that dome is where the Ark would have set. If I could take you in there now. I could show you the rectangular spot where the Ark would have set. Well, they picked the Ark up—you have to have the Levites to move the Ark, four Levites—and they picked it up and they took it under and put it in a secret secluded hiding place.

Now, if anybody wants to debate that, I wish I could present the two men who saw it. They have now passed from this world. But there were two very prestigious rabbis: Shlomo Goren, who was the rabbi at the Western Wall June 7, 1967, who sounded the shofar and put the first prayer in the Western Wall after the Jews had re-united the city of Jerusalem; and Rabbi Yehuda Getz, he was the chief rabbi of the Western Wall. These two men in 1982 went in at Warren’s Gate underneath the temple mount area, and they both told me—I have it recorded on video—they saw the Ark of the Covenant under there. I asked them both, I said, Why did you not bring the Ark out? and they said, “We don’t have a place to put it. As soon as we have a temple, we will bring it out and put it in the holy of holies.”

A rabbi who is actually the one who started all of this study to prepare to build the temple, Nachman Kahana, he has a synagogue right in the midst of the Arab quarter. And there Yirael Ariel, who heads up the Temple Institute and Chaim Richman, these two rabbis studied under Nachman Kahana how to make these implements, how to prepare the priestly garments. Priestly garments, for example, have to be made out of one piece of cloth. Well, they have all of the priestly garments.

One day I was sitting with the rabbi. He was on his computer, and I said, “What are you doing with a computer, Rabbi?” he said, “I am studying the Torah,” first five books of the Old Testament. I said, “Rabbi, do you have anything else you use that computer for?” He said, “I do.” and I said, “What?” he said, “I have a database on this computer.” I said, “A data base of what?” he said, “Of every single Jewish man in the world who is qualified to be a priest.” And they have called them into Jerusalem to study those priestly duties.

Ankerberg: Jimmy, it’s fascinating to realize the Jewish people not only have plans to rebuild the temple, but they are doing the detailed work in putting the implements together, right now for that temple.

DeYoung: And they’re doing it all to the pattern dictated by the Word of God, John. These people have prepared the implements. For example, the mizrak, which is a pitcher-shaped item made out of pure gold and pure silver—they put the sacrificial blood in the mizrak; they have the table of showbread made, it’s in storage; the altar of incense, it’s ready to be placed in the holy place; and the altar itself, they have that all figured out and how to go about building that. They even have the menorah. This is one of the most recent implements made, the menorah, which is on display, overlooking the Western Wall Plaza, ready to go up into the temple. All the implements are being made.

But I remember talking to Rabbi Kahana, when I met him there in his yeshiva, and he told me about the priests studying the priestly duties, I asked him about the harps that King David called for. He told me about Micah and Shoshanna Harrari, and their harp factory.

Ankerberg: Approximately how many of these harps have you made in the back room back here?

Micah Harrari: Well, we have been doing this since about 1984 and we’ve made, you know, maybe 3000 or 4000.

Ankerberg: 3,000 harps.

Micah: Now we make them slower. We have less people out here in the country, so we make about three a month.

Ankerberg: Your quality is fantastic.

Micah: Thank you. Well, we want to build… we build our harps as if King David ordered them; if he said that we need harps for the temple, and this is what we’re doing.

DeYoung: Micah, do you believe that this is something that God has given you and Shoshanna to do for the times in which we’re living?

Micah: Yeah. These are the end days. And it says that we will return to the land at the end of days, and that everybody should bring something that was lost. So we returned harp making to the land. And as we know, the harp is the national instrument of Israel. And it has been silent for thousands of years when we went into exile and hung our harps upon the willows. But we return now and we have built a beautiful land. And the harps have—God called a harp maker to make harps, I guess, in the Holy Land. And we came and started to make them. And we are making them; we are making them for the next temple. This is really our focus. And when King David shows up again, we’ll give him the place. We will just go to work for him.

Ankerberg: Jimmy, as people have listened to all of this information, how should it impact their lives?

DeYoung: Well, when you stop to think through what we’ve been talking about: the Jewish people re-gathered to a land that God has given them, and a re-born state; a conflict between their brothers, the Israelis and the Palestinians; an alignment of nations; of the anticipation for peace; and then the arrangements for the temple. We’ve talked about it, on this particular segment, how all the implements have been made; 28,000 men studying the priestly duties; even 4,000 harps ready to be played in the harp orchestra when the temple stands erect in the city of Jerusalem.

But none of this happens until the rapture of the church takes place—when we that are Christians, are taken out of here to be with him. And what that means, John, people need to be prepared for that event—the rapture of the church—knowing that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior. And if there are those who are already prepared, know Christ as Savior, we need to live pure and be productive until he does come. All of this information just helps explain to us the urgency of the moment. The rapture could happen at any moment, and we need to be prepared.

Read Part 4