temple

What piece of furniture won’t you find in the Temple?

Posted on November 13, 2020 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata*

“So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.” (Mark 16:19)

Here is an illustration of the inside of the Temple of God when it was at its best. It has a lot of furniture in it. Tables for showbread, lavers for washing, tables for the sacrifices, the ark, etc. There is something missing. Look for it. If you don’t notice what it missing, then scan below for the answer- (Illustration source)

Figure it out yet? The verse was the clue. The piece of furniture missing from the inside of the Temple was a CHAIR. A stool, a couch. Anything to sit on. There was nowhere to sit. Priests were always at work because sin always had to be atoned for. It was endless.

When Jesus accomplished His work on the cross, He ascended to the heavenly temple and He SAT. IT IS FINISHED!!!! Sin is finally atoned for via the one Holy Sacrifice and God accepted it, signifying His acceptance by raising Jesus from the dead.

“And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10).

Jesus is the sacrifice. He is sitting because He magnificently and perfectly finished the work. Praise His name!

*This essay first appeared on The End Time in August 2012

encouragement, false prophets, millennium, prophecy, temple

False prophets will be stabbed

Posted on February 25, 2016May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

False teachers and false prophets are a scourge. They always have been. Ever since the beginning, satan has been lying to humans, and as prince of the power of the air he has sent his demon horde to influence false teachers and make them prophesy falsely. (Deuteronomy 13:6–10; 18:20; Matthew 24:11). Gullible Christians and the lost have believed these false prophecies and untrue teachings ever since.

Probably today’s false teachers are aren’t more numerous than they were in the first century, though it feels like they are. Apologist James R. White said today

there are not more heretics today, there is just more availability of making your heresy known.

However any Christian with a modicum of faith or any grain of loyalty to Jesus will be aggrieved when coming up against a false prophet or hearing about a heretical teaching. I am. I am a lot.

Like ants at a picnic, these false teachers are everywhere, and more are popping up every day. Jesus is in control and has ordained each and every one. As He does with everything, He has a purpose for false teaching.

What Is God’s Purpose With False Teaching? asks and answers John Piper.

Or this, from Dr. Paul M. Elliott, “Why Does God Permit False Teachers in the Church?“

God uses the response to false teaching on the part of the members of the visible church, individually and corporately, to demonstrate who is true to Him and to His Word, and who is not. To put it another way, God is building a record that Christ will use at the Last Judgment, when many will come before Him and claim to have done many wonders in His name, but Jesus will say, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matthew 7:23).

The main reasons God permits false teachers is that first, sin exists in the world. False teaching is sin. Secondly, it’s used to test His people. So though it’s a grief, a burden, and a scourge, God has His purposes for allowing it.

And then sweet relief will come! There will come a day when false prophets will not be allowed!

After the rapture, and after the conclusion of the Tribulation, in that order, a Kingdom on earth will be established. It will last for 1000 years. It is colloquially called the Millennium Kingdom. It will be an actual kingdom whereupon incarnated Jesus walks among His people, rules from Jerusalem, (Revelation 2:27) administers affairs of the nations, and receives worship (including sacrifices) in the Temple. (Isaiah 56:6-8; Zechariah 14:16; Jeremiah 33:15-18, Ezekiel 43:18-46:24)

Satan will be bound in the pit along with his demon horde. (Revelation 20:1-3). The people occupying the Kingdom will have relief from satan, finally! However, sin will still be present. Some of the people who survived the Tribulation will be mortal, and thy will enter the Kingdom along with us (glorified at the rapture) and the Old Testament saints (resurrected at the end of the Tribulation) and Tribulation martyrs (resurrected at the end of the Tribulation). These mortals will repopulate the earth through procreation, and their children will do the same and so on, for 1000 years. These mortals will still have a sin nature, which will express itself at the end of the 1000 year kingdom when satan is released from the pit and gathers the secretly sinful like sands upon the sea to rebel against Jesus. (Revelation 20:7-8).

But meanwhile during the blissful 1000 year Kingdom, there will be no false teaching, no false teachers, no false prophecies!

“And if anyone again prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, ‘You shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the LORD.’ And his father and mother who bore him shall pierce him through when he prophesies.” (Zechariah 13:3)

False prophets will be immediately stabbed. Even by his parents.

The form of phraseology here is drawn from De 13:6–10; 18:20. The substantial truth expressed is that false prophecy shall be utterly abolished. If it were possible for it again to start up, the very parents of the false prophet would not let parental affection interfere, but would be the first to thrust him through. Love to Christ must be paramount to the tenderest of natural ties (Mt 10:37). Much as the godly love their children, they love God and His honor more. (Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible)

The dance between false prophets and demons will end. Matthew Henry:

False prophecy shall also be brought to an end: I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit, the prophets that are under the influence of the unclean spirit, to pass out of the land. The devil is an unclean spirit; sin and uncleanness are from him; he has his prophets, that serve his interests and receive their instructions from him. Take away the unclean spirit, and the prophets would not deceive as they do; take away the false prophets that produce sham commissions, and the unclean spirit could not do the mischief he does. When God designs the silencing of the false prophets he banishes the unclean spirit out of the land, that wrought in them, and was a rival with him for the throne in the heart. Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible

Of the Zechariah 13:3 verse, John MacArthur comments:

Because of the salvation of God that has cleansed God’s people and made them love Him and His truth, hatred of false prophecy will overrule normal human feelings, causing even a mother or father to put their apostate child to death. This is a stern reminder of hos God feels about and will eventually treat those preaches who misrepresent the truth.

Contrast the Zechariah verse of Millennium parents killing their own child because he speaks false prophecy, to the verse in Matthew 10:21 when in the last days parents will kill their offspring for speaking the Truth.

What a time that will be! When love for Jesus and His truth is the worldwide global attitude! For all my brethren who read this, it’s an essay about prophecy, obviously. It is also encouragement. Jesus IS in control. He has a plan, and that plan includes the [hopefully soon] day when He will rule and reign personally and false prophets will not be tolerated. What a day that will be.

architecture, church, encouragement, new testament, temple

Of church buildings and temples

Posted on April 6, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I’m reading 1 Corinthians 6. The verses at the end of the chapter, 19-20 are as follows:

EPrata photo

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

We are familiar with that passage and no doubt can quote it. In this portion of the chapter Paul is urging the sexually aware and culturally lascivious Corinthian believers to forgo sexual immorality. He said that because the Holy Spirit is inside us, and that we are living temples of Christ, when we sin sexually we make Christ complicit in it in a way that no other sin does. (1 Corinthians 6:15).

In reading my commentary by John R. Rice, he went further in explaining. His focus in this paragraph is not on the body in which the Spirit dwells, making it the temple of God, but on buildings.

What’s in a church building? If you’re an Old Testament worshiper, everything, absolutely everything. If you are a New Testament worshiper, nothing. Absolutely nothing.

EPrata photo

We know that God spent an inordinate amount of ink and inspiration in the Old Testament recording the specifics of the Tabernacle, and later, the Temple’s construction. We have an excellent idea of what they both looked like because of the monumental meticulousness in the OT regarding its dimensions, specifications, and adornments. Some of this information can be read in 1 Kings 5-6, 2 Chronicles 2, Exodus 38, and so on.

The Disciples looked upon the temple in Mark 13:1 and exclaimed over its majestic beauty. There is even much ink given to the construction, location, and adornments of the Temple in the Millennium Age (Ezekiel 40-41), even down to the number of cubits wide each door will be. Revelation 11:19 even mentioned God’s temple in heaven opened up and the ark of the covenant being there.

But did you ever wonder why in all the New Testament, no specificity or even reference is given over to the construction, location, adornments of any church building? None whatsoever?

Here is John R. Rice:

It is significant that not a single church building is mentioned in the New Testament. Were there any church buildings? If so, God was particularly careful that no one should revere or honor them. God does not live in church houses. Many a home where Christians pray and read God’s word and delight in His presence is more nearly a house of God than the church house. It is wrong, then, “to speak of reverence for the house of God.” We should respect the rights of other people. We should see that services are decent and in order, without confusion. We should respect the man of God. But God has no temple on earth but a human body… ~John R. Rice, The Church of God at Corinth: Commentary in 1 and 2 Corinthians, 1973

EPrata photo

We note that the disciples met in the Upper Room after the crucifixion (Acts 1:13, Acts 20:8). When Apollos was expounding in the synagogue, Priscilla and Aquila took him aside to explain the Way more accurately. The verse doesn’t say where they took him, just “aside.” In Acts 19:1 Paul arrived at the interior of Ephesus and found some believers there. The verses don’t say where. We know that early believers initially met in massive numbers in the outer court of the temple. (Acts 2:46). After Paul’s discipleship grew, he quit the synagogue and reasoned “in the lecture hall of Tyrannus” for two years. (Acts 19:9).

We read in Acts 11:25-26 that

And he left for Tarsus to look for Saul; 26and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

EPrata photo

Here Paul stayed a year, but again, no big deal is made of the building or place where they met. The church grew hugely, in fact this was where the followers of the Way were first called Christian, and yet…biblical silence on the building or specific location where this happened.

There were house churches. Peter stayed with Simon the Tanner in Joppa (Acts 10:6), believers were gathered at Mary’s house to pray (Acts 12:12), Lydia had a house church, (Acts 16:40), and so did Aquila and Priscilla (Romans 16:3,5; 1 Corinthians 16:19). Nympha hosted a church at her house, (Colossians 4:15). Philemon and Apphia had a house church. (Philemon 1:1-2).

We have absolutely no idea as to the size of these house churches, how regularly they gathered, what their gatherings were like.

EPrata photo

What we do know is that the early believers met in homes, lecture halls, the great outdoors, stadiums, synagogues, wherever they could. Even at the end of the New Testament when Jesus dictates His letters to the seven churches at Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea they must have had a known building since presumably the letter-carrier would have known where to bring the letter. Yet we do not have any specificity of the 7 churches’ size, dimensions, adornments, etc., unlike the Old Testament’s attention to the details of the worship house.

This is because WE are the temple.

Churches today meet in rented school gymnasiums, storefronts, homes, brick buildings with steeples, clapboard structures large and small, majestic buildings, traditional edifices with bell towers, or simple square humble dwellings. It doesn’t matter what the building looks like as long as the temple of people that are gathered are holy and worshiping in spirit and in truth.

Or own church was founded in 1892 and is brick with bell tower, with solid wooden pews, hymn-holders, red carpet, tin ceilings, a pulpit and other traditional architecture. I love it. I’m comfortable there. I love the tradition and solidity of the permanent location of a place that’s immediately recognizable as “worship place.” Yet our church voted to move to a larger facility down the road which is currently a factory by day. The Youth meet there every Wednesday night, and we hold special events intermittently there as we make the transition.

The Old Testament is loud and noisy about the Tabernacle and the Temple. The New Testament is silent on church houses. The obvious variety of the structures in which they met isn’t the point. The point is that they, being the temple of God, met. And they did so continuously, joyously, even when persecution came. They gathered, prayed, baptized, learned, exhorted and proclaimed the Good News from lecture halls, homes, stadiums, hillsides, and temple courts. They met, these people who are the temple of God, they met. The building does not matter. We are His temple. This is what matters-

And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. (Acts 6:7)

eschatology, israel, jews, replacement theology, temple

Messianic return from Jewish point of view

Posted on July 20, 2013 by elizabethprata

A Haaretz (Israel daily newspaper) article today. It is interesting to read of Messianic prophecy from the point of view of a person who does not believe the New Testament, but should have a better grasp of eschatology than is evidenced in this article. It is rife with errors but also contains some truth.

Why do many Christians believe Jesus will appear after Jews rebuild the temple?
“These are the same Zionist evangelicals who oppose any peace agreement in which Israel will cede parts of the homeland, and who customarily make donations to various right-wing associations in Israel. For them, Israeli sovereignty over the Holy Land is fraught with redemptive meaning. Only the continuing and eternal covenant between the Jewish people and its God in heaven can lend a messianic significance to its deeds on earth.”

“It was such a frame of mind that prompted the well-known evangelical preacher Jerry Falwell to assert, back in 1988, that “the most important date we should remember [since the Ascension] is May 14, 1948.” The reason is because, in his view, the creation of the State of Israel “is the greatest single sign indicating the imminent return of Jesus Christ.”

“But there’s a snag. Two months ago we celebrated the 65th anniversary of Israel’s creation, and for some reason Jesus has not yet appeared.”

Oh, but He will. They should know better than anyone about the Lord’s plans mean nothing in man’s scale of time. He sent the Jews into a 70 year exile. They wandered 40 years in the desert. A Jubilee Year comes around once every 50. They spent 400 years waiting for a prophet to speak (Malachi to John the Baptist). The Egyptian captivity was 400 years. And they scoff at 65?

Yes, they scoff.

The article calls the 15-million seller book The Late great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey (an eschatological view of the run up to the Tribulation and the last 7 years of punishment upon the Jews) as a “mythical best seller.” The article repeats the old chestnut that John Darby started the notion of the rapture, even though Paul taught it and the earliest church fathers believed it.

The article goes on,

“The relationship between Christian evangelicals and Temple activists is warmer today than ever. It is a strange alliance, in which each side is using the other to further its own redemptive goals, knowing full well that the other has a completely alternative, indeed opposite, picture of the way redemption will look.”

Why can’t they see the clear and plain truth in the bible? That the rapture will sweep the church from the earth and that those who remain will be left to deal with God’s anger on His unbelieving people, the Jews? Because they can’t. Paul explained it all in Romans 11. Opening that wonderful chapter, Paul said,

“I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.” (Romans 11:1-2)

That should silence the replacement theologians who said that the Jews are done and the church is all that God cares about now. Paul goes on to explain the program and plan of God in the Age of Grace that we are in now:

“What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written,
“God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes that would not see
and ears that would not hear,
down to this very day.”” (Romans 11:7-8).

The Jews rejected Jesus when He appeared. Originally the Jews were supposed to be the Light to the world and instruct the Gentiles about God. But they clung to the law, turned insular, and then used the law for their own gain, coasting on the covenant promise and failing to share the Light with the pagans.

Jesus charged them: “You that make your boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonor you God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you.” (Romans 2:23-24).

“But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spoke against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing you put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, see, we turn to the Gentiles. For so has the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set you to be a light of the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 13:45-47)

Paul explains that the Gentiles are grafted in so as to make Israel jealous.

“So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.” (Romans 11:11).

Paul says it again, explaining the ‘mystery of Israel’s salvation’.

“Lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers:d a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” Romans 11:25).

They have been partially hardened. The most difficult mission group to reach is the Jew, because they have been made hard of heart and blind so that they cannot see. That is why we wind up with articles that state the redemption plan between the Jew and the Christian are opposite. They aren’t , but the hardened Jew see it that way.

All Israel will be saved. Jesus preserves a remnant throughout the Tribulation. He uses the Jew once again as His light to bring salvation, supernaturally sealing 144,000 Jews to witness for Him, 12,000 from each tribe. (Revelation 7:6-8).

He will punish His people, that is what the Tribulation is all about. It is called the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. Yet in the end, all Israel will be saved! (Isaiah 53)

“I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the people of Israel, declares the Sovereign LORD.” (Ezekiel 39:29)

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10)

The LORD is grace and mercy. He loves His people. Punishes for idolatry, yes. He does this because He is holy. Even though punishment tough, He will not break His promise to His covenant people the Israelites. He will be as overjoyed as anyone on earth or in heaven when His people cry out to Him as Messiah.

“And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.” (Zechariah 14:9)

sacrifice, temple

What piece of furniture won’t you find in the Temple?

Posted on August 20, 2012May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

“So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.” (Mark 16:19)

“And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10).

Jesus is the sacrifice. He is sitting because He magnificently and perfectly finished the work. Your work is to repent. Will you?

herod, jerusalem, temple

What Did It Look Like to Walk Around Jerusalem’s Temple Mount in the Time of Jesus?

Posted on July 3, 2012 by elizabethprata

From Israel Archaeology:

The Herodian version of the model shows visitors how excavators believe the Temple Mount site appeared prior to its destruction by Roman troops in the year 70 CE. The focus is on the southern portion of the enclosure, and includes reconstructions of Robinson’s Arch (an early overpass linking the top of the platform with the major city street below), the Hulda Street gates and passages onto the platform, the Royal Stoa, and the Second Temple. The reconstruction is based on the excavations at the Temple Mount under the direction of Ronny Reich and regional archeologist Gideon Avni. On view at the Davidson Center.

bible, end of days. prophecy, end time, new jerusalem, temple

Pouring yourself out as a drink offering on the Chief Cornerstone

Posted on September 24, 2011 by elizabethprata

Yesterday I wrote about the foundation stones of the city of New Jerusalem being inscribed with the names of the 12 Apostles, and Jesus being the chief cornerstone (Rev 21:14). I remarked on the verse from Ephesians 2:19-21:

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord,”

Jesus is the chief cornerstone, the apostles are the foundation, the 12 tribes are the gates, and you and I are each a stone that fits together building the city walls surrounding the glory of the LORD Who dwells there. We are not only His church, His bride, but we are His temple.

Today I want to turn to the cornerstone and talk about the drink offering.

I was thinking about Paul’s wonderful final words: “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;” (2 Timothy 4:6-7). Paul said four wonderful things here. In the second verse, the trio of things Paul says He did for the Lord are a model for us: fight the good fight, finish the course, and keep the faith. Good principles for all of us today. But curiously in the first part of the verse, Paul declares he has “poured himself out as a drink offering.” Hmmm. What is a drink offering, anyway?

The first time a drink offering is mentioned in the bible is in Genesis 35:14. It is only one of two offerings to be given before the Law was delivered, the other being the burnt offering. We hear a lot about the sacrificial offerings and the sin offerings and the trespass offerings, but not a lot about the drink offering.

In the Genesis verse, God descends and speaks to Jacob. It is in this verse that God changes Jacob’s name to Israel and promises certain blessings over him and his descendants. (Gen 35: 9-14). Then God ascends.

In verse 15, Jacob/Israel then sets up a pillar. The Hebrew word for pillar is “something stationary, i.e. A monumental stone.”

“Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He had spoken with him, a pillar of stone, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it. So Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him, ‘Bethel’.”

Bethel means “house of God”. So not only the geographical location was named House of God, but Jacob laid the cornerstone of the house of God that is referred to in Revelation, which shows us the competed house, the City of God- New Jerusalem. The first stone was laid at this moment, actually and metaphorically, and so the cornerstone is our Savior.

Jacob next poured out wine as a drink offering. As mentioned, the drink offering was one sacrifice given prior to the Law. And except for this one time, the drink offering was not meant to be given alone, it always accompanied other offerings.

“In contrast to the Levitical offerings, which all speak of the work of Christ each in a different aspect, the drink offering speaks of the joy in the complement of that work. This explains why the drink offering is not mentioned in the opening up of the book of Leviticus which speaks of man’s approach to God. This approach can only be on the basis of the death of Christ, and so there we have detailed all the offerings except the drink offering, which speaks not of the work or the death of Christ, but the joy of God in the completed work.”

The Chief Cornerstone being laid is the beginning of that work, the Apostles who continued that work are the foundation stones, and each believer is a temple stone fitted together building up His New Jerusalem. When the full number of believers has been reached, (Romans 11:25) the City will be finished and we will be raptured to it.

There is much more to the drink offering of course, I am only scratching the surface. Paul’s reference to pouring himself out is a good reminder to us, that we need to pour ourselves out. Pouring indicates a steady stream. Not meted out in discrete chunks at a slow pace, with gaps. But a steady stream of continual offering of our life’s blood to Jesus. At your life’s end, or at the rapture, will you be able to say you are emptied, having fought the good fight, finished the course, and kept the faith? Have you flung yourself on the Chief Cornerstone? Are you pouring yourself out to the Lord daily in a steady stream?

We kiss the Blarney Stone, we touch the Temple stone, we step on Plymouth Rock, kings are crowned on the Stone of Scone, Muslims pray before the Black Stone of the Kaaba, but they are all pretender stones. In each of those stones only a part of the body and soul is given. The Chief Cornerstone is Jesus and the only way to approach Him is by pouring your entire self upon it. It is the least we can do, because He first poured Himself out upon us.
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end time, prophecy, temple

After 2000 years, FRESH SHOWBREAD is being baked in Israel Today

Posted on July 19, 2010May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Also, a major poll shows that more than half the public wants the temple rebuilt. Scroll down for that one

From the Temple Institute NEWS FLASH:
After 2000 years, FRESH SHOWBREAD is being baked in Israel Today

“And you shall take fine flour and bake it [into] twelve loaves. Each loaf shall be [made from] two tenths [of an ephah of flour]. And you place them in two stacks, six in each stack, upon the pure table, before the HaShem. And you shall place pure frankincense alongside each stack, and it shall be a reminder for the bread, a fire offering to the Lord. Each and every Sabbath day, he shall set it up before HaShem [to be there] continuously, from the children of Israel an eternal covenant. And it shall belong to Aharon and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, for it is holy of holies for him, among the fire offerings of the HaShem, an eternal statute.” (Leviticus 24:5-9)

“Following intensive experimentation and in-depth research based on traditional Jewish texts, as well as other ancient sources, experts have succeeded in recreating the showbread that was placed by the priests on the golden showbread table inside the sanctuary of the Holy Temple, bringing Israel and the world one step closer to the renewal of the Divine service. For the first time since the Holy Temple was destroyed by the Romans 1,940 years ago, (in 70 CE), showbread, (lechem panim), has again been baked in the land of Israel. Following intensive experimentation and in-depth research based on traditional Jewish texts, as well as other ancient sources, experts have succeeded in recreating the showbread that was placed by the priests on the golden showbread table inside the sanctuary of the Holy Temple, bringing Israel and the world one step closer to the renewal of the Divine service.”

Much more at link.

The Jews have not clamored for their temple, nor have kept the Laws of sacrifice since the day the temple was destroyed in Jerusalem in 70AD. Jesus said He would not return until the Jewish people acknowledge Him as Savior. That is an event that will occur just after the Abomination of Desolation. Though initially thrilled that the peace treaty the Antichrist makes strong (Dan 9:24-27) included allowing for a Temple and sacrifices, they realize their mistake in thinking him the Messiah when he stands in the Holy Place (temple) and desecrates it by declaring himself God. Then the persecutions begin, and they make the WWII Holocaust look like a picnic. It is in the wilderness, the rose red city of Petra, that the Jews flee to and finally, blessedly, realize that Jesus is the One and praise and accept Him as their Long-Promised Redeemer and Deliverer.

Just as the LORD is lifting His hand of protection in preparation for the closing of one phase of the Age of Man, (Church Age Dispensation) He is also lifting the hardening from the Jews and they are beginning to stir and hunger and thirst for the privilege of worship under the old laws. In the last few years, the Levite priests have been gathered, a school for training has been established, a practice sacrifice has been conducted, and altar built and consecrated, priestly robes and Temple implements made, and now the showbread baked. All they need is a Temple, though the Old Testament states that if they have their altar they can sacrifice anywhere. These heartbeats of the Old Law have been gathering steam over the last two years, and for the first time in centuries now More than half the public wants to see the Temple rebuilt!

“Half the Israeli public wants the Holy Temple to be rebuilt. This is the main finding of a poll commissioned by the Knesset Television Channel and carried out by the Panels Institute. The poll was taken in advance of this Tuesday’s national day of mourning, known as Tisha B’Av, on which the two Holy Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed, 2,000 and 2,500 years ago, respectively.”

Lord is coming soon, it seems!