Temple Institute’s ‘Temple Mount Awareness Day’

The Temple Institute in Jerusalem has declared tomorrow to be ‘Temple Mount Awareness Day.’ Here is some of their information about it:

Sunday, March 30th, (Adar II 28), the Temple Institute will be hosting its 5th Annual International Temple Mount Awareness Day broadcast…

International Temple Mount Awareness Day takes place each year during the week of Rosh Chodesh Nisan – the New Month of Nisan. The Month of Nisan is –

The anniversary of the dedication of the Tabernacle in the wilderness.

The first day of the Divine service.

The day on which fire descended from Heaven onto the altar, and the first day in which the Shechina, the Divine Presence, rested in the Tabernacle.

Nisan is the month of redemption, the month in which our forefathers were redeemed from Egyptian bondage. But the month is called so not only because of the upcoming Festival of Passover and our ancestors’ passage from slavery to freedom. Tradition teaches that in the future, as well, the great and final redemption will take place in Nisan.

INTERNATIONAL TEMPLE MOUNT AWARENESS DAY seeks to celebrate the promise of the rebuilding of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and the revolution in Temple consciousness that is taking place in Israel. The event also draws attention to the situation on the Temple Mount, the holiest place on earth, where non-Moslems are not permitted to pray, and where a campaign is being waged daily to destroy all existing remnants of the Holy Temple, and to deny that the Holy Temple ever existed. https://www.templeinstitute.org/5th-annual-international-temple-mount-awareness-day.htm

While the Temple Institute is correct that their are problems at the Temple Mount, many of its own plans and ideas are a bit unusual and some its goals are inappropriate.

As far as inappropriate, notice the following:

Geo-politically, the Temple Mount has to be cleared of the Dome of the Rock and the mosques which are presently located upon it before the physical rebuilding of the Holy Temple can begin. Many scenarios can be imagined which would accomplish this, the most promising, and not necessarily the most far-fetched, would entail Moslem recognition of the Mount as the intended location for the rebuilt Temple. With the acquiescence of the Moslem world the Moslem structures currently on the Mount would be disassembled and reassembled elsewhere. (http://www.templeinstitute.org/frequently-asked-questions.htm viewed 11/10/13)

The Muslims are not interested in getting their famous Dome of the Rock and their mosques removed, so I would categorize this as an inappropriate goal.

As far as unusual, notice the following that The Temple Institute teaches:

Our sages teach that the stone under the Dome of the Rock is called the “Foundation Stone,” for it is the very foundation of creation. It is the spiritual center of the world and the starting point of creation; all the prayers of all mankind assemble in this place before ascending on high to G-d. It was here that the Ark of the Covenant was placed within the Holy of Holies.(The “Foundation Stone” of Creation. http://www.templeinstitute.org/ctl_articles_2.htm viewed 11/10/13)

The Temple Mount, where God chose to place His Name, is literally the point of creation; the place where the physical realm came into existence. And it is the place where everything we can’t see, i.e. the spiritual world, attaches itself to the physical. It is literally the portal between heaven and the earth. This precise point of creation on the Temple Mount is called the Even Shetiyah, the Foundation Stone.(Medad Y. A Found(dation) Stone Lost. June 29, 2102; reprinted from Jerusalem Post Blogs. http://www.templeinstitute.org/archive/29-06-12.htm viewed 11/10/13)

Jesus warned that the Jews sometimes relied on their own traditions above the Bible (Mark 7:9-13) and that is what the Temple Institute seems to be doing in some instances.

The Temple Institute itself is preparing to perform animal sacrifices, has given statements showing that it is willing to do them without a new temple being built (only an altar and some implements with a Levite are biblically-required per scripture, and the Temple Institute has basically claimed to have all of that).

Be that as it may, the since the Bible teaches that animal sacrifices will stop (Daniel 9:27; 11:31), they must first resume. And currently this most likely is in the Temple Mount area (though there are other possible locations). This resumption of animal sacrifices is something that the Temple Institute may well be involved in–and they mainly only need permission from Israeli authorities to do so. One person there reported to one of our sons that this could be done within hours of getting permission.

And getting that permission is not impossible. Though it that may well take a war, peace deal, and/or political gridlock for that to happen. But it will come to pass.

As quoted earlier in this post, the Temple Institute teaches that the Temple Mount is the holiest place on earth. However, I am not convinced that is God’s view. It also seemed to be the view of the early Christians in Jerusalem that after the Temple was destroyed that whatever holiness was associated with it transferred to the first Christian church building (the Christians used some of the stones from the destroyed Temple to build it). The Bible, though, clearly teaches that in the end times, it is Christians who are the “temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians 6:16), and since Jesus is return to the Mount of Olives (Acts 1) and not the Temple Mount, that too is an indication that the old Temple Mount is not necessarily the physical place that God holds in highest esteem.

That being said, the Temple Mount area is a likely location for end time sacrifices to resume, and since the Bible shows that they will (cf. Daniel 9:27; 11:31), the fact that The Temple Institute keeps promoting ‘Temple Mount Awareness’ shows that there is real interest in taking steps that will lead to the fulfillment of various end time prophecies.

Some items of possibly related interest may include:

Why is a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem Not Required? Although people like Timothy LaHaye teach a third Jewish temple is required, who is ‘the temple of God” in the New Testament? Does the Bible require a rebuilt Jewish Temple?
Church of God on Jerusalem’s Western Hill Could this building, often referred to as the Cenacle on Mt. Zion, possibly have been the oldest actual Christian church building? Might it contain stones from the Jerusalem Temple?
Does the ‘Cenacle’ deal have prophetic ramifications? After a 20 year negotiation, the Church of Rome has negotiated the right to have Catholic mass in the building known as the Cenacle. It is in the area where the Church of God on Jerusalem’s Western Hill once stood. This is believed to be the location of the earliest Christian church building. How does the Bible define the ‘temple of God’ in the New Testament? Could this be the area where the ‘man of sin’ will sit in the “temple of God’ that Bible prophecy discusses in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4? This is a YouTube video.
Jerusalem: Past, Present, and Future What does the Bible say about Jerusalem and its future? Is Jerusalem going to be divided and eliminated? Is Jesus returning to the area of Jerusalem? There is also a related YouTube video you can watch titled Jerusalem To be divided and eliminated.
Who is the Man of Sin of 2 Thessalonians 2? Is this the King of the North, the ten-horned beast of Revelation 13:1-11, or the two-horned Beast of Revelation 13:12-16? Some rely on traditions, but what does the Bible teach? Here is a related link in Spanish/español: ¿Quién es el Hombre de Pecado de 2 Tesalonicenses 2? Here is a version in Mandarin: 主编：谁是’大罪人’？Here is a link to a related YouTube video, in English, titled Who is the Man of Sin?
Anglo – America in Prophecy & the Lost Tribes of Israel Are the Americans, Canadians, English, Scottish, Welsh, Australians, Anglo-Saxon (non-Dutch) Southern Africans, and New Zealanders descendants of Joseph? Where are the lost ten-tribes of Israel? Who are the lost tribes of Israel? What will happen to Jerusalem and the Jews in Israel? Will God punish the U.S.A., Canada, United Kingdom, and other Anglo-Saxon nations? Why might God allow them to be punished first? Here is a link to the Spanish version of this article: Anglo-América & las Tribus Perdidas de Israel. Information is also in the YouTube sermons titled Where are the Ten Lost Tribes? Why does it matter? and British are the Covenant People.