Status Quo at the Temple Mount… For Now
Would you believe there are some crazies trying to bring about the apocalypse? Hilarious, right? … But they’re still trying. And getting closer. Some people would hate to see the end of the world, and some people are trying to make it happen.
Welcome to the endgame. The New World Order is just a set up for what was written
about the end in the Church Fathers– never confuse the two.
Recent developments in Jerusalem pose a threat to the stability of the city and to the region. The world saw a preview over the recent Jewish holidays, when activists challenged the Israeli-imposed ban on Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif. Sensitivities at the site tend to peak during any holiday season; however, these latest challenges cannot be dismissed as routine or benign. The radicalization in the political discourse in Israel and the growing power of an emboldened group of Israeli activists focused on the Temple Mount are today coalescing into concrete initiatives that aspire to alter the status quo at the site for the first time since 1967. With Israeli elections approaching, the temptation of right-wing politicians to pander to Temple Mount activists will grow. In parallel, as the radicalization trend within Israel continues a settler-inspired “price tag” incident at the site becomes increasingly likely.
The site at the center of this brewing crisis is revered in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. For Jews, it is the Temple Mount, site of the ancient first and second Jewish Temples. For Muslims, since 705 AD the same spot has been home to the third holiest site in Islam, al Aqsa Mosque. For some dispensationalist Christians, restoration of Jewish contol over the site is an essential component in bringing about the “end of days.”
I’ve always been curious about people and their views towards the “end of days”, and how quickly we’re coming close to it or not.
As Christians we believe those days are coming, as it has been written, they are in fact inevitable. Can we really control the speed in which it will come? I personally dont think so… (hence the creation of the Jewish state after WWII, it was written, it happened, and it couldnt have been stopped or delayed).
The al-Aqsa Mosque (a former Christian basilica) is on the Temple Mount, Mount Moriah, but it is not the “3rd holiest site’ in Islam. That title goes to the piece of earth covered by the building marked as “B” in the photograph, the “Dome of the Rock,” which shelters the rock on which Abraham sacrificed Isaac, and above which was later constructed the Holy of Holies of the OT Temple. (And from which the Saracens claim their “prophet” ascended to heaven on his horse [yes, kind of a dumb story as is usual with them]- thus their interest in the site).
As you get in line to pass through Israeli security to go up there, Hasidic youths buttonhole you and tell you that you should not go up there, since you are not a Jew. I said, “Thanks for the information” and proceeded to go up.
It was a flying horse, or pegasus.
Would there be any restrictions on entering the Temple, from an Orthodox Christian point of view? We have rules about who can step inside the altar of one of our churches: you have to be baptized and not have any canonical impediments. Would the same apply here?
You need to clarify your question. Entering the Temple to pray with the Jews together, or entering the Temple to visit as if it were a museum? Big difference..
I meant entering it at all. I suppose I should have clarified: in Orthodoxy, a layman can’t enter the altar without the bishop’s blessing. Do you need a blessing to enter the Temple?
After the veil of the Temple was rent in two there was no longer a reason to enter therein. I see no reason to enter into this theoretical Jewish temple (it hasn’t been built) and my guess is that they would have limits upon where you could enter.
(Hb 13:7-10) *Remember your prelates who have spoken the word of God to you; whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation, Jesus Christ, yesterday, and today; and the same for ever. Be not led away with various and strange doctrines. For it is best that the heart be established with grace, not with meats; which have not profited those that walk in them. We have an altar, whereof they have no power to eat who serve the tabernacle.*
In Christ,
Deacon Joseph Suaiden
St Eulalia Orthodox Mission Chapel, Yonkers NY:
*A Mission of the Orthodox Metropolia in North America*
*Autonomous Orthodox Metropolia of North and South America and the British Isles*
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“Let these canonical rules be established by us for you, O ye bishops; and if you continue to observe them, ye shall be saved, and shall have peace; but if you be disobedient, you shall be punished, and have everlasting war one with another, and undergo a penalty suitable to your disobedience.” *–Epilogue to the Apostolic Constitutions
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