This is the event that has already occurred. In 70 AD, after Jesus’ death on the cross, the Jewish people were dispersed throughout the entire world. The Romans destroyed their one and only Temple and they were then scattered throughout the whole world as prophesied in the Old Testament as a result of their failure to get their act together with God the Father. God the Father pronounced this judgment on the Jewish people as you get near the end of the Old Testament.
However, God then says after pronouncing this judgment on them - that He will still be their God, that He will still keep the pact and covenant that He had made with their earlier forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - and that He would bring them back to their homeland Israel at the end of time - shortly before Jesus would come back to our earth for His second coming. Here are 2 specific verses telling us this.
Then on 6/7/67, they recaptured the city of Jerusalem in what was called the 6 Day War. However, they were not able to recover the Temple Mount which is where they want to rebuild their Holy Temple once again.
Jesus uses the analogy of a fig tree when talking about this, and He says that the generation that sees this restoration take place with the Jewish people will not pass away until He comes back for the 2nd time. There thus is a very good chance that we may witness the return of Jesus to our earth for His second coming in our lifetime. I don't know what the time frame is when Jesus uses the word generation. It could be 100 years or maybe a little less. If so, His second coming could occur anytime between now and the year 2048.
The Rebuilding of the Jewish Temple
The Jewish people were able to recover their homeland Israel and their main city Jerusalem, but they were not able to recover the Temple Mount, which is the ground they want to rebuild their Holy Temple on. Right now, there is a Muslim Mosque on that site called the Dome of the Rock. The Muslims obviously have no intentions anytime soon on removing their Mosque to allow the Jews to rebuild their Holy Temple.
However, this Jewish Temple has to be rebuilt once again in order for all the prophecies in the Bible to be fulfilled. The Jewish people have already made plans as to how they will rebuild it should they ever get the chance. Apparently it will only take about 2 years to rebuild it again once God supernaturally clears the way for them to be able do it.
The 1st Temple was built by King Solomon back in the Old Testament. It was then destroyed in 586 BC. The Temple was then rebuilt a second time around 26 BC and then once more destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD when the Jews were dispersed out of Rome and into all the other nations of the world.
The Temple has to be rebuilt once again because there is an event involving the Antichrist called the "Abomination of Desolation." Remember those 3 words!! When this event happens, we literally have a countdown of 42 months before Jesus comes back. What the Antichrist does on this event is to seat himself in the Temple of God proclaiming himself to be God, and from this point on, the second half of the tribulation takes place, which will have the greatest persecution of Jews and Christians the world has ever seen!The Antichrist cannot seat himself in this Temple unless it has already been rebuilt. The consensus is that in the first three and half years of the Tribulation, the Antichrist will establish some kind of peace treaty or covenant with Israel. He will allow the rebuilding of the Temple, and once that is completed, he will then break his pact with Israel and seat himself in the Temple proclaiming to be God. Remember, it will only take 2 years to rebuild the Temple, so this could easily happen in the first half of the 7 year Tribulation.
I am sure this event will be televised throughout the whole world due to the conceit and arrogance of the Antichrist. He will want the whole world to know what he has just done. Think about this. The devil has always wanted to be like God, to have His throne for his own. Now he will get his one and only chance on earth to do this. The Antichrist will be under the guidance and influence of Satan. Satan, through the Antichrist, will now be able to seat himself in God’s Holy Temple for the next three and half years - and from that position, start the greatest mass slaughter of Jews and Christians that the world has ever seen. He will literally kill two thirds of the Jewish people. Believe it or not, this persecution will be worse than the German holocaust where 6 million Jews were killed. More on this in our next article.
Bottom line - the Jewish Temple has to be rebuilt so the above event with the Antichrist can take place. It will also serve as a main key event for the rest of the world to key in on as it will literally tell us exactly how much time we will still have left before Jesus comes back for His second coming - 42 months!!
This is the 3rd part of a 22 part series on the 2nd coming of Jesus.
Article written by Michael Bradley of Bible Knowledge Ministries. Their website is a resource of Bible Knowledge, articles, commentary and teaching. They currently have over 100 Bible articles. All free of charge.
If you do not want to wait for the next article, you can go to our end times section of our website for all 15 articles regarding the 2nd Coming of Jesus.
Copyright © 2005 by Michael Bradley. All Rights Reserved.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/