Jews raise millions to be ready Temple Mount for coming of the Messiah

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*Perilous Times

Jews raise millions to be ready Temple Mount for coming of the Messiah*

JASON KOUTSOUKIS HERALD CORRESPONDENT
November 14, 2009


Ready ... Yehuda Glick, the director of the Temple Institute, holds a
sacred vessel specially made for the Messiah's coming. Photo: AFP

JERUSALEM: Yehuda Glick is a 44-year-old American-born Jew who spends
most of every day preparing for the arrival of the Messiah in Jerusalem.

Since he became the executive director of the Temple Institute, Mr
Glick's main task has been to supervise the manufacture of the utensils
the high priests will need when the day arrives.

Crowns and other instruments made of solid gold fill glass cases in the
Temple Institute museum in Jerusalem's Old City.

Other artefacts include an array of copper urns, trumpets made of silver
and garments to be worn by the High Priest, woven from golden thread.

Musical instruments, including hand-made harps and lyres, lie ready to
be brought to life upon the Messiah's appearance.

So, when can we expect this momentous event?

''That is a very good question,'' Mr Glick told the Herald.

''All that we know is that we are now living in the age of miracles and
all of those miracles are predicted in the Book as happening on the eve
of the end of days. It could well be tomorrow, but it might be another
100 years, or even 400 years.''

We were in the Quarter Cafe in the Jewish sector of Jerusalem's Old
City, high on an embankment that overlooks the most contested religious
site on Earth.

Jews call it the Temple Mount, or Mount Moriah, and believe it to be the
site of the Foundation Stone, the Holy of Holies from where God gathered
the dust to create Adam.

Muslims call it Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, and believe it
to be the third-holiest site in Islam, from where the prophet Muhammad
ascended to heaven.

To Jews the Temple Mount is also the site of the first temple built by
King Solomon. After it was destroyed, a second temple was built about
500BC, and stood for 500 years before the Romans destroyed it. Their
religion holds that a third temple will be built upon the arrival of the
Messiah.

''That is why we have engaged two architects,'' Mr Glick said. ''It will
be a modern building, with car parks and elevators, but it will look
very much like the Second Temple.''

The Temple Institute museum contains a large-scale model of what the
Third Temple will look like, with its main building set to reach a
height of 60 metres.

Today, the Temple Mount is dominated by the al-Aqsa Mosque and the
gold-topped Dome of the Rock.

''Al-Aqsa can stay,'' Mr Glick said, pointing to the mosque. ''It's not
even on the Temple Mount proper. But we intend to just build over the
Dome of the Rock. We might be able to find a way to include it in the
Third Temple.''

Mr Glick envisages a house of prayer open to all believers in the
monotheistic faiths, Christians, Muslims or Jews.

The Temple Institute has become a fixture on American evangelical tours
of Israel. Thanks largely to their donations, it has so far spent $US27
million ($29 million) on preparations.

''We started with $US100,'' Mr Glick said. ''There are 70 million
evangelical Christians around the world, and most of them have become
Israel's strongest supporters.''

Ordinarily, Israel prevents Jews from visiting the Temple Mount. It so
sensitive an area that when the then Israeli opposition leader Ariel
Sharon visited, accompanied by hundreds of Israeli riot police, in 2000,
it sparked a wave of violence that came to be known as the second
intifada, or uprising.

''This 'Temple Institute' is a right-wing extremist movement interested
in nothing more than provocation,'' said Khatem Abdel Kaber, the
Palestinian Authority minister in charge of Jerusalem affairs. ''We will
vigorously defend our right to manage this site. No amount of insulting
behaviour from these people will succeed in removing us.''