The Coming Jewish Temple

I was just wondering, with all of the ceremonial rituals and sacrifices that also go in to constructing the temple, how long would it take from the point that the Jewish people begin to build it and when it would be done?

Q. I was just wondering, with all of the ceremonial rituals and sacrifices that also go in to constructing the temple, how long would it take from the point that the Jewish people begin to build it and when it would be done?

Also, what is the general Jewish consensus on the work that has been done by scholars suggesting that Solomon’s Temple was actually to the north of the Dome of the Rock? If that became the accepted conclusion would that reduce the general unwillingness of the people to construct the temple?

A. For years, the Temple Institute has been making implements, furniture, and priestly robes, and had been training priests for Temple work. They recently completed the High Priest’s head piece. But there are still several obstacles in the way and building the Temple is just one of them. First there has to be a national demand for one, which doesn’t exist today. Then the Moslems have to be willing to tolerate its construction. I believe both of these will be handled through the Battle of Ezekiel 38.

But then a red heifer has to be born without blemish or defect and grow to the age of three years with no more than 2 hairs that aren’t red so that it can be burned and its ashes used to purify the people. (Numbers 19:1-10) Also, some believe that the ashes of the last previous heifer have to be found to mix with the ashes of the new one. (In all of history only 9 red heifers have been used for this purpose, and there’s no record of one being born in the last 2000 years.)

Today all living Jews are ceremonially unclean so even if they had a Temple they couldn’t use it until they were cleansed by having pure water mixed with the ashes of the red heifer sprinkled on them. This condition will only be met when God determines the time is right and that points to Ezekiel’s battle as well.

And finally a building must be built. All this will have to happen in the time between the end of Ezekiel’s battle and the early part of Daniel’s 70th week. I think it’ll all come together pretty quickly once the Jewish people get behind the idea, especially if the Moslems are no longer in any shape to oppose it.

There are still three major views among Jewish experts as to the Temple’s location. The majority view by far is that the Dome of the Rock sits where the Temple was. The Kaufman hypothesis, to which you refer, is second in popularity, and then there’s an opinion that places the Temple’s location beneath the current Temple Mount. According to this view, what we think of as the Temple Mount is actually the foundation of Hadrian’s Temple of Jupiter, built in the 2nd Century over the ruins of the 2nd Temple after the Jews had been expelled from Jerusalem.

When all is said and done, locating the Temple at some place other than where the Dome of the Rock now stands is an idea popular mostly among Christians. Most Jews do not see how the Lord would agree to share His Temple’s location with the Dome, or any other structure not dedicated to Him.