Posted on 03/22/2007 9:54:02 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
In a donated apartment concealed among the narrow streets of the Jerusalem suburb of Nahlaot, 13 Orthodox Jewish men meet every Tuesday to debate matters of Jewish law. They are the management team of a larger developing Sanhedrin, or religious court, in Israel.
And they plan to sacrifice sheep on the Temple Mount on the day before or one month after Passover, which starts at sundown April 2. Either date is permissible under Jewish law. "If the government will not resist," said Rabbi Dov Stein, 68, a member of the group, "we will do it."
As Easter eclipses the last days of Passover this year, Christians will focus again on the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus. The Sanhedrin, meanwhile, will literally attempt to resurrect the Passover sacrifice of old.
For these Jews, the sacrificial Passover offering is not their redemption per se, yet it is vital to the process.
The Passover sacrifice is the latest of more than 40 legal decisions issued by the modern Sanhedrin. Seventy-one Orthodox men revived the court more than two years ago in the city of Tiberius, the same geographical spot they believe marked the final days of the Sanhedrin a few hundred years after the time of Jesus.
In antiquity, the Sanhedrin determined Jewish practice. It now rules on political and religious issues and ultimately sees itself as an alternative to the secular Supreme Court of Israel. It hopes to impose Jewish law on the Jewish people and the seven "Noahide" laws -- prohibitions on theft, murder, blasphemy and others, based on Jewish teaching -- on Gentile nations.
"We want all the world," Stein said, "to walk with God."
Descriptions of the Sanhedrin can be found in Jewish legal writings and the New Testament. The Gospels say Jesus was brought before the Sanhedrin so its members could assess his messianic claims. This current Sanhedrin also sees as one of its goals to evaluate any potential messianic contender. "There is no redemption without the Sanhedrin," said Stein. "We are building the opportunity for a king (messiah)."
Some Orthodox Jews see the Passover sacrifice on Jerusalem's Temple Mount -- one of the most disputed pieces of real estate on the planet -- as key to quickening redemption.
The Sanhedrin bought a herd of 12 sheep -- 110-150 pounds each -- from a farm in southern Israel. Anyone wanting to eat of the sacrifice can pay seven shekels ($1.67) for an 8-10 gram slice, the minimum required by Jewish law, Stein said. The group is hoping to collect 30,000 signatures through its Web site to prove its influence to the Israeli authorities, and gain access to the Temple Mount area.
Some members of the Sanhedrin are a bit more cautious.
"The Passover plans are just preparation," said Hillel Weiss, a professor of Hebrew literature at Bar Ilan University. "Not everyone is in favor of it."
The Passover sacrifice will draw the attention of some religious Jews as well as evangelical Christians who see both the restoration of the Sanhedrin and sacrifice as part of end-times prophecy. Other Orthodox Jews want to distance themselves from this group, which they consider extremist.
Religious Zionists, such as Israeli settlers, serve as the main audience for the new Sanhedrin, said Mordechai Inbari, 37, an Israeli who teaches at the University of Florida. Inbari sat in on some of the Sanhedrin meetings last year for his doctoral research.
Zionists perceive Israel as in the process of redemption, Inbari said, but most see the Temple's reconstruction with its sacrificial system as the last stage, occurring only after a widespread repentance in which all Jews turn religious. "But the extremists see it as going hand in hand," he said.
Hila Lipnick, a 28-year-old Orthodox woman who lives in Cambridge, Mass., used to live in Jerusalem and traveled daily to Gush Etzion, a settlement in the West Bank, for school. While she believes in the eventual rebuilding of the Temple, she is unsure about sacrifice.
"I can't see rivers of blood going all over Jerusalem," she said, "and society just accepting it."
In order for the Sanhedrin to proceed with the sacrifice, they would need to build an altar on the Temple Mount, at least the size of 1 amah (21 inches) by 1 amah, Stein said. They would slaughter the sheep and sprinkle the blood towards the altar, said Hillel Weiss. The meat would then be taken from the Temple area and cooked on a special oven and given to families to eat.
Some leaders in the Jewish community question not only the renewal of sacrifice without a Temple, but the validity of the Sanhedrin itself.
"They are a self-selected group," said Michael J. Broyde, an Orthodox rabbi who sits on the Rabbinical Court of America. "And they have no more and no less authority than any other self-selected group of rabbis."
While many Jews are either ambivalent or hostile toward the Sanhedrin and other Temple-related groups, some evangelicals support these projects. They get excited when they perceive the Jewish people fulfilling what they view as part of future prophecy, said Randall Price, an evangelical professor and author of four books about the Temple. "Then they think we're getting closer to that being a reality," he said.
The Sanhedrin considers the Passover sacrifice equal in importance to circumcision, since it is the first collective commandment given to the Jewish people.
"Since the Passover sacrifice is an eternal commandment, we should do it," said Rabbi Yeshayahu Hollander, an English spokesperson for the group. Those who do not observe the sacrifice, he said, will be cut off from the Jewish people.
"If we have psychological inhibitions, it is our duty to educate ourselves, to overcome the inhibitions," Hollander said. "This is part of our redemption. An essential part."
I answer this the same way I would answer if you asked about the New Jerusalem, the City of God, described in Revelation. This city comes down out of Heaven to planet Earth. It is approximately !,500 miles x 1,500 miles x 1,500 miles. A giganto cube. Only God knows how this will happen. Remember all things are possible with God. Ezekiel's vision of the temple is on Mt. Zion that the Bible describes as a high plateau and the rest of Israel in on a level plain. Man, I don't know how he's going to do this but it's all described in the Bible. Personally, I think when this all happens the Earth will be a very different place that what we now know.
Prophecy fulfilled before our eyes. I don't know how it is going to happen but the Temple will be rebuilt. But the final sacrifice was given 2,000 years ago. The Jews won't realize it until He returns. BTW, Ezekiel gives the measurements and description of this Temple.
1.Prophecy is being fulfilled and that the temple will be rebuilt.
2. Then Ezekiel give the measurements and description of this temple.
3. Then I guess the question is Ezekiel's temple built before the Millennium or after? If it is built before the millennium there is no provision for animal scarifies so the whole point of the Sanhedrin getting the passover sacrifice ready it would not be given in Ezekiel's temple.
So is there two temples?
Sorry if you think it is a strawman, but the fact remains that literalist futurists suffer from the same problem that plagued the apostate Jews of Jesus days. You suffer from the same sort of chiliasm that got them in trouble.
Christ is reigning over the nations from the throne of His father David in heaven. He is conquering and will bring all things into submission by the second advent, when He will deliver up the kingdom tot he Father. That is the reality of the NT take on all those OT prophecies about Messiah. At least that is how Jesus and His apostles spiritually interpreted the prophecies. None of them viewed the OT propehcies about Christ advent and reign with the same set of presuppositions as you so-called literalists.
If you don't know how it will be rebuilt, or have any other details, then how exactly do you know whether these present humanist efforts have anything to do with Bible prophecy being fulfilled?
It makes no logical or biblical sense. Men have been enamored with these sorts of guessing games for centuries, and all have failed to predict "current events" as having anything to do with the Bible. Just ask your theological cousins, the Millerites.
TopCat54 I hope you are speaking to BigFin? Because I have never said that the temple will be rebuilt before Christ returns. All of my questions have been rhetorical towards BigFin.
The temple will not be rebuilt, period.
After Christ returns the new Jerusalem is established in final form and we are told, "But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple." Ezekiel's temple was a spiritual picture of the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ during this age as He has attoned once for all for the sins of His people (Matt. 1:21).
Even now there is no earthly temple because the true temple is in heaven (where it always was; Heb. 8:5). We inhabit the new Jerusalem, the heavenly Mt. Zion (Heb. 12:22). The earthly temple was just a temporary pattern to point the Old Covenant church to Christ. One He appeared the temple no longer served a useful purpose, and so God destroyed it so the people would not confuse the temporal/carnal with the eternal/spiritual.
But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. (Luke 21:20-22)Most of the church, including the 1st century Jewish believers, understands this fact. A segment of the premil camp does not, and so they still look for a future temple just like the apostate Jews who have missed the coming of the Messiah for the last 2000 years.
God brings Ezekiel, by vision, into the LAND OF ISRAEL. And he shows him the temple that will be built. When it is, it does not say. Could very well be during the Millenium because other passages speak of the nations of the earth coming to this place to worship the LORD.
You have a prederist view. The prederist declares every passage that is unexplained as spiritual and an allegory. They also do not interpret the bible literally, they believe all promises to Israel have been transferred to the Church (replacement theology), along with many other liberal denominations, and that God is finished with the nation of Israel.
God is not finished with Israel. They are the apple of his eye, no matter how rebellious and rotten they are. There is always a remnant. And as for the Temple... we will see. But one thing we do agree. That Christ is the Messiah and the author of our salvation. He is the bridge between man and God. There is no other way to God. Amen.
Yo, BigFinn, I know you got that from somebody's book or newsletter or radio program cuz you didn't get it from reading any "prederist" (sic).
If you want to read what the Bible (all the Bible, not the stunted OT-only Bible of the dispensationalists) really teaches about Israel, I suggest you begin with some of the articles on this site: Israel / Judaism. You can also read Expansion, Not Replacement by a minister devoted to Jewish evangelism.
A helpful book would be Israel of God by O. Palmer Robertson
Be prepared to have your spiritual eyes opened to the reality and true makeup of Christ's kingdom. Otherwise, if you choose you can just muddle along with the discredited theology of Darby and Scofield.
Lol. Ya he should muddle along with those who finally found a warm and fuzzy replacement word for replacement theology. "expansion" lol. Those bigots are really sneaky.
I guess it feels like "replacement" if you are still on the outside looking into the kingdom.
The good news is that Christ's forgiveness and restoration is available to all who call upon Him, Jews and gentile, without any racial considerations.
"... glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God." (Roms 2:10,11)
Only if "kingdom" is defined by you and yours. I have a more solid definition.
Christ defined it since He is the only King of kings and Lord of lords, and He has granted to His dsciples the correct understanding.
And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: 'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.' "But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. (Matthew 13:10-17)"For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." (1 Cor. 1:22-24)
It would be more convincing if you'd actually use inspired writings.
The kingdom was established by Jesus.
"From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'" (Matt. 4:17)
"But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you." (Matt. 12:28)
"Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it." (Matt. 21:43)
"Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.'" (John 18:36)
"These are my only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are of the circumcision; they have proved to be a comfort to me." (Col. 4:11)
Thereafter Jesus commisioned them to witness of Him throughout the whole earth. He then left from the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
Exactly. Jesus gave them instruction on how to establish the kingdom, namely by preaching the gospel in all the world, beginning in Judea, and by making disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:20).
God's promise to the remnant of Israel is being carried out even in our day as Jews come to faith in Jesus Christ, the faith of Abraham, and are regrafted into the root.
The kingdom is going forth in great power. But it is a spiritual kingdom, and you must has the eyes of faith to see it.
"But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear;" (Matt. 13:16)
Not sure why you care. To those who are spiritually dead one set of writings looks the same as any other.
Oh I have to care when one spews bigoted theology. The world can't abide another incident such as the Shoah.
The Christian belief in Christ's sufficient sacrifice, has nothing to do with whether many Jews want to build their church building again. I think it's really likely that they want to as much as any American church member whose building has ever burned down.
So, I think they'll do it. I makes simple common sense.
That has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not they want to rebuild their church building.
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