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“The Firstborn Son Is Presented in the Temple” (Luke 2:22-40)There’s Christmas, and then there are the days after Christmas. What happened to baby Jesus in the days and weeks after his birth? Our text today is one the few places where we have an account of what happened during that time. It’s the story of the Presentation of Our Lord, forty days after his birth, the day when “The Firstborn Son Is Presented in the Temple.” Actually, the first event after Christmas we read about from Jesus’ life is found in the one verse in between the Christmas Gospel and...

The Temple Institute in Jerusalem announced Friday the completion of a model of the biblical altar which G-d, through Moses, commanded the nation of Israel to build at the Mount of Eval (Ebal) overlooking Shechem: “And there you shall build an altar unto Hashem your God, an altar of stones: you shall lift up no iron tool upon them. You shall build the altar of Hashem your G-d of unhewn stones.” (Dvarim / Deuteronomy 27:5,6)...

A prestigious Palestinian professor told WND that the Muslim denial of a Jewish connection to the Temple Mount is political and that historically Muslims did not dispute Jewish ties to the site. "If you went back a couple of hundred years, before the advent of the political form of Zionism, I think you will find that many Muslims would not have disputed the connection that Jews have toward [the Mount]," said Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al-Quds University in eastern Jerusalem...

As finals are quickly approaching, students sometimes joke about living in the library. But when author Matthew Brown says he lives in the library, he’s not joking around. Brown, who recently released the book “Exploring the Connection between Mormons and Masons,” does most of the research for his books in the BYU library. “I live here in the BYU library and I’m not kidding,” Brown said. “I have done research at other universities around the country but for the most part, when it comes to LDS subjects, this is my primary research library.” “Mormons and Masons” is Brown’s 10th book,...

An Arab university lecturer and writer is hiding underground out of fear for his life after shocking the Palestinian Authority with a book that links Jews with the Temple Mount. The Arab world has been conducting a campaign, including removal of tons of dirt containing archaeological evidence, to try to eliminate historical Jewish links with the Temple Mount. Dr. Sari Nusseibeh, of Birzeit University in Ramallah, threw acid on the propaganda campaign that tries to convince Arabs that the First and Second Temples never existed. He wrote in a book, “The legendary Temple of Jerusalem may be the place of...

The Osmond Family is the Mormon Church’s version of the Manson Family. Mormons wear magical underwear, and Joseph Smith was killed because he forgot to put his on. The Mormon religion tells its followers that there are planets ruled by gods who were once human; therefore, you can be a god too. These are just three of the more than 200 online comments that were posted on the MySA Community News Web site in response to the Northwest Weekly’s report this past month about the planned construction of a Mormon church in Helotes. Though there is a wide variety of...

LOS ANGELES — DEVELOPING: Los Angeles police have detained a man near the North Hollywood synagogue where two Jewish people were shot in the legs. Officer Rosario Herrera says she was unsure if the arrest was connected with the shooting Thursday at the Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic synagogue.

<p>Two people were shot at a synagogue parking lot in North Hollywood today, police said. A man is reported in custody.</p> <p>The shooting at the Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic Temple was reported about 6:20 a.m., said Los Angeles police Officer Cleon Joseph of media relations. A member of the synagogue tells KNX 1070 the shooting happened in the parking lot just as people were gathering at the temple for morning services.</p>

Jews in the town of Mitzpe Yericho are taking practical steps to prepare for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, by preparing descendents of Cohanim (priests) and Levites for service. At the Mitzpe Yericho school, Temple priest hopefuls learn exactly how to conduct the daily Temple service and offer the required sacrifices.

Herod built three temples in honor of his patron Augustus. One stood at Sebastia (Samaria) and a second one at Caesarea. Where was the third? Some archeologists think it was at Banias itself, but that city was dedicated to the god Pan. Andrew Overman of Macalester College in the US thinks the temple was at Omrit. Overman has been digging at the site for nearly 10 years and sees in the remains all the unique characteristics and high quality of Herod's methods of building. Like the other two temples, Omrit was approached by a grand flight of stairs that led...

Two police officers and two Muslims were injured Sunday morning when Arab riots erupted on the Temple Mount. The area was immediately shut down, although the Western Wall plaza remained open to Jewish worshippers. One police officer lost his temper and cursed the Jews.

ANCIENT Egyptian temples were aligned so precisely with astronomical events that people could set their political, economic and religious calendars by them. So finds a study of 650 temples, some dating back to 3000 BC. For example, New Year coincided with the moment that the winter-solstice sun hit the central sanctuary of the Karnak temple (pictured) in present-day Luxor, says archaeological astronomer Juan Belmonte of the Canaries Astrophysical Institute in Tenerife, Spain. Hieroglyphs on temple walls have hinted at the use of astronomy in temple architecture, including depictions of the "stretching of the cord" ceremony in which the pharaoh marked...

(IsraelNN.com) The Middle East peace plan that United States President Barack Obama will unveil soon involves the creation of a Palestinian Authority state by 2011 and the transfer of Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem [presumably including the Temple Mount – ed.] to Arab-Muslim sovereignty, Saudi newspaper Al-Ukaz has learned. According to the report published Sunday in Al-Ukaz, the Obama plan also includes the following elements: Some parts of eastern Jerusalem [presumably Neveh Yaakov, Pisgat Ze'ev and the like - ed.] would be transferred to Israeli control.

The bitter war over Northeastern Hospital isn't over yet. Most of the battles in this months-long conflict have been won by Temple University Health System officials, who announced in March their decision to close the Port Richmond hospital because of mounting financial losses. Hundreds of layoffs followed when the hospital ceased inpatient services on June 30. Now, state Rep. John Taylor and other leaders who had fought to save the ill-fated hospital have fired a salvo that could deprive Temple University of $175 million in state and federal funds. "We told them we'd do this. Apparently they didn't understand," Taylor...

Nearly two-thirds of Israelis say the time is right to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple, according to a Ynet-Gesher survey. Even half of non-religious Jews favor rebuilding the Holy Temple – an idea politically unthinkable in Israel just 10 or 20 years ago. The poll was release on the saddest day on the Jewish calendar – the fasting day of Tisha B'Av, or the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av. It commemorates a series of tragedies that befell the Jewish people all on the same day, most significantly the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, which...

(IsraelNN.com) Two Jews were detained by police and held for hours on Sunday morning for the simple act of kneeling while on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The two, Yosef Ben-Avraham of Shilo and Yekutiel ben-Yaakov of Kfar Tapuach, were on the Mount as part of the Holy Temple Festival held in Samaria beginning on Saturday night. Jews celebrate Holy Temple Festival in Tapuach While Jews are allowed to visit certain areas of the Temple Mount under strict police supervision, they are not allowed to pray or to make any visible gestures expressing their Jewish belief, for fear of inciting...

More than 200 Jewish extremists have reportedly entered al-Aqsa Mosque, positioning themselves inside the holy site, allegedly to perform religious rituals. According to a statement released by the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage, the incursion was "significant". The foundation has called on Muslims, Arabs and all Palestinians to take action in support of the mosque. The attack comes amidst Tisha B'Av, also known as "The Ninth of Av" -- a Jewish fasting day in commemoration of the destruction of the two Temples. The occasion falls on the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, which usually coincides with...

About two thirds of the public want the Temple rebuilt, including about half of secular Israelis, a new survey conducted for Ynet and the Gesher organization revealed. The survey was held by the Panels Institute among 516 respondents that are a representative sample of the adult Jewish population. The margin of error was 4.3%. Initially, the respondents were asked what happened on Tisha B'Av (Ninth of Av), and showed impressive knowledge. Ninety-seven percent responded that the Temple was destroyed, while only 2% said they did not know. The second question was whether respondents wanted to see the Temple rebuilt. Sixty-four...

A unique ten-line Aramaic inscription on the side of a stone cup commonly used for ritual purity during Second Temple times was recently uncovered during archaeological excavations on Jerusalem's Mount Zion, The Jerusalem Post learned on Wednesday. Inscriptions of this kind are extremely rare and only a handful have been found in scientific excavations made within the city.

I have a hard time with the Kinot (Tisha B'Av lamentations). In my opinion, the Kinot have become nothing more than lip service. We are actually in love with destruction. We have exchanged the essence of the Temple Mount for the Western Wall, the candy for the wrapper and the purpose of the lamentations for the lamentations, themselves. The longing for the Temple that kept us whole as a nation during 2000 years of exile and returned us to our land and our state, has somehow morphed into a horror show in the minds of too many Jews - both...

U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo last week robbed Judaism of its legacy and threatens the existence of the Jewish state, according to Temple Institute Rabbi Chaim Richman. The rabbi also said the president’s comments were in essence perverse and obscene.

Sheikh Raad Salah, leader of the Northern Wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel, believes Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will try to rebuild the Jewish Temple. Speaking at a conference organized by website Islam Online in Doha, Qatar, Salah stated his belief that Netanyahu may try to build the Jewish Temple – which the Islamic preacher called “the false temple”....The solution to “the threat against Jerusalem,” according to Salah, is a complete mobilization of the Arab world, including the religious imams, who need to act and “recruit the masses.” He asked Muslim scholars to pronounce edicts that will force “the...

Israel may find Iran as one of the administrators of the Temple Mount, according to a new Palestinian Authority plan reported Thursday....PA sources said giving up claims to the Temple Mount and handing over control to the 57-member Saudi-based Islamic Conference Organization is conditional on Israel’s agreeing to a final status agreement. ...Iran, which is classified as Persian and not an Arab country, is part of the Islamic group.

Moshe Feiglin, head of Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership Movement) said last week that if he was elected prime minister, he would try to rebuild the destroyed Temple in Jerusalem. "I don't know if I will have the merit of doing something that is the aspiration of every Jew," said Feiglin. "But if I become prime minister I will take away control over the Temple Mount from the Wakf [the Islamic trust] and reinstate Jewish sovereignty over the entire mount and, hopefully, rebuild the Temple." Feiglin said that rebuilding the Temple and all that it symbolized was the essence of a...

  M E R I D I A N     M A G A Z I N EThe Temple and the AtonementBy Truman Madsen We have been in Israel on and off, for nearly six-and-a-half years.  It was evocative in ways I cannot put in words.  We came daily, my wife and I, for two years to that magnificent building on Mount Scopus, the Jerusalem Center, your center. We walked into an office which is all glass on the west side and looked out early in the morning upon descending gold, because as the sun rises it strikes the taller buildings first...

        Gospel Library Ordinances and Covenants By Elder Dennis B. NeuenschwanderOf the Presidency of the Seventy Dennis B. Neuenschwander, “Ordinances and Covenants,” Ensign, Aug 2001, 20From a fireside address at Brigham Young University on 27 October 2000. Sacred ordinances and covenants provide an endowment of divine power in our lives. We are all aware that the mission of the Church is “to help bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man by inviting all people to come unto Christ and be perfected in Him.” 1 One of the most significant teachings given by the Savior...

Pensioner spends 30 years building amazing model of Herod's Temple ... Brick by brick, tiny figure by tiny figure, Alec Garrard has...worked for 30 years on an astonishing recreation of Herod's Temple. ...the Biblical project which now measures 20ft by 12ft and is housed in a seperate building in his garden. His version is so impressive...top archaeologists and experts...have come to view it. Alec Garrard standing next to the mode...[snip] ...the Court of Prayer, enables one to see< the extraordinary attention to detail...This artist's impression of Herod's Temple...in 1886 by James Tissot [snip] ...Mr Garrard, 78, has dedicated 33,000 hours...

Alec Garrard, a 78 year old British farmer, has spent the past 30 years building a 100:1 scale model of King Herod's Temple... and he isn't finished yet.The meticulously researched, painstakingly accurate model sits in a long house on Garrard's property. He created over 4,000 minature people to populate the model and hand-baked every clay brick. Amazing.See the entire magnificent thing here.

I went to the temple Friday. I met a couple of Tribune co-workers there and we walked right in without showing our recommends or anything. In fact, one of us wasn't even Mormon. The occasion was a press tour of the new LDS Draper temple. The church's latest temple will begin hosting public visits this week. After the dedication in March, the doors will only swing open to the card-carrying faithful. Friday was probably the last time the Draper temple would host a bunch this scruffy. There were several dozen journalists from various television stations and newspapers. Some were LDS,...

A bottle of flammable liquid was hurled at one of Chicago's oldest synagogues, catching fire but not causing major damage. No one was injured in the incident early Monday at Temple Sholom of Chicago. Chicago police and the Chicago fire department are investigating the arson as a hate crime. No one was in custody Monday. Police officer Daniel O'Brien says the fire burned itself out and never ignited the North Side building. He says investigators are working to get surveillance equipment from the area. Roger Rudich, president of the temple, says the arson was unsettling but not damaging.

RESIDENTS at certain addresses in the Gaza Strip have been receiving unusual phone calls since the Israeli air assault began on Saturday - a request that they and their families leave their homes as soon as possible for their own safety.

Since CNN devoted so much time to covering the Hajj, a number of prominent Muslims -- including known terrorists and jihadists -- have opined that "We are defeating these people [American "evangelicals"] through their homes in their lands." "Terrorists gush over CNN coverage," by Aaron Klein for WorldNetDaily, December 12 (thanks to Doc Washburn): JERUSALEM – CNN's extensive coverage this week of the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca is a defeat for evangelical Christians and proves it is only a question of time before Islam will be "shining all over the world," according to Muslim terrorists in Gaza speaking to...

OAKLAND — Convinced Jim Jones was God, Garrett Lambrev was the first person to join Peoples Temple in Ukiah in 1966 after the group moved from Indiana. Ten years later — two years before the Jonestown tragedy — he was part of a wave of defectors, shaken to the core by tales of torture and wanting nothing to do with a god who could sanction such things. He was reviled as a traitor and lived in fear for his life. Yet as Lambrev reflects on the enigma of Peoples Temple, his thoughts settle not just on the horrors of the...

WESTWOOD, Calif. (KABC) -- No hazardous material has been found, and the substance in the envelope has been found to be non-toxic and non-threatening, according to FBI Spokesperson Laura Eimiller. The hazardous-materials team will continue testing, but the FBI has concluded there is no danger from the substance. The Los Angeles Mormon Temple in Westwood, which was the target of recent protests by opponents of Proposition 8, was closed because temple employees received an envelope filled with an unidentified white powdery substance, according to a spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Spokesman Ronald Smith said a...

The Mormon temple in Westwood was closed Thursday afternoon after an envelope filled with an unidentified white, powdery substance was delivered to temple employees, Los Angeles police said. About 3:30 p.m., a hazardous-materials team was sent to the temple at Santa Monica Boulevard and Overland Avenue, said LAPD Officer Karen Smith. The temple has recently been the site of protests by opponents of Proposition 8, though it is unclear whether the envelope was related to protests over the gay marriage ban, officials said.

Put a fork in it. That’s what two Texas politicians recently said about the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor. “Everybody in Austin knows it’s dead. Everybody across the state knows it’s dead. It’s just something to be talking about,” House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, said at a debate in Midland on Oct. 19, according to a published report. But folks fighting the corridor here in Central Texas call it election season bluster. “Yes, they are still planning to do it,” said Mae Smith, Holland mayor. “That’s nothing but political talk. I don’t believe anything Mr. Craddick says, or any politician says prior...

They have confirmed the discovery of two 3,000-year-old temples in the Collud-Zarpan complex, some 500 miles north of the capital Lima. The two structures formed part of a large ceremonial area that belonged to the Cupisnique culture, according to Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva. He saids: "We have here a monumental staircase of 25m in width. The rest is a polychromatic relief with images of the spider god, and we also have a part behind of what would be a temple that extended at least 500m south." The archaeologist said the discovery ranks as one of Peru's most important religious finds...

Archaeologists excavating north of Jerusalem have found a piece of a sarcofagus - a stone coffin - belonging to a son of a High Priest. The visible inscription reads, "the son of the High Priest" - but the words before it are broken off. It thus cannot be ascertained which High Priest is referred to, nor the name or age of the deceased. Many other findings in the excavation are from the late Second Temple period, and archaeologists assume that the High Priest in question lived between 30 and 70 C.E. Yoli Shwartz, Spokesperson for the Israel Antiquities Authority, notes...

Video at link

(IsraelNN.com) The widely-disseminated Arab Moslem position that the Temple Mount is not Jewish has been debunked - by the Supreme Moslem Council (Waqf) of Jerusalem, in a Temple Mount guide published in 1925. Wakf guidebook, 1925, cover The Temple Institute Guidebook Puts the Lie to Current Arab Campaign In 1997, the chief Moslem cleric of the Palestinian Authority, Mufti Ikrama Sabri, stated, "The claim of the Jews to the right over [Jerusalem] is false, and we recognize nothing but an entirely Islamic Jerusalem under Islamic supervision..." Thus began a campaign to convince the world that the millennia-old natural association between...

After last night, there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that "He, Who's Middle Name Must Never Be Spoken", is a well rehearsed, finely groomed American superstar. What is the difference between someone like Brittney Spears and BHO? They both came out of nowhere. No one knew anything about them until the train wrecks were in sight. From day one they were told by their handlers what to do or say. How to act, how to respond, all to prefect the desired image. Everything choreographed and timed to make them appear appealing, flawless and charismatic. Make no doubt about...

Here is video of "SeeSwan" giving us a behind the scenes look at Invesco Field and the "Temple of Obama," where tonight Barack Obama will make his acceptance speech on an elaborate stage (See Swan uses the word "regal") constructed to meet the import of the moment and the needs of His Worthiness. . . . (see video at link)

You heard it here first: The Democratic Convention in Denver will go down as a disaster the likes of which have not been seen since Patrick Buchanan's 1992 speech to Republicans in Houston. It's hard to know what Senator Obama was thinking. After returning from speaking to a large outdoor rally in Germany, he headed to Hawaii for a vacation. Meanwhile, the candidate of "change" somehow managed to allow the first night of his convention to be dominated by Senator Kennedy, who ran for president in 1980 and who has been in the Senate since 1962.

So Barack is going to give his acceptance speech from a minature version of an ancient Greek temple. And what were those temples normally used for? Worshiping the Gods, naturally. Such an exceptional ego requires portrayel by the exceptional talent of Tennyson Hayes, who comes through again with an appropriate offering. An Ego for the Ages in a Classical Setting Posted on August 27, 2008 by Mike O So Barack is going to give his acceptance speech from a minature version of an ancient Greek temple.  And what were those temples normally used for?  Worshiping the Gods, naturally.(UPDATE: ‘Who mourns for Adonis’?  Absolutely...

These days, Obama worshippers file two kinds of columns. The first school is well-represented by Ezra Klein, the elderly bobby-soxer of The American Prospect: "Obama's finest speeches do not excite. They do not inform. They don't even really inspire. They elevate. They enmesh you in a grander moment, as if history has stopped flowing passively by, and, just for an instant, contracted around you, made you aware of its presence, and your role in it. He is not the Word made flesh, but the triumph of word over flesh, over color, over despair."

Republicans, who mock Barack Obama as a self-appointed divine savior, gleefully pounced Thursday on pictures of the set for his big convention speech, which appears to resemble a temple. The Democratic presidential candidate will accept the party White House banner before a more than 70,000-strong crowd at an outdoor football stadium here late Thursday. Pictures and an aerial film footage of the set being constructed for the speech show a curved backdrop with creamy, gray column-like structures, which could suggest Washington architecture, or a classical structure, like a Greek or Roman temple.

Victory for Free Speech in DeJohn v. Temple by Kelly Sarabyn August 4, 2008 The Third Circuit Court of Appeals filed an opinion today in DeJohn v. Temple University, et al. The opinion provides an eloquent defense of free speech rights on university campuses and concludes with an unambiguous finding that Temple's speech code is facially unconstitutional. Today's ruling is a great victory for Sergeant Christian DeJohn, the Temple master's student and member of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard who brought the challenge to Temple's speech code. Christian's willingness to take a stand for his First Amendment right to free...

Two years after the first Purim festival in 3405 (356 BCE), the Persian king Ahasueraus died and was succeeded by his son, Darius. Although a Jew according to Jewish law, Darius considered himself Persian and identified with the country of his birth. Nevertheless, as the son of Esther, he acted toward the Jews with far more benevolence than his predecessors had. In 3408, the second year of his reign, Darius granted the Jews permission to continue the work halted 18 years earlier by King Cyrus and to complete the reconstruction of their Temple in Jerusalem. Moreover, Darius helped finance the...

(IsraelNN.com) A brief Chabad-sponsored course on the Temple, to be held in Israel this week and the next, has angered Islamic organizations, who call it a threat to the Al-Aksa Mosque compound. "We view this as a serious and drastic move toward the fruition of extremist organizations to establish a temple in place of al-Aksa Mosque," said Zahi Nujidat of the Islamic Movement. "This represents a real danger to al-Aksa." The Aksa Foundation issued a similar statement. The course, offered at roughly 200 locations throughout Israel, comes during the two weeks leading up to Tisha B'Av, the fast day that...