Unleashing the Beast

T EMPLE M OUNT , THE W ORLD ' S H OT S POT / 135

with surrounding Islamic nations. Even Jews were not permitted to pray on the Mount, an order that was enforced by Israeli soldiers. Since 1967 the Temple Mount has been the undisputed mountain of Islam. Recently, fear that the Jews would one day capture the Mount and build a Jewish Temple have caused the Muslims to make secret plans that are now being discussed more openly. D OME OF THE R OCK —A F UTURE J EWISH T EMPLE ? For centuries scholars have noted the prophecies regarding a future Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount. The references are found in three places in the New Testament: He as God will sit in the temple of God showing himself that he is God (2 Thessalonians 2:4). Measure the temple of God and they that dwell therein, but the court that is without, leave out, for it is given to the Gentiles and they shall tread down the city for forty two months (Revelation 11:1, 2). With the destruction of two Jewish Temples (in 606 B.C. and A.D. 70) and the fact that two Islamic mosques now sit in Jerusalem, many scholars interpret these passages in a spiritual or an allegorical manner. They teach that the temple is the human body, or the body of Christ (the church), and that the enemy will attempt a final assault on the church at the time of the end. It must be remembered that prophetic Scripture