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7. Temple Trouble

Part of the deal the Beast worked out in Jerusalem was a plan for the building of a Jewish temple. It was, in fact, one of the major results of the signing of the covenant of peace between Jews and Muslims. The Jews had been planning on rebuilding their temple ever since the Romans burned and utterly destroyed their last one. That was predicted by Jesus¹⁴ and occurred in 70 AD. But it wasn’t until the beginning of the time of troubles that they really got serious about it, prefabricating the building and preparing all the implements that would be needed for them to resume operating. The ideal location for the temple was where the previous two temples were believed to have been, and that was where the Dome of the Rock had been built, a holy site where many Muslims believed the prophet Mohammad ascended to Heaven. There was some uncertainty about whether that had actually been the location of the first temples. Sorting that out had been part of the covenant agreements, so once the covenant was signed, they were free to go ahead and build. The temple reconstruction committee had been poised with their pre-fab temple, ready for almost instant assembly and reconstruction. The funds required to build the temple were raised in a very short time by using the Internet and worldwide community funding campaigns. This third temple was to be a place of prayer for all people.

The building took the Jews no time at all to assemble. According to their tradition, they were not allowed to have the sound of hammering and sawing anywhere near the temple grounds. But they made an exception which allowed them to dig underground parking. This also allowed them to explore certain tunnels that were there since the time of King David, that were suspected of containing the lost Ark of the Covenant. If that had been the case, it would have been a great treasure for Israel to find and would have given an extra incentive to the project.

The Beast seemed to have a special interest in the temple and presided at its dedication. As it was, just the building of the temple had caused a worldwide reaction. Hundreds of tour groups poured into the city just to see it being constructed, and then when it was done, waited in long lines to get inside. Temple-mania was sweeping through the world. An animal sacrifice was resumed, and they brought a special red heifer from America to offer as a purification sacrifice.

But there was also much public opposition and arguing for and against the temple and its activities, especially three-and-a-half years after the temple was in operation when the Guardian broke the covenant. All the promises he had made were suddenly abandoned.

He put an image of his own in the holy place, demanding that people worship it and that they stop the animal sacrifices. Some speculated that the huge crowds and interest in the temple had given him the idea.

Needless to say, this action caused no small stir among the Jews who had just gotten their temple operational and had hoped that it would bring salvation through the promised return of the Messiah. They were horrified that the sacrifice was stopped. Several Jewish and Christian extremists committed suicide outside the building in protest. But these acts only caused the Beast and his sidekick to step up their reign of terror over anyone who would not comply.

The image that he set up in the temple was tremendously offensive to the Jews. They called it the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel.¹⁵ The image was no ordinary image, for it could speak and kill anyone who came before it who had not received the mark of the Beast and who did not worship the Guardian as the true lord of the whole world.

Anyone who dared to think differently or who was caught reading or even owning a forbidden book like the Bible was to be instantly terminated. The book that was written to bring life to the world now brought death. I was reminded of the warning from the book of Amos that God would send a famine in the land not of food or water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.¹⁶ So many had turned against religion that it had become anathema to even practice any form of group worship at all other than the Beast’s sanitized and sanctioned state-approved variety. What amazed me was the number of congregations that embraced his teachings. It truly had caused a great falling away of believers. They no longer had the Bible to refer to as a standard of behavior. The reason it was banned was probably because it had very specific warnings to people about the activities of the Beast and his helpers. His entire plan of forcing a diabolic subterfuge on humanity had been laid out in a few verses in the Bible, so that everyone would know that he wasn’t God. His satanic and twisted intent of enslaving the entire population of the earth with his Machiavellian¹⁷ mark had been revealed by Scripture centuries before, to warn all to avoid his proposed economic solution and the universal worship and devotion that he so desired.¹⁸