temple – Hope and Passion Ministries

Red Heifer Delusion – September 28, 2022

Posted on September 28, 2022September 28, 2022 by admin

Red Heifer Delusion

It is true that red heifers have been delivered to Israel from Texas. As reported by The Jerusalem Post on September 20, 2022, “Five perfectly red heifers required for the ritual purification of those who have touched a dead body, arrived in Israel from a ranch in Texas on Thursday, as the Temple Institute continues preparations to lay the ground for the construction of the Third Temple in Jerusalem.”

As someone who has been teaching the books of Daniel and Revelation for years, I have boldly declared the biblical truth that a temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt in preparation for the coming Antichrist to declare a peace treaty with Israel that allows Jews to reinstitute the sacrificial system. Antichrist will break the treaty midway through the tribulation and stop the sacrifices in the temple, as the beast himself will then demand worship from the world. This I wholeheartedly believe, for Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15, 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, and Revelation 13:15 are just some of the Scriptures proclaiming the coming event.

Many Jews and people associated with the Temple Institute are working to prepare for the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount. They do so, however, with an intention that is antithetical to biblical Christianity and our trust in Jesus Christ as Savior. Strangely, their wrong motives are being used by God Almighty to accomplish His plan for end-time events. The very people, the Jews, are the ones who the Lord will focus on saving during the tribulation period. God is using every circumstance to bring about His intended end.

The current goal of the rebuilding of the temple has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. In fact, the website of the Temple Institute clearly says, “This is the role of the Holy Temple in the life of man: to enable one to realign himself, to dedicate one’s whole self to G-d, to elevate every aspect of the human experience to holiness and return the energy which He gives us to His service.” As biblical Christians, we understand the pivotal truth that nothing can make a person right with God except for Jesus Christ. We depend on His death and resurrection as the sacrifice for our sin. Sin is not mentioned as a problem for the people who are seeking to rebuild the temple, nor is the name of Jesus mentioned in any context. Clearly, the efforts behind the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem are religious in nature. In other words, humans are attempting to reach God without the only Mediator, Jesus Christ.

Priestly garments and vessels for the temple are being prepared. And the long-awaited red heifers have arrived. Why does it matter that these red heifers have been delivered to the land? I quote here from the Temple Institute’s website, “Perhaps it would be difficult for some to believe that a cow could be so important. But in truth, the fate of the entire world depends on the red heifer. For G-d has ordained that its ashes alone are the single missing ingredient for the reinstatement of Biblical purity – and thereafter, the rebuilding of the Holy Temple.”

I must be unequivocally clear on this: no one, not me, or you, or anyone, can have sin forgiven and spirit renewed and relationship with God restored without the blood of Jesus Christ. His blood – and His blood alone – is the only substance that brings “purity.” While it is true that under the old covenant of law, the Lord required “a red heifer without defect, in which there is not blemish, and on which a yoke has never come” (Numbers 19:2) for purification for temple service, that requirement has been completely absorbed by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Read carefully the following pivotal passage from Hebrews 10:11-13:

“And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.”

Jesus paid the price for all sin at one time. There is no other offering that can be given. There is no other blood that could be shed. There is no other death that could be effective for forgiveness and restoration with God Almighty. Jesus did it all.

Speaking of those who had once followed the law but now trust in the work of Jesus, the writer of Hebrew then adds in verses 15-18 of chapter ten:

“And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,’ then he adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’ Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”

The red heifers are part of a greater plan of religion that looks to laws of purity and sacrifice to attempt to walk with the Lord. However, no work of man can produce this outcome. Every sacrifice of the Old Testament times was a foreshadowing of the ultimate and only sacrifice that can save us – Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

In fact, those who seek to rebuild the temple and employ sacrifices once again, are clearly looking to the physical temple in Jerusalem as their source of relationship with God. The Temple Institute website declares that the Holy Temple “was the world’s true spiritual center, and the medium for that unfolding relationship.” Then, “It is the reality of the living memory of that relationship as it once was, and the dream of its renewal, that keeps the fires of the Temple altar burning within the collective heart of the nation of Israel, and the hearts of all those who cherish her G-d and His message for humanity.”

My friends, the physical temple and the animal sacrifices are not the greatest reality. These things only pointed to the greatest reality. Speaking of the priests and sacrifices of the old covenant, Hebrews 8:5-6 proclaims, “They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things … But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.”

The red heifers are part of the old system whose purpose was to point to the devastating sinfulness and impurity of mankind without Jesus Christ. Every drop of blood and every burnt offering pointed to the offering of Christ on the cross. To those who believe in Him, they are restored to relationship with the Father. (John 1:12) The red heifers (whether these ones or others to come) are part of the human effort to bring about a “God consciousness” that is not substantive. It is a diversion from the only Way, the only Truth, and the only Life – Jesus Christ. (John 14:6).

Nonetheless, these things must take place, according to biblical prophecy, for this temple that will soon be built in Jerusalem will eventually become the temple of Antichrist. This makes complete sense, for everyone who denies that Jesus is God in the flesh, is already operating by the spirit of the antichrist. (1 John 4:2-3) Know this, when people believe that in any final sense a human work of sacrifice can placate the wrath of God and please the Creator’s heart, they are of the antichrist spirit of this world system.

As a matter of fact, so central is the work of Christ on the cross as our ultimate sacrifice, that He is referred to as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”! (John 1:29) And when we who trust in Jesus finally see “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” (Revelation 21:2) the Apostle John proclaims, “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.” (Revelation 21:22) Did you hear that? The heavenly Jerusalem of the New Heaven and New Earth will have no temple! None is necessary! For Jesus is the temple of God. The Lamb has fulfilled all the requirements of the temple.

For now, we watch prophetic events unfold, but we must do so with an eye toward Jesus always. Do not get caught up in the “hype” of events, without pointing people to our only salvation. Because – after all- the God who superintends all end-time events is the God who sent His Son to save the world.

– Shelli Prindle of Hope & Passion Ministries, Inc.

Temple Mount Tensions & Prophecy – September 15, 2022

Posted on September 15, 2022September 16, 2022 by admin

Temple Mount Tensions & Prophecy

The coming Antichrist inevitably sets himself up in the temple of God and proclaims himself to be God. (2 Thess. 2:4) Of this fact, there is no doubt. It will happen midway through the Tribulation. This will take place in Jerusalem, at the Temple Mount.

The prophet Daniel declares by inspiration of God’s Spirit, “He [Antichrist] will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven’ [set of years]. In the middle of the ‘seven’ [set of years] he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.” (Dan. 9:27)

Antichrist will be the one who is finally able to resolve the Temple Mount issue in Jerusalem between Jews and Palestinians. He will enact a peace treaty with Israel and allow the Jews to reinstitute their Old Testament sacrificial system. (Plans for this are already well underway; check out the Temple Institute of Jerusalem.) For now, the Temple Mount is a constant source of battle, as the Muslim “Dome of the Rock” shrine now sits on the temple mount. Jews and Muslims both desire to pray and worship at the Temple Mount.

“Temple Mount is a near-constant point of tension in Jerusalem.” This quote is from an online article at “The Jerusalem Post” on Sept. 13, 2022, titled, “Jewish, Arab activists issued restraining orders from Temple Mount.”

Things are ramping up over there in Israel around this area held sacred by both Jews and Muslims. The biblically prophesied Antichrist will be given the power to barter peace in the area that lasts for 3.5 years, in which time Jews will engage in their sacrificial system at the newly built temple. When the 3.5 years is over, Antichrist will break his treaty with Israel, throw off the help of another group of ten world leaders who had assisted him, and he will demand to be worshiped from that same temple. He will proclaim himself to be God of the world.

Revelation 13:5 declares, “And the beast [Antichrist] was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months [3.5 years].”

And Revelation 13:15 proclaims, “And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.”

When you hear news from the Middle East, including that of rising tensions over the Temple Mount and religious worship, take note. The Lord has prophesied from the Old Testament into the New Testament that these things would take place. We are now living in the time of the end. We may be in the last days, or – more likely – the last of the last days.

In any case, all that is happening in the world aligns with the setting of the stage for God’s end time plan. It could be any day that Christians meet Jesus in the air.

– Shelli Prindle of Hope & Passion Ministries, Inc.

Truly Wonderful

Posted on October 20, 2011 by admin

Jesus had just finished teaching in the temple about His lordship over all creation, when the disciples exited the grand structure with Him. The temple in the first century was of a quality that is said to have exceeded that of the Seven Wonders of the World. Its stones measured 37′ X 12′ X 18′ and the perimeter of the whole area was nearly one mile. The historian, Josephus, described its magnificence, “The front was all of polished stone, in so much that its fitness, to such as had not seen it, was incredible, and to such as had seen it, was greatly amazing.” The temple was built of white marble – with plates of gold in the front – and its courts were a succession of terraces. Herod the Great had expanded this temple to twice the size of the Solomon’s temple. What an overwhelming edifice it surely was!

With the magnificent nature of the physical structure in mind, we read of the disciples’ reaction as they leave the temple with Jesus, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” (Mark 13:1, ESV) The disciples were focused on what their eyes beheld – to the neglect of what their spirits should have homed in on. The disciples’ recognition of the beauty of the structure is not wrong, but surely Jesus at this particular time desired their hearts be preoccupied with the greater reality.

How quick we are to notice what is outwardly pleasing. How apt we are to acknowledge stylish clothes, beautiful houses, expensive decor, and pretty faces. All the while, the Lord wants us to be quick to focus on inward beauty – the reality of His ultimate reign in every facet of life. What constitutes true excellence is an unbroken connection to Jesus, and acknowledgement of Him – the Maker of all things beautiful. God wants us to see that the preeminence of Jesus in anything is what makes that thing fitting and grand. A homely face or a crippled body is beautiful when Jesus is Lord to the people who view it – when the physical structures and bodies are seen as temporary, yet Jesus is exalted as the eternal Hope of Glory!

The disciples called attention to the stones and building by calling them wonderful, a term with a Greek root meaning, “of what sort or quality.” In other words, they were exclaiming, “What manner of building is this!” The same Greek term is used in Matthew 8:27 (ESV) of Jesus after His disciples had experienced His miraculous calming of the Sea of Galilee when their ship was about to sink. They marveled at Him and said, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and sea obey Him?” How appropriate to marvel at Jesus, who made the wind and sea and, therefore, controls it completely. How fitting to be amazed at Jesus, who is the center of our worship. But does it take a storm to marvel at His power? When surrounded by all that allures, why do we lose our way?

Our Lord was quick to set the disciples straight in drawing their attention away from the temple structure and to a bigger plan. He responded, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down” (Matthew 13:2, ESV). The destruction of earthly Jerusalem and the temple would surely come in A.D. 70 under Titus, son of Roman emperor Vespasian. Jesus longed for His disciples to base their lives on the eternal reality of God’s unshakeable kingdom. Temple rituals could not save. All the sacrifices offered through the years only pointed to the ultimate, saving sacrifice of Jesus Himself. He is the temple! He is the center of our worship and adoration! In Him, we enter God’s presence!

Remember Jesus cleansing the temple of the money-changers and all their items? After exhibiting such zeal, the Jews asked Jesus, “What sign do you show us for doing these things” (John 2:18, ESV) His response was, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19, ESV). The Jews became confused and could not understand how Jesus could restore a temple in three days that took half a century to build. But, the Bible is clear: Jesus was speaking about the temple of His body. (John 2:21) A group of religious people were fixated on tradition, ornate things, and what the eyes could see. Jesus’ focus is salvation – the offering of Himself for sin and His doubtless victory over death. We ought to concentrate on Him and not all that glitters or appears religious or outwardly pleasing.

The culmination of the temple’s purpose is seen unequivocally in the amazing book of Revelation. We gain from this unbelievable future event a clearer understanding of why Jesus is intent on pushing our focus to true, spiritual majesty. The apostle John was given a vision by God of the New Jerusalem, and we rejoice in this truth of Revelation 21:1-4 (NASB):

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer by any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.

John then goes on to describe specifics of the city, the New Jerusalem, in Revelation 21:10-11,22 (NASB, emphasis mine):

Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple

Did you see it? Eternally, the physical temple is replaced by the One it was pointing to all along, our Jesus! How He must have longed for His dear disciples to be obsessed with His beauty and love instead of the outward appeal of costly structures and rituals. Let us walk with Jesus – and as we do – let us say to Him, “What a wonderful Savior and what a wonderful hope!” Let us fix our eyes on spiritual loveliness – that of a heart fully yielded to the Savior. He is the magnificent temple!