Page 22 - Satan in the Sanctuary

24 Satan in the Sanctuary

One is reminded of the succinct prophecy of our Lord in
Luke 21:24 which reviews this situation: "And they shall
fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive
into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of
the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."
The scope of our Lord's foreknowledge is breathtaking.
The prophecy has clearly been justified. The Jews hold
the Temple site, and in the words of their brilliant military
commander Moshe Dayan, "No power on earth will remove
us from this spot again."
And rebuilding the Temple at this time has not escaped
the Jews as a real possibility. Rabbi Sinai Halberstam,
writing in The Jewish Press, August 2, 1968, noted, "When
Jerusalem was in foreign hands the question always arose,
'When can we rebuild our beloved Temple?' Even more so
does this question arise today when, with the blessing of
the Almighty, Jerusalem has been returned to the caretak-
ing of Jewish hands. The Temple grounds are again under
the control of the descendants of those who stood upon
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Mount Sinai. When will the Temple be rebuilt?"
Time magazine, ordinarily no valuable source of biblical
commentary, speculated on the possibilities only one month
after the Six-Day War, and published an article entitled
"Should the Temple be Rebuilt?" On June 30, 1967, that
potent secular periodical asked, "Assuming that Israel
keeps the Western Wall, which is one of the few remaining
ruins of Judaism's Second Temple, has the time now come
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for the erection of the Third Temple?"
An Israeli guide reports that he attended the recent re-
dedication of the restored main Jewish Synagogue in the
Jewish quarter in Old Jerusalem, with hundreds of Israelis
present. The officiating rabbi stirred the crowd by pre-
dicting, "As the city has been reunited in our lifetime, so