With the pandemic going on this year, my being furloughed from my job, and all this self-isolation, I have found myself reading and writing and turning to my faith a lot. Too many times in my life the Lord has shown Himself to me in ways I can’t even begin to explain. I know someone, something, bigger than me is guiding me, holding my hand, leading me to hope and a promise of something better. Over the Easter weekend I tuned into several virtual Easter services. I watched Andrea Bocelli perform at the cathedral in Milan, Italy, and I took a walk on the Via Dolorosa, which means “the painful way”, via YouTube. For those that don’t know what the Via Dolorosa is, it’s the path Jesus took on the way to his crucifixion. I’ve often wanted to visit Jerusalem for this very reason, (I love exploring historical sites), but the region is in such turmoil and religious tensions are high, not to mention the trip is out of my financial means, so I took the next best route.
There are 14 stations along the way, each one representing an event that occurred during Jesus’ painful walk to his execution, some documented in scripture, others documented in ‘tradition’. I can only imagine how I would feel walking the footsteps of Jesus. It must be overwhelming. But as always happens when I start researching things, I found myself delving into the importance of the Temple Mount and why there is such a feud over whether it is a Jewish holding or an Islamic one. What I found as I climbed further into the research rabbit hole was fascinating, and the possibilities break all religious traditions believed to be fact.
What would you think if I told you the current day Temple Mount is not the Jewish or Old Testament Temple, but rather the Roman Fort Antonia? ?? What if scripture, archaeological finds and historians could place the original temple in the City of David? What difference would it make to Jews and Christians? A lot, for it would mean there is a possibility of hope and peace between Islam and the Jewish people. It would also mean the Jewish people and Christians have been praying not at the Wailing Wall of a holy temple, but at the remaining wall of a Roman Fort.
Whaaaattt???
Kind of hard to swallow but consider, if this is the case, how did we get it all wrong? The answers lie in historical and biblical, both Jewish and Christian, teachings and writings, as well as in artifacts and ruins being uncovered in the City of David and below the current Temple Mount. If in fact the true temples were built in the City of David, then Jewish people could then build their third temple, a step very important to those of the Jewish faith. But they would have to break ‘tradition’. They would have to change their belief system, the way they have done things for thousands of years. It would be like saying we were no longer going to celebrate Christmas on December 25 because we got Christ’s birthday all wrong, which in fact, we most likely did. After all, there is no mention of the birth date of Christ in the Bible or any other religious scripture of the time. In fact, the oldest existing record of a Christmas celebration to celebrate Christ’s birth dates back to Rome in a Christ’s Nativity festival in 336 A.D. Researchers believe that Christians substituted Christmas for a pagan celebration of the winter solstice. In other words, the celebration of Christ’s birth is born of religious tradition, not fact. But we’ve celebrated December 25th for so long that to tell the world that this is wrong and Christmas will be celebrated on February 10 instead would cause laughter and shock and Christians everywhere would balk.
So goes tradition vs fact, or in this case, overwhelming evidence.
Tradition is powerful. Sometimes more so than fact. To tell people they are praying at a Roman fortress when they believe it to be the temple that houses the birthplace of Abraham is stripping them of everything they’ve known and believed. To question it would be sacrilegious.
And yet there is overwhelming evidence we’ve got it all wrong.
If this interests you and you would like to learn more, please visit http://yrm.org/shattering-traditions/ . Check out the two videos, The Lost Temple and The Temple, Lost in Time part 2. You can read more here, https://yrm.org/lost-temple-mount-found-pt1/
I have checked out of the library THE TEMPLES THAT JERUSALEM FORGOT, by Ernest L. Martin
and so far, I am enthralled and fascinated and filled with hope and promise, especially for the Jewish people, because, if they can build their third temple on the religious site in the City of David, then the Jews and Muslims could live in peace with their own religious sites protected unto them. Could you imagine Jerusalem at peace? It is a dream of mine and many. All I ask is for everyone to consider. Just because something has been done for thousands of years doesn’t mean it can’t be changed, especially when religious freedom and world peace is at stake.
What are your thoughts?
YA Chit Chat 