The Pivotal Role of Jerusalem in the World - Past, Present and Future

In this episode, we traverse through eras to explore the pivotal role of Jerusalem in world history, underpinning its significance in biblical prophecies and contemporary society. We delve into the credibility of the Bible as an historical document reinforced through archaeological discoveries in the Middle East and the relevance of its prophetic declarations in today's world.

A spotlight is cast on the monumental event of 1967—Israel's capture of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War and the resultant emotional reverberations amongst Israelis. Detailing the subsequent trials faced by Israeli leadership—in particular, the daunting prospect of reconstructing the sacred Temple—we invoke the human stories intertwined with these historic and prophetic milestones.

Stepping onto the contested ground of Jerusalem, we examine the revered site that stands the test of faith for both Jews and Muslims - the Dome of the Rock. While Jews aspire to build a temple within the Dome's premises, they find themselves in a politically and physically challenging predicament. 

Focusing on the proposed Jerusalem Temple, we illuminate the religious significance, historical context, and potential consequences of such a venture. Hence, unraveling a web of faith, contention, prophecy, and political maneuvering that revolve around one of the world's most fiercely disputed cities.

Leaning into the past, the narrative introduces us to the grandeur of the Temple of Solomon, its legendary builders, and their divine pursuits. We aim to encapsulate the architectural marvel of the Temple, the ceremonies performed, and the crucial role it played in Jewish religious life. Further, we explore the Temple's eventual downfall under the Babylonian rule and the resilience showcased by the Jewish community in their quest to rebuild it.

Continuing the journey, we analyze the history and prophetic significance of Solomon’s Temple, the intricate genealogy, and the role of the Kohen, or priests, in Levitical and Jewish traditions. The episode culminates with a discussion on biblical prophecies and their apparent connections to modern times, ultimately threading the path to God’s grand plan for humanity’s future.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
These are days in which things are happening so fast that to pick up a daily
newspaper and to use just the front page is enough to start the mental processes gyrating.
And it reminds us that some history is more important than other history.
And it's important, therefore, to discriminate in the areas where we attach our attention,

(00:25):
because you'll notice if you go back to the newspapers or magazines of three
years ago or five years ago or ten years ago,
some things that were sensational then and seemed to be of the utmost significance
and importance turned out to be nothing at all, really.
Really, just a little storm and a teacup that passed, left no significant mark,

(00:48):
and yet at the moment it was rather sensational.
Professional historians during the past century have been a little bit critical
of the Jewish history because it centers almost completely on one people and
those who came in contact with it.
And in their anxiety to include as much more history as possible,

(01:12):
there was a tendency to downgrade this document, which is the Bible.
And it became popular to speak of classical historians almost as though it were
in preference to the Bible. That has changed, however, in the last 25 or 30 years.
Names that didn't exist anywhere but in the Bible turned up on monuments in

(01:38):
Nineveh and in the plains of Sharon and in Egypt and elsewhere.
Until today, when you go in the Middle East, archaeologists work with Bible in hand.
This was a more or less contemporaneously recorded document,
which was then recopied and capitulated and abridged and so forth,

(02:01):
but nevertheless was an original source of knowledge,
which was not only significant historically because it was recorded by people
who lived at the time and who could subsequently be quoted,
but it became important because it contained prophecy from an inspired source.

(02:23):
In the book Fantastic Victory, I just made mention of the fact that prophecy
turns out to be based on a scientific principle.
And today, when we are learning to use the computer process,
we are learning that if you can lock into the machine all of the relevant factors,
you can anticipate with fixed determination,

(02:45):
what is about to happen.
And so you have our Heavenly Father frequently pleading with his people to throw
something else in the computer.
That everything is going down the wrong trail. And get this thing straightened
out. We need some new ingredients.
And he will say through his prophets, if you don't do it, I can tell you the
results are inevitable.

(03:05):
They're already locked into the machine. Throw in some more ingredients.
So this business of cause and effect is inherent in godliness.
He is a God of law. He is a God of justice, a God of love, and a God of order.
All these components are in his personality.
And it just happens that we're living in this year, 1968, adjacent to many of

(03:29):
the events that the prophets anticipated.
In some cases, with great joy and satisfaction because God would be in the process
of making bare his arm in strength among men.
In other cases, in sorrow because many Many would not be prepared for it and would resist it.
Whenever God does anything, it's designed to be helpful to all his children, not any select group.

(03:54):
They are all beloved of him, regardless of what nation they may be or what race.
And so when nations oppose the things God is trying to do, it is suicidal to
themselves whether they know it or not.
And this would be true of the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Medes, the Persians.

(04:15):
The Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians, the Lamanites, all of these who opposed
the work of God in time, reaped a hurricane and a harvest of sorrow.
So tonight, very briefly, I'm going to cover one of the exciting things that
has just happened to us and is in process of being implemented,
in which God has attached a tremendous amount of significance and importance

(04:39):
and has had his prophets computerizing it prophetically for upwards of 3,000 to 4,000 years.
And to have it happen in our day with us as the witnesses under circumstances
that make it relatively miraculous is worth pausing to note.
It was Wednesday, June the 7th of the year just passed, 1967,

(05:02):
when the most significant event of that year occurred.
Now, there were lots of things that occurred that year that I'm sure seemed
significant, maybe even more so.
But the prophets didn't talk about those other things. They talked about this one thing.
They talked about the time, such as Zechariah, I'm speaking now,

(05:22):
Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, John the Beloved, the Lord speaking in the Doctrine
and Covenants, section 45.
All of these things were beginning to come into focus in an event that was a
surprise even to the people who achieved it.
Because you see, in the Israeli-Arab war, there was no intention on the part

(05:44):
of the Jewish leadership to take Jerusalem.
All the strategy of the war was to have avoided any kind of a controversy with Jordan.
And though Jordan had placed her troops under Egyptian generals,
which came as a sorrow to Americans as well as others who had great confidence

(06:06):
in King Hussein of Jordan.
The Israeli leaders still felt that it might be possible to keep Jordan from joining in the war.
And so immediately after the impact of the air attack on the 25 Arab fields,
the leaders of Israel appealed to Jordan not to come in, that they had no intention

(06:27):
to strike, and that they would only do so defensively.
When I was in Israel two years ago, I noticed that the Israeli leaders were
even bargaining away Jerusalem if the Arab nations would just recognize the
integrity of their existing borders and guarantee the peace.
It was not Jerusalem they were seeking. It was peace.

(06:48):
And I thought to myself at the time, this just doesn't fit the development of
events that the prophets have have talked about.
Nevertheless, the Israeli leaders at that time were holding out for the existing
borders being solidified in exchange for a guarantee of peace.
As it turned out, the attack by the Jordanian troops, which were very well trained

(07:12):
and were using American tanks and American guns and American equipment,
occurred the very first day of the war.
It caught the Israelis unprepared. They only had 5,000 troops on that immediate border near Jerusalem.
It was necessary for them to redeploy troops and tanks from clear down on the

(07:33):
Gaza area, the southern Negev area, in any event.
And it wasn't until late in that first day that any of that equipment began to arrive,
and not until that night that the Jewish jets were able to come in and soften
up the border so that the Israeli troops could cross over and at least drive
back the assault troops. groups.

(07:53):
Meanwhile, they'd made quite a penetration into Jerusalem, and I must clarify,
of course, the fact that there are two Jerusalems, or were two Jerusalems.
Old Jerusalem, which the Arabs or Jordanians had, and right next to it,
the Jews who had been driven out of old Jerusalem had built what they called
the New Jerusalem with a small n, so as not to confuse it with New Jerusalem with a capital N.

(08:17):
But they called it Jerusalem, too. It was their national capital.
It's where they They have their parliament. It's where they have their university.
It's where they had their second magnificent hospital that had been built with
American money from American Jews mostly.
All of that was in the new part of Jerusalem.
And so when this attack occurred, it was artillery fire against the new Jerusalem.

(08:39):
Over a thousand buildings were
badly damaged, and the UN headquarters were captured by the Arab troops.
And there was a slight penetration right down almost as far as a King David
Hotel before the drive began to push them back.
Now, that first night was a house-to-house, hand-to-hand combat right along no man's land.

(09:06):
Which divided the two sectors. They had quite a wide area, about as wide as
this auditorium, which had been left just as it was at the end of the war in 1949.
Bombed gutted buildings, all the rubble and debris of war, sort of a monument
to that terrible period when the fighting had continued off and on for 18 months.

(09:29):
And so there had to be bombing all along there if there was to be a crossing
over into old Jerusalem because there were bunkers and other defenses along there.
As I mentioned in a previous talk that I gave here in the same auditorium,
we lost a very dear friend of ours who kept the garden tomb.
And he was an Armenian Christian.

(09:51):
And during the bombing that first night, he and his wife and little girl slept in the tomb.
And it was early in the morning that the Israeli soldiers reached that far.
It's about 100 yards from Mendelbaum Gate, the place where everyone used to have to cross.
And of course, something had happened that he would have known nothing about.

(10:12):
As the Arab troops retreated, their strategy was to strip off their uniforms
and hide them with their guns, having only pajamas underneath.
And it's a common Arab dress, of course. Pajama type of clothing is worn even
on the streets and sometimes the flowing robe.
In any event, after the Israeli troops had passed by, these soldiers would then

(10:35):
go back for their gun and then would fight from the rear.
This backfired by morning so that the Israeli troops were shooting people in
pajamas who were assumed to be dis-robed, dis-uniformed, what do we call it,
un-uniformed soldiers.
And so Dr. Matter, our good friend at the garden tomb, went to the gate when
the bell rang and saw six Israeli soldiers and said, shalom,

(10:59):
shalom, meaning peace, peace. And he was shot dead immediately.
Armenian, dark complexion, wearing pajamas.
And then they went in immediately and sprayed the garden tomb,
as you always do in building-to-building fighting.
And then the little girl ran out and screamed, you've killed my daddy, you've killed my daddy.

(11:20):
And then they realized it was a civilian situation, and they retired,
closed the gate behind him, and the war went on.
It was fought all during Tuesday, and the old city was mainly taken by Tuesday night.
It was on Wednesday that the final assault was to occur on the walled portion

(11:40):
of the old city, and the attack was from two sides of the temple square.
They elected not to use any artillery whatsoever and no bombing.
It was going to be done in a rather dangerous way for themselves,
but so they wouldn't repeat something that happened in the previous war when the Dome of the Rock,

(12:02):
the beautiful Moslem Mosque, was badly damaged by one of the bombs or artillery shells.
And to avoid any of these sacred places being hurt, they went in with just light
arms from two different directions.
The Saturday Evening Post carried an article describing those last moments of

(12:22):
fighting toward the Temple Square, and let me just read it very briefly if I can.
As they came in from both sides, fought their way through, there were relatively
heavy casualties because of the circumstances under which they were fighting.
Here is what one of the generals said. My men were walking about the old city as in a dream.

(12:44):
Tears rolled down their faces. they did not even bother to take cover.
They had realized the 2,000-year prophecy of recovering Jerusalem.
Actually, the prophecies go back much further. The emotional rush to the Wailing
Wall was an example of this peril.
Every Israeli knows what Article 8 is.
It is the paragraph of the 1948 Armistice Agreement that guarantees the Jews

(13:08):
access to the Wailing Wall.
For 19 years, the the violation of Article 8 had rankled perhaps more than any
other single harassment.
Many of the soldiers who stormed the old city were infants in 1948 and had never seen the wall.
When they broke into a run crossing the Mosque of Omar Esplanade and scurried

(13:29):
down an exposed flight of narrow steps, which soon became a prime target for
snipers, they were reacting to some deep stimulus.
They touched the wall and sobbed, as their ancestors had done,
when victory should have made them exultant.
Though then the mournful bleating of the shofar sounded, the ram's horn was sounded.

(13:51):
Unshaven red-eyed soldiers, their combat uniforms stained with sweat and blood,
donned their skull caps, opened small leather-bound prayer books,
and rocked back and forth as they chanted, Thank the Lord, for the Lord has been kind.
Five minutes after the Wailing Wall had been reached by the Israelis,
the Arab governor of Jerusalem appeared with a Muslim priest and certain other

(14:15):
top officials of the city to assure the Israelis there would be no more shooting.
Some soldiers placed a wooden box at the foot of the Wailing Wall containing
the scrolls of the Bible.
Others went up and down the nearby streets with loudspeakers,
saying to the people in Arabic, Please obey orders.
You will not be harmed. stay in your homes, lay your arms on your doorsteps.

(14:40):
Shortly after the walled area
was secured, Israeli Prime Minister Eshkol arrived with General Dayan.
They were jubilant. They joined with the soldiers in the first formal service
at the waiting wall, which was conducted by Rabbi Shlomo Doran,
Senior Chaplain for the Israeli Armed Forces.
He said, said, we have taken the city of God.

(15:03):
We are entering the messianic era for the Jewish people.
And I promise to the Christian world that we are responsible for.
We will take care of the holy places of all the religions here.
For all people, I promise them, we will take care.

(15:23):
Now that was the beginning. Here they had not even anticipated that they would
be in possession of Jerusalem, and the war was only two days old,
three days old, and they had Jerusalem, and they had the ancient site of the Temple of Solomon.
And it took them a little while to recover from this new, busy development.
At least it left them feeling dizzy. They had to reorient their thinking on

(15:48):
a lot of subjects, and it wasn't long before they said, we now can actually rebuild the Temple.
Now, Newsweek and some of the other reporters immediately contacted the rabbis
there to ask them, did they really intend to develop a temple program?
And the leading rabbi said, we have a bit of a controversy going among our people

(16:09):
as to whether it needs to be done now or after the Messiah comes.
Well, the record is very clear. It must be built before the Messiah comes.
Zechariah says it, Ezekiel says it, Isaiah, some of the other prophets.
Emphasize that this must be done in preparation for the coming of the Messiah.
So a little more scrutiny of the word will clarify it for them,

(16:33):
I'm sure. But how can that be achieved?
The rabbi had an interesting response because on the spot, which traditionally
is the place where the temple once stood,
is the second or third most holy place of the whole Muslim world from China
down to points in Africa.

(16:54):
And a very sacred place and a beautiful place. This is the so-called Dome of
the Rock or Mosque of Omar, which was damaged in the earlier war and which had
to be very carefully reconstructed.
Anyone who's been in it, taken off their shoes
and walked on these thick rugs that they have on the floor and sort of caught

(17:17):
the spirit of sanctity which the Muslim people have developed in that building
will understand why the Jews have committed themselves not to disturb that building.
They have guaranteed that that building will not be disturbed by them.

(17:38):
In the center of that Dome of the Rock is the most sacred spot of Judaism and
of Muslim people, and maybe of the Lord himself.
The temple square covers 35 acres, not 10 square acres. This temple square is really mammoth.

(18:00):
Rising up above at a certain spot is an outcropping of virgin limestone.
Underneath it is a small cave. It is traditionally the top of the original Mount
Zion or Mount Moriah, traditionally the area in which Melchizedek had the ancient city of Salem,

(18:21):
later taken by the Jebusites and then called Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, it is the outcropping of rock which traditionally was used by Abraham
as the point on Mount Moriah where he placed his son on an altar and prepared
to sacrifice him after the city of Melchizedek or Salem had been taken and translated.

(18:45):
It is likewise the place where the Holy of Holies was supposed to have been
in Solomon's temple constructed about 1,000 BC.
It was the place where the great 15-foot cherubim were supposed to have been.
For the Muslims, it is the place where Muhammad,

(19:07):
in vision, not in person, but in vision, his wife said he slept soundly all night,
in vision is supposed to have gone to the place and ascended to heaven on a
white horse, received his instructions from Adam and Moses and Jesus and others
whom he saw, this being in the 6th century, as you remember.
And then he returned that same night to the same place. His spirit then returned

(19:30):
to his body down near Mecca.
And then he started telling the people what his message was going to be.
So that became very sacred in the Muslim faith because it was the place of ascension
of Muhammad. Now you can see why this is so controversial.
And in the United Nations debate, the Arab leaders made the left no doubt whatever

(19:52):
as to what would happen if the Jews or the Israelis made any attempt whatever
to molest the Dome of Iraq.
Rock, all Muslims from China right on across the world, and there are millions
upon millions of them, would join in one united holy river of destruction.

(20:14):
To the whole city if necessary, to wipe it out rather than have that sacred
spot disturbed or molested.
Now that's the cloud that presently hangs over Temple Square in Jerusalem.
And so when I wrote Fantastic Victory, I first quoted all the prophecies which
say the Jews will build a temple there.

(20:35):
Absolutely in the computer. It's going to be brought about.
And when it's brought It will be like the war of 1967.
Militarists will be able to sit down and calculate all the various factors that brought it about.
But historically speaking, it will be an amazing development,
but nevertheless, a rational one that can be explained. and the circumstances

(20:59):
that make possible the building of the temple will come about the same way.
At least that's the way all prophecy has been fulfilled in the past.
Events kind of roll up to it and what looked absolutely impossible only a short
time before suddenly becomes rationally possible.
And so just to dramatize that when it happens, I put in the fantastic victory

(21:23):
a positive declaration that as of 1967,
the possibility of a temple being built in Jerusalem on the traditional site
was absolutely impossible, was not within the realm of rational possibility.
And I said it so that when it comes to pass, and there is a temple there,

(21:45):
people won't say, well, of course, you see See, it was inevitable.
No, it wasn't inevitable.
As of 1967, it wasn't inevitable. As far as you can calculate the computer of
the future at this moment, it isn't inevitable. Everything is against it.
I suppose we could have said two years ago the possibility of the Jews having

(22:06):
Jerusalem and all of West Jordan, practically as much of the kingdom as David
himself had at one stage, would have been declared impossible.
But it is now a reality, and a rational reality, that apparently will now be permanent.
At least there are no circumstances that are moving in the direction of a change or a shift.

(22:28):
And the Israelis have already announced that Jerusalem itself is not negotiable.
But they have told all of the Muslims that are in the area that want to go to
the Dome of the Rock, they're free to worship there.
Arabs that have been excluded from Jordan for many, many years have been able
to come down out of Nazareth.

(22:48):
The ones that have been living over with the Jews, about 100,000 of them,
they're now free to come to the Dome of the Rock for the first time in many years.
At the beginning of the war, a flag, an Israeli flag, was flown on top of the
Dome of the Rock as a signal, the highest point in that whole area.
And it was flown from the top of that building to signal to everybody that the

(23:12):
shooting should stop, that the area was occupied, there was no need to fight anymore. more.
For a while, that was claimed to be a desecration, and maybe it would seem so.
If it were my sacred temple, maybe I would consider it a desecration, too.
But the Jews said we were just trying to get the shooting stopped,
and we will ourselves provide the guards to see that this building is kept inviolate.

(23:37):
So, as I mentioned a little earlier, U.S. News and World Report,
court, and some of the others, Mujlik,
etc., began to ask the rabbis of Jerusalem, what are you going to do?
They said, we're going to prepare to build the temple.
Now, how are you going to do that? We are going to gather together the material for the building of.

(23:58):
Now, the building of a temple, they consider to be a very elaborate and somewhat
difficult task. It must be everything is high precision.
Everything has to be prefabricated. It must be brought to the temple square,
ready to quietly assemble, just exactly like Solomon's temple.
Very careful arrangements have to go into it. And so the news,

(24:19):
the press reporter said, well, how can you build a temple there even when the
Dome of the Rock is there?
And the answer of the rabbis was interesting. They said, that's God's problem.
And they're going forward in absolute confidence and faith that in the wisdom
of the heavens, somehow this will be worked out.

(24:39):
They have committed themselves to the fact that whatever has to happen will
happen, and and they are not going to offend the faith of other peoples.
Now, the building of that temple is just as much for Arabs as it is for Jews.
It's just as much for Ephraimites as it is for the tribe of Dan.
It's just as much for Gentiles as it is for heathens.

(25:00):
That structure is going to go up in the center of what will be one of the two
world capitals, all during the thousand years of peace and prosperity,
which we'll call the millennium.
Every nation is going to reap a harvest
of goodness from that temple once it's
constructed and the jewish leaders have just
simply said now we're going to do our part it's god's problem to work out the

(25:24):
details so there it is where it presently stands those of you who heard my previous
talk may remember that i read to you from the christian and christianity today a Protestant magazine,
which announced as early as August the 4th in an article that it had become
known that about a 500 carload shipment of limestone rocks and material had

(25:52):
been ordered from Indiana,
the best limestone they could find, and the first shipment of it had already gone to Israel.
Now, the Limestone Institute of Indiana was approached on this,
and they said, no, no, there is no record of any such mammoth order.
We'd all know about that.
And if a shipment had already gone out, we've already checked with our people

(26:16):
and there's absolutely nothing to the story whatever.
And because I had quoted the article in my book, I thought I ought to talk to Mr.
McDonough and get it from him personally so I could then add a footnote and
clarify it in the best possible way so that people would know exactly what the situation was.

(26:36):
And so I called him on the telephone. I told him I had heard that the Limestone
Institute had checked out the story and that there was nothing to it.
He said, well, that was our position until three days ago.
And I said, have you been able to verify the shipment? He said, no, we have not.
But we found out enough so that we will no longer deny that it might have happened.

(27:00):
And I said, are you continuing the investigation? He said, yes, we will.
And we'll be glad to report our findings.
I thought it would be helpful tonight if I had the latest word from Indiana.
So I called Mr. McDonald again this afternoon. noon.
And he said, our position is basically the same.

(27:21):
He said, if all the members of the Institute were Gentiles, we would have had
no trouble running this thing down.
And he said, I was checking on them and found that they all denied knowledge
of it, and that's why we originally assumed there was nothing to it.
But he said, we have some non-Gentile members of our Institute,
and when we checked with them, we found a reluctance to discuss the subject.

(27:46):
So he said, that's where it doesn't stand.
And he said, we have tried to trace the informants that was used by the writer
of the original article.
There is no cooperation there.
So he said, apparently, it's intended that because of its political implications,
there will be no cooperation in further ventilating whether it's true or false,

(28:10):
and we'll just have to leave it where we have.
We are not making a statement either confirming or denying. We're just going to leave it right there.
So I have left it in the same place. And so it appears in the book just as it
was quoted from Christianity Today.
And it will be interesting to see now what happens. One of the things that rather

(28:30):
shook the Institute was the fact that the original article or the writers of
the original article said, Well,
you don't have to believe it if you don't want to, but here is the number of
the pier from which the shipment left, and here is the date it took place, etc.
Number of details that began to fit together.
But I thought I'd give you that latest report from the Indiana Limestone Institute

(28:53):
so that you would know what the status of it is.
I want to say something about this temple which is going to be built.
My subject tonight is, will they be able to build a temple? The answer to that is positively yes.
How will they be able to build it? The answer to that, I do not know.

(29:15):
And that's why I put in the book that as of now, it's physically,
politically impossible.
That's why it'll be such a spectacular thing when it finally comes about,
and this generation will live to see it achieved.
I'm perfectly confident you'll live to see a temple built in Jerusalem.
Now, this temple is going to be built after a plan that was seen by a prophet 600 BC.

(29:39):
Apparently God knew that when
the Jews were required to build their temple
of the last days They would have neither prophets nor
Urim and Thummim available to help them And so
in 600 BC on the banks of the canal between the Tigris and Euphrates Where there
was a Jewish colony Right at the time that Daniel was over in Babylon just a

(30:03):
few miles away Helping to run the city of Babylon with his three friends right
at the time that Jeremiah was preaching in Jerusalem,
we had a prophet actually see this temple that's going to be built there.
Now, the most single significant thing about that temple is that it's identical
with Solomon's temple, both as to measurements and to appointments.

(30:28):
The courtyards and surrounding territory are different, but the temple itself
is identical in every respect as far as we're able to tell.
However, we do not have all the specifications for the Temple of Solomon.
We have it in general terms. We know the outside dimensions.
But it's in this vision given to Ezekiel that the angelic messenger walked through

(30:53):
the courtyards, measured it by the cubits, which we assume to be 18 inches.
That's the most conservative measurement. We try to keep Goliath as short as
possible, and so we're losing 18 inches for a cubit, which seems to have been
generally the one that was most popular.
And all of these measurements are given in Ezekiel for the doorways and the

(31:14):
windows and the courtyards and the rooms and so forth.
And they turn out to be identical with whatever measurements we do have for the Temple of Solomon.
So let me just briefly describe to you this structure, because it's fascinating
to get a little better acquainted with this temple.
And there are lots of things about it that we know that even the Jews don't

(31:36):
know yet. yet and won't know until not only they have finished building it,
but after the Messiah comes.
They are going to put rooms in that temple. They don't even know what they're
for yet, but they're going to put them in there because that's the way Ezekiel saw it.
So let me describe it to you very briefly. When David, around 1000 BC,
wanted to build that temple and he was told that he could not.

(31:59):
Now, the Lord wanted Solomon to build it. However, However, he told David that
he would receive the plan.
And so David says, in direct revelation, while I was under the Spirit,
I was instructed to write the pattern, and I turned that over to my son Solomon,
and it was built according to the pattern that I was shown and which I wrote while in vision.

(32:20):
Now, all of this happened before David fell. This happened very early in his career.
He had a very spiritual period right after he took Jerusalem and was made king of all twelve tribes.
That was the period when the prophet came to him and said, what are your plan?
And David said, I want to build a temple for the Lord.

(32:42):
And the prophet said, that's marvelous. You go right ahead. God will love you
for it. That was a pneumonia.
In the afternoon, he came back and he said, I've got the word from the Lord
now. You're not to build a temple.
And so he said, however, I have a message of comfort to you.
And then he gave him the wonderful messianic message that a descendant of David

(33:04):
would be the very Messiah.
And as a result, David wrote into the Psalms, he wrote into his own writings,
his poetry and so forth, a multitude of details.
It's absolutely fantastic how many details David knew concerning the Christ,
what he would do on the cross, what he would say, The very words that later

(33:26):
came from his lips are in the writings of David.
And I have not calculated them yet. I'm going to write a book in the next year
or four years called Days of the Living Christ.
And at that time, I'm going to calculate all of the individual prophecies that
were known in advance in detail concerning the coming of Jesus Christ and the details of his life.

(33:47):
Already, I can tell that there are over a hundred.
And I'm going to itemize them individually so that you can see,
actually, if a person were conscientiously seeking to find how much information
it was known in advance about the Messiah when he came into the earth, it was in the record.
Now, David went ahead then and gave Solomon the means to build the temple.

(34:09):
And as soon as Solomon became the king, he asked this very wealthy and friendly
heathen king down in Phoenicia,
Tyre and Sidon, to at least help him as he'd helped David in building palaces,
to help build the temple.
Temple so the king of Tyre said of course of course I have been friends with

(34:30):
you and I want to continue being friends if you will provide the food for my
men and 30,000 of your own men you can come up and start cutting down these
wonderful cypress trees of cedars of Lebanon.
And we'll float them down the Mediterranean to your port at Joppa and then you
can bring them on up and start building your temple and your courtyards and

(34:54):
everything now the wood actually was only needed for embellishment.
The temple itself was built of stone.
So the record tells us that they would take 10,000 workers at a time and rotate them.
A total of 40,000 men worked in the force of Lebanon to get the wood down.
A group of 70,000, let's see, I'm going to get these for the scope,

(35:17):
70,000 men bore burdens.
That is, they would haul over stones and carry up the broken fragments for the
field. and 80,000 hewers were achieved for the purpose of cutting the stone and so forth.
Now, these also probably did it in groups so that they would work for a month
and then go home for two or three months, then come back again.

(35:38):
But these many were requisitioned. There were over 3,000 foremen for the building of this structure.
Now, the thing that was difficult about this Temple Square was that it was the
top of a mountain. It wasn't like Tempranogos.
It wasn't quite that difficult, but it was a, those mountains there in Jerusalem
were about 3,000 feet above sea level, and Mount Moriah, or Mount Zion,

(36:00):
was a peaked mountain. It had two peaks.
It had the peak that we call the Dome of the Rock, which is an outcropping of
limestone, and it had another high peak that had to subsequently be cut down.
And so the Lord says, that's where I want the temple. and the stone had been
used as a threshing floor if you remember your Bible.

(36:21):
And so what Solomon had to do was to build this great mammoth.
Plaza on which the temple could be built by going out from the peak of the mountain
and building walls up 125 feet here and 146 feet over there and maybe 75 feet here.
On all three sides, he had to build the necessary supporting walls of stone.

(36:46):
Where did he get it from? From some quarries that are right near there over
what is now the Damascus Gate.
I tried to get into the Aquarius this last trip, and I almost succeeded, but not quite.
But I was promised maybe the next time I come over, we'll get to see them. Dr.
Geithu describes them, and he says it gives you a funny feeling to be in there

(37:06):
where all of this stone has been carved out way back as far as your light will
show. The ceiling is 30 feet above you.
Underneath your feet are the chips from 3,000 thousand years ago,
that those workmen cut off this stone, preparing it, prefabbing it before it
went on up to the temple square, which isn't too far away, actually.

(37:28):
And he says there was a large stone of mammoth proportions that cracked and
was left right where it cracked.
They had a most arduous method of cutting the stone by having five or six men
working with these rather crude instruments,
cutting a little bit and then putting plugs in, pouring throwing water on it,
and splitting the stone as the water expanded the wood.

(37:50):
And then they would cut it down to size to fit the temple square as required,
and then it would be hauled up.
And so you can see they used thousands of men to do this over a period of years to achieve it.
The main thing, of course, which took three years, was just building Temple Square.
And it was necessary to anticipate mammoth cisterns to provide the water.

(38:12):
And so as they began to fill up this, here were the walls around the peak,
and all this had to be filled in with debris so that they would have a flat surface.
As they began to do it, they put in the great cistern,
One of them will hold between two and three million gallons of water.
And all the sisters together will handle about 10 million gallons of water.

(38:34):
Then they had the sewage and drainage system off from this plateau.
So that with all the sacrificing of animals, you kill 2,000 animals a day.
There's going to be a lot of disposal here.
So they had to have the drainage all provided and lots of great quantities of water.
Now the water, there was no water on this mountain up high. There's a little

(38:54):
Gihon Spring down there, but that wouldn't handle this situation.
They brought the water from Solomon Springs about 10 miles away,
just over beyond Bethlehem by the old road route.
And that aqueduct brought the water over to the Temple Square.
This was a mammoth undertaking.
And so after three years of preparing Temple Square, then they put the temple on it.

(39:15):
The temple was very interesting. It was twice the length and twice the width
and three times the height of the tabernacle in the wilderness.
To just give you an idea very briefly here what it looked like,
let's just imagine here that if I can visualize it from where I'm standing,
supposing now I'm looking west.

(39:36):
I'm actually looking east, I guess, but supposing I was looking west.
The eastern end of the temple is at this end pointed toward the rising sun.
In front of this temple here are two mammoth bronze pillars,
27 feet high, 18 feet in circumference, each one of them.
They were done by a heathen artisan, Hiram, that was sent up,

(39:58):
no relation with the king, by the way, of Tyre.
But Hiram was one of the greatest artisans in cloth, in gold, in bronze, in jewelry.
This man was a magnificent artisan, and he directed the work for Solomon.
The Jews at that time, the Israelites, were not accustomed to doing these kind of things.
And so the king, the Phoenician king, sent up this aid. in order to find a place

(40:22):
where you could make a pillar, which was probably hollow, of course,
a bronze pillar 27 feet long and 18 feet around.
They had to go clear up to Jacob River off the Jordans, about halfway up to the Sea of Galilee.
And there they found the right clay to make the mold for this mammoth pillar.
It had a roof over the top of it. It had 12 steps that led up to a port.

(40:46):
It was covered with gold. You stepped on gold pavement when you got to the porch.
In front of you were two doors of olive plank, beautifully carved and boldly
molded around the carpet.
As the doors opened, you were then in the holy place, which was 60 feet long,

(41:07):
30 feet wide, the floor of gold.
The walls of carved cedar plank were gold foil over all of the carvings,
and jewels of various kinds embellishing the carpet.
Halfway down, or more than that, two-thirds, at the far end of the holy place.

(41:27):
At the 60 foot, at the end of 60 feet, is a wall, not a veil,
not a veil, a wall with two doors,
once again, of olive planks, beautifully carved, covered with gold,
and with gold alloy hinges.
The doors open. There's a gold chain across the entrance.

(41:47):
Beyond that is the Holy of Holies.
There you will find two cherubim. We have no idea what they looked like,
except that each one had wings outspread. They were 15 feet high.
Each wing was seven and a half feet. And the wings touched each other so that
the two cherubims with their wings outstretched extended 30 feet from row to row.

(42:11):
And in between the two cherubim, underneath their wings, was the Ark of the
Covenant, which was only about 30 inches long, a lovely gold casket.
Inside of which were two tablets carved by the finger of God,
not only with the Ten Commandments, but with the entire law of the covenant,
this being the second set of tablets, the first one being broken.

(42:34):
The first one contained, the Lord says in the Doctrine and Covenants,
the endowment ceremony, And all the things pertaining to the upper,
the Melchizedek push-up ordinances,
that was smashed when Moses found Israel worshiping a calf and dancing naked and drunken before him.
The second set of tablets were the ones that were in the Ark of the Covenant.

(42:56):
Originally, the Ark of the Covenant also contained a bowl filled with the miraculous
food called the manna that had been given for a period of some 40 years.
And also there was originally in this casket, the ark, the wonderful rod of
Aaron, which sprouted and bore buds,

(43:18):
leaves, and fruit in one night, to show whose rod the Lord was selecting for his little tip.
That also was once there.
But by this time, nothing is left but the two tablets, two so-called tablets. Now.
Around the town, this building was 45 feet high on the inside.

(43:39):
On the outside, there were three tiers of rooms, which were the,
what you might call the temple annex.
They were rooms that could not be attached to the temple. It's kind of interesting.
The Lord made a real point out of that. Don't put any beams into the temple.
These were three stories high, a total of 22 and a half feet,
just half the height of the temple.

(44:01):
And that's where the priests were, no doubt the washings and anointings,
those things all took place in these rooms that surrounded the temple proper.
And they went up three stories.
And that came up just halfway up to the top of the temple.
Now, out in front of the temple, to the east, was the altar of sacrifice.
And it was not a little altar. Out in the wilderness, it had been rather small.

(44:24):
But not now. It was 30 feet square and 15 feet high.
And you could stack burnt offerings in there for quite a while.
And at the time of the dedication of the Temple of Solomon, fire came down from
heaven and consumed the whole pile that was assembled there on the grate of
this great altar, which burned day and night, by the way.

(44:46):
Now over to the side of a 15-foot bath or lave, about seven feet high and 15
feet across, on the backs of oxen, three of them facing each point of the compass.
And this we now know, as the Lord says, It says baptisms were being performed
in those days, and it was thought that this was used mainly for washing as a source of water.

(45:07):
All the commentators in the Bible say this, but we now have reason to believe
this actually was a baptismal font, just as it is in our modern temple.
Which also is a laver of the same size and on the backs of oxen,
and specifically designated by the Lord in connection with modern revelation as a baptismal font.

(45:28):
It was located at the southeast point of the temple square.
Then they had little basins that they wheeled around, had quite a number of
them, and they were for the washing of animals that were being sacrificed from time to time.
There was one courtyard right around the temple where only the priests could
go, And that's where the sacrifices took place, the killing and the preparation and so forth.

(45:49):
Now, you realize that only occasionally was the whole animal burned.
Under the law of Moses, an animal that was to be killed would be taken.
You put your hands upon its head as it was killed, and then it was dressed and cleaned.
The kidney and some of the fat went on the fire of the altar.
A shoulder portion of it was taken off and waved toward the temple,

(46:13):
meaning I'm giving this to God and his servants and that went to the priest
and you got the rest of the carcass and took it home and all of you ate it,
that was yours and so that was
called a thank offering or a peace offering in which it was shared the fire
of the Lord got these little bits of symbolic contribution the priest received

(46:33):
something so he gets to survive too and then you took the rest of your creature
home and it had been made an offering unto the Lord.
Now, the original sacrifice was the burning of the whole animal.
That's the way Adam did it.
But under the law that was added after Israel fell, why we had some of these
other ordinances involved.

(46:54):
Now, very briefly, this temple lasted until 587.
When Lehi left Jerusalem, it was on the verge of being destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.
Jeremiah was preaching and pleading with King Zedekiah to come to his senses
and be subject to Nebuchadnezzar and live.
The Babylonians and the Egyptians were then fighting to take the place of the.

(47:16):
The Assyrians, who just williams, had been overthrown. The Lord said,
you will have peace if you will listen to my prophets and be subject to Nebuchadnezzar.
What did Nebuchadnezzar have?
He had Daniel practically running his kingdom over there, a prophet of God.
And he had Ezekiel up there running the Jewish colony of 10,000.
The Lord had it all set up for these people.

(47:36):
But Zedekiah, a 21-year-old, had his advisors, and he said, we're going for Egypt. it.
And so down here in the courtyard and down in the marketplace,
you have this voice saying, be subject to Nebuchadnezzar and live.
He wore a yoke around him, which had be subject to Nebuchadnezzar written all
over it. And here the Egyptian delegation was in Jerusalem.

(47:57):
It was very embarrassing. So Zedekiah said, go down and arrest that fellow.
And so they did, and throw him in, throw him into the pit. And he would have
died if a Negro house servant of the the king hadn't gone and dragged him out
by using claws that he lowered down and got some men to help him,
and they dragged him out and saved his life.
Meanwhile, Lehi was taken away with the brass plates, that great treasure of

(48:19):
scripture, and they had headed for America.
And a little while later, as you remember, a number of years later,
in fact, King Zedekiah was captured.
The city was overthrown. All of King Zedekiah's sons were killed except one
who escaped, and he ended ended up in America, after a long period of time,
of the whole colony of people.

(48:41):
A completely separate migration from Lehi. And then Nebuchadnezzar tore that
temple down stone for stone.
All the magnificence of Solomon disappeared in the dust and the blue of the
destruction crews that Nebuchadnezzar sent in.
And all the people who weren't killed were hauled off. Many of them were massacred,
and the rest were hauled off to Babylon.

(49:02):
And then after Babylon was defeated by Persia, the king of Persia said,
now you can go home if you wish.
And so 50,000 of them returned, but they couldn't find very many priests.
And they couldn't find very many Levites. It was amazing. They had only a few to take back with them.
And it was interesting what the leader at that time said.

(49:23):
If you can't prove from your genealogy that you are a Levite or a descendant
of Aaron, you are hence put forth from the priesthood until we get back the
German from him to verify that you are of that lineage.
In the absence of direct revelation, if you can't prove it from your genealogy
and memory book, you cannot participate in the priesthood.

(49:44):
Now, the same thing is going to happen today. One of the problems that the rabbis
say they definitely have when they build the temple over in Jerusalem is the
inability to distinguish a true koan from a false one.
Now, you see, the priesthood is not Jewish.
The priesthood is Levitical. And the two tribes that were left behind,

(50:05):
you've heard about the ten tribes that disappeared.
The two tribes, basically, that were left behind were the Levites and the Jews.
And to distinguish the priests, they were called Kohens.
Well, there were all kinds of Kohens. And as the rabbi says,
they got a lot of people calling themselves Kohens that shouldn't be Kohens.
And Mutli and some of the others, maybe. But in any event, they have now said,

(50:28):
unless you can prove by your genealogy from father to son, right back to Aaron.
You will not be entitled to serve in this temple.
Now for the future. Well, I should mention one other thing first.
When these 50,000 came back, they were allowed to rebuild a temple.
Not as nice as Solomon's, but nevertheless, they built a temple,

(50:49):
the Temple of Zerubbabel, or the Second Temple, and it was dedicated in 516 B.C.
And that was the temple that remained down to the time of Christ. Christ.
Just before the coming of Christ, King Herod, who had furled his wife,
who was a Jewish princess and broke her sons and had otherwise made himself
relatively unpopular, tried to make him so get back in the good graces of the

(51:11):
people by promising to rebuild their temple.
And so he did it, but they wouldn't let him tear it all down at once.
So what he would do would be to tear it down a little bit and replace it and
tear down some more and replace it.
So he actually built a third third temple, but the Jewish leaders would never
allow it to be called the third temple.
They called it the second temple, and the one they're now going to build,

(51:34):
you'll notice, is the one they call the third temple.
So Herod's temple remained until 70 AD. The last man to go inside of the temple was Josephus.
And because he'd been a Jewish general that had capitulated eventually and cooperated
with the Romans, they let him get into the temple just before they ripped it
down and took out the records.
He took these to Rome and then wrote a history of the Jewish people that has

(51:57):
turned out to be much more creditable than it was thought to be 100 years ago.
And among other things, he tells us something about Solomon's temple,
which today in modern times we would appreciate more than some.
The Bible says that the temple of Solomon had upper chamber.

(52:18):
Nobody, no commentary in existence will tell you what the upper chambers were for.
And no commentary can tell you authoritatively where the veil was.
All they will say is that there was a very beautiful elaborate veil.
It didn't put a foot down on the first floor because that had a wall and two
doors where was the veil?
Along comes Josephus with his records from the

(52:40):
temple and his knowledge of the temple etc and he
said to understand the temple you must understand that it was one building on
top of the other which is his way of saying it had two stories and that there
was a spiral stairway which went up in the wall to the upper chamber all the
bible says is that the upper chambers were lined with gold.

(53:02):
That's all. Now that we know what upper chambers are used for in the temple,
we know where the veil was.
It was between the terrestrial and the celestial room on the upper story.
It has certainly puzzled people. Where this big veil could have gone that the
scripture keeps going through when the lower floor had a wall and two doors and not a veil.

(53:24):
So, apparently, the matter has been resolved. all.
Now, the Doctrine and Covenants assures us that there were endowments given
in Solomon's temple, section 124, and that they were specifically built for the endowment.
And so, thanks to Josephus, because he wouldn't have had this detail from anybody
else, we now know what the temple is going to be like, what they rebuild in Jerusalem.

(53:48):
Because when they start out with this third temple, they're going to use it
exactly like quoted in the ancient times.
And Ezekiel said, they will continue until they offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.
These sons of Levi offering unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.
Now that makes, that has a familiar ring to it, I'm sure.

(54:08):
Because when the Aaronic priesthood was restored to Joseph Smith and all of
the Calvary, John the Baptist specifically said that it would remain in the
earth until the sons of Levi do offer an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.
And Ezekiel said that's when it will be done.
Then what will happen to the temple? See, they will have animal sacrifices and
everything just as the law required.

(54:30):
And after that has been done, then what can happen?
Temples today are for a very specific purpose, not only for the washings and
anointings of the Aaronic order, not only for the lower covenants of the Aaronic priesthood.
They are designed, as the 124th section of the Doctrine and Covenants says,
from the days of Adam until now.

(54:50):
They were designed to have the endowment.
And so that temple, like the temple in New Jerusalem, will be designed for the
higher ordinances in due time, as far as we're able to tell.
So there's the report on our temple to date. And we've reached the point now
where the prophecies say it will be fulfilled.

(55:10):
For the circumstances that would permit it to be built and the prophecies fulfilled look impossible.
But where we know that it's in the computer, the prophetic computer declares it shall come to pass.
Ezekiel, Isaiah, Zechariah, John the Beloved saw it.
In the 45th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, we have further reference

(55:34):
to the final closing scene that I now want to share with you in conclusion.
After the temple is built, under the direction of the man spoken of by five
of the prophets as David or the brain,
a very righteous man who will require the Jewish people to refine themselves
and build a temple with clean hands.

(55:56):
Then will come Armageddon, and there will be a great mammoth coalition of Gentile
nations come sweeping down,
and there will rise up among them two prophets of God who will not convert the
Jews. This is a rather interesting thing.
They will not convert the people, but they will stand up and protect them from

(56:16):
the onslaughts of these military forces which Joel describes.
Scribes. If you want to read an ancient description of modern warfare, read Joel.
As he says, there was never anything like it in the history of man.
Before them, the garden of Eden, then fire come, and behind them, a wilderness.
And he says, they come leaping on the tops of the mountains with the roar of thunder.

(56:41):
He calls them men running one time and horses running another.
He can't find anything to describe these things.
He said, you can't stop them. They march along.
Nothing will stop them. You can just see these tanks going.
Well, under these circumstances with fire,
who knows, nuclear power and other things, these two prophets will have the

(57:01):
capacity by the word of their mouth and the power of the priesthood to raise
up a wall of fire to keep Gog,
which is the name of a prince like Pharaoh, etc., Caesar, Tsar,
and Moldog, meaning the Gentile peoples, from actually devastating the city.
And in their stubbornness, Daniel saw this and he will defy God and man and

(57:25):
everything else and determine that he's going to conquer the city for three
and a half years he'll lay siege to it and in the end he'll kill both prophets
and take half the city the soldiers will ravage the city,
ravish the women it says and come right up to the gates of the temple so we
know it's going to have to be built before the second coming and then as the
Lord says in the 45th section of the Doctrine and Covenants.

(57:48):
Exactly as it says in Zechariah. It's a little more detailed in the modern revelation,
but it says just exactly what the book of Zechariah says.
The Lord, the Savior, will come, will touch the top of the Mount of Olives in
this very serious moment.
In fact, it will be three and a half days after the city is taken and half of it conquered.

(58:11):
The two prophets will be raised from the dead and caught up to the amazement of God in Magog.
And in that moment, the Messiah will reveal himself, will stand on the Mount
of Olives, it will cleave in twain, Zechariah says, moving to the north and
to the south, Ezekiel, Daniel, many of the prophets saw this revelation.
And the people flee into the valley beyond. And if they'll flee,

(58:34):
no doubt they'll say, our Messiah has come, we waited for him,
we knew he was coming in power, and not walking on the Sea of Galilee like so many of them thought.
And it says they will surround him so happy that he has finally come back,
just like they expected him to, in glory and great power to save them.
The Jews shall look upon me and say, What are these wounds in thy hands and in thy feet?

(58:59):
Then shall they know that I am the Lord. For I will say unto them.
These wounds are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friend.
I am he who was lifted up. I am Jesus that was crucified.
I am the Son of God. And then shall they weep because of their iniquities.
Then shall they lament because they persecuted their king.

(59:21):
And then shall the heaven, he the nations, be redeemed. And though that no more
law shall have part in the first resurrection, it shall be tolerable for them,
and Satan shall be bound,
and he shall have no place in the hearts of the children of men,
and there will be one thousand years of universal peace and universal prosperity.
And after the Jews have cleansed the land, it's become possible for the other

(59:45):
tribes to come there and have their representation.
We will have built the new Jerusalem on this continent. this great new order
of good government, of justice,
of good social order will be established with the priesthood of God presiding
as judges, as guides, as missionaries.

(01:00:07):
144,000, 12,000 from each tribe will be the missionaries to go out to the various
nations and explain to them what's just happened, if you want to know more, so to speak.
And we'll have that marvelous period when And all the prophets said the work
of God would be finally conformated.
And on that day, as a comfort for the Jews.

(01:00:30):
This Jewish prophet said to the Jews of the last days, he says,
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Then it shall come to pass that there shall come
people in the inhabitants of many cities,
and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying,
Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts, I will go also.

(01:00:53):
Ye many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem
and to pray before the Lord.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, in those days it shall come to pass that ten men
shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of
the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying.
We will go with you, for we have heard God is with you.

(01:01:17):
And they will all be Latter-day Saints. Thank you.
Then we will see eye to eye and know as
we are known and then we will have a unity of brotherhood
and there will be no longer envy or jealousy
between Ephraim whom we represent
and Judah whom they will represent but as brothers and as partners we will work

(01:01:40):
with Jerusalem being the spiritual center of the earth and the new Jerusalem
primarily the political economic center of the earth.
Although the new Jerusalem in America will likewise have many temples,
even as in Jerusalem, but the law will come out of the American Jerusalem and

(01:02:00):
the word of the Lord will come from old Jerusalem, his own home.
So it's a great epic and we're witnesses to it and we ought to know about it.
And when the nation of Israel was set up in 1948 and 49, it was such such an
unbelievable achievement, I was in hopes that somebody in the church would write it up.

(01:02:23):
And right at that time, I was in the FBI and going about 16 hours a day,
and I kept waiting for some of the scholars in the church to grasp that,
put it down so our people could realize what had happened.
But everybody, I guess, was working 16 hours a day. It didn't get written.
And so when this last war occurred last summer, it gave us reason to pause and

(01:02:44):
make sure that this one didn't get by us.
And that really was what motivated me in writing The Fantastic Victory,
to try and capture that whole picture so that our people could then say, that's the background.
Now we will be able to understand what will happen in the future.
It's a wonderful thing to be alive when the gospel is here, when prophets are among us.

(01:03:06):
And we not only have the Bible, but the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants,
and modern prophets to guide us. We listen to them.
We're going to be able to keep up. If we don't, we will never know when these
wonderful things happen, and we will be among the foolish virgins.
Members of the church? Sure.
Acceptable to God? Unfortunately, no. So he said, let me tell you the parable

(01:03:30):
of the ten virgins, five of them wise and five of them foolish.
Now, they were virgins, you notice.
They were all good girl, but five of them weren't good for much.
And as a result, they did not await his coming, and they were not prepared.
And when the other five welcomed him, the five foolish virgins wanted who would be included too.

(01:03:51):
And he was under the necessity of saying, I'm sorry, but I just don't know you. And the door will close.
And the rejoicing, it says, will go on. And there will be one taken from a city
and two from a family, and thus it will be.
So we have a real challenge, and that is to keep up and to be ready for these

(01:04:13):
great blessings and perform a prophecy as they come.
Possibly could mention too that the latest archaeological bulletin from Jerusalem
says that last summer, right after the war,
a new Dead Sea scroll was discovered which contains the longest segment of readable
scroll work since the Isaiah scroll.

(01:04:35):
Think about 26 feet long.
And over half of it concerns the details of the temple to be built in Jerusalem.
It's called the Temple Scroll. true.
And sometime when we have the translation of that, we'll come back and give another talk.
Surely appreciate all of you coming. I pray the Lord will bless us to be worthy

(01:04:56):
of the day in which we live.
And I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.