In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of the word of God as an absolute foundation of truth. They express their logical and skeptical nature, stating that they believe in knowing the truth rather than blind faith. The speaker highlights the uniqueness of the Bible, stating that it declares itself as the word of God and fulfills prophecies. They also discuss the possibility of the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem and the recovery of the lost Ark of the Covenant, pointing to biblical prophecies as evidence.

I am, as my wife could share with you, an intensely logical person, by nature a skeptic. I want to know the truth. I believe the truth will set you free. I do not believe in blind faith in Jesus Christ. I believe faith is not a leap into the dark, but a leap into light, where we can know that we know that we know, not just based on feeling. Yes, there's feeling and it's wonderful, but based on absolute truth. This book is the very Word of God. I can tell you that having studied all of the other religious literature of the world, that this Bible is different than any other book. It dares to declare on every page that it is the very Word of God, and I hope by the end of today you will agree with me that it also dares and fulfills a proof that it is the Word of God, because God does in this book what no man and not even Satan can do, and that is He prophesies and brings it to pass. Isaiah chapter 46, 9 and 10, God says, I am God, there is none else. I am God, there is none like me, telling the end from the beginning, and from things that are not yet done, and saying my counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. God says, not only do I foreknow what will happen, but I will purpose it, and I will bring it to pass, and nobody can stop Him. God is in control of history, and by the time you leave here tonight, I pray that you will understand that God truly holds this world in His hands, and He holds your life in His hands, and you can trust Him, because He intensely cares about your life just as much as He does about the nation. He has set, throughout history, appointments with destiny, and that is why I named my book, Armageddon Appointments with Destiny. My study has revealed that God has declared His sovereignty and glory throughout human history by divinely appointing appointments with destiny for nations, for Israel, for individuals, and has brought them to pass, and thus manifest His glory. He has put prophecy on almost every page of the Bible. There's hardly a book in the Bible that does not contain prophecy, which has already been fulfilled, or is in the process of being fulfilled now. If you want to understand why I believe that that is a mark of God, let me share with you something very briefly. Prophecy is something that is impossible for anyone, including Satan, to do accurately. It is simply impossible. When you read ten top, amazing psychics' predictions for 1989, you know what that is worth? It is excellent paper for wrapping fish innards in. It is absolute garbage. A study was done called The Shattered Crystal Ball, studying psychic prophecies from 1976, 1977, and 1978. They covered the top ten amazing psychics and their predictions for three years. Remember, these weren't precise predictions such as, Ronald Reagan will be assassinated or have an attempted assassination attempt on such and such a day. Oh, no. Not like the Bible that precisely tells when something will happen to the day and names the participants and names who else will be involved and describes it in detail. No, no. These psychics wanted to be much more careful. What they did is said, someone close to the royal family will come near death or injury in the next few years. Now, since there's a good 50 members in the royal family, and hangers-on would amount to hundreds, it's a fairly safe prediction. And if anybody stubs their toe or breaks a leg, they'll say, see, I got it right. When you hear that Jean Dixon prophesied the assassination of Kennedy, garbage. She did no such thing. What she said is, someone high in political office will come near death or injury or assassination sometime in the next few years. And so, President Kennedy was assassinated and she says, after the fact, oh, you see, I predicted that. If only they had listened to me, then that would have been avoided. Garbage. But God predicts precisely the things that will happen and brings them to pass to the day. And because it is impossible for man to do this, I believe that is an absolute signature of God upon the Bible. Why is that important? Because if the Bible is true, if the Bible contains an absolutely unmistakable mark that it is the word of God, then when it says what my eternal destiny is, I can believe it. It isn't based on I hope it's so. It's not based on a childish experience when I was at a camp meeting at the age of seven. No. It is based on a foundation of truth that will stand when this universe no longer stands, the word of God will stand. It is absolute foundation truth that you can rest your life in. I want to share with you this evening a phenomena called amazing biblical anniversary. And in my book I devote three chapters to it, of these appointments with destiny, and I want to show you tonight. And I please would ask you, if you have any friends or family that really wonder is there absolute proof that God is the God of the Bible and that we can trust in him, please bring them out. Because I want to share with you 40 major events in the history of Israel that have happened precisely to the day on biblical anniversaries. This phenomena is so unparalleled in the history of the nations. Not one other nation has anniversary events. England and Canada and America win World War I on November 11th. They do not win World War II or the Korean War or every other war in the last hundred years on that day. They win it on random days. We win against Europe in May. We win against Japan in August. And that's exactly what you'd expect because there's 365 days in a year. But when you study the history of Israel we'll find that God has so arranged history that every major event has happened on a biblical anniversary of Passover, Pentecost, Feast of Tabernacles, and Feast of Trumpets. And this phenomena is the most exciting thing I have seen in my study as a proof that God is in command of history. And folks, the anniversaries are still happening. There's more events still to come involving the second coming of Jesus Christ to set up an eternal kingdom. And I believe there's a strong indication from prophecy that they too will happen not on any old Tuesday, but on those precise prophetic anniversaries and I want to share those with you tonight. This morning I'd like to share with you something that has really thrilled me and that is the study about the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem and the possible recovery of the lost Ark of the Covenant. You say, Grant, the recovery of the lost Ark? The rebuilding of the Temple? For 2,000 years the Temple Mount has not had a Jewish Temple on it. How could that be? The Jews today, primarily in Israel, are not all that religious. About 15% consider themselves very religious. You couldn't find any Jews today other than maybe 100 who really believe they should resume a Temple sacrifice system with animals and yet the Bible prophesies just such a thing in our very near future. How can that be? Well, let's take a look at what the Bible has to say. This Bible that has been so accurate in so many other things and one of the prophecies I examine in my book is a prophecy of the prophet Ezekiel 4 where I show that he predicted to the day when Israel would be reborn as a nation on May 14, 1948. And that prophecy shows that God's prophetic clock is still working. But I want you to go with me to Micah, the prophet Micah, at the end of the Old Testament, chapter 4. And let's see what God says about whether there will be a Temple in our future. Now please understand, when I give you what the Bible is saying about what will happen on Earth, we may be here to see it or we may be in Heaven to see it from there. The rapture could occur before we complete this morning's service. The rapture could occur at any point. I believe the burden of Scripture indicates we could be here right up until the Antichrist appears to go into the rebuilt Temple. But when that occurs, we've already left. Somewhere between this morning and then, I believe God and His sovereignty will take the Church home. I believe one of the things that's very clear from Scripture is that whenever God deals with Israel and the nations, He deals with them in terms of time and He deals with them in terms of the land of Israel, the Holy Land, the most important piece of real estate in this universe. Centered upon the most important part of Israel, which is Jerusalem, and the most important part of Jerusalem, which is the Temple Mount. And the most important part of the Temple Mount, the very Holy of Holies, where God said, My Shekinah Glory will dwell with Israel. All of the world is focused on that. If you had said this 100 years ago, people would have laughed. You know, 50% of all the United Nations resolutions in the last 3 or 4 years have concerned this spot of territory. A piece of territory that would go between here and the Atlantic Ocean. A very insignificant piece of land in the world. And yet, half of all the UN General Assembly resolutions concern Zionism, concern Israel, concern Jerusalem, concern the Arab-Israeli War. This is the center of history. It is the center of prophetic futures as well. God says the Temple that was destroyed in 70 A.D., almost 2,000 years ago, will have a place in our future. Now, we may be here to see it built, or we may be in heaven. But it will be built. Micah Chapter 4, But in the last days. In the last days is a code in the Old and New Testament for the generation that just proceeds Armageddon when Christ comes to set up his kingdom. But in the last days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and the people shall flow unto it. The mountain of the house of the Lord is the entire Temple Mount area that contains the Dome of the Rock and does contain the ancient site of the Temple. That whole Temple Mount that you see in the pictures of Jerusalem is what the Jews called the mountain of the house of the Lord. And it says it will be established, including the house of the Lord. And many nations shall come. This is future. It hasn't happened yet. Many nations will come and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob. And he will teach us of his ways. And we will walk in his paths, for the law shall go forth from Zion in the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he, the Messiah, shall judge among many peoples and rebuke strong nations afar off. This is the kingdom when Christ will rule from Jerusalem, the capital of the world at that point, when the blessings will flow. There will be finally true peace in the Middle East when the Arabs will be at peace and come into their blessings which were promised from before. We as Christians are commanded to bless Israel and we are told that if we bless Israel, we will be blessed. And if we curse Israel, we will be cursed. You can measure nations rise and fall and whether they have obeyed Genesis 12 and Genesis 15 in blessing Israel or cursing Israel. But Christians sometimes make a mistake in America and they forget that Ishmael also is a child of Abraham and that Abraham's seed were promised incredible blessings, that Ishmael was promised by the angel of the Lord, which is Jesus Christ himself, that appeared to Hagar in the wilderness when she and her son were cast off and said that he would be a mighty nation. And as a child of Abraham, mighty blessings are going to come for the Arab people. And so when people sometimes talk about anti-Semitic feelings, they don't realize that the Semitic race includes both the Jews and the Arabs. And we are to love both because they are both children of Abraham. But I can tell you that an Arab Christian friend of mine who went back to Israel walking the streets of Jerusalem in this tremendous conflict that is going on today found that Arab Muslims, Arab Christians, and Israeli Jews all said the same thing when he said, what is the solution to peace here? How can we stop this intifada? How can we come to a real peace that will go on forever, that will allow the Arabs and the Jews to live as brothers? The answer from all three groups, very curiously, was the same. There will not be real peace until the prince of peace shall come. But even Arab Muslims understood that God is going to have to intervene in history to bring about a peace in this incredibly complex piece of territory where so many conflicting promises were given to people that has led to this tragic situation today. And so God says that he is going to establish the temple once more. In verse 3, he shall judge among many peoples and rebuke strong nations afar off. Let me quote what the Russians curiously chose as a donation on beautiful rock to have inscribed in New York outside the United Nations. They didn't quote the first part of the verse. They quoted from this part of verse 3. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. And nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. They didn't quote the first part, which would have made it make sense and would have indicated how that's going to happen. And that is verse 2. And many nations shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. And he, Jesus, will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths. For the law shall go forth from the Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And Jesus, he shall judge among many peoples and rebuke strong nations far off. We will have peace, but not as the Soviets imply by some United Nations causing the swords to be beaten into plowshares. It's going to be Jesus. Jesus is coming back. I can tell you, folks, most people think of prophecy as being negative, dealing with war and Armageddon. And I have to tell you, yes, there are some very, very difficult times coming upon the world according to prophecy. And those appointments with destiny will not be postponed no matter what we want. We are chosen as Christians to be peacemakers and we must do everything we can both to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and to work for peace in our world. But the Bible has said thousands of years ago that the nations would gather together against Israel in the last days. That the nations, both the East and West, would gather to fight each other over the supremacy of this world and that Jesus Christ would come back to set up his kingdom. And while the Bible does tell us some heavy times are ahead, he tells us in Thessalonians that we, the church, the children of light, are not appointed unto wrath, but to obtain salvation. Two opposing destinies. One, an appointment of the wrath of God, which is going to be visited upon the nations in their rebellion and sin. Another appointment for his church, those that look to Jesus Christ who will be raptured and lifted up to heaven to be at the marriage supper of the Lamb during this period of great tribulation upon the earth. And then we will come down with him as a heavenly army that will set up a kingdom which will never end. I want you to know that prophecy tells you yes, the bad news, but I want to tell you the good news. There is coming a day and if prophecy teachers and scholars like myself understand prophecy at all, in this generation we will see yes, the worst war in history, but following that a day in which the nations of this world, the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There will never be another child starving. There won't be any more torture in prisons around the world. There won't be rape and assault and burglary and all of the horrors that go on and broken marriages and all of the pain and suffering because Jesus Christ is coming back to make this world what it was meant to be. We're going to step into that paradise that mankind has searched for with tears through all these generations and never found. We're going to find it because Jesus Christ is coming back and that's the good news of prophecy. Yes, there's a dark hour before the dawn, but I want you to know the dawn is coming. People say, Grant, what about Antichrist? Are you looking for Antichrist? No, I'm looking for Jesus Christ. I know that he is coming back and he is coming back to bring joy and peace and prosperity to his people of church first and then through the whole world. The world is finally going to find its rest. God says in the last days he's going to establish the temple. Look with me at Amos 9. He says in the last days he will establish once again the tabernacle of David and raise up the waste places. The tabernacle of David, the temple that was built by his son Solomon and David had prepared all those materials. We know that that tabernacle was destroyed in 70 A.D. God so controlled history that Solomon's temple was destroyed on the ninth day of Av of the biblical calendar which corresponds to our August. On that ninth day of Av, Solomon's temple was destroyed in 587 B.C. It is no accident of history, there are no coincidence folks, that in 70 A.D. the Romans destroyed and burned the second temple to the ground on the very same day, the ninth of Av. The Jews at the time wrote about it and said this was a mark of God's judgment upon that temple because they had rebelled against God and forsaken him and rejected their king. God is in control of history but he says in the last days he will raise again the tabernacle of David. We know that in Daniel 9 verses 24 to 27 in talking about the future Antichrist that would make a seven year treaty with Israel that would commence with a treaty seven years later would end with the battle of Armageddon with Christ coming to defeat the armies of the world and setting up his kingdom. We are told that halfway through that seven years, after three and a half years after that treaty, three and a half years before the battle of Armageddon, in fact it's to the day, 1260 days, because God in history and in prophecy uses the biblical year of 360 days. Everywhere in the Bible when it talks about a year they meant 360 days. That was the biblical year of the Jews, the Babylonians, and the Egyptians. If Ezekiel said I'll see you in a year you better be there 360 days later because that's when he's coming. Every month has 30 days. Now the Jewish calendar now has a mixed number of days in a year, but the biblical calendar that God uses in history and the future has 360 days. So we are told that 1260 days before Armageddon the Antichrist is going to go into a rebuilt temple and he will cut off the daily sacrifice. Now you can't cut off something unless it's already continuing. You can't. For 2000 years there's been no daily sacrifice anywhere in the world let alone on the Temple Mount. Right now the Muslims control the Temple Mount. Moshe Dayan, the defense minister, after 1967 when Israel conquered the holy city, East Jerusalem, and conquered the Temple Mount made a political decision to allow the Muslims political control of the Temple Mount and hoped that that would lead to peace which unfortunately did not. And in that situation obviously there can be no temple sacrifice. Something is going to have to happen to allow that to occur. Yet the Bible has said that it will occur and I'm going to believe it. Somehow God's going to bring it about. The Jews don't want it. The Muslims don't want it. The world doesn't want it. God says it will happen. Who are you going to believe? I'm going to believe the Bible and God. Okay. God says there will be a temple. What was the reason for the temple in the first place? What was the reason for the tabernacle in the first place? It was to house the Holy of Holies. And the Holy of Holies was to house the Ark of the Covenant. Would you look with me at the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 25. We know that if we go back to Genesis before mankind screwed up, before we rebelled against God, before we sinned, we know that God's plan A for mankind was to commune with him daily. We know that Adam had the privilege of God walking with him in the cool of the day in the Garden of Eden. You know a lot of people have a very phony idea about heaven and one of my next books is coming out in about the end of the year on heaven, the greatest promise ever made. And they think heaven is going to be 10,000 years of church service singing the first chorus and then we move on to the second chorus. Nothing could be further from the truth. God created a universe with incredible variety, adventure. He created you with intelligence and emotion and desire for variety. And what did he do in the Garden of Eden? Did he have Adam and Eve sitting in church 10,000 years at a time? Nothing like it. He had Adam and Eve enjoying each other's company, relating to each other, having great joy, working with the animals and with the plants. And he walked with Adam in the cool of the day. And it was a perfect relationship without sin and without rebellion. Plan A gives you an indication of what the architect will do for Plan B of the future. Heaven will be the greatest promise ever made. It is the most incredible thing. But God walked with Adam in the cool of the day and it was Jesus Christ that walked with Adam. Wherever God appears face to face in the Old Testament is Jesus Christ. The reason we look like Jesus and he looks like us is that he created Adam in his image. And when Jesus Christ, when God chooses to put on a three-dimensional form, it looks like a man. That was his choice. And that's why we look like we look like. And God walked with Adam in the cool of the day. He appeared to Abraham with two angels. They looked like men, just as Jesus did. And God walked with Adam in the cool of the day. He wanted to commune with Adam. We rebelled. Then there was a separation. We know that he walked with Enoch. And Enoch who walked with God was raptured up to heaven in a symbolic source that shows us how we will be raptured ultimately to be with God and never know death. And then we find that with Moses, God told him that he would meet with him face-to-face on Mount Sinai. And he then told him, I will commune and dwell with Israel, my people, face-to-face, and I will be with them and I will choose a place for my dwelling and I want you to build an ark of the covenant of 47 inches by 27 inches by 27 inches of acacia wood both covered with gold within and without and build the cherubim on top of it and a mercy seat of pure gold and there will I dwell with you. Look at Exodus 25 verse 8 and let them make me a sanctuary this is the tabernacle and the holy of holies that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show thee after the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of the instruments thereof even so ye shall make it. This verse and many more both in Hebrews and in other places in the Old Testament and in Numbers tells us that the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant were made precise copies after the blueprint of the original heavenly which is in heaven and remains so to this day. Some people have said about my work on the ark of the covenant that it may still exist they've said, Grant, Revelation 11 says clearly the ark of the covenant is in heaven and I say yes that's the original heavenly. That was the one that was copied upon earth but that didn't mean there wasn't one on earth at the same time there was one in heaven and the fact that the one on heaven continues and is in heaven in the future does not mean there is not one on earth still. We'll see if the Bible indicates that. God said, I will dwell with you in verse 21 and 22 and they shall put the mercy seat above the ark and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. The ark of the covenant to the Jews means the covenant. It is the covenant because the very law that God in the most unique thing in history on the feast of Pentecost gave the ten commandments to Israel. No other The very day the ten commandments were given to man the law, the dispensation of law begins is the very same day 1500 years later that the Holy Spirit comes and launches the dispensation of grace and the church is born. No accident, no coincidence. So it goes on in verse 22 and there will I meet with thee and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel. God said something incredible that he would dwell with Israel in connection with the ark of the covenant. Let me briefly give you the history. The ark of the covenant is created the most beautiful object, the most valuable object archeologically and spiritually in history. This object goes before Israel and they are wandering through the wilderness and they defeat enemy after enemy. The cloud of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day is connected with the ark and is outside the tabernacle of testimony and the tabernacle that dwells in the wilderness has the Shekinah glory of God. The Shekinah glory of God falls upon this on the very feast of tabernacles. Now we see that they cross Jordan 40 years later and as they cross Jordan the ark of the covenant goes before them and the waters back up and supernaturally so that they can cross through Jordan dry shod. Then they circle Jericho and as they circle Jericho seven times God said and I will then cause the walls to fall. Well every other city in the mid east you find all the walls are pushed in because that's how you conquer a city. You push the walls inward. But Jericho was one of these tough cities that the walls were so thick that they were certainly as thick as from here to the video camera. I've been there. These walls were almost square, rectangular walls and they were so thick they couldn't fall over. So what did God do? He pushed them into the ground. And archaeologists say that those walls are pushed right down about 30 feet below where they should be. The ark of the covenant contained the glory of God. The power of God chose to dwell there. And God said, I will come in with you there. This object was so important, so powerful, that even to touch it inappropriately like Uzzah touched it, attempting to keep it from falling when they had improperly carried it upon a cart instead of on those rods that God had declared they should carry it on, he died. We know that 50,000 men of Beshamesh who lifted up the lid of the ark in curiosity to see the ark of the testimony, they died of the plague. 50,000 died. This object so powerful, so central, the very focus of Israel's religion and spiritual life is then brought up 500 years later to the temple built by Solomon, prepared the materials by David, Solomon built it. We find that in 1 Kings chapter 8 we are told that when they brought the ark of the covenant up to this most incredibly beautiful temple that the glory of God fell upon the temple and supernaturally lit the altar fire. 120,000 sheep were sacrificed that day in recognition of the glory of God. We find that the ark of the covenant was brought up to the temple and brought into the holy of holies and when the glory of God fell it says that the priest could not even stand because of the glory of God. They couldn't even stand to worship. 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So he gets this craftsman to build a perfect replica that you can't tell the difference. The idea is that Menelik will take this back and have his own temple service down there. Menelik is a righteous Jew, seeing the apostasy of his father in the priesthood, offended with the idols coming to the temple, takes the righteous priests that have attached themselves to him, and switches arks on the final night, leaves the replica of the Ark in the Holy of Holies, and takes the real Ark with the bands playing. The next morning he leaves, and everyone thinks, isn't it nice, he's got the replica, and he has the real Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant, and he takes it to Ethiopia. This first slide shows the route that they took down to Ethiopia. Israel lost the Ark of the Covenant. We know that from history, and we know that from the Bible. There is no mention of the Ark of the Covenant in Israel's history from that point on. And so, the Ark disappears. Yet the Ethiopians say they took it, not to steal it, but for safekeeping. They took it to a town which was the ancient capital of Ethiopia called Aksum, A-K-S-U-M. It's in northern Ethiopia to this day. The Queen of Sheba's palace is in this town to this day. It has never yet been really examined by the archaeologists, but everyone knows that that is the actual palace of the Queen of Sheba. There are tremendous obelisks, these stone needles that stand about 90 feet tall, so tall they literally out of one single stone have built stairways up the center with windows and doors in them, built some 3,000 years ago, an incredibly sophisticated culture. The Ethiopian royal family has told me, and I have pictures of it that are in the book, they built an underground temple which contains the Holy of Holies. There are seven concentric rings within this underground temple, way carved out in the stone below the surface of the ground. And in the outermost ring, the average Ethiopian Coptic priest, who is a Messianic Jewish priest of the Ethiopian Coptic Church, can go into that. And if you're much more high in the hierarchy, you can go into the fourth or the third ring. But only the emperor and the high priest can go into the sixth most innermost ring. The seventh innermost ring is the Holy of Holies. And one man, a boy, chosen at the age of seven, who lives his entire life within that building, the Holy of Holies, guards the Ark. He's known as the Guardian of the Ark. He's chosen at seven. He fasts 225 days a year. And they have had a continuous series of these boys who grew up until they died and then are replaced, who have guarded the Ark for 3,000 years. On the surface is a church. It used to be a synagogue. When the emperors became Christian, they turned it to a church, but they call it the Church of Zion. No woman was ever allowed into that building until 1965. Queen Elizabeth II, on her royal tour of Ethiopia, was brought by Emperor Haile Selassie and his grandson, Prince Mangesha Sevanu, brought her with Prince Philip to that building. And she was allowed not to go in where the Ark is, because even the emperor could not do that, although he did. He was not supposed to. But she was brought into the building. And the only reason for being there is because of the very Ark of the Covenant. Does the Bible give any indication that this is so? The next slide will show the Ark of the Covenant, what it would have looked like. This is a representation. Actually, it's one that comes from Pennsylvania. Someone there has built a replica of it. The next slide shows a stone carving of the Ark of the Covenant done in Capernaum. And the next slide shows an archaeological diagram of the Temple Mount. I went on my trip last January to Jerusalem. My wife Kay and I are going down there again in a month to meet with Dr. Kaufman, who has done all the archaeological work in the tunnels underneath the Temple Mount, to continue some of our research for a second book, which is entirely upon the Temple and the rebuilding of Israel, bringing back the Ark of the Covenant. Next slide. This picture is just an artist's representation of what Jerusalem would have looked like in the time of Jesus Christ, with the Temple in white at the top. The most magnificent building. They said that if you have never seen the Temple when it existed, you've never seen a beautiful building. God created the most incredible building and described to them how they should have built it and the state. And behind that, according to the Mishnah, the Jewish commentary on the Talmud, and according to Flavius Josephus, and many other writings, was where the Temple was. We know that on the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the year, that gate would have been opened, and they could look through that gate, through the beautiful gate, that first gate of the Temple, and look right in and see the veil of the Holy of Holies upon that day. And that could only be possible if that Temple was directly opposite the Eastern Gate. Now why is that important? Because in that area to the bottom, that flat area, that's known as the Court of the Gentiles. Also the area to the north, on the opposite side, is also the Court of the Gentiles. It was a flat open area where Gentiles could congregate in their worship, but they couldn't go into the enclosed area of the Temple. Now why is that important? Because the Dome of the Rock is located in that Court of the Gentiles. And so, people have said, well if the Temple is going to be rebuilt, then somehow there has to be an earthquake that destroys the Dome of the Rock. Or the Jews will have to destroy the Dome of the Rock. First of all, the Jews have been more respectful of Christian and Muslim shrines than any of the Christians and Muslims have been respectful of Jewish shrines. And it is inconceivable to me that the Jews would ever destroy someone else's religious shrine. But it's always been a problem. How could they rebuild the Temple? The answer is, the Dome of the Rock can coexist with a rebuilt Temple on the Temple Mount. And I believe the Bible indicates that that will be the situation before Christ returns. That whole area that's flat there on that picture of the model, is where the Dome of the Rock is today. Next slide. Here's an aerial view from a helicopter. And I want to show you something here. I'm just going to, on the absolute bottom of that slide, that whole flat area which we're looking from the north to the south, the area to the north of the beautiful Dome of the Rock, is the area that I'm describing now where the original Solomon's Temple and the second Temple that Christ worshipped in was built. They were built exactly to the millimeter on the same foundation. That is where I believe the Bible indicates the third Temple will be built in the very near future. You can see there's nothing standing in its way. If you've got very good eyes, you can see at the bottom of that square, just where those big dark trees form a kind of a rectangle, that there is what you would call a column with a big bar on top of rock, a lintel, and right before that is a little dome. That dome is called the Dome of the Winds or the Dome of the Tablets. It's an Arabic cupola with columns over a flat area of bedrock of Mount Moriah. All the rest is flagstones of granite that are built up over really rubble that's underneath because Mount Moriah is not flat. It comes to the surface under the Dome of the Rock where that big stone is, if you've ever been in there, and it comes to the surface right there under that little cupola. What's important is this. The Dome of the Tablets, the Arabic name I believe, contains the knowledge that the Dome of the Tablets was where the Holy of Holies was, the Ark of the Covenant. Why the Dome of the Tablets? Because the Ark of the Covenant contained the Tablets of the Law. Why do the Arabs also call it the Dome of the Winds or the Dome of the Spirits? Because the Ark of the Covenant contained the Shekinah Glory, the very Spirit of God. And if you draw a line from the Eastern Gate that you can't see, directly through a laser beam to the Western Gate that they have just discovered in 1967, that's underground, that they didn't even know existed except the ancient writings said it was there and it was opposite the Eastern Gate. The laser beam goes directly through that Dome of the Tablets where that rock is that the Mishnah calls the Yivan Shekiel, which is the foundation stone that the Ark of the Covenant rested upon in Solomon's Temple. And the foundation stone, though they did not have the Ark of the Covenant in the Second Temple, they built the Holy of Holies in the Temple around that very rock. And that rock and its presence tells us where the original temples were and where they could rebuild the Third Temple without interfering in any way with the Dome of the Rock. Let me show you Revelation chapter 11. I think you'll see that God indicates that this is the situation. Revelation 11 verse 1, And there was given unto me a reed like unto a rod. And the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. Now John is told by the angel to measure, and this is definitely during the Tribulation period, this last three and a half years before Armageddon, sometime in our near future probably, but he's told, but the court that is without the temple, meaning the court of the Gentiles, leave out, and measure it not. For it is given unto the Gentiles, and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. And so we're told that part of the Temple Mount, which is in the court of the Gentiles, where that Dome of the Rock is, is going to be controlled by the Gentiles, non-Jews, for the three and a half years, the forty-two months of the Great Tribulation. That, to me, is an almost perfect lock, logically, that proves that the Temple will be built without the Dome of the Rock being destroyed. And the Dome of the Rock will coexist with a rebuilt Temple during the forthcoming period of the Great Tribulation. Now when I say that the Ark of the Covenant may be involved, the Ethiopian royal family has looked at my research and has told me that the Ark of the Covenant is in Ethiopia, that my research is correct. In 1936, Mussolini and his Italian army invaded Abyssinia, which is Ethiopia, attempting to conquer it. One of his war aims was the capture of the Ark of the Covenant. We have the Brene Brintz Messenger Magazine, a Jewish magazine of 1936, that says that the Ark of the Covenant was moved from Aksum, from this church in the underground Temple, to inaccessible mountain caves to hide it from the invading Italian army. This is in 1936. We know a French insurance underwriting syndicate was asked to insure the Ark of the Covenant in 1936 for war damage. A complete description of the Ark was given, and they were asked to insure it in 1936. This was reported in the Toronto Star, a magazine or a newspaper in Toronto, Canada, 1936. So there are some indications that the Ark of the Covenant still exists there. Crown Prince Stephen Mengesha, who is the great-grandson of Emperor Haile Selassie, his favorite grandson, lives in Toronto and has become a close friend of mine. He has looked at my research and has told me, as a result of it, some of his private conversations with the Emperor, in which he told him that he had actually gone himself into the Seven Innermost Rings and had seen the Ark of the Covenant that is there. We know that the Israeli Secret Service had repeatedly, while protecting the Emperor from 1948 until 1974, when he was killed in prison by the Ethiopian government, we know that they asked him for the Ark of the Covenant. They said, Israel's back in the land. It's now time for the Ark to be brought back. And he said, in principle, yes, but the timing is not yet. And so there is an awareness among some circles in Israel that the Ark is there. There are other scholars that believe it may be buried underneath that Temple Mount. There are some that believe that it may be buried in a mountain in Jordan. But I believe, if there is anything under the Temple Mount or in Jordan, that what it is is the replica, which would have been treated, obviously, as a sacred object because it would be of tremendous historical value. And even though the Jews would later have realized, after Prince Menelik had left with the Ark, they would have realized the glory was gone. You can see that they probably wouldn't have said anything for years. It's not on public display. It's in a Holy of Holies, just as the Ethiopians claim the Ark is now. What I can tell you absolutely is the evidence is absolutely conclusive that either the Ethiopians in Axum in an underground temple have a replica of the Ark or they have the real one. One or the other. Let's see what the Bible says. Look with me at Zephaniah 3, verses 9 and 10. And let's see whether there's any indication that the Ark may be in Ethiopia. Zephaniah 3, 9 and 10. First of all, verse 9 tells us that it's this generation that's being talked about. God says, No nation in history has recovered its ancient language save for Israel. Israel now speaks Hebrew and even at the time of Christ, only the priests spoke Hebrew. Jesus and his disciples would have spoke Aramaic and the Greek common coin language. But now in Israel, Zephaniah or Isaiah or Ezekiel could walk the streets of Jerusalem and ask for bread in Hebrew and be understood. This is a phenomenon not known in history where they've recovered an ancient language. And Zephaniah 3, 9 and 10 prophesied it would happen in the last days. In 1920, Hebrew was recovered in Palestine and now is the national language of Israel for this generation. Look what verse 10 says. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering. My suppliants, the daughter of my dispersed, and 10% of the Ethiopians are black Jews. They have been accepted by Israel under the law of return as legitimate Jews. In 1948, when Israel was created, 10,000 black Ethiopian Jews went to Addis Ababa, the capital. They said, what are you doing here? They said, we're going back to Israel to rebuild the temple. They know they have the offer. Zephaniah seems to be saying that from Ethiopia, the daughter of his dispersed will bring an offering, my offering, back to Zion. Now what would Ethiopia have to bring to Zion unless it is this object that they have respectfully and sacredly guarded for 3,000 years? I don't believe it's any accident that Ethiopia is the only country in history that has never been successfully invaded from outside in 3,000 years. It's never been conquered. Some parts of it have been temporarily occupied, but it has never been totally conquered in 3,000 years. There's not another nation that's too old. Could it be that it's because they have guarded the Ark of the Covenant and have respectfully kept it from paganism? Possible. Now, look at Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 18. Isaiah says in verse 1, Woe to the land shadowing with wings which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. So he's addressing Ethiopia. Ethiopia is crisscrossed by rivers. He goes on and says in verse 3, This is a public event. All ye inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth see ye when he, God, lifts up an ensign on the mountains and when he blows a trumpet, hear ye. The word translated in the King James Ensign is the Hebrew word nez, which means a rallying point, a flag, a banner, a present. It's the same word that was used in Zephaniah. It's a nez, which could very well be the Ark of the Covenant. Now, God says he's going to lift up this nez on the mountains of Ethiopia. Then we go forward in verse 7, and it uses the same word translated here, present. It's the same word, nez. In that time shall the present, or nez, be brought unto the Lord of hosts, and then it describes again, just as in verse 2, the people of Ethiopia, and it says at the end, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, Mount Zion. The Ethiopians in the end time are going to bring a nez, a present, a rallying point, some object of supreme regard from Ethiopia back to Zion. What could it be? Look with me in verse 6, just above, because it says then at that time it will happen. It says, What God is describing is what he otherwise describes in Ezekiel 37 and 38 and 39 as the great sacrifice of the Lord when he destroys the Warsaw Pact armies and the Arab armies and the Russian armies that come against Israel in the very near future in a tremendous invasion that God destroys with the greatest earthquake in history. God says that the destruction will be so great that it takes 7 months to bury the dead and that means that the animals and the birds will come out and scavenge on the bodies. 85% of this force will be destroyed according to Ezekiel 39. You know that in D-Day when we invaded Europe a total of 150,000 men that landed on the first day on D-Day in fortress Europe, which was incredibly well fortified, we only lost 2,500 men wounded and killed. Most battles in history people surrender if you lose even 5-10% of your army. God says when those nations, when Russia comes with her allies against Israel in the last days, God will destroy 85% of that army and it will take 7 months to bury the dead. God says I'll bring out the animals and the birds to scavenge on those bodies until they can be systematically taken and buried in mass graves. It seems that the Ark of the Covenant is going to be brought back from Ethiopia to Israel at the time of this great battle and its aftermath. Now look with me at Ezekiel 39 in closing. And we see that after the description of this incredible battle, Ezekiel 38-39 describes this Russian invasion of Israel and it says in verse 17, This, I believe, is the same event in Hebrew. It's word for word the very same. And then look what it says in verse 21, following this terrible defeat of these armies that come against God. When God intervenes in history as he did in the days of Moses, all of Israel will know that God is once more the God of Israel. I don't believe there'll be any atheists going into the tribulation. That doesn't mean there'll be believers. But they will know as Pharaoh's army knew that God was the God of Israel, all men both within Israel and without will know that God has intervened once more in history. We may be here to see this. The rapture may not have occurred or the rapture may occur before. If the rapture has not yet occurred, we may see the final great harvest revival of all time. When all men are impressed with the fact that God is intervening in history and that one cannot delay one's decision any longer. God says after this tremendous defeat and when he calls all the animals and the birds together, he says, I will set my glory among the heathen. Now, there's only two things in the Bible called the glory. Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and the Shekinah glory of God that dwells in the Ark of the Covenant. Now, Jesus Christ is not coming back to this earth until Armageddon, which is at a later point than this. It's at least seven years in the future after this. And therefore, by a process of elimination, I believe that when he says I will set my glory among the heathen, he's referring to the Shekinah glory of the Ark. And it's consistent because it uses the same language and the same sequence that after a battle and a great sacrifice of God when the animals and the birds come out, he is going to bring his glory among Israel and the heathen will know as Israel will know that God has intervened in history. Isaiah just said that at that time I will cause the Ethiopians to bring my present, my Nez, back from Ethiopia to Zion. If Israel recovers the Ark of the Covenant, they will rebuild the temple so fast it will make your head spin. Israelis have told me that what worries them is that there would be no stopping Israel rebuilding the temple and they just pray that it would not cause another war. Now, if it happens at the end of a war, then you can see how they could get away with it politically. But God has indicated, I believe strongly, that it will happen. The next slide, this again showing this model. Rabbi Goran, who is Chief Rabbi of the Israeli Defense Forces, he was the man that in 1967 in June when they captured the Temple Mount, rushed up and blew on the ram's horn. When he was asked by Newsweek Magazine, now will you rebuild the temple? He said, even as it was in the days of David, 40 years after they had captured Jerusalem, his son Solomon built the temple, even so it will be with us. Within 40 years, in 1967, we will rebuild the temple. Now, we find the Jews worshipping at the Western Wall. We find in Israel a society for the faithful of the temple has been formed. There is a Yeshiva Torah Kohin, where they are studying the Levitical sacrifice system. You have to be named Levi, which means you are from the tribe of Levi, or Kohin, which means you are from the priestly part of the tribe of Levi, in order to be a seminary student. They study all of the rituals of the temple, the actual building techniques for building the temple, and what has to be done for the sacrifice, what has to be done to create the high priest robe. And in Israel today, in the old city of Jerusalem, there are Jews that are preparing the material for the high priest robes, the linen, the materials according to what the mission of the commentary on the Talmud says, and the biblical record, what it says has to be there for the rebuilding of the temple. I can tell you this, that in light of these things, we are fast moving into messianic times. The Prince of Peace is coming. Israel is getting ready. They've captured the temple now. They now know, I believe, as a result of the research I've done and what the Israelis have done, where the Ark of the Covenant is. Now that Haile Selassie is out of power, though the communist government of Ethiopia temporarily rules that area, and then a month later the Eritrean and Tigray rebels conquer that area, neither side will touch the Ark of the Covenant. It is guarded by the Ethiopian Vatican. They have their own temple guards, and so it's not on public display. It's been guarded, and neither side will touch it because they're superstitious. They know the power of the Ark of the Covenant. I believe God says that when he brings Russia and its allies against Israel, that then he'll bring the Ark of the Covenant forth. Rabbi Goran, who runs this yeshiva, Torah Kohin, where they're training the students, has said this. In 1981, the Newsweek magazine, he said, First, we will find the Ark of the Covenant. Then we'll rebuild the temple because the whole reason for the temple is to house the Ark of the Covenant. God's glory will once again dwell with Israel. And when that occurs, while the rapture may not have occurred before that, I tell you we're very close because when God is once more intervening in history that way with Israel, then he's turning back to use Israel as a light unto the nations. You're going to see the two witnesses. You're going to see the 144,000, 12,000 from every tribe of Israel. We are moving into messianic times. Next slide. Here's the interior of the Dome of the Rock. You can see the size of that rock that it's virtually impossible, and measurements have been made that that rock could have fit in to the dimensions of the Holy of Holies. It is virtually inconceivable that that is where the original temple was. It's very natural that the Arabs in the 7th and 8th century built the Dome of the Rock on that site because that's the center of the Temple Mount. But the Jewish records of the mission at the time of Christ and Flavius Josephus and other things, including the location of the Yvan Chatiel, this rock that is the foundation rock that the Ark of the Covenant rested upon, have convinced us in regard to the location of the Golden Gate, the Eastern Gate, that they built their Dome of the Rock over the place of Solomon's palace, not over the temple. Next slide. This is our closing slide. You can see from this, and even though this angle you can see is from this side rather than this, the Dome of the Rock is not behind the Eastern Gate. In fact, it is 150 feet to the south of the area behind the Eastern Gate. That Eastern Gate is closed. It was closed around 841 A.D. Twelve centuries ago, the Eastern Gate was closed. Why? Because Ezekiel 43, 4, and 5 says, The glory of God, the Messiah, will go through that Eastern Gate, the gate whose prospect is toward the east, and will enter the temple and usher in the kingdom. And because they did not want a Jewish Messiah to come, they closed the gate. They planted tombs in front of the gate because a Muslim imam would not go over a graveyard, and therefore they thought the Messiah would not either. But we know that Jesus, who can go through an empty tomb, will go wherever he pleases. We know that Jesus Christ is going to go through that Eastern Gate and go into a rebuilt temple. He is going to announce the restitution of all things, the cancellation of all death. He is going to proclaim liberty to the captives. He is going to proclaim the great jubilee. Jesus Christ launched his ministry in A.D. 28, in the fall, in Nazareth. On the year of jubilee, the 30th jubilee from the crossing of Jordan was the year that Jesus Christ went into Nazareth and he read the great jubilee prophecy of Isaiah 61, 1 and 2 that said, It is appointed unto me to preach the good tidings, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And then he sat down in a seat reserved for the Messiah in the tabernacle, or in the synagogue, and said to the Jews present, This day, this scripture is fulfilled in your ears. You know that Isaiah said one more thing. He said to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of God's vengeance. Jesus Christ did not complete that prophecy. He completed only the first part because he knew, as God, that it would be delayed almost 2,000 years. But he preached the jubilee prophecy and the jubilee message in the 30th jubilee, 1,500 biblical years from the crossing of Jordan, when the jubilee period commenced. When God said, When you cross Jordan into the holy land, you are to keep the law of the Sabbath of the land and the law of jubilee. So we find 30 jubilees from the crossing of Jordan. Christ preaches the jubilee message of the acceptable year of the Lord. Would you be curious to know when the next jubilee is? The 70th jubilee from the crossing of Jordan as God counts time, 360 days to a biblical year, which may be the day of God's vengeance, is the year 2000. No one can tell for sure, but the early Christians, as well as the early Jewish rabbis, Rabbi Elias said that it would be 2,000 years before the law, 2,000 years under the law, and 2,000 years under Messiah. Then would be the seventh day, which is 1,000 years. The early Christians believed that. They believed it would be this generation. And while no man can tell you the day nor the hour, we can know the times and seasons, and it is that time. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 24, 17, that having described all the things and the signs leading up to the end, he said, When you see the fig tree put forth its leaves, know that it is nigh, know that it is even at the door. The generation that sees this thing happen, the fig tree putting forth its leaves in Israel, is described three times in the Old Testament as the fig tree. When the fig tree put forth its leaves on May 14, 1948, Israel became a nation on the mountains of Israel after 2,000 years in the graveyard of the nations. I was born in 1948. In my natural lifetime, I can hope to see the coming of a king. I believe that this generation is the rapture generation. This is the first generation in history that can truly hope, with logic as well as hope, that we may not pass from death unto life, but pass from life unto life, that we may never test of death, but see Jesus Christ and be raptured to be with him in the air. I want to tell you in closing one thing. God's prophecy will stand no matter what men want to do, no matter what Israel wants to do, no matter what the nations want to do. On May 9, 1917, which was one of those anniversaries we'll talk about tonight, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, knowing that the British were conquering city after city in the Middle East at the end of World War II, decided, I'm going to seal up all the other gates of Jerusalem because the British were being very smart and they were putting their tanks in reverse and barreling through the double gates. Very easy to do. And so, having closed all the other gates, he said, I'm going to open the eastern gate because you've got to have one gate open to the city. And because tanks were not like American tanks today, they don't go up hills very well back in 1918, he felt they can't go up that hill and conquer that gate, so we can guard it lightly. We can open that gate because then the people can come into the city that way and the British can't conquer Jerusalem. And on that 24th day of the ninth month, the day that Haggai said, Consider from this day and forward, I will bless you. He has his workmen with pick and shovel ready to demolish that gate that has stood there for 12 centuries. And Ezekiel 44 says, And the gate will be shut until the Messiah comes. He tried to open it. And Lord Allenby, a Christian, leader of the Allied Expeditionary Force, not wanting to shell the Holy City, he sends a biplane over Jerusalem. They'd never seen one of those before. This is 1917. And he drops leaflets that says, Flee Jerusalem, signed Lord Allenby. And the Moabitans had a prophecy they would never lose Al-Quds, the Holy City, until a prophet of Allah told them to leave. And since Allenby's name was Allah, God, day, prophet, and man, they left. And one of the first times in history a city that could easily have defended itself, literally they left the city without firing a shot, and the Holy City was conquered by the British Empire, which then gave it to the Jews. And the workmen put down their shovels and picks, and the gate was not open on that very day. God said, Consider carefully from this day and forward, I will bless you. Jerusalem falls. To the British, which then gave it to the Jews as a Jewish national homeland. In 1967, to see that prophecy is still working, in June, King Hussein decides to build a huge hotel over where the Western Wall is. The Jews had been prevented from going to the Western Wall for 20 years. From 1948 to 1967, the Jews could not worship at the Western Wall. And he decided to build a great hotel there for Muslim pilgrims. And so what he did was, he decided, we're going to close off the Western Gate and the access to the Temple Mount there, so I'm going to open up the Eastern Gate. He was going to violate the prophecy. And so one beautiful June morning, it is working now, with pneumatic air harmers, all ready to go to demolish the gate that God said only Jesus Christ will demolish. And that morning, Israeli fighters took off from their bases throughout Israel and destroyed the Egyptian and Syrian armies that were massing to invade across Sinai and on to the Golan. And the gate remained shut until the Messiah comes, whose right it is to open the gate, and the glory will go through into a rebuilt temple. I want to tell you, we live in exciting times. I hope that's been as interesting to you as it is to me in my study. Let's just close in prayer, and I'll hand it back to the pastor. Heavenly Father, we're just so thrilled that we can live in such a day that we see the signs leading to the coming of the Prince of Peace, which will bring peace to this troubled world. There's so much pain and suffering, Lord, both within our country, within our lives, and around the world. Lord, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We pray that you will bring peace to that troubled region where the Arabs and the Jews and so many other nations have focused their forces, that you alone, as Prince of Peace, can bring about the peace that we seek. And Lord, if there be any person here who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, I just pray, Lord, that you will touch them with your Holy Spirit and by grace draw them to you, and that they will see that Jesus Christ is the only answer, that you truly hold history and our lives in your hands, that you are the Messiah King. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. By the way, the book will be available. My wife Kay is at the back. My wife Kay, say hi to her. She is my beloved wife and whom I am well pleased. And she has the book available for $10. And it is a book that I believe you can use for friends and neighbors as well. This concludes side two. We acquired this tape from Grant Jeffery Ministries. If you'd like to write them for a list of other resources, you can write to Grant Jeffery Ministries at P.O. Box 129, Station U, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, SIP M8Z 5M4.