The Destruction of the Dome of the Rock

The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is a Muslim holy site that was completed in 691AD.  It stands on the temple mount where Harod’s temple stood, and is directly over the spot where the Holy of Holies was located.  The Al-Aqsa mosque is also on the temple mount to the south of the dome.  Both the gilded Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque are destined to be demolished.  The Bible makes this an inescapable reality. 

There is no other way to explain end-time Bible prophecy in regards to two events that will take place during the tribulation period.  One is what will be called a peace treaty, and which the Bible calls a covenant with death and an agreement with hell (Isa 28:15-18).  The other will be the announcement by Antichrist that he is God and his command to be worshiped as such which he makes from the the third temple that is to be rebuilt on the temple mount (Mat 24:15). 

As they stand, the dome and the mosque are impediments to rebuilding the temple, and so must be removed.  The act of rebuilding the temple is a question of labor and materials and is relatively simple to solve.  The question of brokering a peace treaty if the destruction of these Muslim sites would ignite an all out war is more difficult to entertain.

The Bible foretells the Antichrist making a seven year peace treaty with Israel which does actually bring “peace and safety” to the region for a time (1Th 5:3).  This peace treaty implies that each party in the region is provided with what they desire to make peace. This is simply impossible so long as Islam continues as a religion, or that people anywhere in the area or the world identify themselves as Muslim.

The reason Islam must be discredited for the fraud that it is and discarded is that Muslims cannot be given what they truly want to make peace with Israel. Islam requires the total destruction of Israel and all the Jews worldwide as one condition of their peace.  There is no escaping that fact (they require the same fate for Christians, but the vacuum or the rapture will divert them).  Obviously, Israel must still exist to sign the seven year peace treaty with Antichrist, and experience half that term in a relative peace.  Furthermore, the temple is to be rebuilt during that time, and that means leveling the Dome of the Rock as it is in the way.  At present, the Dome of the Rock is seen as the stone which prevents the Jews from rebuilding their temple, but just as it is holding something back, it is also be holding Islam together. 

It is very likely that the destruction of Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque will precede the collapse of Islam, or rather precipitate it.

The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. (Joe 3:16)

Here are two likely scenarios for the coming destruction:

In the first scenario, future attacks take place on Israel to the degree that Israel’s existence is clearly threatened.  Israel responds with the force necessary to defend itself, and that response requires or results in the elimination of enemy strongholds for good. They take out Amadinnerjacket (Iranian madman Ahmadinejad: always dressed to kill), and drop some big ones on Mecca and Medina.  They then level the Dome of the Rock in a gesture that declares they will no longer be picked off like sitting ducks as they have for the last 50 years while the world dictated they must be patient. 

Conveniently, this action makes way for the new temple. On this score, there is also a future war with both a supernatural rain of hailstones fire and brimstone and a nuclear exchange that is described by Ezekiel where all of Israel’s enemies including Russia are defeated by God’s intervention, for a time, and that could accomplish the destruction of the impediments to the rebuilding of the temple (Ex 38;39).

As a result, the rest of the world, which hates Israel, fumes to take action against Israel out of hatred for God who is brought to their attention by the apparent divine favor Israel obtained in defeating its foes.  Here, the Antichrist steps in and secures peace.  The whole world listens to the Antichrist because he is the messiah they have longed for.  Here an important clarification should be made.  The Antichrist does not appear out of nowhere and force his evil rule on a conquered and unwilling humanity; he is the outgrowth of the world’s wicked sinfulness that ripens to produce him.  They accept him because they love sin, and he will be the master of sin, the Devil incarnate.

In the second scenario, someone, like Amadinnerjacket, gets enough enriched uranium to go nuclear and calls in his holy war hoping to usher in the 12^th Imam (the Islamic messiah).  The air strikes come from all around Israel.  Part way through the campaign it is discovered that while much money was put into going nuclear, little attention was paid to obtaining high-quality missile guidance systems.  A lose barrage of conventional missiles hits the Dome of the Rock and completely destroys it.  Under the newly cleared temple mount the air strike unearths something from the days of Salomon’s temple that is the greatest archeological find ever made, and which proves beyond a doubt that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the holy one of Israel, and not of Medina.  The Muslims discredit Islam by their own hands, and abandon its disgrace.  That Satanic religion is obliterated, and the freed followers meld into the new Satanic religion of the one world church, the whore of Antichrist currently being assembled.

Of course, this is all speculation, but rewarding speculation as its subject is the return of the Holy One of Israel to Jerusalem to rescue His people and to purge the land of all that defiles it:

So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. (Joe 3:17)

There are many other upheavals attendant to the last days of Jerusalem being “trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Lk 21:24). In addition to wars, unprecedented geological disasters take place, and one of the many earthquakes could easily clear the temple mount (Eze 38:19-20; Mat 34:7).  Neither must all developments be evident to all people.  For instance, the Lord will select and seal 144,000 Jews, twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes, and they will likely preach as Elijah who the Lord will send back at the time will also preach, the Gospel of the Kingdom (Mal 4:5-6; Mat 24:14).  This is the gospel that will be preached to all the world, to all nations for a witness that Christ the King is retuning to set up His Millennial Kingdom and set on the throne of David.  Antichrist will deny this message and fight against it as it spells his doom.  Most of the people in the world will also reject this message to the extent that they would rather the mountains of the earth fall on them rather than repent at the wrath of God (Rev 6:16-17).  That Gospel of the Kingdom, which is not preached for salvation but for a witness,  will nevertheless go forth, and at the end of the seven year reign of Antichrist the end of the times of the Gentiles will come (Mat 24:14).

Photos:

1) The Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall in the foreground.  The Western Wall is one of four retaining walls built by Herod when he enlarged the temple mount by leveling the top of it in order to construct the temple.   The temple was destroyed by Titus in AD 70. 2) A tunnel under the Western Wall which remains of Herod’s temple which was destroyed by Titus in 70AD. 2) The Dome of the Rock. 3) Foundation stones in Western Wall weighing as much as 570 tons.