“These I will bring to My holy mountain and give them joy in My house of prayer.  Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”  (Isaiah 56:7)

Plans are actively underway to create blueprints for the Third Temple.

On the evening of July 27, the beginning of the Nine Days, a period of heightened mourning for the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash (God’s Holy Temple), Jerusalem’s Temple Institute launched a crowdfunding campaign for the new Temple blueprints.

Although the blueprints will cost $300,000, the Indiegogo fundraising campaign is seeking one-third this amount as a strong step toward rebuilding of the Temple.

The campaign description claims that the rebuilt Temple will usher “a new era of universal harmony and peace.”

It is true that there will be a turning to the God of Israel among the nations and worship of Him in the Temple in the last days:

“In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and peoples will stream to it.  Many nations will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob.  He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.”  (Micah 4:1–2; see also Isaiah 2:2)

We also know that in the end time, Yeshua HaMashiach will reign from the Temple and usher in God’s glory:

“I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east.  His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory .…  The glory of the Lord entered the temple through the gate facing east.  Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the Lord filled the Temple.”  (Ezekiel 43:2–5)

A model of the Holy Temple at the Temple Institute’s Holy Temple Visitors Center in Jerusalem.

But before that glorious era comes, the Brit Chadashah (New Testament) links this Temple to a time of distress for Israel and the nations.

“Concerning the coming of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah and our being gathered to meet Him …  Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.  He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s Temple, proclaiming himself to be God.”  (2 Thessalonians 2:1–4)

Daniel also speaks of this man of lawlessness. 

“He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’  In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering.  And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”  (Daniel 9:27)

In a related prophecy, the apostle John foresees that the Gentiles will wreak havoc in Jerusalem from the outer courts of the new Temple:

“I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, ‘Go and measure the Temple of God and the altar, and count the worshipers there.  But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles.  They will trample on the holy city for 42 months.”  (Revelation 11:1–2)

Levitical instruments used in the Holy Temple.

The timing for this fundraising event is significant.

Israel is currently observing “The Nine Days of Mourning” that ends on the fast day of Tisha B’Av (the Ninth of Av), the saddest day on the Jewish calendar.  This date marks the destruction of both Temples, the start of the first Crusade, the expulsion of Jews from both England and Spain, and the start of deportations to the Treblinka death camp.

The mourning period begins at the head of the month of Av to lead observant Jews into a keen sense of anguish on the final day.  These Jews will refrain from eating meat, drinking wine, buying new clothes, laundering dirty ones or repairing rips until Tisha B’Av has passed.

The copper laver fit and ready for use in the third Holy Temple.

They will also refrain from building for pleasure or beauty; nevertheless, donating to the reconstruction of the Temple, which once was “adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God” (Luke 21:5) is entirely consistent with this time of mourning because “it is a Biblical obligation to build it,“ Temple Institute international director Rabbi Chaim Richman said.  (JTA)

The fundraiser is slated to conclude on the joyous eve of Rosh HaShanah (the Jewish New Year), Sept. 25, 2014.  As of Tuesday, 19% of the goal has been raised.

The Institute already has created 60 vessels consistent with their Torah-prescribed form, but Richman says the Temple will only be built when “the world will want us to build the temple.”  (Times of Israel) 

He said he believes that Israel has no peace because it has no Temple.

Of course, the Temple Mount is now occupied by the Dome of the Rock.  Muslims consider the entire platform to be a Noble Sanctuary, and Jews are arrested here for merely moving their mouths in prayer.

Only an act of God moving in the hardest of hearts will make a Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount a reality.  And when it happens, the stage will be set for the other Temple-related prophecies to come to pass, including those of Daniel and Paul regarding the rule of the man of lawlessness after 3 1/2 years of peace.  (Daniel 9:27; 2 Thessalonians 2:4)