Since September 2015 when Islamic militants became quite extreme in rioting on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem substantially to prevent Jewish pilgrims to ascend up to the Temple Mount there has been a gradual change for the better from a biblical Christian perspective. In September 2015 and some months afterwards the situation on the Temple Mount was totally out of hand with many Muslims on top of the Temple Mount with many even camping there overnight partly to stop Jewish pilgrims to go up there even on Jewish holidays and getting in open conflicts sometimes with the Israeli Temple police. There were also incidents of these Muslim protesters flying Hamas or other jihadist flags on the Temple Mount at that time. I was discouraged and upset for some time when it seemed that the Israeli government didn't seem to be doing much to improve this situation. However I was mistaken then and unaware that the Israeli government was doing things about but by a slow and steady approach. By some time in 2016 the Israeli government had gathered enough evidence about these ongoing brazen Muslim protests on the Temple Mount and swooped into an office in northern Israel and raided it. This turned out to be an office I think that was associated with the Islamic Movement of Israel but that definitely turned out to be the office that masterminded the Muslim protesters on the Temple Mount that turned out to be giving financial incentives to many of these Muslim protesters on the Temple Mount to continue their protests including against Jewish pilgrims and some times also against the Israeli Temple police. These Muslim protesters are sometimes called maribout. It also turned out that the funding for many of these protesters ultimately came from the Palestinian Arab terrorist group Hamas. Israel then shut down this office and the electronic network I think they found out about through the computers at their office. This resulted right away in much reduced protests against both Jewish pilgrims and Israeli Temple police by Muslims on the Temple Mount.
Since Israel broke up the maribout Muslim protest operation led by Hamas and perhaps the Islamic Movement of Israel there has been a gradual increase of Jewish rights on the Temple Mount since sometime in 2016. At first this led to more Jewish pilgrims going up to the Temple Mount on a daily, weekly (especially Sabbath or Shabat day) and on Jewish festivals such as Passover, Jerusalem Day, The Ninth of Av, The Feast of Tabernacles and Hannukah. However there was some increase of Jewish access to the Temple Mount during that time and continuing through this time beyond that. One was at least during some of that time and I think continues to some extent now there being more freedom allowed by the Temple Police for Jews to not only go up to the Temple Mount but also to pray there. This has long been legal according to the Israeli Constitution and Supreme Court but was often refused by the Temple Mount police and Israeli Prime Minister and Jerusalem Police Chief in the name of reducing the possible offence to Muslims or Muslim nations and to avoid jeopardizing the peace process or world powers that might be pushing the Israeli-Arab peace process. However after many rounds of peace talks with the Palestinian Arabs in which Israel offered one-sided particularly generous terms for an agreement to them and they still wanted more many Israelis feel the Palestinian Arabs or at least their leadership is not serious about peace with Israel. Many Israelis also see some areas they gave up of land to the mostly Muslim Arabs for peace that didn't make the Muslims more peaceful to Israel such as the Gaza Strip, the Temple Mount, the Sinai peninsula, southern Lebanon or to some extent the West Bank or Judaea and Samaria. Many of these places now have significant Muslim powers that are hostile to Israel now and that endanger Israel's security especially as a mostly Jewish state.
The other new trend about Jewish pilgrims going up to the Temple Mount has been the start of a breakthrough of Ultra-Orthodox Jews going up there quite openly particularly this 2016 Hannukah season where more than 100 went up in some noticeable groups and for which pictures of them can still be seen at this time (January 2017) on the Temple Institute web site at www.templeinstitute.org. Generally the reason many Ultra-Orthodox Jews haven't gone up to the Temple Mount and some of them including many of their rabbis have discouraged them or other Jews from going up there are for two main reasons. One is that they think no one now knows where the former Jewish Temples were on the Temple Mount (and where the next one should be built) and therefore the part of the Temple Mount they should avoid walking on. They especially wouldn't want to walk on the part that was before the actual sancturay or holy of holies as there are serious penalties for non-authorized Jews from doing that at least when the Temples were standing. The only Jews or Israelites that were allowed to go into the Temple sanctuary and holy of holies were the Jewish priests and Jewish high priest (once a year at Yom Kippur) respectively. However now other Jews in Israel or elsewhere, particularly Orthodox Jews have convinced an increasing number of Ultra-Orthodox Jews that the Jews know where the previous Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount were and that it is fine for Jewish or Israelite pilgrims to go up and walk on the Temple Mount as long as they avoid the more sanctified areas where the Jewish Temples were before. The second reason many Ultr-Orthodox Jewish pilgrims or their rabbis haven't gone up to the Temple Mount relates to this that is they were thinking before they had to wait for the Messiah to come in glory and reign over the world through the rebuilt Jewish Temple as King of Nations to find out where the former Jewish Temples were. I think now however more Ultra-Orthodox Jews are thinking the likely knowledge by Orthodox Jews of the location of the former Jewish Temples on the Temple Mount and the growing groundswell in Israel to build the Temple and restore more Jewish (Law of Moses) aspects in administering the Land of Israel as well as things going on generally in the world such as growing anti-semitism argue that the Messiah is coming soon so they feel more free to go up now to the Temple Mount and even pray there to the true God the God of Israel (but that is also the God of the New Testament including the Triune God of Father, Son Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit in Christianity).
However since most non-Messianic Jews or Jews that don't believe yet that Jesus is the Messiah that includes still most secular, Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox Jews they generally don't accept the Christian New Testament as the word of God or Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah including who will come again but mostly look for a political Messiah who will deliever the Jews or nation of Israel from their earthly enemies. (This is primarily how the Messiah is revealed in the Old Testament but Christians believe that is a main thing Jesus will do when He comes again as well as to deliver people who become Christians in the tribulation from their earthly persecutors although there is still a significant amount of prophecies about the Messiah as the sin-bearer of the world in the Old Testament that Christians including myself believe have already been fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth.) Although I and other biblical or dispensational Christians are glad to see more Jewish people going up to the Temple Mount and believe this will prepare them better for worshipping Jesus in the Millennium or Messianic Kingdom where Jesus will rule the world from the holy of holies in the Millennial Temple as in the latter chapters of the Book of Ezekiel and that we see it as a good thing about the Israelites or Jewish people moving to go up more and have more spiritual rights such as prayer to God on the Temple Mount as indicating the preceding rapture of catching up to heaven of the true Church is very near we do have a burden and concern for some of the Jewish people who haven't trusted in Jesus and who are going up now to the Temple Mount to prepare for their view of the Messiah. This is because we believe based on the Bible from a literal perspective that the first Messianic figure to come along next that will be noteworthy will be the Antichrist or Man of Sin or the Beast as a false Messiah as the devil's substitute for the Lord Jesus Christ as the true Messiah of Israel (and Saviour of (any willing person of all the nations of ) the world). That all these things are happening now as well as world powers pushing at least while US President Barack Obama is still in power for a worldly Middle East peace agreement we believe quite strongly and urge the reader to if you haven't done so already to admit you are a sinner in God's sight according to His Word the Holy Bible and by prayer to God in Jesus' name receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour who died on the cross for our sins and was buried and rose again the third day to give us eternal life. (This is also according to the New Testament how we become a member of the true Church of the Lord Jesus Christ and take part in the rapture or catching up to heaven of the Church and avoid being on Earth during the soon-coming tribulation. This receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour which I urge you to do now with all your heart if you haven't already done so is how to have an eternal relationship with, forgiveness of all your sins from God and a home in heaven with God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ and His saved people of all ages (and His holy angels).
On January 15th, 2017 an international peace meeting to attempt to make progress in ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was held in Paris, France. There were representatives, particularly foreign ministers, from 70 or 72 nations including those of the UN Security Council permanent members, the US, UK, France, China and Russia and the Quartet the US, EU, UN and Russia, the G20, the Arab League and other European countries according to an article with the title Conference for peace in the Middle East (15 January 2017) at http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-files/israel-palestinian-territories/ peace-process/... . This meeting was a follow-up meeting to the June 2016 meeting in Paris, France also organized by French President Fracois Hollande and his foreign minister that had about 28 nations represented to attempt to make progress towards a Middle East peace solution. Also in the January 2017 meeting neither the Israelis or Palestinians were directly represented.
Although there was concern in Israel and her supporters elsewhere in the world including much of the US Congress that further terms or guidelines for a possible Middle East peace would be adopted at this January meeting that would not be beneficial to Israel, there didn't turn out to be the definite and extensive resolutions towards a Middle-East peace including that would be to a disadvantage to Israel that Israel and her supporters had feared. Among others both US Secretary of State John Kerry and the United Kingdom under leader Teresa May claimed some credit for watering down what would have been a more definite and anti-Israel final report from the conference. A main result of the January 2017 meeting was a re-committment by the international community to the so-called two state solution. According to the diplomatic.gouv.fr article the way this was worded was the following: "Following the Ministerial meeting held in Paris on 3 June 2016, the Participants met in Paris on 15 January 2017 to reaffirm their support for a just, lasting and comprehensive resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They reaffirmed that a negotiated solution with two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security, is the only way to achieve enduring peace." Among other criticisms of this statement was that by Israel this resolution didn't include the word democratic in refererring to the two states as resolution 2334 at the UN Security Council in December 2016 (and possibly other international resolutions had).
This Paris January meeting also reaffirmed the international community's committment to former UN Resolution 338 (1973) and 242 (1967) for (the so-called Arab) Palestinian's right to statehood and sovereignty, fully end the so-called occupation that began in 1967 but also satisfy Israel's security needs and resolve all permanent status issues (that includes the future of Jerusalem and its holy sites such as the Temple Mount and the Western Wall). This resolution mentioned the importance of addressing the serious humanitarian and security situation in the Gaza Strip and sought faster progress towards a solution. Those at the meeting also urged Israel and the Palestinian Arabs to abide by international including humanitarian and human rights law. There were also measures sought to develop Palestinian Arab society and economy for a future Palestinian state. The conference participants also stated that there shouldn't be unilateral steps towards a Middle East peace by either the Israeli or pro-Israel or the Palestinian or pro-Palestinian side. This conference also called on each side to show committment to progress towards a Middle East peace according to this conference that could mean pressure on terrorists and inciters from the Palestinians and other Muslims and on Jewish Temple Mount or West BAnk (Judaea and Samaria) activists to compromise from their respective positions and without the participants recognizing the many committments of the whole land of Israel to the children of Israel from God sometimes unilaterally sometimes conditionally in His word the Holy Bible. There was also urging to allow other international groups such as the Arab League and the Quartet to be more involved in future Middle East peace negotiations. There was also expressed a desire for a further follow-up Middle East peace conference before the end of 2017. There was little mention at this meeting of the possibility of the new Donald Trump led American government of moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem which is contrary to international and usual American policy. This would please Israel and its supporters if Trump follows through with this committment but severely anger Palestianians or other Arabs or Muslims or their western or other world supporters who think Eastern Jerusalem should be part of a Palestinian state. This is even though Eastern Jerusalem doesn't just have half but has all the Old City of Jerusalem and most of the historic religious and other sites such as the Temple Mount and Western Wall and others.
From a biblical Christian perspective this conference certainly shows the desire of the international community for a lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement (or covenant) very soon. This could be more elements and momentum leading to the false Middle East peace of the Antichrist or he who makes abomination or the beast out of the sea, little horn or man of sin etc. will make to start the 7 year tribulation or 70th week of Daniel. This will be immediately after the rapture or catching up to heaven of all the true Church or true Christians who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead to give us eternal life and a relationship with God as in 1 Thessalonians 4 and Gospel of John 14 etc. This Paris meeting can be regarded also as the last Middle East peace effort of the outgoing Democratic Party Barack Obama government that was generally quite anti-Israel especially in totally agreeing with the Palestinians in having a cessation of Israeli East Jerusalem or West Bank settlement building as a pre-condition in the Middle East peace process even though it is supposed to be one item that would be discussed later on in Middle East peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians along with Israeli desires such as their security and being recognized as a Jewish state. This peace conference will probably also be the last peace conference hosted by France under the current Hollande government. If polls don't change there a lot soon there will probably also be a more conservative government elected there later this year than the current one led by his party. This new government in France might not want to be involved the same way in the Middle East peace process. With these Paris based Middle East peace meetings, the recent December UN Security Council meeting and the previous UNESCO ruling on the heritage of the Temple Mount and Western Wall as well as the now installed Republican Donald Trump government in the US including its still possible transfer of its Israeli Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem there is much happening that affects a more final Middle East peace. I would urge the reader if you haven't already to therefore trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour to not only have your sins forgiven and eternal life with God but so you can also be taken with the true Church to heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ and several years later come back with Him to set up God's Kingdom on Earth and benefit when He judges the world. This would be instead of being left behind after the rapture of the Church to endure the world tyranny of Satan's man the Antichrist and God's plagues of judgment on this mostly godless and Christ-rejecting world.
It was announced at the press conference on Wednesday, February 15th, 2017 between Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu and American president Donald Trump in Washington, DC that the traditionally favoured "two-state solution" would no longer be the only solution considered by Mr. Trump and US diplomacy or the state department under him. This is even though this is still the favoured solution by much of the international community. This is because, as noted in articles in such sources as the bbc and israel national news, that there have been negotiations backed or overseen by the United States and other world powers over the last couple decades based on the Oslo Accord or Road Map to Peace set forth around 1993 or 1994 when there the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations were led by former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Due to continued unwillingness of the Palestinian Arab leadership to accept a Jewish state even on the internationally recognized state of Israel, their insistence on the law of return which would allow relatives of Palestinians who left Israel in former battles such as Israel's war of Independence in 1948 and the Six Day War of 1967 in both of which Israel was victorious and continued violence or incitement of the Palestinian Arab leadership and a substantial number of radicals in their midst against Israel especially a Jewish Israel and because of Israel's continued building of more Jewish settlements in the West Bank (Judaea and Samaria) and East Jerusalem that are supposed to be given to the Palestinians for their future state according to the two-state solution there has come to be less confidence in an eventual successful Middle East peace based on the two-state solution by some including by Mr. Trump and people in his administration.
This has led to consideration of other options to form a basis to work towards a solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One of these is the so-called one-state solution that essentially means that all of the land and people west of the Jordan River, either Jewish or Palestinian or other Arab, would be part of one state and would probably all have citizenship and voting rights in it. Apparently this has been a favoured solution by the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) or PA (Palestinan Authority) that is currently led by Mahmoud Abbas for some time. Although the continued building by Jewish settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is leading Mr. Trump and some others to consider other options than the two-state solution including this one-state solution, a one-state solution is not the option favoured by most Israelis either in Israel proper or in East Jerusalem or the West Bank. The main reason for this is that there would then be almost as many Palestinian or other Arabs in this state as Jews and probably the Arabs would continue to gain in numbers on the Jews based on their generally higher birth rate. This would mean there would no longer be a Jewish state in the world especially a Jewish democratic one and this would mean a failure of Zionism or the goal or policy of having a Jewish state in the land of Israel in the borders given to the Israelites including the Jews in God's word the Holy Bible that the true God (Yahweh, the LORD or HaShem) gave to them. This possible failure of Zionism is something almost all Jews could not accept especially when the policy of Zionism established by Theodore Herzl and others was established because of persecution or insecurity of the Jews in Europe or other places up until then (1890) and shown to be even worse in World War 2 by the Nazis under leader Adolf Hitler in the 1930s and early 1940s. This led to many Jews or Israelites immigrating to Israel then called Palestine by many but meaning then the traditional land of the Jews or Israelites rather than a land ruled by Arabs based on the remaning of the land of Israel by the Romans around 135 AD when they defeated the Jewish rebellion led by Simon Bar Kochba. Mr. Trump and his spokesperson said that the United States would not continue to practice extensive pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to make progress towards a Middle East peace particularly based on a two-state solution but would focus on encouraging Israeli and Palestinian leaders to meet and talk directly about what solution they could both agree on to manage the land and people in the Holy Land whether it is the two-state solution, the one-state solution or something else.
Apparently the solution that has long been favoured by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that I believe he continues to institute measures towards either in talks or in policy such as building of Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem or the West Bank is what is sometimes called, as in a BBC article called Israel-Palestinian conflict: UN warns Trump over two-state reversal dated February 16th, 2017, the "State-minus" solution. This proposal would provide Palestinian Arabs increased autonomy or self-rule in the West Bank etc. but without full statehood. This proposal would also allow Israel to have the right to maintain military positions by the Jordan Valley in order to discourage invasion from the East by Arab armies such as from Jordan, Iraq or Syria as happened in the Israel Arab wars in 1948 and I think in 1967 and 1973. This solution is not accepted by the Palestinian Arab leadership or I think most of their population. Other possible frameworks for Middle East peace include what are called in the same BBC article "Conferation" or sometimes called the "three-state solution". This solution would include a joint state with Israel or the Palestinian West Bank and perhaps part of Jerusalem with the current country of Jordan. There is still a significant part of the population of Jordan that are Palestinian refugees about 2/3 of the total population. Some of the earlier forms of a Middle East peace after the United Kingdom took possession of the Holy Land and some other Middle East lands after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire (based in what is now called Turkey) at the end of World War 1 in 1917 involved giving the Palestinian Arabs possession of what is now called the country of Jordan or what used to be called Trans-Jordan as their Arab state and the Jews all the Holy land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. This Conferation solution would be a modification of that plan and it could probably take different forms but would probably encourage more Palestinian Arabs to move to and live in Jordan or Trans-Jordan. This proposal has been mentioned from time to time but has not been supported by any of the parties involved in the talks. Another possible solution to the Middle East conflict, also mentioned in this BBC article, is the so-called Unilateral Withdrawal. This option involves unilateral withdrawal of the Israeli military and I think some of the Jewish settlers on Israeli terms from part of the West Bank especially from areas heavily populated by Palestinian Arabs. This would involve Israel dividing itself from most of the Palestinian people. This option apparently is based on the assumption that the current peace process would ultimately fail and doesn't have support from the world community.
Since the announcment by US president Donald Trump that he and his administration would distance themselves from only considering the two-state solution for the basis of a Middle East peace but would consider other options including a one-state solution or perhaps some modification of Netanyahu's preferred State-minus solution or something else there has been statements by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, French ambassador to the UN Francois Delattre and others have spoken out in favour of continued international support for the two-state solution as the basis of an eventual Middle East peace solution. However there is considerable support by US President Donald Trump and Israeli leader Netanyahu for extending a Middle East peace to involve a wider area and number of nations especially many of the other Sunni Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf state nations in an effort to make a wider peace with Israel and the Arabs or Muslim world but also to counter the considerable power of mostly Shiite and hostile led Iran in the region. It will be interesting to see what happens next. However I believe as a Bible-believing Christian that this new flexibility of the United States for the possible terms for a Middle East peace could hasten the basis of a Middle East peace agreement that would ultimately be confirmed by the coming world dictator the Antichrist or he who causes abomination or the beast out of the sea or man of sin mentioned in Daniel 9:27 and elsewhere in God's word the Holy Bible. Since, according to Daniel 9:27, it will be the success of the devil's man the Antichrist in making at least a false peace with Israel that will begin the 70th week of Daniel and the tribulation period immediately after the rapture or catching up to heaven of all the true Church or true Christians who have trusted in our heart in the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour I would encourage the reader to as soon as possible also trust in Jesus if you haven't already done so. Then you can immediately enter into a relationship with Him and God the Father, receive His forgiveness for all your sins, be assured of eternal blessedness including a home in heaven with God, Jesus, His saved people and His holy angels and become right away part of His heavenly people the Church but also be assured you will be taken to heaven at the rapture of the Church with Jesus and not be left behind to face the tyranny of the devil's man the Antichrist or the beast and the false prophet and all God's plagues of judgment on this world and be in more danger of everlasting separation from God and enduring His eternal wrath. All these latter terrible things are what we all deserve as sinners before a holy God but because this true God also has grace as well as love we can have eternal life and favour with Him through His Son Jesus Christ and His death on the cross for our sins after He came from heaven and lived a perfect life and then rose from the dead and returned in the form of a glorifed man but still perfect God to heaven.
As has been quite widely reported there was an event on the morning of Friday, July 14th, 2017 that set off Israeli-Arab and Jewish-Muslim tensions to the highest level in quite a few years. This was an incident that started when two or three Arab Muslim terrorists from northern Israel opened fire on some of the pedestrians near the Lion's Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. These couple Muslim terrorists were then chased for some distance in the Old City eventually up one of the entrances to the Temple Mount (that the Muslims called Haram Al Sharif or Al-Aqsa) where there was a shootout and two of the Jerusalem policement were killed and the Muslim terrorists were killed. (The Temple Mount is the holiest site in the world to the Jewish people as that was where their previous temples used to worship the true God the LORD or Yahweh or God the Father of the Bible stood that is Solomon's Temple and Zerubbabel's/Herod's Temple and where around 700 AD Muslims built the current Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome on the Rock which Muslims consider the third holiest site in Islam after mosques in Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia where their founder Mohammed lived.) Since the Israeli victory by God's grace in the Six Day War over the much more numerous Arabs in June 1967 there has been for most of that time an mode of operation of the Temple Mount called in the Holy Land the Status Quo. This involves overall Israeli control of the Temple Mount for security purposed but with day by day operations there mostly controlled by the Arab Islamic Waqf and their leader the Grand Mufti. Under this agreement Muslims are allowed to go up to the Temple Mount and pray or worship their god Allah but Jews are only allowed to up there to visit but not to pray especially out loud to the true God the LORD or Yahweh or God the Father or the Divine Trinity of Christian terms. Since 1994 the neighbouring nation of Jordan has been given the authority over the Temple Mount in daily operations through the Waqf and the Grand Mufti under the 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan.
That there were some murders of not just civilians but Israeli policemen on the Temple Mount was bound to enflame tentions between Jews and Arabs including so-called Palestinian (Arabs). The Israeli government and temple police responded by closing off the Temple Mount to everyone including all Muslims for the rest of Friday which is usually the day of the week when there are substantial number of Muslims there since Friday is the Muslim holy day of the week and there are usually Muslim preachers or imans giving Islamic messages in the Al-Aqsa mosque to a large audience of Muslims. There are also usually quite a few Muslims especially on Fridays on the court of the Temple Mount where they spend some time socializing but also some time praying to Mecca to their god Allah. So there was much resentment by Muslims, both in Israel and the wider Muslim world, when Israeli police closed the Temple Mount for the rest of that Friday. The Jerusalem including Temple police kept the Temple Mount closed for some of the rest of that weekend especially Saturday and installed some high-tech metal detectors called magnetometers and some further security cameras. The magnetometers were meant to detect guns or knives that some Muslim terrorists among the Muslim pilgrims that go up to the Temple Mount might try to smuggle up with them or by someone else for their use to carry out a terrorist incident against Jewish or other non-Muslim pilgrims on the Temple Mount. There was evidence that the Muslim terrorists who committed the terrorist incident could have had some guns already smuggled up to the Temple Mount before they came up there and hidden I think in the Al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount. There are also some charges that some members of the Arab Muslim security police of the Temple Mount called the Waqf (meaning endowment as in religious endowment or I think trust) were involved with getting some of the guns up to the Temple Mount and providing some of them to these terrorists. The Jerusalem police and some mostly Jewish technical workers did install some of these metal detectors and security cameras at the some of the gates used by Muslims to get up to the Temple Mount. On that weekend the Israeli Temple police also conducted a security sweep of the whole Temple Mount including the Al-Aqsa mosque and I believe found quite a few other weapons such as guns and knives in the mosque and some provocative or inciting message scripts. These weapons and perhaps the messages were confiscated by the Jerusalem police. (There were and are already metal detectors and I think security cameras on the entrance to the Temple Mount used by Jewish or Christian or other non-Muslim pilgrims which entrance is from the West of the Temple Mount and from the Western or Wailing Wall plaza. There are at least 8 other gates to the Temple Mount that only Muslims are allowed to enter the Temple Mount by and I think these metal detectors were installed at three of them. The other gates to Muslims were then to be closed to Muslims or perhaps anybody else forcing Muslims to go through the gates with the metal detectors. After the metal detectors were installed the Israeli police opened the Temple Mount again by the following Monday.
However since the metal detectors (and extra security cameras) were put up at the Muslim entrances to the Temple Mount the Muslim Grand Mufti instructed Muslim pilgrims to the Temple Mount not to go up to the Temple Mount so they won't have to go through the metal detectors put up by the Israeli Jerusalem police or technical people working for them. The Grand Mufti said apparently that if Muslims went up to the Temple Mount while the metal detectors were still there their prayers would not be heard by their god Allah. The Muslim authorities of both the Palestinian Authority and Jordan or elsewhere in the Muslim world have seen Israel putting up these metal detectors as a show of force or attempt of Israel to exert sovereignty over the Temple Mount at the expense of the Muslims. (The Muslim authorities probably don't emphasize to their people that the Muslim pilgrims don't have much to worry about if they are not carrying guns or knives up to the Temple Mount which was the reason the metal detectors were put in there by Israel in the first place.) The Muslims at the encouragement of the Grand Mufti have for the most part opted not to go up the Temple Mount including their Al Aqsa mosque since that time until the time of this writing (July 25th, 2017 about 1 1/2 weeks later.) None of the Waqf including the Grand Mufti has gone up again to the Temple Mount since Israel put the security cameras and metal detectors at the Muslim entrances to the Temple Mount instead gathering just outside the Temple Mount on pavement with their prayer mats to pray in protest. Meanwhile there was been more freedom for Jewish or other non-Muslim pilgrims who go up to the Temple Mount to be without the overzealous policing of Waqf guards who resent Jews going up to the Temple Mount especially if the Jews try to pray or show any other Jewish or Israeli religious or national observance to the true God of the Bible and the Jewish state of Israel (such as any display of the Israeli flag.) After some security cabinet meetings of Israeli top security politicians and due to intense Muslim and world power pressure Israel has backed down from these security measures and now taken the magnetometers and security cameras down but promised to put in other security measures such as high-tech electronic cameras but these have not been put up yet. This backing down of Israeli security leaders led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were against the objections of more devout and loyal to Israel or Zionist Jews to see their action as an act of betrayal and weakness or capitulation to the Muslims especially pressure to Muslim terrorists or incitement as from the Grand Mufti and King of Jordan King Abdullah and others with which devout Jews I as an evangelical Christian who supports the restoration of Israel or a dispensation Christian agree. (Zion is a term for Jerusalem in the Old Testament usually with a connotation of God's full blessing of restored Israel in the Millennial or Messianic Kingdom that as a biblical Christian I think will be after Messiah Jesus' second coming in glory at the end of the 7 year tribulation to set up God's Kingdom on Earth centred on Jerusalem and restored Israel and the temple that Jesus the Messiah will reign from from its holy of holies as King of kings and glorified true God on earth. The true Church and restored to God of the nations will also be on earth to enjoy Jesus' Millennial Kingdom reign and rule.) There had already been a growing movement of Jews or Israelites going up to the Temple Mount and a growing Messianic fervour partly led by different Temple restoration groups like The Temple Institute, The Temple Mount Faithful, The Israeli Temple Assocication or something like that and some Jewish youth for rebuilding the Temple and former Likud cabinet member Moshe Feiglin now leading a group called Zehut or Jewish Leadership, now politician Rabbi Yehuda Glick among others.
Although Israeli Prime Minister and other Israeli politicians deny that they or their government intend to change the Temple Mount status quo especially to demolish any Muslim mosques or structures on the Temple Mount or to build another Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount even in the open plaza where there are no mosques some of the more zealous to God or devout Jews make no secret that they not only don't want the Muslims on the Temple Mount but want the Jews or Israelites to take over the Temple Mount for the true God the God of the Bible and start the building of their Third Temple to God right away. Although I personally agree it is mostly a good thing that these dedicated Jews want to worship the true God more fully according to the Law of Moses God gave them that included the Levitical worship system in the Tabernacle or Temple with the animal sacrifices etc. to God I think because these Jews that don't accept Jesus as their Messiah or the New Testament as part of the word of God think that there will not be a tribulation against Israel particularly or that they and the world are already in it and that immediately next will come their Messiah and the Messianic Kingdom and the Messianic Temple as in Ezekiel 40-48, Isaiah 2, Zechariah 14, Amos 9:11-15 etc. However as a Bible believing Christian I believe we are just before the rapture of the true Church to heaven and the immediately following shift fully of the true God to restoring Israel including the Jews to Himself as His restored earthly or physical people in the 70th week of Daniel or the tribulation and second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of the tribulation. I believe the tribulation temple that will be built next and very, very soon on the Temple Mount and what all this action will first lead to will be by a covenant with the Satanic Antichrist and false Messiah with Israel that will probably achieve a false temporary Middle East and perhaps world peace but that will allow the Jews to build their third temple on the Temple Mount and worship the true God as in Old Testament days with the animal sacrifices to God in the Levitical priesthood system for the first 3 1/2 year half of the tribulation as mentioned in Daniel 9:27. I believe this allowed Jewish worship in the 1st half of the tribulation is also described in Revelation 11:1-2. The Temple Mount according to Revelation 11 will probably be shared by the Jews with the Muslims as the Muslims are probably the Gentiles in the outer court referred that trample the temple down in the first 42 months half of the tribulation.
Half way through the tribulation according to Daniel 9:27 and probably Revelation 11 to 13 the Antichrist takes over that Temple and enters there himself as the false Christ and world leader into its holy of holies (the holy place) and demands all people still left on earth worship him as God or be killed by his then secured world government. This is mentioned in Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15 and 2 Thessalonians 2 with the antichrist called he who causes abomination, and the man of sin respectively. At the end of the tribulation it will be only God in the divine person of the Lord Jesus Christ the true Messiah who will defeat the antichrist or beast out of the sea and his co-ruler the false prophet or beast out of the land and all his supporters against the true God and His true Messiah Jesus of Nazareth as in Revelation 19 and 20, Zechariah 14 or the last part of Daniel 9:27 of the consummation (fulfillment) when judgment is poured on the desolate (desolator the Antichrist) and everlasting rigteousness etc. is brought in as mentioned in Daniel 9:24. Since all the current events on the Temple Mount, Jerualem, Israel or the Middle East currently are in such as crisis and could be leading to the very soon start of all these prophetic events more specifically I would urge the reader if you haven't already done so to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ that He died for our sins on the cross or in Daniel 9 was cut off but not for Himself and that He rose the third day from the dead to give us new life and a restored personal relationship with God and God's eternal life and an eternal home with Him and His people the true Church and the believing remant of Israel and of the nations that came to God in Old Testament times or up to Jesus' death on the cross or in the tribulation and Millennial Kingdom and the the saved of the nations in those times. If you trust in Jesus in this way with your heart and will not just your head or intellectually you can also be assured of taking part in the rapture or catching up to heaven with the rest of the true Church and not be left behind on earth for in the tribulation as mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5 for instance for the time of God's wrath on the world.
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