Hi John & All:
In regards to TJ's post of April 5th, 2008 --
David Haggith is quoted from his book as follows:
Rebuilding such a temple today would certainly result in world war, as it would require tearing down the third most holy mosque in Islam, which now sits on the temple site. Insisting that the temple must be rebuilt for the Antichrist to arise there is probably reading Paul's words too literally.
My response is that if we are not to interpret the Bible literally -- then how are we supposed to interpret it? Keep in mind this was the same thing which was said after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 A.D. During the centuries which followed, many so-called Christians (including the Reformers) took the stance that the Jews were not going to return to the land -- despite all the promises of God that said it would happen. The popular catch-phrase for nearly 20 centuries was -- "You are taking the Word of God too literally in your belief that the Jews will physically return to their homeland. God did not mean that He would literally bring the ethnic Jews back to the land."
Until it happened of course, on May 14th, 1948.
If that wasn't bad enough, the recapture of Jerusalem on June
7th, 1967, must have been a real slap in the face to those people who didn't take the Word of the Living God literally.
By the way -- a few interesting tid-bits on David Haggith:
He does not believe in the Rapture.
He is neither Pre-Trib, Mid-Trib or Post-Trib as we define them. But on the other hand states that any believers who manage to survive until Jesus Christ returns at His Second Coming, will simply fly over (he doesn't specify how) to meet Him after He lands at the Mount of Olives.
The Jewish people have no special covenant with God.
He contends that the promises God made to Abraham in Genesis, were not to the descendants of Abraham through Isaac -- but rather are for the Gentile nations of the world. The same applies to the other promises throughout the Old Testament.
The Jewish people are irrelevant to the end-times.
The author states that the return of the Jews to the land of Israel is not a sign of the end-times, and it is not a fulfilment of the promises of God to them. He rather puts forth the unbiblical notion that it was the Jewish lust to return to the land which God allowed to happen to teach them a hard lesson. He says the land was in fact captured by Zionist Guerillas. Further according to Haggith, the fact the Jews surrendered the Temple Mount
and have problems today is proof God did not make any such promises to them of returning to the land.
I will make one statement in closing and leave it at that: Mr. Haggith is close to being anti-Semitic, and given his feelings towards the Jews it doesn't surprise me to discover he doesn't believe in the rebuilding of the Temple.
His interpretation of the Bible isn't based on Holy Spirit inspired faith -- but at his own level of twisted intellectualism.
See ya in the air,
Eric