When King Herod I remodeled the Jewish temple in hopes of creating an eternal legacy, flaunting Rome’s backing of his power in brash contradiction against any images in Judaism whatsoever and essentially throwing a finger at YHVH, he placed a golden eagle outside of the Temple of Jerusalem.
Clearly this was not the house of the God of Israel. It was an abomination – hybrid of monotheistic YHVH with the pagan Roman god-rulers.
And a major tourist attraction.
Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves… (Matthew 21:12-13)
And God will not be mocked.
“his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them…There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down….When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains…For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved…For wheresoever the carcase / dead body is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” (Matthew 24)
The eagle was absolutely THE emblem of Rome.
The disciples absolutely understood Yeshua haMashiach’s characterization of
- eagles gathering on a carcase
- as Roman soldiers swooping in on the spoils of war.
That exact eagle standard symbolizing Rome’s sovereignty and power over Israel was carried by the Roman army during the siege of Jerusalem and destruction of the Second Temple.
John reports that a third temple will be build, once again, by permission of Israel’s current political ally which provides military protection against attacks, procures concessions from hostile opponents, and promotes itself as the Savior from War and Securer of Peace. This no house of prayer, but another monument to hubris, another den of thieves raking in a fortune from tourism.
The Temple Mount, known in Hebrew as “Har HaBayit,” located in the Old City of Jerusalem, has a long and complex history, with significant religious and historical importance for each of the Abrahamic faiths.
- For Jews, the Temple Mount is where the First and Second Holy Temples, which were destroyed in ancient times, once stood, and it remains a focal point of Jewish liturgy and collective identity.
- For Muslims, Solomon’s temple mount is the first site toward which Muhammad and his followers directed prayers. According to later Islamic tradition, the Prophet Muhammad was taken on a miraculous Night Journey from Mecca – like the prophet Ezekiel – to the temple mount where he ascended to heaven in a vision to meet the biblical prophets. Subsequent to Moslem control of the precincts, Al-Aqsa Mosque was built and is considered one of the three holiest sites in Islam, called Haram al-Sharif / “The Noble Sanctuary”.
- For Christians, the Temple Mount is central to Jesus’ ministry and future return.
Since the re-establishment of national Israel the religious struggle to control this building site has been one of the most politically sensitive areas globally.
During the 1967 Six-Day War Israeli forces captured the Old City of Jerusalem including the Temple Mount, from Jordan.
- As part of the peace settlement ending the Six-Day War, Israel maintained the Islamic Waqf, first established by Muslim military leader Saladin in 1187 CE, following his recapture of Jerusalem from the Christian Crusaders.
- The Waqf is responsible for day-to-day maintenance of the site and protection of the religious and cultural heritage of the site.
- Israel is responsible for security, which means that Israeli police patrol, monitor activity, grant or block access to the site.
- Jewish visitors are allowed to visit the Temple Mount but are not permitted to pray there, in order to avoid provoking interreligious conflict. Instead, Jews are allowed to pray at the adjacent Western Wall, considered the closest accessible site to the Holy of Holies.
Although all Israeli governments have maintained that there will be no changes to the status quo, Jewish groups and Israeli political leaders advocate for more Jewish access and control over the site, including increased Jewish visitation and prayers, while Muslim groups have protested against Israeli control.
In early April 2023 , as Jews celebrated Passover and Muslims marked Ramadan, tensions flared into riots at the holy site.
And to whom will Israel turn for resolution of the inevitable showdown?
- “the court which is without the temple [the Temple Mount]…is given unto the Gentiles:
- and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months [1,240 days].” (Revelation 11:1-2)
These are two separate circumstances.
- The temple court / Temple Mount is under the control of the Gentiles for an indeterminant length of time.
- A direct result of the unholy alliance with the Gentiles is that they will, as always, break the alliance, and overrun the entire metropolis with soldiers: “Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours…There shall no man be able to stand before you…the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon” (Deuteronomy 11:24-25)for a specific period of time – the last 3 1/2 years of Daniel’s prophesied 70 weeks of tribulation on Israel.
“Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not….For there shall arise false Christs…Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold! he is in the desert;
go not forth:
behold! he is in the secret chambers;
believe it not…
For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” (Matthew 24:28)
Jesus’ disciples knew exactly what Jesus meant by the eagles gathered together on dead bodies.
The eagle sigil hasn’t changed since 104 BC when it became Rome’s religious and patriotic symbol of military might and prowess, instilling fear in Rome’s enemies and pride in Rome’s patriots.
America intentionally connected itself with Roman heritage when it made the eagle its sigil upon its creation as a nation. The Founding Fathers of the United States were well-versed in the classics, and they drew upon the Roman Republic as a model for the newly formed United States of America. Many of the principles of the US Constitution, such as federalism, the separation of powers, and Checks and Balances, are directly inspired by the Roman Republic. In addition, the symbols of the US government, such as the eagle and the Laurel wreath, also have their origins in Ancient Rome.
Since President Harry Truman decided to recognize Israel eleven minutes after its declaration of independence, the United States and Israel have had a special relationship, which has evolved over time into a web of military, economic, academic, bureaucratic and personal connections at the local, state and federal levels.
Why is the US unequivocal in its support for Israel?
The Middle East, with its oil reserves and strategic waterways (think the Suez Canal) is a key battleground for superpower hegemonic influence. The US is struggling to remain the primary power broker in the Middle East nations against incursions by Eastern powers Russia and Turkey.
Israel and the United States signed a secret memorandum of understanding in 1965 that marked the beginning of the strategic alliance with the United States…in 1968…the sale of Phantom jets to Israel…established the United States as Israel’s principal arms supplier. It also marked the beginning of the U.S. policy to give Israel a qualitative military edge (QME) over its neighbors.
The Israelis wisely played up their capability to deter the Soviet Union…They began to reap the benefits of this approach on November 31, 1981, when the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) termed “strategic cooperation…”or the first time, Israel was formally recognized as a strategic ally…
And the American President is the Personification of the political Hybrid / Abomination that makes Desolate.
The strategic cooperation agreements…shifted at least part of the focus of relations with Israel from Congress to the Executive Branch.
In 1989, the United States accepted an Israeli invitation to establish munitions stockpiles in Israel for use by the United States…missiles, armored vehicles, and artillery ammunition…
By the end of Reagan’s term, the U.S. had prepositioned equipment in Israel, regularly held joint training exercises, began co-development of the Arrow Anti-Tactical Ballistic Missileand was engaged in a host of other cooperative military endeavors.
Today, these strategic ties are stronger than ever…
In September 2016, the two governments signed a new ten-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on military aid covering FY2019 to FY2028…the MOU provides Israel with a record $38 billion in military aid …grants plus $5 billion in missile defense appropriations…pledges to request $500 million in annual combined funding for joint U.S.-Israeli missile defense programs…
in May 2017…the Trump administration announced it was adding an additional $75 million to the MOU signed in September 2016 for Israel’s missile defense programs…
U.S. General Joseph Votel, the head of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), made an official visit to Israel for meetings with defense officials in late April 2018. This was the first time that a head of CENTCOM had ever visited Israel on official business…
Congress passed the annual National Defense Authorization Act in December 2020…includes $3.3 billion in security assistance to Israel, and $500 million for U.S.-Israel missile defense cooperation…New in this year’s bill is the…permitting of the president to exceed the current limitation of $200 million on the transfer of PGMs in non-emergency situations.
In first, US establishes permanent military base in Israel
For the first time in history, the United States on Monday established an official, permanent military base in Israel…
Brig. Gen. Tzvika Haimovitch, head of the IAF’s Aerial Defense Command, announced the establishment of the installation on Monday evening.
“It’s nothing short of historic,” he said…US military forces are routinely based in Israel, both for joint exercises and for routine cooperation with the IDF, but Haimovitch described the new base as a meaningful change.
“We established an American base in the State of Israel, in the Israel Defense Forces, for the first time, with an American flag,” he said.
“when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors…” (Matthew 24:32-36)
“Therefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
That would be Israel’s Knesset.
Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us…
That would be Israel’s reliance on the American military-industrial complex to save them.
American military spending dwarfs the rest of the world put together.
Still not enough to combat the Singularity Source Of All Energy.
Therefore thus saith the LORD God, Behold, I lay in Zion – NOT WASHINGTON – for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation – SECURITY – : he that believeth shall not make haste.
Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet / The angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. (Revelation 11:1)
and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report…Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong:
for I have heard from the LORD God of hosts a consumption / utterly consumed, devastation, even determined upon the whole earth. ” (Isaiah 28:14-22)
So with Israel attacking Gaza for a second week, United States President Joe Biden and his administration are sticking to a long-established script in Washington, expressing unequivocal support for Israel and its “legitimate right to defend itself” from Hamas rocket attacks.
Meanwhile, as of February 29, 2024, “Israel’s war against Hamas has created a humanitarian catastrophe throughout the Gaza Strip and devastation in northern areas like Gaza City, which are largely cut off from the rest of the territory with little aid entering. More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 70,000 wounded in the Gaza Strip since the Israel’s war on Hamas began nearly five months ago, health officials in the territory said.”
Every nation that befriended Israel did so for the purpose of getting a land base in the center of the civilized world for its own benefit, not Israel’s, and will invariably sacrifice Israel to their joint enemies in the classic strategy “the enemy of my friend is my friend…when they offer better benefits.”
In our industrial age, oil is the biggest spoils of war.
“Of course it’s about oil; we can’t really deny that,” said Gen. John Abizaid, former head of U.S. Central Command and Military Operations in Iraq, in 2007. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan agreed, writing in his memoir, “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.” Then-Sen. and now Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the same in 2007: “People say we’re not fighting for oil. Of course we are.”
For the first time in about 30 years, Western oil companies are exploring for and producing oil in Iraq from some of the world’s largest oil fields and reaping enormous profit.
Earlier on Monday, the US army deployed fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the vicinity of the base for security.
The new base will be the fourth American base in the governorate, and the ninth in eastern Syria.
When push comes to shove, who will America back – Arab nations for oil or Israel for political support by America’s religious right?
Israel is invariably betrayed by the Gentile empires with whom they make alliances for protection – Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Rome. This doesn’t change for the current iteration of the last Empire upon which Israel depends for security.
Review America’s abandonment of Christians to the Turkish Moslems after WWI for a preview.
Asa Jennings was a failed small-town Methodist minister from upstate New York working for the YMCA in Smyrna, Turkey, in 1922, when he saved a quarter of a million Christians from perishing in a brutal final chapter of the Armenian Genocide.
“A private individual, a guy without portfolio, who held a minor position in the YMCA, came forward and put together this astonishing rescue…”
Smyrna, known today as Izmir, had been a cosmopolitan port under Greek rule…But after Turkish armed forces defeated the Greeks in September 1922, they began a religious cleansing, with executions and arrests sparking mob violence, rape, and pillage.
In a frantic effort to escape, hundreds of thousands of terrified Christians fled to the quay along the harbor in hopes of finding safe passage. The Turks responded by lighting the city on fire. “A half a million people, packed into a narrow strip of pavement, maybe a mile and a half, two miles long, as a giant fire comes at them, basically pushing them into the sea…”
Jennings, a short, mild-mannered fellow with back problems, had managed to get his family on a ship out with other Americans, but he stayed behind in an effort to help several thousand refugees in safe houses along the quay. Horrified by what he saw, he first bribed an Italian ship captain to spirit away the people from the safe houses. Then he hatched an even bigger plan, securing a flotilla of empty Greek merchant ships to save thousands more…
beyond protecting its own citizens, the US government, with growing commercial ties to Turkey [and hopes for buffer against Russia to the north], was unwilling to get involved…America’s top officer in the region, Admiral Mark Bristol, played tennis outside Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) as Smyrna burned.
You can’t seriously believe that the American government acts on a biblical promise to be blessed for blessing Israel. The bottom line is always about money and power.
Kingdom Come 