Temple Mount History
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The first mention of Mount Moriah (Wikipedia) is in Genesis 22. God directed Abraham to go to Mount Moriah, where he was to sacrifice his son Isaac on an altar. This special hill eventually became the foundation for the Temple Mount.
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Jewish oral traditions identify Mount Moriah as the base for a gateway to heaven, because this is where a stairway from heaven reaches earth in Jacob's dream Genesis 28:10-22. After Jacob realized the significance of this holy place, he vowed that it should be dedicated to worshiping God.
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God told King David (Wikipedia) to build an altar on Mount Moriah and to make a burnt offering. David offered sacrifices and repented from his sin of not fully trusting in God's ability to help him manage a crisis with the people of Israel, 2 Samuel 24:18-25 and 1 Chronicles 21:18-30. King David was then inspired to build a temple at this altar after God miraculously acknowledged his prayers and offerings. He initiated the building project but left the task of completing it to his son Solomon 1 Chronicles 22 and 1 Chronicles 28.
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At about 960 BC, King Solomon (Wikipedia), King David's tenth son (Wikipedia), builds the First Temple (Wikipedia) at the site of King David's altar. Salomon built the Temple according to the inspired blueprints that David gave him, 2 Chronicles 3 and 1 Kings 6. The first Temple took seven years to complete.
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King Solomon moved the Ark of the Covenant into the Holy of Holies in the new Temple 1 Kings 8:1-9. The Holy of Holies (Wikipedia) was the innermost sanctuary of the Temple, a 30-foot cube platted with gold. In the center of the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant (Wikipedia), a gold-plated acacia wood chest built to preserve the two stone tablets etched with the 10 Commandments given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai Deuteronomy 10:1-5. The first set in Exodus 32:15-16 and the final preserved set in Exodus 34:28. The Ten Commandments, Exodus 20:1-17, are the terms of the covenant God made with Moses and the Israelites hence: Ark of the Covenant.
Ark of the Covenant - Temple Institute Reproduction -
God's glorious presence filled the Holy of Holies in King Solomon's Temple at its dedication during the feast of Sukkot 1 Kings 8:10-11.
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God warned the Kings of Judah over several generations to repent from their wicked ways or see Jerusalem and the Temple destroyed: Micah 3:12, Jeremiah 7:14, Jeremiah 26:4-6, and finally to King Zedekiah in Jeremiah 34:2. But the evil kings would not listen, and even killed the prophets for warning them Jeremiah 26:20-23. Finally, God used the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar II (Wikipedia), to execute his judgment over Judah and terminate its kingdom (Wikipedia) In July 586 BC, the Babylonian armies destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple, and even took the Judaen people into captivity.
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On August 29, 520 BC, the prophet Haggai started receiving messages from God indicating that the time had come for the Israelites to rebuild the destroyed Temple, Haggai 1. Haggai's prophesies resonated with Zerubbabel (Wikipedia) and many other Israelites returning from Babylonian captivity. They obeyed God's command and started to build the Second Temple (Wikipedia) on top of the ruins of the First Temple. First, they restored the altar and resumed the sacrifices to God during the Sukkot festival, Ezra 3. The Second Temple's remaining construction was completed in 516 BC, 70 years after the destruction of the First Temple, just as prophesied in Jeremiah 25:11-12 and Daniel 9:2.
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King Herod greatly expanded the temple mount area and renovated the lackluster Second Temple to a magnific structure in 19 BC.
The Temple - Herod's Crowning Glory -
God's human presence Jesus entered the Herodian Temple many times Luke 19:47-48. He taught the people about God's word with authority, as they had never heard before. Jesus also drove the temple merchants and their animals out of the outer courts. First at the beginning of his ministry in John 2:14-17 and then again at the end in Mark 11:15-19.
The Second / Herod's Temple - Temple Institute Model -
The Romans destroyed (Wikipedia) the Second Temple in August 70 AD, as prophesied by Jesus in Matthew 24:1-2 and Mark 13:1-2. The reason for the destruction this time was because the Israelites refused to recognize Jesus's presence as God in human form right before them Luke 19:41-44 and repent Luke 11:41-44.
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The Dome of the Rock as we see it today was built by Muslim conquers around 692 AD, on top of the ruins of the Second Temple. That was no coincidence. It is an Islamic custom to build mosques on the sites of other people's holy places. One of the dome's ornate inscriptions declares:
He is God. He is One. He has no companion. He does not Beget. He is not begotten
, thus proclaiming Islam's disbelief in the Trinity of God, Qur’an 112:1-3 and that Jesus was God's son Qur’an 9:31. Muslim control over the Temple Mount fulfills Jesus' prophetic statement that in the end times, the Gentiles will trample on Jerusalem until their time is up Luke 21:24 -
Satan's human presence The Antichrist will enter the Temple and replace God's designated ceremony of burnt offerings at the altar with abominable and satanic acts of desecration, Daniel 11:31. Jesus confirms Daniel's prophesy in Matthew 24:15. The exact time when this will happen is unknown. However, Daniel 9:27 mentions a relative time of three and a half years. The ceremony of daily burnt offerings will start after the Third Temple has been built, sometime in the future. Then, suddenly the sacrifices will be halted after three and half years, in the middle of a seven-year peace treaty mentioned in the same prophecy. Note: The Jewish Week-Year cycle (Shmita) is seven years, analogous in concept to a decade enumerating ten years.
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God's glorious presence once again fills the Millennial Temple (Revere Music) in Ezekiel's end-time vision: Ezekiel 43:4-5 and Ezekiel 44:4. Ezekiel chapters 40-48 describe the Millennial Temple in great detail. People from all nations will come to the Temple in Jerusalem to worship God, Micah 4:1-2 and Zechariah 8:20-23.
The Third Temple: A 3D Introduction to Ezekiel's Vision