Temple Preparations

This blog takes a virtual tour to Jerusalem and Temple Mount to explore the possibility of a soon temple rebuild. The prophetic timeline would allow this to begin as early as January of 2026.

Tabernacles Week

This past week has been Tabernacles Week. As is our custom, Ryan and I generally stop regular work for this week. We often travel, but this year we stayed home. We have been meeting in the shop and doing daily lots. We have been having long conversations about the project. Not much other regular work is going on. Shop work this week has been minimal, continuing to run Script Exhibit and Ladder Exhibit parts. Normal work should return next week. My foot is healed enough that I am walking around, though slowly. I am off crutches.

I wanted to do something special for this week's blog, something like a holiday break. I have been thinking about the way the timeline is suggesting a possible Temple rebuilding starting in early 2026. I also kept thinking about a video in last week's blog dealing with digs between Temple Mount and the City of David. There was more information in that video than I had noticed last week. I also wondered, perhaps there are other similar videos that might suggest Israel is getting ready to rebuild the temple?

So I went looking for more. What follows is a virtual Tabernacles Holiday trip to Jerusalem to help understand the situation at Temple Mount.

Possible Replays

Remember, of course, that the first temple, of Solomon's day, has a possible, timed, prophetic replay. But, so too does the 2nd temple, of Ezra's day. That is not all, Herod's temple of Joshua's day, also has a theoretical time where we might also see a prophetic replay.

Nothing about any of those theoretical replay dates demands any sort of headlines. So I am not trying to specifically nail down which prophetic dates are driving what is happening in Israel.

I will be calling those dates out as we go along over the next few years. They are on a roughly 500 day cycle. If that cycle actually starts and then continues, we may also see prophetic replays of Hagia Sophia in Turkey, Saint Sophia in Kiev, Saint Peters in Rome and then possibly even another replay in Romania. If we can find the start of the replay series in 2026, we have years of temple headlines still to come.

Nothing of the timeline demands these replays. So at this point looking at this is speculative. But there are various references in the text dealing with an end-times temple, and it would make sense if that temple work landed on the various dates related to the anniversaries of Joshua's life.

World War II Related Dates

But, besides this detailed day-by-day timeline, there is also the macro level timeline of history itself. World War II was a replay of the darkest parts of Passion Week. We've currently been living "in the tomb." Resurrection Sunday should also be expected to replay in our era too, as the natural follow-on to World War II. Those resurrection stories begin near Jerusalem and then spread out. So again, we may see Jerusalem related headlines when we get to that point.

Lets Go To Jerusalem

What follows are a collection of video links that tell parts of the story. Think of me as your tour planner. There are individual guides given below who will take us through specific areas of the city.

Circling the Wall

I have been to Jerusalem myself. I was sent to Israel on a business trip in early 1997. I spent a long weekend at Jerusalem at the end of that trip. I did have a rental car and was more mobile than most tourists. Though, I was busy at work up in Haifa most of the time I was there. I raced around Jerusalem for 3 days before heading home.

Some of the places listed below I have actually visited. Much has changed on the ground. There are substantially more digs, and there have been many more discoveries over the past 30 or so years.

So imagine you've just landed at Ben Gurion airport. You have ridden up to Jerusalem in your hotel's airport shuttle. You are barely over your jet lag. You want to get out of your hotel and see a few sights. Where to start?

The Old City of Jerusalem is a very good place to do that. Your hotel is likely in the newer parts of the city, west of the Old City and Temple Mount. What better way to get familiar than to walk around the old city walls?

Tour of Jerusalem's Gates, Pt. 1

Tour of Jerusalem's Gates, Pt. 2

The links here are to a 2 part video pair that takes a walking tour around the outer wall of the Old City of Jerusalem.

The first video starts at the New Gate on the west side of the city. This is were modern Jerusalem meets the old city. Your hotel would likely be to the west, in the modern city somewhere. You probably took a cab or perhaps even walked over to the New Gate in order to start you tour.

There are interesting places inside the Old City, in particular certain churches that mark the locations of New Testament events. Some of those places are disputable. Instead, for this trip, we're going to skip the various trinket shops that fill the Old City itself. We are going to start by walking around the outside, learning the gates of the city. Like any ancient conqueror might have also circled the city.

In the first video above the focus is on the north and then east sides of the Old City of Jerusalem. One landmark from this video, which we will return to below, is the Garden Tomb itself near the bus station. This is an alternative location for the site of the crucifixion. It is were there was some below ground digging that we will return to below.

This 2 part video above breaks at the East Gate, or Golden Gate, which is sealed to prevent any access by any Messiah.

Once the tour continues in part 2, pay attention to the various archaeological digs along the south side of the city wall, which is also the south side of Temple Mount. We will return to those digs in videos below.

Also, pay careful attention to the Western Wall. That wall is inside the Dung Gate and normally accessed from the south. Our local guide does not spend much time there, instead he cuts in a few other video clips of that location along the ancient wall. We will return to that courtyard in a video below.

This tour ends after about 2 miles of walking, at the Tower of David museum. That museum is where a poster came from that inspired what is now the Script exhibit, currently getting fabricated in the shop.

At the time I visited that museum, and in the gift shop near the exit, I saw a poster that I just had to have. I had no idea it would become central to so much future work. To keep it from being damaged, I left it in the plastic tube that it came in, and carried it home in my hands, even on the plane, half way around the world.

By now, you have already spent a day at Jerusalem. Time for a meal, maybe some trinket shopping in Old City, and then returning to your hotel for a good night's sleep before another day of adventure.

Scale Map

For the start of day 2, we need to understand ancient Jerusalem. The city has a long and rich history. Few cities are like it anywhere else in the world. The city walls that stand there today are from the 1600s. We want to go back much further in time, to around 3000 years ago, to the time of Solomon.

The video linked above is a tour group going over to visit a famous 50 to 1 scale model of Jerusalem. That model depicts the city as it stood about 2000 years ago.

When I visited Jerusalem myself, that model was located near the hotel. As explained in the video, it was moved to its current location and given a bigger home, with room for larger groups to visit. With the Gaza war, most tourist sites are mostly empty, as here. So there are not many people interfering with our study of that model of the ancient city.

This is good because this is a very important place to visit when trying to understand especially ancient Jerusalem. At this scale it is like looking down from the sky on the place where the New Testament was written.

This tour of the scale model also includes likely places in the city where New Testament events may have happened. This is discussed with a level of certainty that is a common trap. The first video above, of the walking tour, gave the location for the garden tomb, near the bus station, north of the city walls. This is different than the traditional locations as given on the scale model map. This is an example where historical truth remains disputable.

This video includes various animations that are cut into the story about Jerusalem. Be sure you understand those animations. In particular, for all ancient cities, you want to know where it got water. In this case by aqueducts from the south ultimately from areas near Bethlehem. It also got water from a spring near the city of David, itself south of Temple Mount.

The ancient city of David was much smaller than even the ancient city of Jerusalem. It stretched south of modern Temple Mount. This would be the location of Jebus when this was just a Jebusite city. This area had its own water supply, long before Roman era aqueducts. Pay attention to that area in the model. We will return to that area in a video below.

You also want to understand the Temple Mount area. Learn how it was expanded across history. The temple, now the Dome of the Rock, sat on the real, natural, solid, top of Mount Moriah. What today we might call a knoll. The platform of today's Temple Mount is hollow, mostly the roof of a vaulted area that expands out from the natural mount. The term "Solomon's Stables" applies to some of that area below the Temple Mount courtyard.

Animations in the video above explain this, but they do go by quickly. Pause and replay if you need to look at something more closely. We will return to more of that vaulting in a video below.

Anyone wanting to build a modern temple will need to know the below ground geology in order for the engineers to sign off on the design.

Those engineers will want proof that the building will not collapse because of voids or other unknown issues in the ground below the building. Because this area is built up, yet internally hollow, we can guess how ready the temple rebuild may be by studying how much of the Temple Mount area has been surveyed below ground. As I will show you below, those surveys look complete.

Atop Temple Mount

With a better understanding of Temple Mount, now we are ready to walk around on top of the structure itself. The video here is about 30 minutes of walking around and seeing the sites atop Temple Mount proper.

The 2 domes atop the mount are made out of Gold and Silver. The gold is like the sun, the silver is like the moon. Silver tarnishes, and turns black with time. You can see that in the video. It will get polished every so often and turn back to bright silver. Then it will again tarnish over time. Like the cycle of the moon. Gold always shines like the sun.

In the video above you can see the inside of the East Gate, or Golden Gate. You can learn some of the controversies there. Note that the Dome of the Rock is not the most important place to Muslims. But you can also start to imagine what trouble it will cause to rebuild the temple instead of the Dome of the Rock. Hints at plans given in videos below go well beyond the point where Muslims would complain.

You can also think about what areas may be hollow below and what areas may be solid. An above ground survey like this would certainly not be good enough for a modern building engineer to sign off on a building plan. He would want to know every inch below ground all the way down to solid bedrock.

Ophel Excavations

The link here is to a Youtube video covering details of digs in the Ophel area. This is immediately south of Temple Mount. In the walking tour that started this blog, you saw this area in part 2.

This is part of the general digging going on to understand the history of Temple Mount. In ancient times the main entrance was in this south wall. Pilgrims would have come up the hill from the south, from the Pool of Siloam, near the City of David, and then entered near this location.

There are a series of ancient ritual baths in this area that are being discovered. Along the way, these digs are finding several other layers of civilization above bedrock.

Though not on Temple Mount itself, the contour of bedrock is going to be key to understanding this mountain. These discussions are interesting in a general sense, but notice how reaching bedrock ends their work.

Inside Restricted Caves

I gave this link in last week's blog. There are many important and subtle clues in this video that I missed when I first watched it. Those details are what caused me to return and do this more complete blog.

Watching that video again, you now have the map. This video begins south of the road that is itself south of Temple Mount. Remember the walking tour, this video is starting at the deep excavations south of that road.

In this video, they travel further south, down to the pool of Siloam. That pool is way down the hill, near the bottom of the Kidron Valley in terms of elevation, and much farther south. This video has several high speed sections where they are moving down and south through excavated tunnels that are themselves on the ancient pilgrim path from the pool to the temple entrance.

If you pay attention you can hear the plan for reopening the pilgrimage route from the south, under the modern road, and then into restored entrances at the south wall of Temple Mount. They are speaking of it as the plan. This is not speculation.

At about the 32 minute mark they sit with the book that tells this story. They have followed the underground system north from that deep dig all the way to Mount Moriah up at Temple Mount. The whole area has been excavated in various ways. They understand the complete layout and are ready to rebuild the whole set of roads, gates and other systems.

This video strongly hints that excavation work is far enough along that the engineering work for a rebuilt temple may already be complete. They need to know the contour of bedrock in order to support a new building, that appears to be complete all the way in from the south.

Secrets Beneath The Plaza

The video linked here is a tour of the space below the plaza of the Western Wall. This was solid ground until 2020. When the world was shut down for Covid, the floor of this plaza was torn up. A concrete ceiling was poured at ground level and a new stone floor was built for the plaza.

This video makes me wonder about the real reason for Covid. The center of the political leaders of the world are working this mountain. Maybe they planned Covid for no other reason than to empty this space of daily use? I digress.

There is now a steal trap door in the middle of that repaved courtyard. It marks the top of an elevator shaft, like you might see on sidewalks in New York City.

Since 2020, an extensive dig has been carried out below that now fake ground level of the plaza. Some day, this excavated space will be opened as a tourist destination. But, what is going on now is the crews are digging down to find... All sorts of interesting stuff, but ultimately, bedrock.

I believe this work is part of the temple planning work. The engineers for the temple rebuild will want to know the contour of bedrock all across the mount. This is just 1 of those areas where we can see that work going on.

The eastern side of Temple Mount is at the edge of the top of the Kidron valley, so there is not that much possible area to explore under ground. What about north from Temple Mount?

Ron Wyatt's Ark Discoveries

I did not see any recent videos from below ground in the areas north of Temple Mount. I am linking here to an older video of Ron Wyatt's work doing digs north of the Old City walls. Wyatt would argue that he found the original ark and that it was located in a cave system near to the modern garden tomb area, itself near the bus station, north of the old city wall.

Wyatt had enough time digging in that area to at least show there is another underground cave system north of Temple Mount. Did he find the lost ark? I think so. The best evidence is his untimely demise. In any case, we can also trust there are enough caves off in that direction for engineers to understand the geology and bedrock contours going north from the mount. They should now have a complete picture of the underground rock structures. At least enough to be able to design the foundations for a new temple.

Red Heifer Controversy

Red Heifer Not Rehearsal

The links here are related to a July 1, 2025, burning of the Red Heifer. This is one of the non-engineering parts that is needed for rebuilding the temple. Both of these links spring from a Facebook post by Byron Stinson.

Stinson is the Zionist rancher from Texas who provided the Red Heifers to Israel for use in the Temple. The upper link provides a screen capture of Byron's Facebook post indicating the sacrifice was successfully done on July 1, 2025. They now have the needed ash for Temple related ceremonies.

The second link is to a Youtube video that gives commentary on why this is sufficient for use in the rebuilt temple. It also includes some interesting photos. This fire was not done on the Mount of Olives, as had been advertised to the public maybe a year ago. Instead it was done at a location where the mobile tabernacle tent was setup in more ancient times. This was good enough and out of the eyes of the city of Jerusalem.

The controversy surrounding the validity of the Red Heifer appears to exist only as cover, to give the people involved some plausible deniability that this part of the preparations are not yet done. This ash puts in place the key ceremonial need for the construction crews and priests as this work goes forward.

Building It Now

This final link is to something like a commercial where officials involved in this project are discussing the soon rebuilding of the temple. This includes a potential priest. This is dated after the Red Heifer of July 1, 2025, which may explain their excitement.

They are talking up the potential of seeing this very soon. In a weird sort of way I can understand their obvious excitement.

I would not expect such a large building to go up in a day. So the prophetic dates that may be informing this project are likely pointing at ceremonial or administrative decisions. They may start ceremonial activity before they start construction. Early dates, especially, may not be made publicly. I would guess they have a detailed plan.

The Arab world is not likely to be very happy, but only Iran can currently do anything about it. Iran is likely to see regime change here soon. The other ongoing wars around Israel appear designed to prevent opposition to temple related work.

Future Headlines

If Israel does pull this off, there are plenty of future headlines that may use all of these locations as a backdrop. By 2028 we may see some level of New Testament history repeating again in various ways at these locations.

There are many end-times passages that may be easier to explain once a rebuilt temple is in place. This strange project is very much likely to draw our attention over weeks, months and years to come.

Returning Home

On this virtual tour, we have been given access to many underground locations around the Temple Mount. You can see from the tone of some of these videos that there is real buzz from the people involved that this will be happening soon.

Hopefully, your plane tickets for home from Ben Gurion airport are still valid, and that airport remains open. You should be able to take your hotel's airport shuttle and still have enough time to catch your flight out.

Back home, and back to regular topics, next week.

Phil