The Growing Dispute Over Jerusalem’s Temple Mount

August 3, 2006
By Gary Lane
CBN News - International

CBNNews.com –- JERUSALEM -- The Bible says it's a city chosen by God, the place where He put His name, where King David reigned and his son Solomon built the first temple.

Photo: The Western Wall or simply The Kotel, is a retaining wall in Jerusalem that dates from the time of the Jewish Second Temple. Herod the Great built vast retaining walls around Mount Moriah, expanding the small, quasi-natural plateau on which the First and Second Temples stood into the wide open spaces of the Temple Mount seen today.

In recent centuries, Jews were allowed little or no access to the site when the Turks ruled over it for 400 years (1515-1917), followed by the British Mandate of Palestine (1917-1948) and the Jordanian rule (1948-1967). Only when the Israel Defense Forces won a victory in the 1967 Six Day War were Jews finally able to gain free access to the site.

It's the most sacred city in the world for Christians and Jews, the third holiest in the Islamic faith.

Tens of thousands of Christians make pilgrimage there each year to walk the streets where Jesus once walked, to see where He was crucified and the tomb where He rose from the dead.

For Jews, the Wailing Wall is sacred. They come to Jerusalem from throughout Israel and around the world to pray at the last remnant of the second temple, a temple destroyed by the Romans in 72 A.D.

Muslims conquered Jerusalem in 637, and shortly thereafter, built the Dome of the Rock shrine on the Temple Mount. They believe a rock located beneath the center of the Dome is the spot where Mohammed ascended into heaven.

Muslims once faced in the direction of Jerusalem when they prayed. They now face toward Mecca -- the place of the annual Haj, the location of the Kabbah -- the sacred altar where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son.

Photo: Dome of the Rock with Mt. of Olives. The Mt. of Olives overlooks the Temple Mount from the east and gives a picture of Jesus' weeping over the city from the Mt. of Olives (Luke 19:41). From the Temple Mount Jesus delivered the famous "7 Woes" against the Pharisees (Matt 23), probably pointing at tombs on the Mt. of Olives in his discourse (v. 27). Jesus' ascension probably took place some distance behind the tower of the Russian Orthodox Church. Built atop the earlier location of the Temple, the Dome of the Rock was erected by the Muslim ruler Abd el-Malik in 688-691. Because of its situation on bedrock, the numerous earthquakes over the centuries have not caused significant damage to the structure (unlike its neighbor Al Aqsa mosque). This shrine was covered by a lead dome from 691 until it was replaced with a gold-colored covering in 1965. Because of rust, the anodized aluminum cover was again replaced in 1993 with a gold covering.

But some Jews and Christians believe that the event may have taken place somewhere near Jerusalem's Temple Mount on Mount Moriah.

Contention over the past and future status of the Temple Mount could potentially lead to a more explosive war in the Middle East, this time over Jerusalem. A group called the Temple Mount Faithful wants to rebuild the temple in the area.

But Muslims worship on the Temple Mount at the al-Aqsa Mosque. They insist that Solomon's Temple was not located here, and Jews have no right to the area.

Photo: More important to the Muslims than the Dome of the Rock is Al Aqsa Mosque. Believing that this is the place referred to in the Koran as "al aqsa" (the furthermost), Muslims have sanctified this as the third most holy place in the Muslim world (after shrines in Mecca and Medina, both in Saudi Arabia). The original mosque was built in 715 but it has been destroyed numerous times by earthquakes.

Jews say Muslims have conducted unauthorized excavations beneath the mosque, digs that are intentionally destroying temple artifacts and exterminating evidence of Jewish history in Jerusalem.

Enter author Joel Rosenberg and his newest novel The Copper Scroll. It's a book based on the true discovery in 1956 of another Dead Sea Scroll. This scroll reveals how billions of dollars of undiscovered treasures remain hidden in the Judean hills and beneath the city of Jerusalem itself.

Rosenberg's book comes at a time when Israel is fighting for its survival, and when a nuclear- ambitious Iran declares that Israel should be wiped off the map.

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