The Coming Collapse
of Traditional Religious Foundations
By Ernest L. Martin, Ph.D., 1997
Edited by David Sielaff, May 2009
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The world is about to experience a new religious reformation that will happen before the Second Advent of Christ back to this earth. This worldwide reform in society will develop and flourish because the Holy Scriptures prophesy that a major change in people’s attitudes will occur which will allow the recorded teachings of ancient history and the revelation of the Word of God to be held in the highest esteem by people in the world. Soon will come an energetic revival of renewed interest in the Bible.
This prophesied revolution will radically alter our present religious foundations which have dominated western civilization for the past 1600 years. It will soon be realized that our contemporary religious roots are actually anchored in the bowels of paganism and within ancient Greek philosophy rather than in the simple and plain teachings of the Holy Scriptures that were given to us by the prophets and the apostles of Christ. It will soon be understood that our present societies within western civilization are not founded solely on biblical principles, but mainly on Hellenistic themes that were initiated and contrived by people who knew little about the actual doctrines of the Holy Scriptures. These facts will soon be known by all on earth.
This change in sentiment will not be achieved simply by human wishes or the desires of mankind itself. Mankind will have nothing to do with starting this outstanding revolution in thinking. The transformation will emerge because God in heaven will unleash upon mankind a spiritual renewal of His divine power. This will engender a profound response by the population of the world. This spiritual thrust will occur within the next twenty years or so. Few people understand this fact of prophecy, but it is plainly attested in the Holy Scriptures. It is time that people in the world begin to read and to appreciate these facts of the Scriptures.
Let us now look at the prime prediction that signalizes this coming collapse of traditional religious foundations. It is there for all to read in Zechariah 12:10 (and the following verses of Scripture through Zechariah 13:6). One should forget the fact that there is a chapter break in the original prophetic record simply because the King James translators divided the prophecy in an arbitrary manner for convenience of reading.
The actual prophecy, however, provides a united context with a contiguous account from Zechariah 12:10 to the end of Zechariah chapter 14. This is an essential prophecy about the End-Time which shows events that are destined to occur in the generation just before the Second Advent of Christ. Note clearly that Christ’s return to earth with His holy angels is recorded in Zechariah 14:4-Il. This is the section of Scripture which states that our Lord will return to the Mount of Olives — He will come back to the same mountain on which He was crucified, buried, and where He was resurrected from the dead. It is significant that it is to this same Mount of Olives that Christ will return to earth from heaven (Acts 1:1-12). This is what Zechariah 14 tells us will soon develop on earth. As for us at the present time, we are now within the countdown stage reaching forward to that glorious Second Advent which will usher in a period of peace and security in this world that will last a thousand years — a millennium of peace and tranquility will emerge on earth.
Look at Zechariah 12:10. It states in the clearest of terms: "And I [God] will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications [entreaties]: and they shall look upon me [says God] whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him [the one pierced], as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn."
This prophecy is to occur not only with those in the House of David (and other Jewish people mentioned in the following verses), but the mourning will reach out to embrace "the inhabitants of Jerusalem" no matter who they are in race, culture or religion. The whole population of Jerusalem will be given a spiritual rejuvenation of the highest magnitude which will result in people of that region being prompted to express a sincere repentance (a request to God for grace and forgiveness). They will then accept Jesus as the Messiah.
This spiritual outpouring from God (note that it will not come from the efforts of mankind), will result in a religious change of attitude. It will cause the inhabitants of that region of the earth to repent of their ways and begin to accept Christ Jesus as their savior and the savior of the world. What happens in Jerusalem will be reverberated around the world through television, the internet, and other modern media means of communication. This conversion is as certain of happening as the rising of tomorrow’s sun because it is embedded within one of the plainest prophetic discourses found within the pages of the Holy Scriptures.
This is not Ernest L. Martin prophesying what will happen (because I am no prophet). I am simply showing all of you what the Holy Scriptures prophesy. The prophecies are there for all in the world to read and to believe. There is no doubt that they will happen precisely as God states in the Bible.
When this particular prophecy is fulfilled it will result in Jerusalem becoming a much better place to live, with sin and uncleanness taken away and with people being in a repentant attitude (Zechariah 13:1). Not only that, the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Jews, Muslims and Christians) will banish idolatry from the region (verse 2). God will respond by getting rid of the evil spirits who had formerly been in the area and who caused such antagonism and hate to prevail in the region (verse 2).
False prophets will also be jettisoned from the vicinity (verses 3 to 6) and many of the former religious leaders (Rabbis, Priests, Preachers, Muslim Imams, etc.) will be shown to be false teachers. Such religious authorities will be held in utter contempt (see Malachi 2:9, a complementary scriptural reference). These ecclesiastical authorities will be so ashamed of their previous positions and teachings that led people astray that they will inform anyone who questions them that they were never ministers of the Gospel or Rabbis of the Jews or Imams of the Muslims. They will say that they have always been farmers or tillers of the soil (verses 4 to 6).
Once this new reformation in the Jerusalem society begins, it will be unpopular to state that a person was ever a former Minister of Religion, a Priest, Rabbi, or Imam. Such false teachers (as people will then recognize them to have been) will be out of a job and they will be held in disdain.
This is the time, just before the Second Advent of Christ, when people around the world will turn to God and to His ways in a mass movement which will have its origin with the outpouring of the spirit of grace and supplications on the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This repentance will be displayed by the media to all people on earth, who in turn will also come to a type of repentance. This is the refreshment and restoration that the apostle Peter spoke about in his sermon in Jerusalem. It will occur before the Kingdom of God is established on the earth (Acts 3:19-21).
The truth is, when the spirit of grace and supplications is given to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, it will result in the complete reexamination of what the biblical texts and the ancient historical records actually state. What a surprise the people will encounter when they begin to comprehend what the Holy Scriptures and history really show. They will discover that all of the essential information that humanity needs (to realize and to appreciate the truths of God) is that which is revealed in the Holy Scriptures. They will be upset when they witness these plain and simple truths of the Scriptures and compare them with the traditional nonsense that the ecclesiastical leaders of the Jews, the Christians, and Islam have been falsely presenting to the people up to now. The biblical truths will ring loud and clear.
What will be understood is the fact that the Rabbis of the Jews, the Christian ministers and Islamic Imams have been very ignorant of what the biblical and historical records state. Let me give you as an example of this regarding what the Bible states in Isaiah chapter 29 (prophetic truth that I recently discovered on my trip to Jerusalem).
People will soon begin to realize that the Jewish Rabbis, the Christian priests and ministers, and the Muslim Imams have not been telling the world the essential truths of the Holy Scriptures. Many have been teaching that the souls of men are immortal (and other associated nonsense), when the Bible teaches that only God has immortality (I Timothy 6:16). The Bible documents that mankind will only put on immortality when people (who are Christians) are resurrected from the dead at Christ’s Second Advent (I Corinthians chapter 15). And as for the Jewish and Islamic authorities, they are so ignorant of their own histories of Jerusalem that they do not know even where the Temples of Solomon and Zerubbabel were built in the city.
However, the location of those former Temples has been discovered. I have been pointing out over the past year that those original Temples were situated on the southeastern spur of the city of Jerusalem which all historians and archaeologists know to have been the first City of David. But the Jewish and Islamic authorities are unacquainted with the past history of Jerusalem. They are unknowledgeable that God spoke through Isaiah the prophet (in several places) of cutting down to the ground the very site of the City of David (called Mount Zion) and the Mount Ophel on which the original Temples were built by Solomon and Zerubbabel at the Gihon Spring.
The Jewish Rabbis and Islamic Imams are completely oblivious of these historical truths of the Bible and of history. Isaiah chapter 29 shows this. They do not realize that God ordered the cutting down of the City of David (Zion) and the Temple Mount (the Ophel summit). This happened in the time of Simon the Maccabee in the last part of the second century before Christ. The records of history and the Bible are as clear as crystal that such a destruction of those two mountains happened at that time.
God stated through Isaiah that He would cause all Israel to be blinded so that they would not understand what the main vision of Isaiah chapter 29 (and other associated prophecies) would be telling them. It was specifically prophesied that they would forget what Isaiah chapter 29 was all about. Indeed, if you search all the Jewish Talmud and their scriptural commentaries called Midrashim you will find a few references to the prophecy, but no detailed interpretations on its meaning.
They have truly forgotten what the prophecy is saying to Israel. Though all can read that the prophecy is about the complete destruction (by God himself) of Mount Zion (the City of David) and the Altar of Burnt Offering (called Ariel), the Jewish authorities are at a loss to understand when God accomplished this prophetic event in the history of Israel. They are completely ignorant of its fulfillment though the historical records are plainly revealed which show that God has accomplished His prophecies about the destruction of Mount Zion and the ruin of the mountain on which the original Temples stood.
Only at a later time (according to Isaiah 29) would God open the eyes and ears of Israel to understand what God meant in this vision about the destruction of Mount Zion and the Temple. God promised to take away the covering of blindness about these matters that He has placed over the eyes of the Jewish authorities and people on earth so that people will begin to understand these prophetic and historical matters (which the New Testament says will come about in clarity with the teachings of Jesus) (see Isaiah 25:5-8). That time has come.
It is a remarkable fact, when one reads the prophetic information recorded within the pivotal section of eleven chapters of Isaiah (25-35) and compare it with past historical events, it could easily fit the period of Simon the Hasmonean (or Maccabee) in a manner verging on precision. So close to the historical accounts is this long prophecy of Isaiah compared with events recorded in Maccabees, Josephus and the Dead Sea Scrolls regarding the period of Simon the Hasmonean, that one would be tempted to say those eleven chapters of Isaiah were even composed within the period of Simon.
This, however, was not the case, because among the Dead Sea Scrolls was discovered a complete manuscript of Isaiah that can be dated long before the time of Simon and it shows that these prophecies of Isaiah were predictions that were written much prior to Simon. On the other hand, the fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah about the destruction of Mount Zion and the original Temple mount in the time of Simon makes perfectly good sense.
Look first at Isaiah 29. It starts out by saying: "Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! Add ye year to year, let the feasts run their round" (verse 1, literal meaning). God stated that He would personally distress Ariel (a symbolic name of Jerusalem and the Altar of Burnt Offering in the Temple, or the Temple itself) when Israel was at peace and celebrating their feasts. God was going to place Jerusalem and the Temple upon the Altar of Burnt Offering (Jerusalem and the Temple would become an "Ariel") and God would destroy them like the altar fires consumed the sacrifices (verse 2).
The following verse shows God marshaling siege works and other destroying machines against the City of David and against Ariel (the Temple).
"And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit out of the ground [like a ghost out of the ground], and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust"
Isaiah 29:4
God then said:
"Moreover the multitude of your [Zion’s] strangers" [the Gentiles occupying the Citadel of the City of David and dominating the Temple] "shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones [then in Jerusalem] shall be as chaff that passes away: Yes, it shall be at an instant suddenly. Thou shall be visited of the YHWH of hosts with [1] thunder, and [2] with earthquake, and [3] great noise, with [4] storm and tempest, [5] the flame of devouring fire."
Isaiah 29:5-6
A major earthquake and other judgments would hit the very foundations of the City of David and Ariel (the Temple). This would happen at a peaceful time when all Israel would be celebrating their holy festivals at leisure.
Recall that Jerusalem is located in one of the most severe earthquake zones on earth. History attests to such devastating earthquakes striking the area from time to time. In the prophecies of Isaiah the initial phase of the predicted destruction of the City of David and the Temple is attributed to such an earthquake and the flame of a devouring fire (Isaiah 29:6).
Interestingly, there is a Psalm written by the "Teacher of Righteousness" of the Dead Sea Community that used the same type of judgmental language as that of Isaiah to describe (as an eyewitness) what was happening in Palestine at the very time of Simon. The Psalm describes in vivid detail an earthquake and a consequent fire that destroyed whole sections of the land in and around Jerusalem. The Psalm and Isaiah 29:6 dovetail in their themes in a remarkable way. I will record this Psalm of destruction in a new book I am writing (‘The Temples that Jerusalem Forgot") when I discuss the Dead Sea Scrolls.
What do these predictions in the Book of Isaiah denote? The prophecies said that the City of David and Ariel (the Temple) would be lowered in height and submerged to the very bedrock. So destroyed would the area become that if Gentile nations in the future would assemble their armies to attack the City of David and Ariel, the occasion would be like a hungry and thirsty man dreaming he is going to eat abundantly from the spoils of Zion, but when he gets to the geographical area of Jerusalem he wakes up and his armies find nothing left that could be plundered (verse 8). In short, at the former sites of the City of David and Ariel, God was going to cause an utter "emptiness" to exist (verse 8).
Simon the Hasmonean and the Jewish authorities in the late 2nd century BC could read these prophecies in Isaiah chapter 29. Indeed, the prophecies seemed to fit perfectly with their time because the Syrian Gentiles had been housed in the Citadel (the City of David) for some twenty years and they were constantly threatening the worshippers who tried to enter the Temple located alongside that City of David. But in Isaiah 29:5, God said he would make the strangers then located in the City of David become like small dust and chaff, and that God would destroy them from Zion (verse 5). And true enough, Simon successfully captured the City of David (acting as God’s High Priest with God’s children of Judah). He thoroughly expelled the Syrian Gentiles from the Citadel (Zion), never to return. This act fit the prophecy of Isaiah 29:5.
The rest of the prophecy in Isaiah said that the City of David (the same Citadel) was to be "brought down" to the ground and made to speak "low out of the ground" and to be like a graveyard of emptiness and uncleanness, an area from which demons would speak. From being a holy and sanctified place (holier than any other area on earth), the site was now prophesied to be demonized. And it became so.
As a matter of fact, at a later time the waters of the Gihon Spring became bitter to the taste and Arabs finally began to think the spring that emerged from underneath the former site of Jerusalem was truly inhabited by demons and evil spirits. They call it a place of "dragons."
This is precisely what Isaiah said would occur. Demons would
speak from underground regions at the former site of Jerusalem on the southeast
ridge. The once holy area was to become polluted and unclean with whispering
demons occupying the region. These prophetic scriptures would have given Simon
and the Jewish elders all the authority they needed to begin the final cutting
down of the City of David and the old Temple Mount to the very bedrock. This
demolition was not only to prevent Gentiles from once again inhabiting those
regions in Jerusalem, but also to remove the polluted sites for future holy
purposes. The Temple was then moved northward to the Dome of the Rock area. 1
Look now at the beginning of the long prophecy of eleven chapters in Isaiah (chapter 25). Notice verse two. The Jewish Targum shows this prophecy as a reference to Jerusalem. Isaiah said: "For you have made of a city an heap: of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built [or, "rebuilt"]" (Isaiah 25:2).This prophecy of Isaiah fits the time of Simon the Hasmonean perfectly.
The Syrian Gentiles were then (and had been for twenty years) occupying the City of David (the Citadel), but God stated in Isaiah that the palace of the foreigners shall be destroyed and "never be rebuilt." ‘You shall bring down the noise of the strangers [the foreigners]...the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low" (verse 5). And going on in verse 12: "And the fortress of the high fort of your walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust." This again is a prophecy of utter destruction of the fortress and the high fort of thy walls [of Jerusalem’s walls, not Moab’s]. This is a cutting down to bedrock. Simon would have understood this prophecy as justification for cutting down Jerusalem’s Citadel in which the Syrian Gentiles had taken refuge.
Then in the next chapter of Isaiah (chapter 26), Judah is finally provided with "a strong city" in which salvation will find a foothold within its walls and bulwarks (verse 1). This new "strong city" will emerge once the old City of David (Ariel) was cut down to the ground. Notice verse 5 (which is very similar in wording with Isaiah 25:12):
"For he [God] brings down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he lays it low; he lays it low, even to the ground; he brings it even to the dust."
Isaiah 26:5
Then in chapter 27 Isaiah states:
"He [God] makes all the stones of the altar [Ariel, the Altar of Burnt Offering in the former Temple] as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder [the Altar will be destroyed], the groves and images [once found in the Temple] shall not stand up. Yet the defenced city [the City of David and the Temple where the Altar is located] shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness."
Isaiah 27:9-10
So destroyed will become the City of David and the Temple Mount that cattle shall feed on the sites and consume every tree and branch in the area (verses 10 and 11). Then in chapter 32:
"Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city [the City of David]: because the palaces shall be forsaken [the Targum states: "the House of the Sanctuary shall be laid waste"]; the multitude of the city shall be left [abandoned]; the forts and towers [literally: the Ophel — the domed hill where the Temple stood over the Gihon Spring] shall be for dens [caves in the ground] forever [olam for the age], a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks."
Isaiah 32:13-14
Simon the Hasmonean (or Maccabee) could read these prophecies in Isaiah that God would cause the City of David to be leveled to the ground (to the very bedrock) and that the Ophel mount (or Temple site) would become a place where there were holes or caves in the ground, and where demons would whisper their voices. Indeed, there are even now in this region above the Gihon Spring several large caves. 2
Since the City of David and the Temple mount had been mined beyond repair by earthquake and fire (and had been so polluted by Antiochus Epiphanes and the Gentile armies he left in Jerusalem), Simon and the Jewish elders about 140 B.C. decided they had the prophetic authority to cut down further both the City of David and the Ophel to the bedrock — indeed, to below bedrock. It took the people of Jerusalem working three years day and night to cut down those elevated areas on the mountain spur that formerly was the original city of Jerusalem. This original area of the Akra and Ophel became known as the "Lower City."
But Simon also saw another part of the prophecy of Isaiah in these eleven chapters which gave a positive indication of what he and the Jewish elders should do once they had leveled to bedrock the former sites of Solomon’s and Zerubbabel’s Temples. They rebuilt the Temple. 3 In Isaiah 28 Simon was able to read:
"Therefore thus says the Lord YHWH, 'Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste [to fear]. Judgment also will I lay to the line [in building a new foundation for a Temple], and righteousness to the plummet [in building this Temple foundation]."
Isaiah 28:16-17
This was a prophecy of a new Temple in Jerusalem. 4
What is being described in this section of the prophecy is a new stone, a new foundation, a new Temple wherein will reside judgment and righteousness. Simon saw this new Temple as representing a new beginning for Israel. He believed that God had approved the removal of the old Temple. Simon and the Jerusalem elders had caused the "submergence" of the earlier Temple as the Book of Enoch described by the removal of the stones of the old Temple (that is, cutting it down to below the surface of the Temple and its foundations — bringing the whole area into a "submerged" state). And true enough, the geography of the southeast ridge has been in a "submerged" state ever sense. No longer is the region an elevated area. The original City of David and its mountain have been completely cut down. The Ophel on which the Temple was located over the Gihon Spring was also lowered to the ground. The whole of the original city on the southeast ridge was cut down to become "the Lower City."
Why have I been concentrating on the prophecy of Isaiah 29 (and adjacent prophecies) being made known at the end of the age? It is simply because it is the revelation of these long lost prophecies (which have been plainly written in the Holy Scriptures) that will cause the people of Jerusalem and in the world to return to reading and appreciating the Word of God. The revelation of these matters will be associated with the soon coming of God’s spirit of grace and supplications on the Jewish people and the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Zechariah 12:10). This is the very time that God says in Isaiah 29 that He will perform a marvelous work and a wonder that will cause people to understand the messages written in His divine book that have been closed and sealed from the understanding of men for centuries.
Thankfully, we are now entering that new era of understanding. The Holy Scriptures are destined to become clear and plain to people on the earth. This new information from the Scriptures will cause the collapse of our traditional religious foundations with which we have been accustomed. A time of knowledge and refreshment will appear on earth as the apostle Peter said it would (Acts 3:19-21).
People in the world will soon begin to realize just how ignorant the Jewish religious authorities have been over the matter of where the original Temples were built. They will also discover how ignorant the Christian scholars have been in trying to find where Christ was crucified and resurrected from the dead (which we now know was on the Mount of Olives). People will turn away from these so-called ecclesiastical authorities very soon, especially when people witness that they now authorize idolatry in their teachings.
I do not want to appear unduly critical of the efforts of Rabbis, Imams and Christian ministers to understand the past history of Jerusalem because it is clear that God has blinded the eyes of the Jewish, Islamic, and Christian authorities regarding the above historical facts. After all, I only began to see the problems involved in this issue some four years ago, in 1993. So, some conciliation should be given by me. It simply does not make sense to most reasonable people that the whole nation of Israel would forget the original location of their Holy Temples in Jerusalem, one of the great capital cities of the world amid the mainstream of civilized society throughout all recorded history. It appears unreasonable in human terms to believe that Israelites would ever forget where the original Temples were built.
Perhaps Professor George Adam Smith can sum up the primary problem that all historians have faced in this matter. Paraphrasing him in regard to his article concerning the Temple in the "Encyclopaedia Biblica," he stated that it was inconceivable to him and to all other scholars that the location of such a majestic and important building as the Holy Temple of God (revered and loved by all Israelites in the world since it was built by Solomon) could have been lost to their knowledge. That structure represented the very heart and soul of the nation of Israel. It made no difference if the people of Israel were righteous or heretical, religious or secular, young or old, man or woman, whether they lived within Israel or lived in the Diaspora far from the land of Israel that holy building was the very center of their lives and the prime focus of their spiritual existence. It was as important to them throughout all periods of their history and in all areas where they lived as our capitol building is to us in the United States. Indeed, their Temple was infinitely more important than our capitol building because of its supreme religious significance and the divine attachment that Israel had for that Holy Place.
It truly seems inconceivable to anyone with common sense that the few years of captivity within the Babylonian period, or the three years of desecration in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, or problems at any other periods of time when the Temples were not operating normally, would have allowed the whole nation of Israel (including every man, woman and child) TO FORGET where the original Temples had been located for almost 800 years of time. Indeed, the people of Israel have long said with the Psalmist:
"if I forget you, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning, If I do not remember you, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."
Psalm 137:5-6
But strange as it may seem, and though it is almost incredible to believe, THE WHOLE NATION did in fact FORGET! That’s right. All of them FORGOT — whether it be their scholars and educators, their leaders and elders, and it includes all their Rabbis combined. They all FORGOT. But wait a moment. Not only did all Israel FORGET, but all the peoples of the surrounding nations also forgot. All the Arabs and even later, all the peoples of Islam forgot. And too, all Christians in the world forgot In fact, everyone on earth (including me) forgot. And what is the outcome? Jews and Arabs are today fighting over places in Jerusalem whose locations are based on erroneous traditional conclusions and not upon solid historical facts. 5
One should wisely ask: Is there a purpose why God has let all people on earth decline into a state of ignorance over these matters? Why did God let Israel forget such a well known religious and significant site that was located in one of the most prominent and conspicuous centers of civilization throughout history since Abraham’s time? It was God who did it. We have the statements in Isaiah 29 that the prophecy of God about the full and complete destruction of the City of David and the Ophel on which the Temple stood would be closed up and sealed until a future time when God would once again reveal the truth about these matters. That time has now come to once again realize just what the original Jerusalem was like in the periods before Simon the Hasmonean. What we find is a Jerusalem that was different from what scholars and religious leaders believe today.
One of the main reasons why this FORGETFULNESS is perpetuated among both Jews and Arabs is the universal penchant for Jewish scholars to call Herod’s Temple the "Second Temple" — as though it was a mere adaptation of the same Temple that was built by Zerubbabel after the Babylonian Captivity. This is manifestly wrong. In fact, it could be reasonably argued that Herod’s Temple was the "Sixth Temple" from that of Solomon, NOT the "Second Temple." [Sixth Temple? Read my book on this subject to see clearly that Herod’s Temple was the Sixth Temple from Solomon.] 6
One of the reasons I have concentrated on this new prophetic information from Isaiah 29 in this Prophetic Report (which information I only discovered on my recent trip to Jerusalem) is to show that God will disclose at this period of the End-Time (that we are now entering) what His prophecies in the Holy Scriptures actually mean.
It is through the fulfillment of prophecy that God identifies Himself as the author of His teachings within the Holy Scriptures and that those biblical teachings are viable and authoritative for us today. I have not the slightest doubt that when God sends forth His spirit of grace and supplications which He prophesied He will do in Zechariah 12:10, it will have associated with it a spirit of understanding of the Scriptures and history that will show to the Jewish, Islamic, and Christian authorities that His Holy Scriptures are indeed God’s Word.
You and I have the privilege of knowing many of these essential truths now. God is preparing for you and me (and to all whom He is revealing His divine knowledge) the opportunity of helping millions or people comprehend the truths of the Bible when He finally sends that spirit of grace and supplications on Jerusalem.
You should get ready for some exciting and wonderful times. God is about ready to perform a marvelous work of wonder for all the world to see (Isaiah 29:14-17). It will result in the collapse of our present traditional religious foundations. But God will replace these false doctrinal and historical beliefs with a renewed understanding of the Holy Scriptures. We will then witness the world turning back to an appreciation and a love for the Holy Scriptures. We all have a big job to do. Let us be about our Father’s business by promoting His Word throughout the world as best we can.
Ernest
L. Martin, 1997
Edited by David Sielaff, May 2009
1 Dr. Martin's later research demonstrated that all the Jewish Temples were located above and west of the Gihon Springs. Hence, I put a strikethrough this sentence. See Dr. Martin's book The Temples That Jerusalem Forgot http://www.askelm.com/books/book008.asp for the evidence. See also the Temples Articles at http://www.askelm.com/temple/index.asp DWS
2 In 2004 on a trip to Jerusalem Dr. Ory Mazar (Professor Benjamin Mazar’s son) told me in a telephone conversation that as a young soldier in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, after the Israeli army captured the eastern portion of Jerusalem from the Jordanian army, he and others were ordered to set explosives and blow up the entrances to the numerous caves above and around the area of the Gihon Springs on the western slopes of the Kidron Valley. They were commanded to do so to prevent the chambers and caves from being used to store terrorist weapons. He said that he and his fellow soldiers blew up several dozen cave entrances. DWS
3 See note 1 above. DWS
4 This new Temple was built from a new foundation at the old site as Dr. Martin documents in his Temples book. DWS
5 See Dr. Martin’s articles “How the Jews Started to Lose the Temples’ Site” at http://www.askelm.com/temple/t000601.htm, and “The Strange Story of the False Wailing Wall” at http://www.askelm.com/temple/t000701.htm. DWS
6 Dr. Martin did not write a book on this specific subject before he died in January 2002. However, the information is contained within his Temples book. DWS
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