Can the Temple of Jerusalem be Built Now??

There are plans for a third temple to be built and it is possible for Israel to start building today.  What is stopping this from happening?  The problem is that we do not know where the location of Solomon's Temple was.

There are three possible locations that we will talk about here.  All three have their advocates and all three locations have evidence to back them up.

The Dome of the Rock.  Many believe that the rock, which the Dome of the Rock Mosque covers was the location where the Ark of the Covenant sat within the Holy of Holies.  The mosque sits on the Temple Mount, dominating all of Jerusalem.  When you see a picture of Jerusalem the golden dome of the mosque stands out.  This is the third most holy place to the Muslims and they are very aggressive in protecting it. If the Jews were to destroy this mosque all of the surrounding Arab countries would go to war.  One answer to this problem is for God himself to sweep His hand across the Temple Mount and destroy the Dome of the Rock.  If God wants the temple to be built in this location, He will somehow have to destroy it by natural means, by an Arab missile or bomb, or some means not connected to the Jews.  However, if God wants the temple built here, no one will stand in His way.

The Dome of the Spirits. 330 feet north of the Dome of the Rock is a small dome called the Dome of the Spirits, or the Dome of the Tablets.  This northern site on the Temple Mount is in the hands of the Arabs who aggressively guard the Temple Mount, but it might be possible for the Muslims to keep the Dome of the Rock while the Jews built a temple next to it.  How likely is this?  It would take an act of God to accomplish this, but with God all things are possible.

The Southern Location.  The Southern location would put the Temple south of the Temple Mount in the old city of David.  There are problems with the first two sites that if the temple was located there, those problems would be answered.  For example: The Temple needed living water, which is running water and could not be water from a cistern.  Solomon's Aqueducts would have been 20 meters too low to service the Temple Mount.  So where did the water come from?

Let's look at this location tomorrow and see what Biblical reasons and historical documents say about the actual location of Solomon's Temple.  If this is the actual location, there is nothing at all stopping Israel from building the temple at this very hour.

CLICK HERE for part 2 on the location of the Temple.
To read Part 3 in this series, CLICK HERE.

Photo Credits: The Temple Mount by J. Griffin Steward and Dome of the Spirits (facing north_1889 by James Emery