I bring that up because that is what triggered the last long-lasting round of conflict and violence between Palestinians and Israelis, which began on September 28, 2000, with Ariel Sharon’s provocative visit to the holy site known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount. Sharon’s careless, arrogant and malicious provocation essentially ended the Mid-East peace process, and it unfortunately helped the hawkish hardline leader become President of Israel. His actions inevitably motivated and empowered Hamas and Hizbollah, and that’s why there has been so much suffering, death and destruction in the years following September 2000 and during the last seven years.
But the issue regarding the Noble Sanctuary/Temple Mount has the potential to produce even far worse violence, death and destruction. That is why it’s so important to understand what the term "mountain of the Lord" really means.
First, as I suggested in my fifth book, Memoirs of a Prodigal Son of Man, consider what is revealed in Isaiah 2:2 and Micah 4:1, which state: ".. .the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains..." Considering the wording of that phrase, I would ask how can "the mountain of the Lord’s house" literally be established "on the top of mountains"? If it was meant literally, why wouldn’t it just say that the Lord’s house shall be established on the mountain of the Lord?
The reason is because it was not meant literally, because the "mountain of the Lord" is not a specific place. It is merely symbolic for "the high and holy place were God inhabits eternity." (Isaiah 57:15) The Lord God actually resides in that high and holy place, and it’s also called heaven. And God, like heaven, is at once within us and at hand, and is omnipresent and infinite, and always will be. And ALL human being are "pillars of the Temple of God."
I ask you to also consider what the Christian apostle John wrote when he described his experience in the realm of the spirit. He wrote that an angel had said: "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God." (Revelation 21:9-10)
These are all symbolic terms, referring to the "place" where the union with the Holy Spirit takes place. This becomes very evident when you read what John wrote just prior to that: "And I John saw the holy city of God, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." (Revelations 21:2)
The "bride" (of the "bridegroom lamb" of God") is the "city," and both terms are symbols for that which comes down out of heaven to meet one who has been carried away in spirit to that high and holy place where God inhabits eternity. And, by the way, I more fully explain what and who the "bridegroom-lamb" is in my fourth book, What IS the World Coming To? But I’ll give you an idea here.
"Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him." ... and he "shall be called, Sought out, a city not forsaken." (Isaiah 62:11-12)
That is important also because it mentions that the servant of God will be sought out, and will be as a "city" not forsaken, because that is consistent with the following:
"He (the son of man) that overcomes will I make as a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out. And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God. And I will write upon him my new name." (Revelation 3:12)
The prophet Isaiah also foretells that the servant-messenger of God is hidden in the "shadow of God’s hand." He sends his work before him only to be rejected. He is the "city" sought out because he is hidden even after his work is accepted and spread. Moreover, he serves the Christ in the Christ’s new name, which is consistent with what is written in Isaiah 62:2.
The man who serves as the "witness and servant of God," the "son of man," and the messenger for the "Spirit of truth" of Judeo-Christian prophecy delivers the prophesied message of judgment. It is the "stone" of truth, which is mentioned in yet another discussion of the "mountain of the Lord" in Daniel 2:34-35. It states that "a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image (of the future "king of Babylon") upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces." ... "... and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth."
So, the "mountain of the Lord" is not an actual mountain, but the symbol for the divine truth. Like "New Jerusalem," it is a symbol of what is truly great and amazing, and ethereal and mystical. As Albert Einstein said: "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mystical. It is the source of all true art and science." Einstein also said: "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." That is absolutely true.
Now granted, a specific mountain is named as the mountain of the Lord in the eighth chapter of the book of Zechariah. Daniel 9:20-27 also speaks of the "holy mountain of God," and of "Messiah" and the "restoration of Jerusalem." Those are the main prophecies used to justify the orthodox Jewish and fundamentalist Christian belief that the mountain of the Lord is a specific mountain in Jerusalem, and that an Almighty Messiah-King will rule the earth from it.
I suggest to you that is the wrong interpretation of prophecies, and that will not happen. I suggest that God’s will is that all human beings should be equal joint heirs to the "kingdom" to come, wherein we shall all share the "thrones" of our nations, with government that is truly of, by and for the people, under God only, who shall reign only in Spirit.
Let freedom ring. Let peace come. Let God’s will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
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