We are now in our eighth year of presenting a weekly Prophecy Update.  This is #408 in that series.

We talk a lot about prophecy because one quarter of the Bible is devoted to it.  One in every four verses is either a fulfilled prophecy, or a future one awaiting its fulfillment.

Eighty-percent of the Bible’s prophecies have already come true.  Those that have not come true are all concerned with what we commonly call the end times, or the last days.  They, too, must be fulfilled to the letter.

What do we mean by “Prophecy Update?”  It is our belief that we can identify trends in the world, and news, that would be expected in light of the unfulfilled prophecies.

We know that, during the Tribulation, there will be a Jewish Temple on the original site in Jerusalem, complete with animal sacrifices.

Daniel predicted the rebuilt Temple over 2500 years ago, and Jesus verified Daniel’s words were true when He gave His Olivet Discourse in the first century.

It is in the Temple, in the very middle of the Tribulation, that the antichrist will declare himself God and demand to be worshipped, forcing people to decide to take his mark or die.

You would therefore expect lots of news about plans to rebuild a Temple.  And that is just what you find.

A recent article posted on timesofisrael.com was titled, To Ready For the Final Redemption, Israeli’s Take Red Heifer By the Horns.

Before I quote from the article, I should mention that the Jewish Scriptures specify that the ashes of a sacrificed red heifer are necessary in order to sanctify the articles used in the Temple.  No red heifer, no Temple.

It is called a “red heifer” because the cow must be female, but it can never have given birth.

Furthermore, the rare red heifer must be completely red and have no spot or blemish of any kind.  Even a single white hair disqualifies it.

Every now and then, a candidate is born somewhere, but they’ve always proven flawed.  So the Jews have taken on an ambitious project to create their own red heifer.

Excerpts:

The Temple Institute wants to raise $125,000 to breed the holy cows used in an ancient — and future, it hopes — purification rite.

The Temple Institute is a 28-year-old organization that has built more than 70 artifacts that can be used when a Third Temple is built.  Its latest project is to import frozen embryos from Red Angus cattle in the United States to create a herd of kosher red heifers in Israel.

“People have this understanding that the red heifer is something otherworldly or it is really rare,” explained Rabbi Chaim Richman, the international director and co-founder of the Temple Institute. “But really there are hundreds or even thousands of red-colored cattle of different species that would qualify.”

What has made a modern-day red heifer an impossibility thus far lies in this description in the Book of Numbers, Chapter 19: “This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke.”

Cows that are raised on commercial dairy farms are subjected to all sorts of blemish-causing conditions, including ears pierced with a numbered tag, cuts or bruises from roughhousing with other cows or contact with broken fences, and ulcers from ingesting metal accidentally mixed into cheap cattle feed.  Even a vaccination could count as a blemish.  Additionally, cows on commercial farms are used for work, which that is forbidden according to the red heifer criteria.

“Ultimately, in order for there to be a kosher red heifer, it must be arranged from birth,” explained Richman. “The animal must be supervised, watched, and cared for.”

In order to create an environment that will sufficiently protect the cows and safeguard their ritually kosher status, Richman and his supporters toured a number of farms in Israel, ironing out the details of the layout and infrastructure to minimize the possibility of harm.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/red-heifer-temple-institute/

These guys are serious about rebuilding the Temple as a house of worship.  This is just one example I could cite regarding the Third Temple.  It’s just what you’d expect from reading the Bible.

We don’t expect, or need, to see anything happen, or to be fulfilled, before Jesus can resurrect and rapture the church.  It is presented in the Bible as imminent.

Are you ready for the rapture?  If not, get ready, stay ready, and keep looking up.  Ready or not, Jesus is coming!