If you’ve been keeping up with world news of late, you may know (or not) that the resurrected Great Sanhedrin, headquartered in Jerusalem, sanctioned a Levitical offering of a previously sacrificed lamb upon a practice altar somewhere in Jerusalem. (Yes, there really is a reconstituted Sanhedrin in Jerusalem today.) Representatives of the Biblical 70-nations of the world were invited to witness this so-called historical event.

An altar had been secretly constructed. Cohenim (Levitical Priests of the line of Aaron) have been selected and trained to perform this and all future sacrifices and offerings on the altar. Furthermore, the implements for performing all the ceremonies of the Temple and altar have been constructed and are ready to go at a moment’s notice.

According to an article published by WorldNetDaily on 12/7/2018, entitled, “Israel’s re-established Sanhedrin to dedicate altar for new Third temple; 70 nations invited:”

“The re-established Jewish Sanhedrin is pushing the envelope on the rebuilding of the Temple next Monday, the last evening of Hanukkah, by consecrating a stone altar and reading of a declaration to all nations intended as an invitation to participate in receiving its blessings – leading to an effort to replace the United Nations with a new, God-centered organization.”

According to Messianic Jewish Rabbi Zev Porat, the Sanhedrin wants to set up a new god-centered United Nations (a replacement United Nations) to be headquartered in Jerusalem.

Beyond wanting to set up this nebulous replacement United Nations, what is the Sanhedrin’s true motivation? It is purely financial in nature, as confirmed in a recorded conversation between Rabbi Porat and a member of the Sanhedrin.

In terms of uniting with other people in this and future endeavors, the Sanhedrin suggests that it might be interested in uniting with other Faiths such as Protestant Christianity. The Sanhedrin representative, however, was not willing to comment as to how unification with other nations and Faiths would actually look or how it would work.

After some prodding, Rabbi Perot discovered that the unification is first and foremost financially driven. When pressed by Rabbi Perot, the Sanhedrin representative indicated that his organization was not interested in any dialogue of spiritual significance with Messianics and Christians. In the Sanhedrin’s mind, it’s okay for Messianics and Christians to be a part of such a unification, as long as they follow the lead of the orthodox Jewish Sanhedrin. Otherwise, they are not interested in any true relationship with Messianics and Protestant Christians.

Nevertheless, in putting this staged event on, the Sanhedrin, according to the representative Rabbi Porat spoke to via phone, is primarily interested in raising money for their projects. Those projects supposedly are related to the building of a 3rd Temple.

A lot has come out of this story. Some Christians, Messianic and Orthodox Jews have made special note that this so-called dedication of the altar took place on the last day of Hanukkah. For those of you who are not familiar with the true Hanukkah story, the Maccabean Revolt ultimately resulted in an 8-day purification and then rededication of the previously desecrated temple and altar (mid-2nd century BCE). This desecration was, in my opinion, the first iteration of Daniel’s prophesied Abomination of Desecration. The second iteration of this prophecy in my opinion occurred during Titus’ 68-70 C.E. destruction of the Temple and altar. Consequently, I personally do not believe there’s enough evidence in Scripture to support the building of a 3rd Temple and operation of an altar; at least not before the return of Yahoshua our Messiah. But that’s a discussion for another day.

The point to be recognized, however, in Christians, Messianic and Orthodox Jews making note of the dedication of this altar taking place on the last day of Hanukkah, 2018, is prophetically symbolic and significant. These believe that this event signals the imminent return of Messiah—be it Judaism’s version of Messiah or the imminent return of Yeshua.

One fundamental Christian organization took extreme umbrage over this event, especially citing the event’s funding aspect. The Sanhedrin group that hosted and rain this event, apparently somewhere near the Joppa Gate near the Temple Mount, was soliciting money from those who attended and others who did not attend but may have some interest in seeing a 3rd Temple built on the Temple Mount as soon as possible. This Christian Group calls themselves RISE, their seeming anti-semitic video appearing on YouTube, suggested that unsuspecting Christians are being duped into giving money for the construction of the 3rd Temple for purposes of forcing or ushering in the End Times, the Great Tribulation and the return of Christ. The RISE video also suggested that the Sanhedrin group pushing their financial agenda was playing upon certain Christian perspectives of Dominion Theology (ie., the belief that Christians have the responsibility of ushering in the Kingdom of God and so forth by whatever means necessary—so to speak).

Although I agreed with RISE’s take on this whole event, I was terribly offended by the group’s overt disdain for Hebrew Roots and Messianic Jewish believers. RISE suggested that some of the blame for the Sanhedrin’s misleading agenda related to this event can be laid at the feet of Hebrew Roots. So you can see that it doesn’t take much for our name to be dragged in the mud by our cousins in both Christianity and Judaism.

In a later interview of Rabbi Zev Porat by SkyWatchTV’s Derek Gilbert, I learned that the reconstituted Sanhedrin—at least the group that planned and ran the altar dedication ceremony—does not in any way hold the respect and followership of most of the orthodox Jewish leaders and people in the Land of Israel today. In fact, Rabbi Porat reported that a good number of orthodox Jews residing in the Land of Israel were vehemently opposed to the event. Porat suggested that this extreme division and the Sanhedrin’s unpopularity in the Land of Israel may be the reason the organization kept the event so low key.

Another interesting thing came out of this event. The Sanhedrin announced that a full ceremonial sacrifice of a lamb is planned for this coming Passover, utilizing the newly dedicated altar.

Regardless where you stand on this story, it cannot be denied that there’s a lot to be had here: both politically, prophetically and spiritually. The question that we must ask ourselves, however, is whether we as Torah Observant Believers in Yeshua Messiah, should involve ourselves in such things. I know that some prominent Hebrew Roots/Messianic teachers are falling over one another touting how significant this thing is to our immediate future as believers in Messiah. At least two-Messianic Jewish teachers went so far as to predict that the abomination of desolation spoken about in one of Daniel’s great prophecies and the Great Tribulation may occur in 2019.

Really? Really? Did not our Master emphatically state in His Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24) that no man knows the day nor hour that the end times—the return of Messiah will occur; no, not even the angels in heaven (verse 36). Only the Father knows.

My question and comment is this: if Yeshua was not given the 411 on when the End Time events will occur, what makes us think we have the 411; or for that matter, that we can figure out when these things are going to occur? It’s a fool’s quest when we start to throw out dates and time frames of Messiah’s return; even if the quest is innocent speculation.

And this is one of the things that grabbed my attention about this story, and that has to do with the impact it seems to be having on certain segments of our Faith Community. When this story first broke last month, biblical prophecy hunters from both sides of the aisle (ie, Messianics and Christians), were falling all over themselves and one another to attach some End Times—Last Days significance to the story. The general consensus from some orthodox Jewish and some Messianic/Hebrew Roots prophecy speculators is that this event would herald in the End Times which includes the building of a 3rd Temple on the Temple Mount; the Abomination of Desolation written about by the Prophet Daniel; the Great Tribulation; and the advent of the Jewish Messiah, which members of our Faith Community tag as the return of Yeshua HaMashiyach to earth.

My purpose in discussing this event is not to get into any Apocalyptic—End Times—prophetic speculations. The subject in and of itself is just too fraught with scriptural interpretational and idealistic differences for a fair, substantive and biblically accurate discourse. Rather, my purpose is just to throw out to you a word of caution as many prophetic speculators would have us all worked up over this altar event in Jerusalem being the linch-pin to the imminent construction of the 3rd Temple and return of Messiah.

Just because this or that man says a thing is so, doesn’t mean it’s so. Although there’s nothing at all wrong in speculating—something I find myself doing a great deal from time to time. However, when we begin to place so much of our focus and brain space on speculations and we treat those speculations as truth, even at the expense of reading into scripture things that may or may not be in there, we run the risk of doing ourselves a bit of harm.

In fact, Master corrected such speculation that was brewing in the midst of His chosen disciples on the Mount of Olives just prior to His ascension to His Father. When asked by his disciples if He would at that time establish the Kingdom of Yehovah, Master responded:

It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. (Act 1:7 KJV)

As alluring and intriguing as speculations about End Times and Tribulation things may be to some of us, at the end of the day, they are just speculations. These speculations must be kept in their proper perspective. It cannot be something that we default to in order to cause us to do something we would not otherwise have done or otherwise do.

Master Yahoshua gave us enough to worry about as His chosen emissaries: “Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations…”(Matt. 28:19; NASB)