Have you ever heard of the "rebuilding of the 3rd temple" or Solomons temple ?
The Temple of Solomon has already been rebuilt by the "Universal church of the kingdom of god" in Sao Paulo Rio!
There is a lot of disagreement about wether this truly fulfills the prophesy of the rebuilding of the 3rd temple, mostly because it's outside of the state of Israel and partly because of the perceived corruption of the church that created it.
In 2009, São Paulo's public prosecutor accused 10 senior members of the church, including Macedo, of siphoning off billions of dollars of donations to buy cars and property. Macedo, who denied the charges, owns a $45m private jet.
Either way, its impressively built and deeply symbolic to many groups for different reasons.
Quick stats:
Cost: $300 Million USD
Construction Time: 4 Years
Inaugurated on: July 31, 2014
Capacity: 10,000 worshippers
[ Source: Wikimedia commons ]
This is an replica of the original ancient Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, but even bigger - and it sticks out like dogs balls compared to city around it.
At 55 meters or 18 stories tall, it's double the height Rio's iconic "Christ the redeemer" statue !
[Source: wikimedia commons]
The rebuilding of the 3rd temple has been prophesied for a long time as one of the precursors to the "final days" within Judaism. I'm not a follower of any organized religion, I do my own thing - but I still find these sorts of predictions interesting.
My entire lifetime I've been hearing about this "imminent" rebuilding of the temple - but it was always supposed to be built on the temple mount in Israel. Did not expect it to be done by stealth, in a different country entirely!
Instead of being built on the temple-mount , they literally shipped millions of dollars worth of stone from Is-ra-el Yisrael (See @inphiknit's comments below) to Rio , and completed this MASSIVE temple in the middle of a low income area just in time for the Olympics.
I never saw this building once in all of the media coverage of the Olympics, which is a little strange given the massive size of the thing - you'd think they'd want to show such a huge addition to their city to the world.
As well as a huge central hall, there is a car park for 1,000 vehicles, TV and radio studios, and classrooms for 1,300 children as well as a full housing complex.
Not only is this symbolic rebuilding of the 3rd temple important to the Judaic faith, the symbolism and mythology is also deeply woven through freemasonic ritual and myth.
Of all the objects which constitute the Masonic science of symbolism, the most important, the most cherished, by the Mason, and by far the most significant, is the Temple of Jerusalem. The spiritualizing of the Temple is the first, the most prominent and the most pervading, of all symbols of Freemasonry ... Take from Freemasonry its dependence on the Temple; leave out of its ritual all references to that sacred edifice, and to the legends and traditions connected with it, and the system itself would at once decay and die ... "
Quote Source: "Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry", by Albert Mackey, MD, 33º and Charles T. McClenachan, 33º, Revised Edition, by Edward L. Hawkins, 30º and William J. Hughan, 32º, Volume II, M-Z, published by The Masonic History Company, Chicago, New York, London, 1873, A.G. Mackey, 1927, by the Masonic History Company.
The same temple also contains a replica of the Ark of the Covenant, inside an inner chamber called Kodesh Hakodashim or "Holy of Holies" in english.
[ Source: Wikimedia commons
This temple, the politics surrounding it and the deeper meaning of its construction could fill dozens of books and still not even begin to scratch the surface of why this is important to the Judaic and Freemasonic belief systems.
I'm wondering if building the church outside of Israel was an attempt at sabotaging prophecy.
Does anyone know if there are any solid plans to still build on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem since this was built ?