Download the slideshow here.

Much of the discussion in the prophetic community today concerns the ominous idea of a third temple being built - that somehow the sealed and cryptic prophecies of Daniy'el might come to be revealed in our time. How often have we heard that a "third" temple would be built, and that the "antichrist" would declare himself to be god within its halls, setting himself up as the "abomination of desolation."

In this narrative, there is little said concerning the original house of the Ark of the Covenant - the Tabernacle, or in the Ivriyt - the Mishkan. The Mishkan in its simplistic glory meant so much more than mere legalism but was established as the very seat of the authority of Yahuah. This authority was given under a set of artifacts to be constructed in the pattern specified by Yahuah himself, and projected a concept - yeah, even a mindset - concerning the Torah of Yahuah.

Surprisingly, we see in the modern narrative an impetus to link the Tabernacle of Yahuah (Mishkan) to the Temple of his name (Heykel). Although this link goes without definition or description, it is assumed that the two are one and the same: they are not. Equally true is the disentanglement and dispossession between Solomon's Temple which housed the Ark of the Covenant and the Beyt Heykel (Second Temple) which did not. Little is known concerning the Second Temple, as the books which discuss this epoch (the 400 years which preceded the first advent of Mashiach) have been relegated to the status of merely "historic" books which cannot be considered "inspired." Neither is there any inquiry in respect of the "Seventy" sequestered texts reconstructed by Ezra.

When was the second temple completed? What was its location in respect of Solomon's Temple? Did it remain in practice since there was no Ark? Were there modifications to the Second Temple? Were there modifications to the Levitical system? Was Herod's temple actually the temple described in the Cepher Yekhez'el? And were the Levitical practices at that time consistent with Yekhezq'el rather than Moshe?

Looking to the Mishkan and its implications ultimately reveals a prophecy of the destruction of the extensive masonry called the Temple. It also forecasts he simplicity of the common faith to which all of us are subject. Would Assyria have lusted after a mere tent? Would Babylon have mounted up a great army to capture a tent of skins? And who in the modern world would go to war to prevent the lifting up of the Tabernacle in its original form? Yahuah kept it surprisingly simple for us all, yet the assertion of Yahuah and his authority is unmistakable.