The Growing Dispute over Jerusalem's Temple Mount

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By Gary Lane
CBN News - International

CBNNews.com –- JERUSALEM -- The Bible says it's a city chosen by God, the place where He put His name, where King David reigned and his son Solomon built the first temple.

It's the most sacred city in the world for Christians and Jews, the third holiest in the Islamic faith.

Tens of thousands of Christians make pilgrimage there each year to walk the streets where Jesus once walked, to see where He was crucified and the tomb where He rose from the dead.

For Jews, the Wailing Wall is sacred. They come to Jerusalem from throughout Israel and around the world to pray at the last remnant of the second temple, a temple destroyed by the Romans in 72 A.D.

Muslims conquered Jerusalem in 637, and shortly thereafter, built the Dome of the Rock shrine on the Temple Mount. They believe a rock located beneath the center of the Dome is the spot where Mohammed ascended into heaven.

Muslims once faced in the direction of Jerusalem when they prayed. They now face toward Mecca -- the place of the annual Haj, the location of the Kabbah -- the sacred altar where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son.

But some Jews and Christians believe that the event may have taken place somewhere near Jerusalem's Temple Mount on Mount Moriah.

Contention over the past and future status of the Temple Mount could potentially lead to a more explosive war in the Middle East, this time over Jerusalem. A group called the Temple Mount Faithful wants to rebuild the temple in the area.

But Muslims worship on the Temple Mount at the al-Aqsa Mosque. They insist that Solomon's Temple was not located here, and Jews have no right to the area.

Jews say Muslims have conducted unauthorized excavations beneath the mosque, digs that are intentionally destroying temple artifacts and exterminating evidence of Jewish history in Jerusalem.

Enter author Joel Rosenberg and his newest novel The Copper Scroll. It's a book based on the true discovery in 1956 of another Dead Sea Scroll. This scroll reveals how billions of dollars of undiscovered treasures remain hidden in the Judean hills and beneath the city of Jerusalem itself.

Rosenberg's book comes at a time when Israel is fighting for its survival, and when a nuclear- ambitious Iran declares that Israel should be wiped off the map.