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According to Rabbi Tovia Singer, one of the most widely followed Jewish teachers in the world, an altar suitable for Temple sacrifices has already been prepared. The priestly garments have been made. Silver trumpets have been fashioned. Other vessels necessary for Temple worship have been recreated.
And according to Singer, the altar is ready to be taken to the Temple Mount.
"We have an altar that's ready to go," Singer recently explained. "It's built. It's here. It's ready to go on the Temple Mount."
The biblical precedent is found in Ezra.
When Jewish exiles returned from Babylon to Jerusalem in the sixth century B.C., they found their city devastated and Solomon's Temple destroyed. Yet they did not wait until a new Temple could be constructed before restoring biblical worship.
They built the altar first.
Ezra 3:6 makes the sequence unmistakable:
"From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid."
The Temple wasn't standing.
Its foundation hadn't even been laid.
Yet sacrifices had already begun.
None of this means sacrifices are about to begin.
Moving an altar onto the Temple Mount would be extraordinarily controversial. The site's religious sensitivities, Israeli government policy, Jordan's custodial role regarding Muslim holy sites and the reaction throughout the Islamic world create enormous obstacles.
An altar can be ready while the political circumstances necessary to use it remain nowhere in sight.
But there is an enormous difference between something being politically impossible and something being physically unprepared.
Political conditions can sometimes change almost overnight.
The physical preparations that might otherwise require years have increasingly already been made.
And that is where these developments become especially significant for Christians interested in Bible prophecy.
Several passages in Daniel describe sacrifices being halted.
Daniel 9:27 speaks of someone causing "the sacrifice and the oblation to cease."
Daniel 12:11 similarly describes a time "from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away."
Daniel 8 and Daniel 11 also contain important references to the removal or disruption of regular sacrifices.
Prophecy watchers have long noted an obvious implication: if sacrifices are going to be stopped during future prophetic events, sacrifices must first be taking place.
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