1183. What if the Jews had Accepted Jesus?

Tower of Babel Depiction

This article picks up where my previous post, “No More Sacrifices” ended. Many of the Jews leaving the area for their survival, migrated south into the Arabian Peninsula. This explains the presence of so many Jews in Saudi Arabia when a Saudi merchant named Mohammed came on the scene in the 7^th century. We find him going about his business somewhere south of the site of Nimrod’s Tower of Babel. Judaism and the Old Testament had been around for 2,000 years. Christianity and the New Testament had existed for 600 years. While his people routinely worshiped over 300 deities, his tribe, Quraish, worshiped one in particular. Its name was Allah. Initially, he was friendly to the Jews living in his homeland. During his travels as a merchant, he learned the Old Testament from his Jewish business associates and a “creative” version of the New Testament from a varied assortment of folks claiming to be Christians.

Then one day, he received a vision during a frightening encounter with a being he thought was a demon. He later became convinced that it was actually from Allah. As a result of this vision, he combined parts of the Old and New Testaments, traditions of his tribal deities, and further visions from Allah, producing what came to be called the Koran. Claiming that the Bible had been corrupted, he taught that Abraham took Ishmael, not Isaac, to the top of Mt. Moriah to be sacrificed, and that Abraham’s promises were for Ishmael’s descendants, not Isaac’s. He initially claimed that “Allah is God,” and later added, “and I am his prophet” (610 A.D.).

The new religion, known an Islam, spread rapidly and its followers, known as Muslims, invaded Palestine and claimed Jerusalem as their own. They built Islamic temples throughout the region, but the capstone of their victories was the Dome of the Rock, a shrine of Byzantine design built in 691 A.D over the ruins of Herod’s temple in Jerusalem, the most significant and “holy” site for both Jews and Christians. A year later, Muhammad “officially” declared himself to be Allah’s prophet. Most Muslims believe that the Dome of the Rock was built to commemorate Muhammad’s ascension to heaven, where he, supposedly, received instructions from Allah concerning the prayers his followers were to offer. The Koran, however, makes no mention of this, and the whole idea of his ascension from the Temple Mount didn’t arise until hundreds of years after the Dome was built.

Dome of the Rock

A few years after the Dome is completed, the Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed on the south end of the Temple Mount platform. Jerusalem was declared to be the third most holy site in all of Islam, despite the Jewish and Christian arguments that the city is never mentioned in the Koran and that there is no historical evidence to verify that Muhammad was ever there. The Muslim argument for its sacred status comes from an interpretation of the Koran entitled, “The Night Journey.” A portion of this ancient writing reads:

from the sacred temple to the temple that is most remote, whose precinct we have blessed, that we might show him our signs…

No matter how many times you read this passage, it is difficult to determine how Muslims have concluded that the first temple is the city of Mecca and that the second temple is the city of Jerusalem. In light of these strongly held beliefs, the current disputes, claims and struggles over the most important city on earth, Jerusalem, are a little easier to understand. Jerusalem’s ultimate importance to Islam, however, lies in the fact that it was within her walls that (in the minds of Muslims) Islam demonstrated its triumph over Judaism and Christianity.This is the true significance & intended meaning of the Dome of the Rock.

Famous painting: The Destruction of Jerusalem

Today’s post covers a period of about 600 years. It began with the destruction of the temple. From God’s perspective, this was a good thing. It signaled that there was no longer a need for it since no more sacrifices were needed. The ultimate fulfillment of everything the animal sacrifices were pointing to had arrived. Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One had come just as the prophets had said, and He had “tabernacled” (dwelled) among His people, but they rejected Him. Instead of receiving Him, they crucified Him. Yes, the cross had always been God’s plan. It’s why Christ came to earth-to seek and to save the lost. But God’s chosen people, the Jews, each one of them, had a free will, and their choice altered their destiny and that of the world.

Imagine what would have happened if they had accepted Him. Jesus would still have to die for the sins of the world. Accepting their messiah wouldn’t change that. Sin had to be judged and condemned, once and for all by the only sinless sacrifice possible-God Himself. History, however would have been drastically altered. Some think that Jesus would have ushered in the kingdom the Jews had been waiting for. The Millennial Kingdom would have begun then. There would be no Islam, no Dome of the Rock, no worldwide slaughter of non-Muslim “infidels.

There would be no Roman Catholic Church to corrupt God’s word and to profane the priesthood (of believers), and no Protestant Reformation, no cults and no Great Awakening. Most importantly for us Gentiles, there would be no Church, no saved Gentiles. The Kingdom would have come. Jesus would be dwelling with His Chosen People. This makes the message from Romans 11 all the more striking and relevant:

I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be! But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? (Romans 11:11-15)

If this has been an eye-opener for you, what will you do with this revelation?