There is an interesting prophecy about the Eastern Gate in Jerusalem and some attempts to prevent its fulfillment.
The Eastern gate of Jerusalem, also called the Golden Gate, is located along the long eastern wall of the Temple Mount. This gate has been sealed for many years. We Christians believe that it is to be the entrance of Christ upon His return. As stated in Ezekiel 44:1-2, NIV translation:
"Then the man brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, the one facing east, and it was shut. The LORD said to me, "This gate is to remain shut. It must not be opened; no one may enter through it. It is to remain shut because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered through it."
True to the prophecy of Ezekiel, this gate has remained shut for a very long time.
The gate was sealed some centuries ago by non-Jewish workmen who were commissioned to rebuild the ancient city walls. It has been claimed that a graveyard was constructed in front of this gate, by non-Jews, to prevent the prophecy from ever being fulfilled. Apparently, their belief was that a holy man would never walk across a graveyard to get to the gate and therefore this prophecy involving a Jewish Messiah would never be fulfilled.
Twice in the last century an attempt to open the sealed Eastern Gate has failed. I found the following in Grant Jeffrey’s book "Heaven, The Last Frontier." The first attempt was on December 9th 1917, when the Grand Mufti, the Arab leader of Jerusalem, tried to open this gate. He had ordered the other gates to Jerusalem sealed to deter the approaching allied Expeditionary Army led by the British General Allenby. This was back in the early 1900s when the British were dismantling the Ottoman Empire, which had ruled over the land of Israel for 400 years.
But, the Grand Mufti did need to have one gate remain open, so he ordered his workmen to open the mysterious sealed gate. As the workmen picked up their sledgehammers, Allenby's airplane flew over the city, telling the Arabs to flee. Miraculously, without a shot being fired, the opposing soldiers fled the city. The city was delivered into the hands of the Britain, which one month earlier had promised the Jews the right to re-establish sovereignty over their ancient homeland, via the famous Balfour Declaration. The workmen fearfully put down their sledgehammers and the gate remained sealed as Ezekiel had prophesied.
Then, in 1967, the ancient prophecy was fulfilled again. But first, a little history: In 1948, the Jews declared sovereignty over a portion of their ancient homeland. In retaliation, King Hussein of Jordan, who had control over the ancient city of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount, forbade the Jews from worshipping at their sacred Western Wall. This was the first time in centuries that the Jews did not have access to the Western Wall, which is a remnant of the wall around the second Temple, which was destroyed by the Romans some 1900 years ago.
King Hussein decided to build a hotel for Arab pilgrims on this section of the Western Wall, closing off this area to Jewish worship forever. The planned hotel was to be built over the Magreb Gate, which Moslems used to enter the Temple Mount. So, the King needed to open another gate so that Moslems could get to the El Aksa Mosque, which was built by Moslems on the site of the Jewish Temple Mount.
In violation of the prophecy, he ordered his workmen to open the sealed Eastern Gate. But, during this time, Arabs were also preparing to attack Israel, hoping to wipe out the Jewish state. And the Jews were about to preemptively respond to this planned attack. On June 5th of 1967, as the workmen prepared their air-hammers to shatter the huge stones sealing the Eastern Gate, an intimidating array of Israeli aircraft flew overhead. The Six Day War had begun, and the workmen put down their tools.
At the end of the Six Day War, the workmen were unable to resume their project because the Jews had managed to recapture their ancient capital of Jerusalem. True to Ezekiel’s prophecy, The Eastern Gate is still sealed. The gate will remain sealed until the day when the promised Messiah will enter into His Kingdom.
By George Konig
Christian Internet Forum
www.georgekonig.org
January 18, 2003
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