The Wrong Rock

THE FALSE PROPHET MUHAMMAD | home

FROM our position in the opening days of the 21st century, we can

just begin to see a little of God’s exquisite plan. The Abomination

that maketh Desolate is not an antichrist in our future. It is an Islamic

building that has stood on Mount Moriah for over 1300 years. But

like the Lord said to Habakkuk, we wouldn’t have believed Him if He

had told us in advance, and now that we can see it, we can still hardly

The 1290 days of Daniel, when interpreted as years, fitting one

incident in history is not sufficient evidence to prove that all

prophetic “days” should be understood as years – even when the 1290

days hit an event as remarkable as the construction of the Dome of

the Rock on Mount Moriah, right to the year. However, in Daniel’s

70 Weeks, we saw that 69 of those weeks were really 69 weeks of

years that were fulfilled at the cross. Since that is the prophetic time

system the Lord used in one part of Scripture, wouldn’t we need

scriptural authorization to change it if we ran into prophetic days

somewhere else? Wouldn’t it be poor theology to leave a divinely

ordained system that we can show works and try to interpret “days”

in some other way, particularly since that would go against God’s

declaration, “I give you a day for a year”?

Of course. So to stay in line with Scripture, we should at least look

at the possibility of historic day=year fits for other prophetic “days”

Let’s begin by imagining ourselves on the Isle of Patmos at the

end of the 1st century, looking at the world about us through the eyes

of the Apostle John as he writes Revelation. It is now about 70 years

after Calvary and the Jews were in a state of revolt against their

Roman rulers. That wasn’t anything new. The Jews had been in

rebellion against Rome ever since their occupation began (65BC).

Army after Roman army had been sent to the Holy Land to quell the

continual uprisings, but they just kept on happening. Losing all

patience, Rome finally sent her best general against Jerusalem itself

and the city was almost totally destroyed. An estimated 1,000,000

Jews fell to sword and famine and the beautiful Second Temple was

torn down to bedrock. It had taken 45 years to build, but stone by

stone the Romans threw it into the valleys of Tyropoeon and Kidron

just as Jesus had prophesied 37 years earlier: “not one stone will be

left standing upon another.” His prophecy of the coming devastation

is recorded in three places, Mat 24:2, Mar 13:2, and Luk 21:6.

The Christians in the city were aware of Jesus’ prophecy, so just

prior to that city’s destruction they fled Jerusalem in haste. Early

church records assert that no Christians were left in the city, and that

no Christian lives were lost during the ensuing massacre.1 The

demolition of the temple was so complete that even the memory of its

exact location was lost. Then, except for a short-lived temple of

Jupiter, God’s temple site remained in rubble for over 600 years.

1 Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70AD. According to Tacitus, the city was crowded with

600,000 visitors. After five months the walls were battered down, the Temple burned, and

the city was put to the sword. Josephus states that over 1,000,000 Jews were killed and

95,000 taken captive. Henry Halley, Halley’s Bible Handbook (Grand Rapids, MI,

Zondervan, 1965) pp. 655-656. However, Eusebius writes, “On the other hand, the people

of the church in Jerusalem, were commanded by oracle given by revelation to those in the

city who were worthy of it, to depart and dwell in one of the cities of Perea, which they

called Pella.” Ecclesiastical History, Book 3, v. 5, ln. 3-4.

However, in 685, the Muslim governor of Jerusalem, one Kalifah

Abd el Malik ibn Marwan, began clearing the temple mount. He used

the local people to do so, including the Christians and Jews still living

in the city. When the bedrock was exposed, they found two solid rock

promontories within 300 feet of each other. The one to the south they

named “as-Sakhra,” and over as-Sakhra they built the memorial to

Muhammad, the Dome of the Rock, the actual construction of which

began in 688AD. You remember the numbers from the last chapter:

1290 Hebrew years (1271.5 Solar years) after 583BC is

Over the other promontory – an unusually flat stone to the north and

slightly west of as-Sakhra – a little, unimposing cupola was

constructed they aptly named “The Dome of the Spirits,” or “The

Dome of the Tablets.” Having no science of archaeology during those

The Moslems built the Dome of the Rock on the wrong rock!1

Now I have no idea how you feel as you read that line, but I

remember how I felt twenty four years ago when I first understood it.

I sat at my desk, stunned for a moment, and then just leaned back and

roared with laughter. I read the scriptural and archeological data

again and again, praising God. The rock they built that dome on, As-

Sakhra, has no historic or spiritual significance whatsoever. The

Dome of the Rock is right in the middle of what was once the court

of the Gentiles. Even ceremonially unwashed Canaanite slaves were

allowed into the court of the Gentiles. You didn’t have to be a priest,

The House of the Lord, into which only the sons of Aaron could

go, stood over that little flat rock some 300+ feet north of where the

1 According to Muslim tradition, As Sakhra is the rock from which Muhammad

supposedly ascended into heaven. How spiritually appropriate it is that they built on the

wrong rock. Muhammad is not just a little minor false prophet; he is probably THE false

prophet of Rev 19:20! If he isn’t, then what does it take to qualify?

Dome now stands. We know exactly where the temple stood because

of holes drilled in the bedrock that are spaced on the sacred cubit.

The sacred cubit could be used only in the temple itself, and those

holes pinpoint the exact location of the House of the Lord.1

The Kodesh Ha-Kodeshim, the Holy of Holies, was directly over

that little flat rock marked [X] on the drawing. Bathed in Shekinah

Glory, that flat rock was the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant:

“God’s dwelling place, and the footstool of His feet, forever.” It was

exactly on an East-West line with the Golden Gate.2 The very gate

through which Jesus walked on His way to teach in the temple. Now,

for the first time ever, we can discern the meaning of a baffling

Eze 42:20 He measured it by the four sides: it had a wall round

about, five hundred reeds long, and five hundred broad, to make a

separation between the sanctuary and the profane place.

That spiritual wall of separation, probably guarded by holy angels,

has stood on the temple mount for over 1300 years, and we haven’t seen

it. The Dome of the Rock is 300 feet to the South of the temple. That

Muslim edifice is not now, and never has been, over the old temple site.

The dome was, is, and shall be (as long as it stands) right in the middle

Isn’t it wonderful to know that by permitting the temple’s total

destruction, God protected His Holy of Holies from the desecration of

having a memorial to a false god, and the false prophet, built over it? Of

more importance, if the Moslems had not built on the wrong rock, it

would be impossible for this next quote from to be fulfilled. Now look

1 The Hebrews had two units of measure for the cubit: the ordinary cubit of about 18 in.,

and a sacred cubit, “a cubit and a span” of about 21-1/2 in. The sacred cubit was used only

2 Temple Foundation Located, Biblical Archaeology Review, Mar. 1983.

carefully at the language and see how perfectly it fits the situation on the

Rev 11:2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and

measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city

shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

“Leave out the court ... it has been given to the Gentiles!” The Dome

of the Rock is in the court, and it is a Gentile structure. So we now have

the location. Then we read that the city of Jerusalem itself would be

under Gentile control for 42 months. Farfetched as it may sound, could

those 42 months be months of days that should be looked at as years? It

was day=years in the Old Testament, and there is no Scripture anywhere

that does away with that interpretation, so let’s at least try for a historic

fit using day=years. When do they begin and when do they end? We

On the 6th day of June, 1967, at the end of the Six-Day War,

General Moshe Dayan and a tough, battle-hardened contingent of Israeli

commandos stood before a wall of ancient stones. Their shoulders were

shaking, and tears were streaming down their faces. They were at the

Wailing Wall in East Jerusalem, that Holy Place from which they had

been exiled so many centuries before. They were crying thanks unto God

for restoring their ancient city to them. There they solemnly swore:

“Never again shall we be driven from this place.” For the first time in

2573 years the Jews were again in control of their Holy City. Could that

touching moment be the historic end of, “and they [the Gentiles] will

tread under foot the Holy City for 42 months?” 42 months x 30.44 gives

1967AD - 1278.5 = 688.5AD ... the Dome of the Rock!

Bulls eye! In the 1290 days of Dan 12, the Lord took us from

583BC, and an abolition of sacrifices in Daniel’s time, to 688AD and the

Abomination that makes Desolate, the Dome of the Rock. Then in the

42 months, the Lord shows us the accuracy of that interpretation. He

1 A Solar year is 365.24 days. Dividing those days by the12 months in a year gives us a

takes us from the restoration of Jerusalem in 1967, right back to 688 AD,

We come to 688, and that dome from both directions, right to the

year. As a result, from the Lord’s point of view, the central event to take

place in Jerusalem during the time of the Gentiles was the building of

the Abomination of Desolation on the footstool of His feet. And it is not

just the numbers that work. Look at how this fits the very words of

(4) “Holy city tread under foot for 42 months.”

This many factors coming together can’t be just a numerical or

verbal fluke, can they? Writing it off as coincidence is statistically

unreasonable, and there are other fulfillments using the same yardstick

When God unlocks a book and opens our eyes, He does so in such

a way that it cannot be reasonably refuted. Using the day=year principle

Rev 12:1-5 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a

woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and

upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child

cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there

appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon,

having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his

heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and

did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman

which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as

it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all

nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God,

Who is this woman, and who is the man child? When we read His

description, there is only one Person in all eternity who matches that

portrait. Who will rule all nations with a rod of iron?1 Who descended

from Heaven, and who ascended up into it again?2 Who now sits at the

right hand of the throne of God?3 None other than Jesus Christ the

Righteous. That makes the woman Israel, and the 12 stars the 12 tribes.

The dragon would then be Satan, who tried to defeat the Lord at the

cross, and the fallen stars would be the fallen angels.4

1 Rev 19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the

nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron.

2 Eph 4:10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens,

3 Col 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ

4 Rev 1:20 tells us that the stars are the “aggelos” or messengers (Strong’s No. G32). That

same Greek word is also used in Rev 12:4. Aggelos, pronounced "anglos" is usually

Rev 12:6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath

a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand

During the Christian Era the Jews were dispersed into the nations.1

For centuries the Jews have been hounded from country to country,

made slaves of: were robbed, beaten, and murdered wholesale, as in

Nazi Germany ... but never again. God has promised that never again

would the Jews suffer anything like that holocaust in which 6,000,000

of the physical seed of Abraham were murdered:

Jer 30:3-8 And these are the words that the LORD spake concerning

Israel and concerning Judah. For thus saith the LORD; We

have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask ye

now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do

I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail,

and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so

that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he

A more moving account of the atrocities of the Nazi gas chambers

would be hard to imagine. There, in the winter snow, stood line after line

of Jewish men, naked, their hands in front of them to cover their

nakedness. Shivering bodies, numb with cold, beatings and starvation.

Faces pale, they shuffled slowly into oblivion. As Your Son hung naked

on the cross so long ago, so now it has happened unto Your people, Oh

But that is all in the past now. The time of Jacob’s trouble is long

over. The Lord has broken Satan’s yoke from off their neck, and the

Jer 30:7 For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of

hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst

thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves [make

As of 1948, the Jews are no longer dispersed in the nations. On May

15th of that year, Israeli Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, stood on the

floor of the Knesset and declared the nation of Israel to be a sovereign

state. That is a historic fact nobody can dispute. As of 1948, the woman,

1 The wilderness is the Gentile world, Eze 20:35.

Israel, is no longer in the wilderness, and since she isn’t, Rev 12:6 is

According to Rev 12:6, the woman, Israel, would be in the wilderness

1260 days. Could this be years again? In this instance, the Lord

gave us prophetic days straight out with no complicated mathematics.1

Even a 2nd grader can figure this one out:

1948 - 1260 = 688 ... and the Dome of the Rock!

How come we couldn’t see it sooner? God planned it that way, and even

told us so. Remember in Dan 12:9, when the Lord stated that Daniel’s

book would be sealed until the time of the end? Until the

new nation of Israel and a freed Jerusalem became historic realities

(which BEGAN the time of the end) it was impossible to prove that

Daniel’s 1290 days were fulfilled by the Dome of the Rock.

1 It is correct use the 365.24 solar year to interpret NT prophecies. In New Testament

times, the Jews were under Roman rule and the 365.24 day Roman year was in common

Now you realize, according to the dispensationalists, that those

prophetic “days” are supposed to be about either the first or the last half

of the Great Seven-Year Tribulation, but obviously, that is not what they

are about at all. They are about the Moslems, the Jews, Jerusalem, and

the Holy Land. They are about the restoration of the people to whom

God gave the land in the first place: the PHYSICAL descendants of Israel.

How can we deny the evidence of our own eyes? An Israeli flag,

complete with the star of David, began to fly over the battlements of

Jerusalem on the exact year the Lord predicted it would, and Jews by the

millions have returned to the land. That’s not guesswork theology, folks;

Photo courtesy Biblical Archeology Review

We are filled with reverence when we realize that surrounding the now exposed bedrock

under this little cupola, was the Holy of Holies of the temple of Solomon. On this rock

once stood the Ark of the Covenant. When Solomon erected the temple in 966BC, this

very space was filled with the Shekinah glory of God. The Ark was “lost” during

Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem. Jewish tradition states that the prophet Jeremiah

took the Ark and the original tabernacle through a secret tunnel under Jerusalem and

buried them on Mount Nebo. However, it now appears that the Table of Showbread, Altar

of Incense and the Ark of the Covenant were buried in a cave under Golgotha.