Some Jews Seek to Resume Sacrifices for Passover

According to this news story, there is growing support among certain Jewish sects to resume sacrifices at the Temple Mount. The Jews have not carried out sacrifices since the destruction of the temple in the year 70 AD. I've encountered various schools of thought among Jews as to whether or not sacrifices should be carried out. Some say that forgiveness of sins can be obtained without blood sacrifice - a claim that I personally see absolutely zero support for in the Bible. Others shy away from blood sacrifices because of certain technical matters in the law, claiming that they don't have the proper provisions for carrying out these blood sacrifices correctly. Others, such as Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the subject of the featured article, believe that the sacrifices should be carried out to the best of their ability, even if it's not perfect.

Having read the Old Testament thoroughly, I have to say that I would be an advocate of resuming the sacrifices as Rabbi Eliyahu proposes if I were a Jew. As it stands, I believe that those sacrifices are not necessary for our present time because this is what is taught in the book of Hebrews; however, the book of Ezekiel (chapter 40) clearly states that God is going to have His Temple rebuilt on earth during Christ's reign and that He is going to reinstitute animal sacrifies in the Temple. In light of that fact, God clearly has a purpose for those sacrifices, a topic which I have breached in the first post of a series on my other blog about the biblical concept of cleanliness.

There is also reason to believe that the Jews may resume sacrifices before the Tribulation. Notice Christ's warning about the end-times:

Matthew 24:15-22
"Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes... For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened."

Couple that with what Daniel said:

Daniel 12:11
And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.

The original abomination of desolation involved stopping the daily sacrifice in the Temple and the defilement of the Temple by having unclean animals sacrificed to Zeus on the altar of God. Notice the period of time involved here, 1290 days, is the same length of time as the tribulation period, which is elsewhere said to be 3.5 years. Therefore, a reasonable interpretation of these scriptures is that sacrifices will again be established at the Temple and that these sacrifices will be cut off and the altar defiled by sacrifices to another god immediately prior to the Tribulation. On the other hand, there are other interpretations of these scriptures that reason that the prophecy in Matthew 24 refers to the New Testament analog of the Temple of God, which is the Church.

Either way, I personally find it encouraging that there are Jews who are passionate enough about the law of God to try to reinstate the sacrifices. Of course I wish that they would instead accept Christ and channel that passion to understanding His sacrifice for us, and I look forward to the time when their minds will be opened for exactly that purpose.