50 years ago: "Christian" fanatic sets fire to Al-Aqsa mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount

And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The Branch; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord:
Even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
And the crowns shall be to Helem, and to Tobijah, and to Jedaiah, and to Hen the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in the temple of the Lord.
And they that are far off shall come and build in the temple of the Lord, and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. And this shall come to pass, if ye will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God...
...Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built. Zechariah 6:12-15, 8:9

And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. Zechariah 12:3

And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
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. Revelation 11:1-2

On August 21, 1969, Denis Michael Rohan set fire to the pulpit of Al-aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Mr. Rohan, a 28-year-old Australian who had been working on a kibbutz for several months in order to learn Hebrew, said that he considered himself "the Lord's emissary," acting on God's instructions and enabling the Jews to rebuild the Temple in fulfillment of Bible prophecy in preparation for the return to Earth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mr. Rohan was a subscriber to The Plain Truth, the magazine published by the pseudo-Christian Worldwide Church of God, and claimed to have been led to his act by WCG President Herbert W. Armstrong's "Personal From" in the June 1967 issue. On September 26, 1969, Mr. Armstrong, in a letter to supporters, completely disavowed any connection to Mr. Rohan or responsibility for his crime. I have no doubt that Mr. Armstrong's claim was true; I subscribed to The Plain Truth in 1979-1980 (although, unlike Mr. Rohan, I never took any Ambassador College correspondence courses), and I wasn't a member of the WCG, nor did I become one. I was just starting to really read the Bible then, and as I followed Mr. Armstrong's advice to "blow the dust off your Bible," God used His word to reveal and protect me from the deception of the WCG's teachings. The literature of organizations such as the Worldwide Church of God can be very deceptive indeed to those who merely accept what they say without searching the scriptures in the manner of the Bereans in Acts 17:10-11.

On August 23, 1969, Denis Michael Rohan was arrested; he was pronounced insane at his trial, and was committed to a mental institution. On May 14, 1974, Israeli authorities deported him to Australia on compassionate grounds so that he could be treated near his family. Mr. Rohan was transferred to Callan Park Hospital for the Insane in New South Wales, and was still there when he died in 1995 at the age of 53 or 54.

Since the Israeli capture of Old Jerusalem in the Six-Day War in June 1967, the Israeli Chief Rabbinate had been hesitant to conduct activities on the Temple Mount, much less to begin rebuilding the Temple, in part because of uncertainty over the previous Temple's exact location. In the aftermath of Mr. Rohan's act, the Jewish authorities became even more reluctant to provoke a violent reaction from Muslims. Muslim leaders, on the other hand, used Mr. Rohan's crime as justification for their continued pursuit of jihad against non-Muslims. On September 21, 1969, the Islamic Summit Conference opened in Rabat, Morocco, hosting 27 delegations. Four days later, the charter establishing the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation was signed at the conference. The Jerusalem Muslim Council called for a protest strike in Israeli-occupied areas and all of the Arab world. Egyptian President Gamal Nasser urged force to regain Jerusalem and restore the Al-aqsa Mosque, and King Faisal of Saudi Arabia called for an Islamic jihad to liberate Jerusalem.

None of us know exactly when the prophecies of the rebuilding of the Temple will be fulfilled, but they will be, and according to God's timing, not ours, which may be why Denis Michael Rohan's act of arson had the opposite effect to that which he intended. Had Mr. Rohan succeeded in his intentions, it may have upset the prophetic timetable. Mr. Rohan's actions smack more of fanaticism than faith; Christians and non-Christians should be wary of anyone claiming to have a unique calling to fulfill Bible prophecy. To quote (out of context) the eminent Australian philosopher Mark "Jacko" Jackson, "Well, prove it! And until they do...I'm gonna wait! Oi!"