Universal Church Builds Replica of Solomon’s Temple in Brazil

Edir Macedo founder of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of Brazil has funded this project.  Here is a quote from the Universal Church website:

The Universal Life Church Monastery strongly believes in the rights of all people from all faiths to practice their religious beliefs, regardless of what those beliefs are, be they Christian, Jew, Gentile, Agnostic, Atheist, Buddhist, Shinto, Pagan, Wiccan, Druid or even Dignity Catholics; so long as they do not infringe upon the rights of others and are within the law of the land and one’s conscience.

We ordain ministers, priests, rabbis and clergy worldwide who are totally non-religious or even anti-religious. This may seem contradictory, but we are looking to change the negative perceptions of religion, faith and spirituality, by encouraging people to take control, stand up and speak truth to power by fearlessly stating their personal religious beliefs.”

IsraelNationalNews Temple Institute in Jerusalem says plan by a controversial Brazilian Pentecostal church to build a mammoth $200 million Holy Temple replica is “self-aggrandizement.”

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, headed by controversial Bishop Edir Macedo, has announced plans to build a giant replica of the First Temple in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It is expected to cost $200 million, stand 55 meters (18 stories) high, and seat 10,000 people. Its plans also call for a parking lot for 1,000 cars, TV and radio studios, and classroom space for 1,300 pupils.

“It is going to be a knockout,” Macedo has been quoted as saying. “It is going to be beautiful, beautiful, beautiful – the most beautiful of all. The outside will be exactly the same as that which was built in Jerusalem.”

The Temple Institute in Jerusalem takes a different approach, calling it a “hubris-inspired act of self-aggrandizement… the equivalent of [yet another] destruction of the [Holy] Temple, even before it is [re-]built. This planned church is a mockery which stands in diametric opposition to everything that the Holy Temple of Jerusalem represents.” 

Rabbi Chaim Richman of the Temple Institute writes, “We are witness today to the phenomenon of nations that seek to de-legitimize Israel’s connection to Jerusalem. This planned mega-church represents the next logical step, the de-legitimization of the significance of Jerusalem altogether.” 

“The Bible teaches that the essence of Jerusalem is the presence of G-d,” Rabbi Richman continues, quoting Isaiah’s prophecy: “It will happen in the end of days, that the mountain of the Temple of the L-rd will be firmly established at the head of the mountains…and all the nations will stream to it. Many peoples will go up and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the L-rd, to the Temple of the G-d of Jacob…for from Zion will the Torah come forth, and the word of the L-rd from Jerusalem.’

“Bishop Macedo’s planned mega-church,” Rabbi Richman continued, “is a usurpation and abuse of the sacred space that is embodied by the Biblical concept and vision of the Holy Temple, and a gross expropriation of Judaism’s most sacred values. The Divine Presence of G-d cannot be copycatted and cannot simply be usurped and transplanted elsewhere. This is nothing more than the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God’s cynical and manipulative attempt to morph the Bible’s universal message into its own self-serving agenda.” read more

source contributor

Picture inside Temple

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