JERUSALEM (RNS) — For years, Texas businessman Byron Stinson has dreamed of a world at peace.
That dream came one step closer on July 1, when a practice run of an ancient purification ceremony involving a red heifer — a cow that has not given birth — was held on a remote hilltop in northern Israel.
Some evangelical Christians like Stinson, as well as some Orthodox and Messianic Jews, believe the red heifer ritual described in the biblical Book of Numbers could pave the way to rebuilding a Jewish temple in Jerusalem. A new temple, which would replace a temple destroyed by the Romans in the first century, would usher in the kingdom of God, ruled by a messianic figure.
According to Numbers 19, the sacred ceremony — in which the cow is slaughtered and then burned — must take place on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem with a view of the site of the former temple, said Rabbi Yitzchak Mamo, president of Boneh Israel, an organization that works to build up and revive biblical sites in Israel and oversaw the practice ritual.
Stinson told RNS about the details of the practice ritual, which was held at 6 p.m. local time July 1, and released photos and video of the ceremony. That video shows a flaming pyre on a remote hilltop with what looks like the animal carcass …