A red heifer ceremony on the Mount of Olives
StatusPlanned
Futurist interpreters watch for the moment when the preparations become an actual rite. The Law describes a heifer burned and its ashes kept "for a water of separation" (), and for them a ceremony with a qualified heifer would mark a real step toward the rebuilt Temple they expect, in which Paul's figure "sitteth in the temple of God" ().
Planned. The Temple Institute and Boneh Israel, as reported in the entries on the Texas heifers and the practice burning, aim for a ceremony on the Mount of Olives with a fully qualified heifer at least two years old. No date has been announced; this was checked again on 21 October 2026. Any announced date, and any interpreter's prediction, will be logged here before it falls due.
Explore the counterarguments
This is a stated aim, not an event, and it depends on a heifer being ruled fit, and several candidates have already been ruled unfit. If it happens, it will be a rite performed by people seeking to fulfil the texts, not an independent fulfilment. A ceremony would also be a long way from a Temple: no construction has begun. Expectations of a rebuilt Temple are old: one ancient Christian computation from Daniel, Apollinarius', predicted a rebuilt Temple around 482 CE.