Evangelicals rehearse ancient red heifer ritual linked to Jerusalem temple prophecy

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 engulfed in flames. A rabbi led the ceremony after the heifer was driven there from Shiloh in the West Bank, where the selected red heifers have been kept. Plans for the ritual have been years in the making. Stinson, who has a home in Israel and lives there part of the year, funded a search to find heifers that would fit the exacting requirements found in the biblical text. Those requirements include having no flaws or blemishes, even from the ear tags commonly used by ranchers in the United States. Stinson, who can recite the biblical text about the heifers by heart, detailed the search in his 2024 book, “The Hunt for the Red Heifer.” That search included advertising in rancher magazines, doing outreach to breeders and offering $50,000 rewards and eventually led to 21 animals in Texas — two Santa Gertrudis and 19 Red Angus heifers. After a review by rabbis working with Stinson, and months of red tape, five were flown to Israel in 2021. Stinson, whose family runs trucking and transportation companies, helped fund the selection of the five heifers, rented a plane and shipped them from Texas to Tel Aviv.

The project is one of several Stinson has funded, including spending millions of dollars to send pastors to the Holy Land since 2007 and funding a clean-up of the Garden of Gethsemane site, an important Holy Week setting.

The arrival of the five heifers in Israel may have played a role in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that began the Israel-Hamas war. In a speech listing motives for the attack on Israel, one of the leaders of Hamas accused Israelis of bringing five cows into the Holy Land, CBS News reported. The Temple Mount is the current site of the Dome of the Rock, part of the al-Aqsa Mosque, an Islamic sacred site. Joshua Swanson, producer of a forthcoming red heifer documentary entitled “Holy Cow,” said the practice run was a step to the building of a new temple.  “In Revelation Chapter 11, it talks about the return of sacrifices,” he said. “This red heifer ceremony is both for purification of the flesh and a sin offering and prepares the way for these types of sacrificial events.”

Stinson said that when the actual ceremony is performed in the future, the heifer’s ashes will be mixed with water, which will then purify people from sin.

“It only takes one pinch of ash from the burnt red heifer mixed with 10,000 gallons from a fresh source of water, and you’re good to go,” he said. Organizers admitted the idea of a red heifer ceremony could be troubling to some. But Stinson said that in the end, it could have powerful effects for the good. “This is about physical purity that will bring longer lives, restoring our flesh back to God. In Romans, we find that the Jewish fathers of the faith kept the oracles of God,” Stinson said. He also said that news about the practice run had caused confusion, and he promised to provide more information in the future. The group confirmed that preparations for the official red heifer purification ceremony are still underway. The group is working on an educational video about the ritual, in conjunction with Templ3, a media company that promotes biblical prophecy. Stinson is its executive producer. However, Stinson said even the practice run was important — and a miracle of sorts.

“Over 900,000 cattle are slaughtered daily,” he said. “This cow stood taller than all of them.”