KINGDOM LIVING - Christmas 2014 5 By the time of Jesus’ appearance on the earth, the expectations of who the Messiah should or would be, were far different from Jesus’ preaching on the Kingdom of God. In spite of all the facts that surrounded His coming, rabbis were antagonistic toward Jesus. According to Alfred Edersheim, a Jewish scholar who converted to Christianity in the 19th century, Jesus is the mightiest Factor in all of history. He said, ”If He be not the Messiah, He has at least thus far done the Messiah’s work. If He be not the Messiah. there has at least been none other, before or after Him. If He be not the Messiah, the world has not, and never can have a Messiah.” ( LIFE AND TIMES OF JESUS THE MESSIAH) There are more than over 456 spoken and inferred references to the Messiah in the Old Testament! In the Pentateuch there are 75; 243 references from the Prophets, and 138 from the Hagiographa books, ( Psalms, Ruth, Proverbs, etc.) Mathematically it would be impossible for a fraud to fulfill even 14 of the prophetic predictions or typologies! Jesus has fulfilled all but those regarding His second coming. The fact that God the Father even sent His Son to save mankind should be an awesome thing to share! As I wrote last year, I can only imagine that heaven had mixed emotions when the Father told Jesus it was time to descend to earth! There was joy that salvation had come. Yes, but how does Jesus leave heaven’s glory, with joy, to share our humanity and to later die such a cruel death? It must be heartbreaking for God to see so many people into pagan religions, so many indifferent to Him, and multitudes rewriting His Word to elevate the idols of human creation. And then we have members of the Church who say all roads lead to the same end! No other god has given his life for us! No other god comes even close to the love of the God of Scripture! The only result of such statements is that a lazy Church can sit back and not propagate the Gospel as we were commissioned to do just before Christ ascended to the Father! Heavenly Father, forgive us and pour Your Spirit into us to hunger and thirst for Your Word. Then lead us into obedience!
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 12:11:33 +0000