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CHAPTER 13
ONE
CANDIDATE
If God indelibly stamped the
Bible with accurate and explicitly detailed predictions of the
future, then we have certainly been summoned. Our initial
analogy began by comparing an examination of Christ's badge of
authority, the Bible, to the practice of checking the credentials of
anyone claiming lawful authority. If we validate a police
officer's claim to authority and then proceed to defy him, we have
placed ourselves in a tenuous position. The same can be said
about our position with God. If He provides effective
confirmation for Christ's authority through prophetic scripture and
we deny Christ, we have proven ourselves to be the ultimate fools as
the consequence of resistance, eternal damnation, is spelled out in
the very manuscript we have just finished authenticating.
Many who reject the authority of
Christ do so with the same mind-set adopted by Rodney King as he
challenged the Los Angeles Police Department in the mid 1990’s.
Although there should have been no doubt in Mr. King’s mind that he
was dealing with an agency possessing official authority over him in
matters of criminal law, he apparently chose to resist arrest
because he thought the police officers arresting him were unfair in
the way they were administering their authority. Public
opinion was certainly on his side as a clandestine home video showed
officers beating him with night-sticks. He ultimately sued the City
of Los Angeles and received a large financial settlement.
The point of all this is that any
debate as to the relative fairness or unfairness of how a lawful
authoritative agency administers their authority is irrelevant
regarding the actual validity of the authority in question, a
separate issue altogether. In Mr. King’s case, in a federal
court of law, a legal debate ensued regarding the policies of
specific officers within the L.A. Police Department as they
exercised their legal authority. An agreement was reached by a
judge who heard arguments presented by both sides. He decided that
the department’s authority was unfairly and, in fact, illegally
administered, but his decision in no way rescinded or negated the
department’s publicly sanctioned authority over Rodney King, or
anyone else within its jurisdiction. Rodney King gained first hand
knowledge of this principal as, years later, he was arrested, jailed
and fined for drunk driving by the very same agency that had been
censured earlier for the conduct of some of its officers.
The same principal applies to all of
us. It may seem righteous and appropriate to resist authority
if those exercising power are abusing their position of power, even
if that authority is backed by the proper credentials. But, as
in Mr. King's case, the law remains in tact. Any actual
violation of the law will probably result in an indictment and
punishment is sure to result, regardless of whether or not certain
members of the police force are abusing their status.
Similarly, one may strongly maintain that the administration of
justice as described in the Bible is unfair, that hell is far to
severe a punishment for sin, and may even convince others to agree,
but if the Bible is a truthful document, one’s opinion as to how
God’s authority is administered is irrelevant, unless one is
prepared to overthrow the Creator. According to the Bible, God has
given all authority in heaven and on earth to Jesus Christ.
Throughout history that authority has certainly been abused by some
of His so-called emissaries, false prophets and self-serving
priests, but that has no bearing on its validity. Let's take a look
at the one characteristic of the Bible, prophecy, that
overwhelmingly declares its authenticity as valid credentials for
Christ’s authority.
There are four categories of
prophecy that stand out. In the 20th century we have the
luxury of being able to look back on the panorama of history and see
their fulfillment. They are:
1. Predictions
in the Old Testament about a Messiah and the fulfillment of those
prophecies in the person of one man.
2. Predictions
regarding the nation of Israel from the time of Moses until the
present.
3. Predictions
about the worldwide spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
4. Predictions
about a specific time period close to the end of human history,
recognizable by the confluence of a large and varied number of
indicators or signs.
Prior to examining these prophetic
categories separately, reflect on the following broad picture
painted by the Old and New Testament prophets. What is the
likelihood that these forecasts would occur coincidentally?
Men from an obscure Semitic band of
nomads, wandering a desert wilderness approximately the size of
Massachusetts 3500 years ago began to write prophetic words.
They said they had been chosen by the Creator of the universe to be
the people through whom He would reveal Himself. They
predicted that He would ultimately do this through a messiah, a man
with divine qualities, who would be born into one of their families,
in one of their cities, and would present Himself as their savior
and of mankind in general. The messiah would appear at a
specific time and place. They predicted He would offer truth
and healing but would be rejected, executed and subsequently
preached about to the entire world. They said a segment of
people from every nation and tongue on the planet would then worship
Him.
They also predicted their own history, documenting their capture and
domination by four successive empires. They described the loss
of their homeland twice, the complete and total destruction of their
temple and their ultimate dispersion to the four corners of the
earth. Continuing, they anticipated that they would not lose
their ethnicity, religion or national identity and that ultimately
they would be restored to their original homeland and gain control
of Jerusalem.
If thousands of years of
history had not unfolded exactly as those ancient prophets had
predicted, we might laugh their writings off as the product of an
arrogant, pretentious band of religious fanatics. But how do
we handle the reality that what they recorded has occurred exactly
as described? The rational decision would be to believe what
the Bible says about the forecasts, that they were inspired by a
Creator who either controls history or occupies all of time at once.
In either case, it would be rather foolhardy to challenge the
authority of a being with that type of power.
Meditate for a moment on the
likelihood that ancient prophets would specifically predict and
describe the appearance of a single individual from within their own
ethnic group who would have a tremendous impact on world history and
that it would come to pass; and that they would also accurately
forecast their own future within the same manuscript. They were no
more inherently qualified to do this than the Aztecs, the
Phoenicians, Mongols, Egyptians, Persians, Romans, Greeks, Saracens,
Vikings, South Sea Islanders, Eskimos, Sioux Indians, Watusis, or
any other ethnic group. There are no other writings even
remotely similar. They told us how they were doing it, through
divine revelation, and time has justified their claims. Is it
any wonder the Bible says there are no valid excuses for rejecting
its claims?
They said
the beginning of the time period signaling the end of history, as we
know, it would be highlighted by their national
restoration. This period would include other
recognizable signs as well. Those signs are:
1. A movement
towards a world economy, world religion and world government, and
man would be in danger of destroying himself.
2. Wars,
plagues and famines appearing as birth pangs, in other words with
greater frequency and intensity as the end draws near.
3. There would
appear, also with increasing frequency, cultic false prophets
claiming to be the messiah who would gain many followers.
4. The message
of the Savior would be preached to all nations and tongues as a
final sign of the end.
All these things have begun to
occur, at least partially, and are quickly moving towards complete
fulfillment. Is it coincidence that these signs have been
dramatically manifested during the same century that Israel has been
restored as a nation? It is our generation that is seeing the
final move towards a world, which through modern computer
technology, can unite governments, economies and even spiritual
movements like "mother earth" environmentalism. We are the
ones witnessing the world-wide proclamation of the gospel through
the mediums of television, radio, tapes and mass printing. We
see numerous plagues, famines, wars and false messiahs. These
things have been intensifying exponentially since 1948, when the
Jews regained the national status their prophets said they
would. The stage is set for the final curtain of biblical
prophecy to be drawn. Jesus Christ put it this way.
"Even so, when you see all these
things, you know it is near, right at the door. I tell you the
truth, this generation will not pass away until all these things
have happened." Matthew 24:33-34
Handicappers predict winners of
horse races that are scheduled for the next day. Over the
course of time they establish a track record, which represents their
accuracy level. Professional gamblers analyze the
handicapper's predictions prior to betting on a race. Imagine
a gambler calculating the wisdom of betting that the biblical
predictions remaining unfulfilled will also come to pass. He
would analyze biblical prophets the same way he would a
handicapper. He would take into account their track record and
based on that, he would wager something on the predictions in the
Bible. Based on the track record displayed by biblical
prophets, he would likely bet his entire bankroll.
God, speaking here through the prophet Isaiah, issues a challenge to
anyone who thinks they, or the object of their worship, can predict
the future. This challenge is issued to reinforce the obvious,
that an accurate record of prognostication is evidence of
supernatural influence.
"And who is like Me?" Let him proclaim and declare it;
Yes, let him recount it to Me in order, From the time that I
established the ancient nation. And let him declare to them
the things that are coming and the events that are going to take
place. Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long
since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My
witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, or is there any other
Rock? I know of none." Isa.44:7-8.
There have been a large number of books written on the subject of
prophecy and those resulting from detailed research and offering a
thorough treatment of the subject are only able to cover a specific
area of prophecy. For example, an in depth analysis of
messianic prophecy would necessitate an entire volume, at
least. The same can be said for eschatology, that is end times
prophecy, or Jewish historical prophecy. The subject contains far
too much information to be settled properly here but we will offer
some scriptures as an example of what can be discovered by a
detailed inquiry.
The last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, was completed 400 years
prior to the birth of Christ. From about 1450 BC, when Moses
wrote the first 5 books of the Bible, until Malachi, the Jewish
prophets recorded numerous distinct prophecies about their coming
messiah. As we look at just a few of the predictions about Jesus
Christ, weigh the odds of predicting the birthplace, family name,
date of inauguration, platform and cause of death of a president of
the United States in the 24th century. Without a great deal of
reflection, common sense tells us that there would be no chance of
success, yet that is exactly what the Jews accomplished in the Old
Testament with their prophecies about the life of their messiah, who
as it turns out could be none other than Jesus Christ.
Four decades ago Professor Emeritus of Science at Westmont College,
Peter Stoner, calculated the odds of one man fulfilling eight of the
major prophecies regarding the messiah. He submitted his
figures to the Committee of the American Scientific Affiliation and
they were accepted as conservative. The odds of those eight
prophecies being fulfilled in the life of any one man are
staggering. They were calculated to be 1 in 10 to the 17th
power. Professor Stoner used the following illustration in
providing a sense of perspective to that number.
If the entire state of Texas
were covered with silver dollars two feet deep and one coin was
painted red, the odds under discussion would be fulfilled if a blind
man then wandered the state at his own pace, stuck in his fist and
managed to come up with the red coin on his first try.
The above analogy represents one
chance in 10 to the 17th power. The odds were also calculated
for 45 specific prophecies and the figure is 1 in 10 to the 157th
power, a number truly beyond our limits of comprehension.
Using a similar illustration, consider the universe. It is 16
billion light years in diameter. It would be completely
crammed with electrons if there were 10 to the 157th of them
available, which there are not, as there are only 10 to the 80th
fundamental particles in the entire cosmos. This time we would send
a man out in a spacecraft, have him stop in a solar system of his
choice, scoop up some matter and observe it through a super
microscope. What are his odds of pin-pointing the red
electron? Would anyone bet on his success?
Those are the odds against us if we
choose to believe that Jesus Christ coincidentally fulfilled the
prophecies about Him in the Bible. In the late Barton Payne’s
monumental catalogue of Biblical prophecy, he cited 122 Old
Testament predictions about Christ, not counting typological
prophecy. Following are several of those messianic
prophecies.
1. "The
scepter shall not depart from Judah...Until Shilow (Messiah) comes;
And to Him shall be the obedience of the people." Genesis
49:10
Every prophecy
regarding Jesus Christ eliminates certain segments of people who can
not fulfill that particular prophecy. By the time we look at
just a few, every human being on the face of the earth will have
been eliminated. But there are scores upon scores of messianic
predictions, which is why the odds of finding someone to fulfill
them is so astronomically low. It is far more likely that no
one would meet all the requirements of these prophecies. Jesus
Christ met them all, however, which is why their fulfillment means
first, that He is the one predicted and second, the predictions
could only have originated with God.
The above prophecy indicates that He
will come from the tribe of Judah. That eliminates every
candidate on the planet except those descendents of one Jewish
tribal founder, Judah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob.
2. "And it
shall be, when your days are fulfilled, when you must go to be with
your fathers, that I will set up your seed after you, who will be of
your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build Me
a house, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be
his Father, and he shall be My son; and I will not take My mercy
away from him, as I took it from him who was before you. And I
will establish him in my House and in My kingdom forever; and his
throne shall be established forever." According to all these
words and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak to
David."
1
Chronicles 17:11-15
From this messianic prophecy, we
know He will be a direct descendent of King David, a Jewish
conqueror living around the 10th century B.C. David was of the tribe
of Judah but the field just narrowed considerably.
3. "The Lord
your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst,
from your brethren..." Deuteronomy 18:15
This prophecy was offered by
Moses. Christ must be a prophet, and a prophet like Moses, one
who would present the Law of God and be a deliverer. Christ did
both, fulfilling the typology of Moses in a more complete and
substantial manner. He summarized the Ten Commandments by
presenting the ultimate law of God, that is to love your God and
your neighbor, and He became a deliverer for the entire human race,
not just the Jews. Today, all the major religions consider Jesus
Christ to be a great prophet and even skeptics refer to him as a
“religious prophet” from antiquity.
4. "For dogs
have surrounded Me; the assembly of the wicked has enclosed
me. They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My
bones. They look and stare at Me. They divide My
garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots." Psalm
22:16-18l
This prophecy is
taken from the 22nd Psalm. One of the things Jesus is reported to
have said while hanging on the cross is, “My God, My God, why hast
thou forsaken me?”, which is the first verse of the 22nd
Psalm. Although skeptics have asked why the supposed Son of
God would make such an utterance, it becomes clear why after reading
the psalm in its entirety. The verse quoted above is just the
beginning of an absolutely astounding treatise by King David because
it describes explicitly, from the perspective of someone actually
enduring such a tortuous episode, what it must feel like to be
crucified. This is the prophecy Christ was pointing to as he
fulfilled it with his infamous declaration. What makes this prophecy
even more fascinating is that David had no way of knowing about
crucifixion as a means of execution because it was not being
practiced at the time he wrote it. So now we must find a
prophet greater than Moses who is a direct descendant of King David
who is publicly vilified while looking down in agony on men who have
pierced his hands and feet.
5. "For you
shall not leave my soul in hell, Nor will you allow your Holy One to
see corruption." Psalm 16:10
This particular
prophecy adds yet another extremely unique qualification for the
predicted messiah. He must not only be a man who dies by the
method described in Psalm 22, but he must then defeat the grave,
body and soul. That effectively narrows it down to one person in
human history. Only Jesus Christ, because His resurrection is
a fully documented historical event exceeding all of the
requirements of historical investigation, can be considered.
So if a man fulfills a myriad of specific predictions about his life
and death and as a grand finale is the prime participant in the most
stupendous miracle ever reported, to the extent that not one shred
of evidence can ever be produced to refute it, then that man is,
most assuredly, someone to be taken very seriously.
It should also be pointed out that
anyone investigating messianic prophecy, if they have an honest
desire for the truth, will ask themselves the question as to whether
these scriptures were considered to be messianic predictions by the
Jews, the original caretakers of the writings in which they
appear. Skeptics have certainly asked that question and
generally accuse Christians of falsely labeling distinct prophecies
as messianic in order to support their theology. But very old
rabbinical writings indicate otherwise. The Mishna, the Midrash and
the Targums are ancient rabbinical commentaries on the Old Testament
in which numerous analyses of the very scripture verses presented
above attest to the prevailing view that these scriptures were
indeed messianic, meaning that they were believed by orthodox Jews
to be descriptions and predictions of one who would usher in the
Kingdom of God on earth. An exhaustive analysis of these ancient
Jewish beliefs was documented by Alfred Edersheim, a Jewish Hebrew
Scholar living in the 19th century, who converted to
Christianity. His book, The Life and Times of Jesus the
Messiah, recognized as a superior scholarly effort in the highly
critical world of biblical scholarship, documents this phenomenon at
length and in detail.
Unknowledgeable skeptics often claim
that scriptures that Christians say are predictions of the messiah
are falsely interpreted to support the Christian theological
position. They say that the scriptures in question are
actually speaking of some other historical personage or the nation
of Israel. But Alfred Edersheim and many others, through
legitimate and comprehensive biblical scholarship, have demonstrated
that charge to be prejudicial.
Following is a quote from the 53rd
chapter of Isaiah, considered by many ancient rabbis to be messianic
and only interpreted otherwise by Jews since the 11th century, by
which time a severe theological, hence political, schism between
Jews and Christians had developed. From then on scriptures
that had historically been accepted as messianic were translated
differently by many Jewish rabbis. In this case, Isaiah 53,
the one being spoken of is said to be the nation of Israel, which
severely stretches any honest reading of the entire
chapter.
6. He was
oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was
led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers
is silent, So He opened not his mouth. He was taken from
prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off (killed) from the land of the living; For the
transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His
grave with the wicked-but with the rich at His death, because He had
done no violence, nor was deceit in His mouth." Isaiah
53:7-9
Three hundred years after most of
the psalms were penned, Isaiah followed up on David's predictions
and described the unique circumstances surrounding Christ's
crucifixion. Above, the messiah is described as being resigned
to His death, as being a truthful, non-violent person and one who
willingly died for the sins of mankind.
7. "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you
shall come forth to Me The One to be ruler in Israel, Whose goings
forth have been from of old, From everlasting."
Micah
5:2
His place of birth, the town of
Bethlehem, was predicted by the prophet Micah.
8. "Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way
before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His
temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you
delight... Behold, He is coming," Says the Lord of
hosts." Malachi 3:1
This prophecy is in the last book of
the Old Testament and was written about 400 years before Christ came
to His temple in Jerusalem. So far the prophets have predicted
His birthplace, family name, platform and cause of death. The
date of his inauguration is next.
In the
next prophecy, given around 540 BC, Daniel predicted that after the
messiah was killed, Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed,
which it was by the Emperor Titus of Rome in 70 AD. Daniel's
prophecy eliminated all of humanity born after that date.
(Malachi's prophecy places the messiah's appearance in a 400 year
window of time between Malachi and the destruction of the temple by
Titus.) But Daniel's prophecy has other characteristics that
make it far more noteworthy. It actually qualifies as
one of the most amazing prophecies ever written. It virtually
eliminates every candidate for messiah on earth except the
celebrated carpenter from Bethlehem.
"Seventy weeks are determined
For your people (the Jews) and for your holy city, (Jerusalem) To
finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make
reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.
(messiah) Know therefore and understand, That from the going
forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah
the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The
street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome
times. And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off,
but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come
(Emperor Titus of Rome) Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
(Temple) The end of it shall be with a flood, (the word here
translated flood is used only twice in the Bible, both times in
Daniel, and does not mean a deluge of water. It means an
overflowing of anything, and is referring to the overwhelming
legions of Titus.) And till the end of the war desolations are
determined.." Daniel 9:24-27
The 62 weeks and 7 weeks Daniel is
referring to are weeks of years. (The word translated weeks actually
means units of seven in Hebrew and the context demands that it be
years) They add up to 483. (7+62) x 7 = 483.
Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem and was hailed as the messiah
exactly 483 years from the time Artaxerxes issued an edict to
rebuild Jerusalem in 444 BC. The Jewish year contained only
360 days so, 483 x 360 = 173,880/365 = 476 - 444 = 32. Between
1BC and 1AD only one year passed, not two, so if we add that year to
our figure of 32, we arrive at the very year historians think Jesus
was crucified...33AD. The mathematics and chronology on this
prediction are available in any unbiased commentary on the Book of
Daniel.
The Book of Daniel, because it also
has many other accurate historical predictions, has been severely
attacked by those who deny that miracles, such as predictive
prophecy, can occur. The book predicts the rise and fall of
four empires and specific events in their history, so skeptics
unjustly say it was written after the events. But even they
realize the Book of Daniel was accepted into the Jewish Holy
Scriptures long before the time of Christ because it is part of the
Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament completed
around 200 BC. So the messianic prophecy cited above can not
be denied.
This prophecy defies human
explanations. It is so extraordinary skeptics generally try to
ignore it. When linked to other messianic prophecies it
becomes conclusive evidence that Jesus Christ is the messiah
predicted in the Old Testament. No other person could possibly
qualify and that a qualifier even exists is a miracle.
We see
the messiah must be a prophet at least equal in stature to Moses, be
a direct descendent of David and be born in Bethlehem. He must
appear at the temple in Jerusalem 483 years after a specific edict
is issued and be a non-violent person who claims to die for the sins
of humanity. He must have His hands and feet pierced, be
killed undeservedly and have His clothes gambled for. He must
appear to be resigned to his death and must not suffer decay in the
grave. Case closed. Humanity hasn't produced
anyone meeting those requirements except Jesus Christ. He
meets them all explicitly.
Some skeptics say Jesus Christ
arranged His life in order to fulfill the Messianic
predictions. In one sense they are absolutely correct.
Jesus Christ, the living Word and a perfect fulfillment of the
written Word, is according to the Bible, God incarnate in the
flesh.
"And the Word became flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only
begotten from the father, full of grace and truth". John
1:14
He arranged His first appearance
from eternity past and completed that appearance according to the
descriptions His inspired prophets recorded. He initiated the
plan and carried it out. Fulfillment of the prophecies would
have been impossible for a mere man to arrange however. How
could a man arrange the place of His birth, the family from which he
would be born and a specific type of execution at a given time and
place? But for the sake of argument, let's say He bribed
everyone in the town of Bethlehem to go along with His ploy.
After that He influenced the official scribes, who kept meticulous
records of Jewish family lineage, to also keep His secret. He
then convinced the Jewish religious leaders and the Roman Governor,
who despised each other, to conspire, fake a public trial and
crucify Him. Not only is this idea preposterous, it means the
entire world honors a suicidal “confidence-man”, a fraud, as wise
and good. But even if all that were true, it still fails to
explain how He managed to orchestrate being placed in a position of
reverence by millions of believers centuries in the future. If
someone says He arranged the events of His life, they're saying a
lunatic predicted that His message would be preached and believed
globally and that it happened. (Mathew 24)
Other skeptics say the apostles
purposely fabricated accounts about Him in order to make them
conform to Old Testament prophecies. Something like that is
easy to say in an off-handed way but upon closer examination it is
absurd and irrational. If the apostles had tried to falsify
testimony about the life of Jesus, they picked the wrong time and
place to do it. They were preaching Jesus as the messiah, in
Jerusalem, within weeks of His execution, to hostile Jews who knew
as much about Him and His ministry as His followers. In fact,
He was eliminated because He had become so well known. He had
gathered such a large following that He represented a threat to the
existing power structure. If the details of His life had been
inaccurately portrayed, those hostile to the apostles would have
brought this to light immediately. Never was an argument
raised as to the facts of Jesus life - only His claims to divinity.
Besides, the writers of the New
Testament dedicated their lives and subsequently died for their
public statements that Jesus was the Messiah predicted in the Old
Testament. Why would they allow themselves to be executed for
a lie of their own fabrication?
Charles Colson, one of the notorious
Watergate conspirators, who has since submitted to the authority of
Jesus Christ, scoffs at a conspiracy theory. Colson, who ought
to know, says no conspiracy involving numerous individuals can stand
in the face of a threat to personal freedom, or especially, to
life. Some of the Watergate conspirators, including Colson,
readily sought a plea bargain when confronted with incarceration.
The disciples were boldly
proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah in the face of persecution.
But something far more profound than the intellectual understanding
that Jesus fulfilled the messianic prophecies caused the disciples
to become martyrs. They died for what they professed because
of His resurrection. They saw and spoke with Christ after they
witnessed His crucifixion, death and burial. It was this solitary
incident in history that laid the groundwork for their dynamic and
successful preaching about His role as messiah.
If the Old Testament had never said
a word about Jesus Christ, the resurrection would be enough to
validate His claims. The prophecies simply reinforced the
testimony of the apostles. They used the scriptures to
demonstrate that their risen Lord was indeed the same person who was
spoken of in scripture. Therefore, because the resurrection of
Christ is so tightly knitted with prophecies about Him, we will
diverge slightly from our examination of biblical foreknowledge and
consider that unique occurrence.
CHAPTER 14
THE PROPHET OF
THE UNKNOWN TOMB
Christian apostles were dedicated to convincing Jews in Jerusalem
that Jesus was the Messiah predicted in the Jewish Scriptures.
They used an argument that was to eventually shake the Roman Empire
and the entire world. They claimed that Jesus was the Jewish
messiah, that he had fulfilled all the messianic predictions made in
their own Holy Scriptures, and that he had then proven the
legitimacy of His messianic claim by coming back from the dead.
Their argument was hurriedly opposed by the Pharisees, a hostile
sect that had just manipulated the Roman Procurator Pilate into
executing Jesus Christ on a cross. Although the Pharisees had
been anticipating something unusual and had posted an armed guard at
Jesus’ tomb, they were not prepared for the apostles claim that
Christ had come back to life and were ultimately powerless to refute
it. But they tried.
How? Not by denying that the tomb was empty or by producing the
body, which they couldn't, but by denying that Jesus fulfilled what
they claimed to be a true picture of the messiah, a picture which
had Him appearing as a military leader, not a common Jewish
carpenter turned itinerant preacher from the “backwoods” of
Galilee. In order to stifle the apostle’s claim, they
immediately began levying the same charges against them that they
had made against Jesus in order to provide grounds for having him
executed. They said the apostle’s proclamation that He was the Son
of God constituted blasphemy, which is what they had charged Christ
with saying about Himself at His trial. It proved to be a
useless argument because they were never able to refute the fact
that He had risen from the grave and if that were the case He most
certainly was at least the Son of God. If there was anything
they could have done to squelch the claim - He is risen - they would
have.
They tried saying Jesus
disciples removed the body but that “political spin” is easily
dismissed by pointing out the lack of any conceivable motive for
such an act. The disciples were unanimously willing to die for
their pronouncement that they had seen and spoken with the risen
Jesus, their overwhelming sincerity attested to by their success in
spreading the gospel from one end of the Roman Empire to the other.
Ultimately the Pharisees, and later the Romans, had to resort to
execution as a way of silencing believers, just as they had with
Jesus.
Jesus tomb was found to be empty by
His followers and although many have tried, no one has ever been
able to offer a believable natural explanation. Nor has anyone ever
offered a plausible explanation as to why so many of His disciples
would testify, under threat of death, that they had seen and
spoken with Him after His burial. The fact that their testimony
could not be effectively countered is supported by the sudden and
phenomenal growth of the Christian Church. It was first
populated by thousands of Jewish converts in the very city where
proof of any deception would have been produced if it had
existed. The apostle’s appeal would never have been accepted
by Jerusalem's citizens if there was any real evidence against it,
especially by devout Jews whose foundational theology doomed them to
hell for believing in a false God - and Jesus was being presented as
divine.
The Book of Acts is a history of the
beginning and growth of the Christian Church. In Chapter 2,
Luke, a writer authenticated by archaeologists and historians as
accurate in every detail available about that period, tells us about
the first gospel sermon ever preached. It was by Peter in
Jerusalem and it appealed to the Jew's knowledge of Jesus' life,
ministry and resurrection as support for the truth of His
message. Peter told them to place their eternal destiny
in Christ's hands. They did not respond by saying Peter was
incorrect about the facts - but asked what they should do.
This was his answer.
"Then Peter said to them,
'Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus
Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of
the Holy Spirit." Acts 2:38
Luke says 3000 Jews submitted their
lives to the Messiah that day and judging from the eruption and
growth of the church, it must have been at least that many. Within
one generation of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection the church had
many more thousands of converts, Jews and Gentiles, throughout the
Mediterranean region and in Asia.
The most famous convert to
Christianity during the formative stages of the church was the
Apostle Paul. Saul of Tarsus, as he was known prior to his
conversion, was to eventually write most of the epistles in the New
Testament. But before that he severely persecuted the growing
army of Christians. He even participated in the murder of
Stephen in Jerusalem, a disciple who was boldly preaching the gospel
at a time when the political/religious powers were feeling
threatened and were inciting mob violence against Christians in
order to maintain their status. They had found it necessary to
eliminate Jesus but His disciple’s message of “free” salvation had
become even a greater danger. If the message was believed, the
demand for sacrificial animals the Pharisees were selling in the
temple would disappear, the “tithing” system supporting the
priesthood would be threatened and the political power they enjoyed
through control of an intensely legalistic 1st century Judaism would
be eroded.
Paul wrote that he witnessed a
personal appearance by Christ and it forced him to accept Jesus as
the messiah predicted in Scripture. He spent the rest of his
days preaching the Gospel. Here are his words as he spoke of
Jesus.
"...and last of all, as it were
to one untimely born, He appeared to me also" 1
Corinthians 15:8
Paul was
an influential and well educated Jew as well as a citizen of the
Roman Empire. After reading his letters, one realizes that he
was also an intelligent and critical thinker. A man like that
does not flip-flop in the middle of his life for an unsubstantiated
tale. In his letter to the Church in Corinth, Paul speaks of the
trials and persecution he suffered as a result of his
conversion. Among other things, he was imprisoned, stoned and
left for dead. But Paul and the rest of the apostles never
wavered in their passion to record Jesus’ mission for
posterity. Why? Because they saw Him alive after His
lifeless body was entombed. Although their course of action
ultimately resulted in their martyrdom, they never cringed.
Of course the resurrection of Jesus
Christ is the single most passionately debated theological idea in
history. And what sets it apart is that it is really not a
theological idea at all, as many skeptics and liberal Christians
would prefer it to be, but rather a historical event. And it is no
less a recorded historical episode than the crossing of the Alps by
Hannibal, the conquest of Asia by Alexander the Great or the burning
of Rome by Nero. The criteria utilized in accepting or
rejecting the evidence for the occurrence of those events should be
no different than the criteria used to decide if the resurrection of
Jesus Christ took place. And of course if it is, much to the
dismay of skeptics, we are confronted with more evidence confirming
that Jesus rose from the dead than for other ancient historical
events we take for granted.
We primarily know about the
resurrection because of the New Testament documents. As
detailed in Chapter 8, on the basis of accepted principals of
historic and textural analysis, they have been shown to be reliable
and trustworthy, meaning they provide eyewitness, primary source
evidence by morally credible men for the death and post-resurrection
appearances of Jesus. For example, 1 Corinthians 15:3, written
by Paul about 57 AD, only 25 years after the crucifixion, states
that he is passing on information given to him by those who were
there. His conversion took place just three years after Jesus
crucifixion so we can safely assume that his new associates, many of
whom witnessed Christ’s execution and post resurrection appearances,
immediately told him about everything they had seen.
"For I delivered to you first of all
that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again
the third day...and that he was seen by Cephas (Peter), then by the
twelve..." 1st Corinthians 15
John and Peter, eye witnesses to
Christ’s crucifixion and subsequent appearances, also contributed to
the historical documents we call the New Testament. In 2000 years
the authors of that potent collection of books and letters have
never been proven to be unethical, dishonest or deceived. Then
why did many Jews reject Christ as their Messiah? Why do many
continue to reject Him?
Prior to answering that question we
must understand that it is somewhat misleading. When Bible
critics ask it, they are implying that Jesus is not the
messiah. They are insinuating that Jews should be most
qualified to recognize their own messiah and if they rejected
Christ, we should accept their decision. But the question
should also be asked, why did so many Jews accept Jesus as the
messiah? Skeptics conveniently forget that the Christian
Church was first populated exclusively by Jews, in Jerusalem, where
the disciples claims could most easily have been countered.
According to Jewish religious beliefs going back centuries, the
decision to reject traditional Judaism and embrace Christianity
would have condemned them to damnation if they were wrong.
That is not a decision a Jew would make lightly or on flimsy
evidence. History testifies to the fact that the first Jewish
converts consisted of no small number, as they expanded within just
a few decades as far as Rome. But there are several reasons
for the rejection of Jesus by the Jewish religious hierarchy.
The Jews are the vehicle
through whom God offered salvation to the world in the person of
Jesus Christ. They are as intricately woven into God's plan as
the Messiah and the Bible. One can’t consider the Jewish
nation without considering the Scriptures, hence the messiah, and
vice versa. As we are seeing, the prophetic scriptures are
always fulfilled, and this is what Isaiah the prophet
said.
"Like one from whom men hide
their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took
up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him
stricken by God" Isaiah 53:3-4
God said through Isaiah that the
Jewish nation would reject the messiah, and they did. Again it
is clear. If the Bible says it will happen, it does. But
secular historians also offer a reasonable explanation. The Jews
expected their messiah to be a political and military deliverer, as
noted earlier. His dying wretchedly on a cross did not fit
that picture. In fact, they considered anyone “hung from a
tree” to be accursed of God and their messiah was certainly not
expected to be accursed of God. Rather, the hope was that he
would deliver them from Roman oppression. Even His disciples
misunderstood His mission until His crucifixion and resurrection.
According to the Scriptures, He will return as a conqueror and
judge, as the Jews expected of Him, but they did not understand that
the prophetic picture of their messiah necessitated two appearances
- the first as a humble servant intent upon the salvation of mankind
and the second as Lord and King. But they were motivated to
interpret the scriptures in order to suit themselves. The Jewish
rejection of Christ originated from within the economically powerful
and influential sect of Pharisees. Christ and His disciples
repeatedly exposed their claim to "righteousness through religious
works" as a sham, potentially eroding their political power and
stature within Jewish society. Listen to one of Jesus' rebuke
of the Pharisees.
"Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you devour widow's houses, and for a pretense make
long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation"
Matthew 23:14
They did not humbly accept this as
constructive criticism. His condemnation of their practices and His
growing popularity with the masses threatened their influence and
caused them to vehemently oppose Him. It finally drove them to a
murderous conspiracy involving one of Jesus’ own followers, Judas
Iscariot. They whitewashed their crime by labeling it as a
lawful execution. Even Pontius Pilate recognized it as a
kangaroo court but he feared that the Pharisees would report that he
was allowing a Jew to elevate himself above Caesar by claiming to be
the Son of God and “King” of the Jews.
After the
crucifixion the sermons preached in Jerusalem by Peter and Stephen
pointed to the resurrection but also accused the Pharisees of
killing their own messiah. This did not go over any better
than Jesus’ rebukes and the Pharisees denied the charge, of course,
in the same way any prosecutor would be reluctant to admit that he
had condemned an innocent man. The Pharisees felt compelled to
justify their actions by claiming that Jesus was not who He said He
was - even in the face of evidence for the resurrection. But
Jews who reject Jesus are no different than anyone else who rejects
Him, and they do it for the same reason. They refuse to submit
to His authority because if they do, they must sacrifice power over
their own lives or the lives of others.
We deal with end time prophecies
later, but we should note here that although Holy Scripture
predicted that the Jews would reject the Messiah, it also predicts
that, as a nation, they will ultimately embrace Him just prior to
His return. The 20th century has witnessed a steady world-wide
growth of Christian converts from Judaism, primarily calling
themselves Messianic Jews. Right now they are scorned and
ostracized by traditional Jews but the movement is gaining momentum
regardless. Is it coincidence?
Nothing in history has had more of a
profound impact upon the entire human race than the claim made in
Palestine 2000 years ago that Jesus of Nazareth had risen form the
grave. Men like Simon Greenleaf, the recognized foremost
expert on the rules of credible evidence in a court of law, have
converted to Christianity as a result of their investigations into
the historical evidence for the resurrection. Mr. Greenleaf lived in
the 17th century but the trend continues. In a book entitled
“The Faith of a Physicist”, printed in 1994, John Polkinghorne, a
theoretical particle physicist, devotes an entire chapter to
evidence for the resurrection, from the perspective of scientific
inquiry. And the library is filled with similar accounts of thinking
men from all walks of life who have come to believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God because of what was reported to have
happened in Jerusalem in the 1rst century. This book, a mere
syllogistic summary of converging lines of evidence for the truth of
the primary Christian claim that Jesus Christ is who He claims to
be, and that the claim has relevance to our eternal destiny, can
barely touch upon the volume of historical facts supporting the
resurrection of Christ.
Anyone setting out to show, through
an investigation of history, that Jesus Christ did not actually come
back to life after dying, will be forced into a very difficult
position. He will have to demonstrate that the New Testament
is not reliable history, a somewhat difficult enterprise,
considering that all the material typically considered “historical”
that is recorded in that “document”, like the names of public
figures, descriptions of geographic settings in Palestine and around
the Mediterranean, descriptions of cultural and religious practices
in the 1st century, have all been confirmed by archaeology. He will
have to justify the empty tomb and why a body was never produced at
the same time he explains away the numerous reports of Christ’s
appearances immediately after the tomb was discovered empty.
Maybe he could show that the disciples and apostles were frauds,
wicked or mentally unstable. This could prove to be troublesome
since their writings demonstrate a moral excellence rarely seen in
the annals of mankind. He will have to explain the explosive
growth of 1st century Jewish believers who, in the face of cultural
and religious exile, changed the Sabbath day to Sunday and were
willing to die for their beliefs. Maybe skeptics could
demonstrate that Jews from the first century were particularly naïve
and suicidal when compared to mankind in general. The skeptic
will be confronted with a formidable task because all of these
things have been thoroughly developed as evidence for the
resurrection by numerous eminent Christian biblical scholars.
The few serious attempts by doubters to explain away the evidence as
a conspiracy theory, or to rationalize the effects the risen Christ
has had on the world in general and individuals in particular, are
conspicuous in their bias against the supernatural. At the
bottom of the ledger, the only argument ever made against the truth
of the resurrection has been the insistence that miracles do not
occur in a natural universe, therefore a miracle of the magnitude of
the resurrection certainly did not occur.
When a naturalist feels hemmed in by
the evidence against his adopted position, he will usually resort to
the “miracles do not occur” argument, but sometimes will retreat to
the old stand by. He will smile shrewdly and say, ‘If God exists,
why doesn’t he show himself?’ As the messiah Himself pointed
out, if God raised a man from the dead, a skeptic wouldn’t believe
it anyway.
“He
said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they
will not be convinced even though someone rises from the
dead." Luke 16:31
CHAPTER 15
ISRAEL
It’s been said that King Frederick
the Great of Prussia, who was a rationalistic skeptic, challenged a
Christian chaplain to give him a clear and concise argument for the
existence of the biblical God. The chaplain quickly replied,
“The Jew, your majesty.”
We don’t know what happened next but
he may have went on to explain the astounding way in which the
Jewish prophets recorded their history, that is, before it actually
happened. The Bible is filled with prophecies and decrees
concerning the destiny of Israel that the Jews claim were inspired
by their God. The fact that what they wrote eventually
occurred exactly as predicted defies any type of natural
explanation, especially when the event signaling the beginning of
the grand finale of those occurrences simply has no historical
precedent. That incident took place on May 14, 1948 when David
Ben Gurion, Israel’s Prime Minister, declared her to be a sovereign
nation in the very same land she had originally conquered 3400 years
prior.
The prophetic and historic enigma
called the “Jewish nation” began with God’s promise to Abraham that
Canaan (Palestine) would become the possession of his “seed”, the
twelve tribes of Israel. Four hundred years later that covenant
became a reality after they were delivered from slavery in Egypt and
their destiny from then on is summarized in Deuteronomy, the fifth
book of the Torah. Moses, the writer, laid out a series of blessings
and curses which the Jews would receive from the Lord based upon
their obedience to Him as a nation. Obedience was to bring
blessing and disobedience was to bring the curses. There were
subsequent periods in Israel's history when its rulers established a
standard of obedience to God and the nation prospered. This
prosperity was especially evident during the reigns of King David
and his son Solomon. But the Jewish epic is overwhelmingly
pervaded by reigns of what their prophets describe as idolatrous and
evil kings and their society suffered the predicted curses.
After Solomon, they were overrun by Assyria and Babylon, the latter
destroying their first temple around 600 BC and forcing them into
exile for 70 years. Between about 500 BC and the time of
Christ they were placed in subjection to the Medo-Persian and Greek
empires. Finally, under Roman domination, during the siege of
Jerusalem the rebuilt temple was leveled again, the Jews were
scattered abroad and there they remained until Ben Gurion opened the
doors by reading Israel’s declaration of independence. Moses laid
all this out in broad outline form and later prophets continued to
embellish upon it.
First was the
promise to the patriarch Abraham.
"Also I give to you and your
descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the
land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their
God." Genesis 17:8
Ultimately Moses was not permitted
to enter the “promised land” himself but his writings, even though
they contained predictions that Israel would lose the land twice,
clearly stated that Canaan was forever earmarked for the Jews. So in
spite of their being forcibly removed from that land, once by
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and once by Rome for over 1900 years,
God's word through Moses and the prophets ultimately
prevailed.
Anthropologists, historians
and sociologists know better than anyone that the Jews are indeed
unique in the world. Whenever any ethnic group is conquered by
another civilization, or removed from their homeland into another
geographic area, invariably within several centuries and sometimes
within a few generations, they are assimilated and lose their
ethnic, religious and national identity. Although the dynamics
of history can not explain how the Jews managed to retain
distinctiveness for so long and then get their original turf back,
from what we are seeing, it is perfectly explainable. It was
written in the Bible that it would occur and so it has.
After the reformation, when the
Bible was basically made available to the masses against the will of
the Roman Catholic Church, a minority of Christian Bible scholars
were openly scoffed at for their insistence that the Jews would
again become an independent nation simply because the Bible said
so. But they refused to waver in the face of a growing
naturalistic and religious liberal trend. People like Charles
Spurgeon, Dr. John Cummings, James Grant and Increase Mather, who
lived from the 1600’s to the 1800’s, all went against the tide and
predicted an occurrence that must have seemed highly improbable at
the time. Today it is the skeptic who must buck the tide if he
seriously attempts to compare the prophetic body of scripture
regarding Israel against recorded history and rationalize the exact
parallel as a mere coincidence.
In any case, as noted above, God
included with his promise of the land some dire predictions as well.
Through Moses He said that the Jews would be taken from their land
for their disobedience and idolatry.
"But it shall come to pass, if you
do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all
His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that
all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.
Deuteronomy
28:15
"Then the Lord will scatter
you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the
other..." Deuteronomy
28:64
"I announce to you today that
you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land
which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess."
Deuteronomy 30:18
Moses also predicted that they would
regain it, as did numerous prophets following him.
"…that the Lord your God
will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and
gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has
scattered you." Deuteronomy 30:3
"And it shall come to pass in
that day that the Lord will thresh, From the channel of the River to
the Brook of Egypt; And you will be gathered one by one, O you
children of Israel." Isaiah 27:12
"Behold, I will bring them from
the north country, And gather them from the ends of the earth, Among
them the blind and the lame, The woman with child And the one who
labors with child, together; A great throng shall return
there. They shall come with weeping, And with supplications I
will lead them. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of
waters, In a straight way in which they shall not stumble; For I am
a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn. "Hear the
word of the Lord, O nations, And declare it in the isles afar off,
and say, "He who scattered Israel will gather him, And keep him as a
shepherd does his flock." Jeremiah 31:8-10
The Bible contains hundreds of
specific historical prophecies regarding the nation of Israel and
her people. They range from predictions fulfilled within the
lifetime of the prophet to forecasts of events thousands of years in
the future. Of course those forecasts regarding things that
took place within our own generation are especially significant, as
they cannot be refuted through radical or liberal biblical
criticism. Who can deny that we have seen a nation literally
born in one day (Ezekiel 38: 8), or that we have witnessed a
prolonged and seemingly irreconcilable feud between the Arabs and
Jews and the overwhelming dominance of the Jews in that conflict
(Psalm 83:4 and Ezekiel 35-38) or that we have seen the literal
blossoming with fruit of a land barren and wasted for 2000 years
(Isaiah 27:6 & Ezekiel 36:30)? And all this has happened
in conjunction with the predicted mass return of the Jews to their
old homeland from all over the world.
The overall phenomenon discussed in
this chapter is briefly but eloquently assessed in the following
paragraphs taken from a series of essays on prophecy that was
compiled by Robert C. Newman in a book, “The Evidence of
Prophecy”. This particular quote is from Samuel Kellogg’s
chapter on Israel.
“The conclusion from all this is
as clear and inescapable as it is important. Here is a nation
whose whole history from its beginning has been unique in character;
a people who, arising out of a race and age notable in the ancient
world for the grossness of its idolatries, have yet been the
undoubted source of all the monotheistic religion on the face of the
earth; a people who, without those outward and visible cords of a
common government and homeland, subjected for centuries to
circumstances which should naturally have resulted in their
extinction, have not only still survived, but have maintained a
national life and a separateness from the many nations among which
they have lived as has no other nation in history. As
Cristlieb says, “the people of Israel [are] a perennial, living
historical miracle.”
But the strangest fact of all
remains. This same peculiar people has a literature,
admittedly very ancient, in which all this unique experience is
predicted, written out centuries before it even seemed
possible. Is this all of no significance? Do these
unparalleled phenomena in the history of Israel mean nothing?
Can they reasonably be explained on purely naturalistic
grounds? Have we here nothing but the wonderful Jewish
“intuition”? Is there not the strongest reason to suspect the
presence in this history and in these prophecies an element which is
not of man, but from above man?
And when we observe that these
prophets expressly claim that this was indeed the case; that under
every pressure to the contrary, even when facing imprisonment and
death because of the words they spoke, they still never wavered in
the persistent assertion that the words they spoke were not their
own words, but God’s words, are we not compelled, as reasonable
people, in the light of 2000 years of unbroken fulfillment of this
prophetic history, to admit their claim and confess that, in a sense
which is true of the words of no other men, the words of Jesus, the
apostles and the prophets are indeed words of the living and
omniscient God; and that the books in which these words are found,
and of which they form an integral part, are indeed the very Word of
God, and are therefore to be believed and obeyed accordingly?
Can any reasonable and unbiased person escape this
conclusion?”
Although an entire portion of
biblical prophecy remains unfulfilled, that portion dealing with the
last days, all prophecy fulfilled to date has unfolded exactly as
anticipated, a phenomenon especially evident with the Jewish
people. The record is so accurate that to expect a
continuation of the trend would not only be logical but prudent,
which is an understatement a corollary might reinforce. To
think, even for a second, that the Bible's record of accuracy will
not continue would be irrational and reckless, because the God who
inspired prophets to unerringly record the future also inspired
those prophets to issue a warning. Paraphrased in broad terms,
that warning tells all of mankind to repent of its moral
transgression of the law of God or endure God’s
judgment. We have already seen the standard of law to be
enforced in that judgment and we are all guilty. To accept the
pardon offered by Jesus Christ would be a wise decision. Now
let’s take a look at another body of prophecy relating to our own
generation.
CHAPTER 16
A LIGHT TO THE
GENTILES
The Bible also contains many prophecies dealing with the Gospel of
Jesus Christ as a world wide phenomenon. Christianity’s eruption
onto the world scene 2000 years ago and subsequent position at
center-stage in the unfolding drama of human history can not be
explained by any natural historical process, as in the case of
Israel’s reinstatement as a nation. The only explanation that
makes sense is the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus
Christ.
But the reality is this. The sudden appearance and global
spread of a message of salvation to the Gentile nations originated
with the Jewish nation and was predicted in the Bible long before
the resurrection took place. This further authenticates
biblical foreknowledge as the stamp of God. Out of hundreds of
ethnic groups in existence 2000 plus years ago, one wrote that
assemblies of people from every nation on the globe would ultimately
revere a member of their own nation and it happened. That
speaks for itself. Read some of what they
wrote.
"And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, (from the
family of Judah and David) Who shall stand as a banner to the
people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall
be glorious." Isaiah 11:10
Gentiles was the term used by Jews to denote everyone else, in other
words, non Jews or the rest of the world.
"I, the Lord, have called You in
righteousness, And will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You
as a covenant to the people, As a light to the Gentiles."
Isaiah 42:6
"Indeed He says, 'It is too
small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes
of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also
give You as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be My salvation
to the ends of the earth." Isaiah 49:6
These were predictions that the
messiah would come for the world as a whole, and not just for
Israel. Following is another prophecy predicting that the
Gospel would be preached around the world. That has actually
happened as Christian missionaries have literally encompassed the
planet.
"You are my Son, Today I have
begotten You. Ask of Me and I will give You the nations for your
inheritance, And the ends of the earth for your
possession." Psalm 2:7-8
"For unto us a Child is given; And
the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be
called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince
of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be
no end." Isaiah
9:6-7
These scriptures clearly describe a
person to come who can only be adequately represented by one
historical figure, Jesus Christ. He is known the world over as the
one claiming to be the Son; His followers consider Him to be the Son
of God and these verses also plainly predict that He will effect
world-wide influence.
"And this gospel of the Kingdom
will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations,
and then the end will come." Matthew 24:14
This
prediction, made by Jesus Himself, warns that when the gospel is
preached to every ethnic group, the end will come, meaning He'll
make His return. Although there are still a few remote areas
where the gospel has not been heard, like nor | 
