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Most likely the vast majority of our readership are Christians. We purposefully shaped this ministry for such a response for so much of what Christianity teaches today is totally wrong and inaccurate. Diligence in study will reveal that to a blind man but over the years of my Pastorate I found few, if any, Christians who really studied. It never ceased to amaze me when I would be in a discussion with a typical Christian about Messianism the topic would always come up about Yeshua fulfilling the Messianic prophecies. I always had fun asking them: "Which prophecy of the Old Testament did he fulfill that leads us to understand he was the Messiah?" Well of course I would get the typical New Testament quote or paraphrase of the numerous "fulfilled Messianic passages" from the New Testament. I would love watching their expressions when I retorted that these were not Old Testament fulfillments at all but were nothing more than Gentile scriptural creationisms arrived at by a host of manipulative techniques such as:
Belief in Yeshua as "the Messiah" is not easy when one reflects on the following which was prophesied to occur before or as the Messiah is revealed. I provide this for your reflection.
The Rabbis instruct us that when the "True" Moshiach comes there will be no doubt. It is said, "His arrival will be as evident as the hand on your arm." Asking then if the Moshiach has come in those days will be the same as asking is "Is this my hand?" His arrival will be accompanied by the following:
As a believer in the "true" historical Yeshua I am saddened when I realize that when Jesus came and afterwards....
The list of "potential" candidates is limited to say the least. More than likely Yeshua is our man. The Jews lived in hope that Yeshua was their Messiah up until his death. Even after his death Yeshua has said that "this" generation would not pass before all things be fulfilled. In reality this was Yeshua's statement of faith in hopes Israel would rise to the occasion and merit the prophecies being fulfilled. This meant the emergence of the Messiah. Knowing as well that in his ministry would not bring the desired results that would warrant the Kingdom and the emergence of himself as Israel's King, he was comforted with the hope of the Psalmist:
Ps 16:10
10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
In faith Yeshua was prepared to die if his death was expedient to the "blessed Hope;" the realization of the purpose of national Israel as a Priest to the nations. He understood he would be resurrected as God's holy anointed one and looked past the grave to the expectation of Israel's repentance that would bring the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies and his enthronement as King.
Answer for yourself: Understanding that the Jewish prophecies were not fulfilled, and remain unfulfilled today, yet who on the stage of history is most likely to have the "appointed candidate" to assume the position of the Anointed one of Israel as you look back on history? Honestly Yeshua is the most likely candidate. Certainty in this area of identification of Israel's Messiah escapes us except for those who lean more upon emotion than intellect and knowledge of the Jewish Palestinian text.
Of course I agree with the Jewish people that the Messianic prophecies as shown above remain unfulfilled and that no one as of yet has fulfilled them. In understanding this, then one is warranted in not calling anyone "the Messiah" since the works of the Messiah remain unfulfilled. One can rightly call Yeshua "anointed" but to say that he definitely is "The Messiah" must remain for now a product of emotion rather than fact. That means it is not proper to call anyone "the Messiah" for he has not yet appeared and taken David's throne and surely has not yet fulfilled these necessary Messianic prophecies. Too many times good people let their "emotion" dictate their reason and cloud their intellect. Too often good people lack the necessary knowledge to make an intelligent decision on the matter. The prophecies remain unfulfilled. This is undebatable. But that does not mean that potentially "the Messiah" has not appeared or will not yet appear to fulfill them. These prophecies must be fulfilled eventually. I admire David Flusser who is a well-know Hebrew scholar who when asked if he believed if Yeshua was the Messiah responded: "When the Messiah appears I will walk up to him and ask him…'Been here before'"? I think this says it best. Faith is a great gift but it must remain in the realm of things "hoped for."
Now pay close attention to what I say next. On our ministry's web page I take strong, I said very strong offense with anyone who misquotes, mistranslates, and lifts the Jewish Scriptures from the Masoretic Palestinian Hebrew text out of context in order to "create alternate theology" in hopes of passing off someone as "the Messiah" to unsuspecting and uninformed Gentiles in the first centuries of the Church (http://www.faithofyeshua.faithweb.com). This has been inherited in Christianity today and few know it. Few Christians know their Bibles are falsifications of the true Jewish Scriptures. Such forgery in Christianity goes undetected by millions. Such forgery in our Christian Bibles is masterminded by Gentile anti-Semites of the early centuries of the Church in their hopes of "selling" Yeshua as "the Messiah" to the Gentiles. He most likely was, but to call him "the" Messiah is not accurate; at least not yet! As "a Christ" and an anointed Rabbi he was, but the only designation defining the identity of "the Messiah" is if the Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled by him. This was to be his calling card. Sadly dear ones, due to the lack of spiritual maturity in the nation of Israel, the nation did not merit the Kingdom nor her King, and Yeshua perished at the hands of the Romans without ever becoming King of a Kingdom that never appeared. If Israel had be spiritually worthy in the first century then Yeshua would never had needed to die. Even more, if the nation had heeded Yeshua's warning that only 40 years remained for the prophecies to be fulfilled and had make the necessary spiritual correction within the timetable of Daniel 9, the Yeshua most likely would have returned to rule and reign over the nation and the prophecies would have been fulfilled at that time. I guess you noticed it did not happen, in fact, the judgment on Israel for failing so greatly it's calling was the destruction of the Temple and its scattering among the nations for two thousand years.
It is not my intention to be cruel or harsh but I must say something. To quote the rubbish passed off as "scripture" in the New Testament as fulfillments of Old Testament prophecies only betrays one's lack of true Biblical knowledge of the true Jewish Masoretic text that Yeshua knew and used. Too often as Christians we read "error" over and over and only reinforce untruths. The tragedy is that we never know it. It is a slow and tedious process but one must honestly compare line upon line and precept with precept when comparing the "fulfilled" passages in the New Testament against the Hebrew Scriptures from the Palestinian Masoretic Text. Then and only then will one see the difference for himself. Without such knowledge a Christian is literally helpless when it comes to ascertaining if what is described as "fulfilled" Messianic Scriptures in the New Testament are truthful.
Study was understood to be the highest form of worship in Yeshua's day. This is a lesson we have failed to hear or to learn. Thus we accept anything without critical assessment. The result is that we literally "canonize" lies and hold them dear to our hearts never knowing that much of what we hold sacred is to God sacrilegious. But I did not always know this. These ideas were slowly growing on me while I was in Seminary as I was being jolted even then by what I was learning which conflicted with what I had been told to accept by faith by my religious spiritual leaders in the various churches I had attended.
I did not always know about the problems that existed with the Christian Bible. Only by in-depth study over the years was I awakened to this nightmare. As I believe I am a man of integrity before God, I found myself continually being brought to a crossroads in my studies. Often I was challenged by those who wrote things that disagreed with what I "believed." In defense of my faith I would literally take "them on" and try to prove my position was correct and theirs wrong. For after all I was a Spirit-filled Christian; the Holy Spirit leads into all truth…right? Wrong! I wish it were so, but I and about 2 billion Catholics on this planet prove this idealistic passage in John wrong.
Taking the challenge given to me years ago by those whom I read which challenged my beliefs, I would later come to realize that knew God better me. When I could not prove them wrong which giving the evidence a more than fair hearing and literally reproducing their studies to verify what they had said was correct, than I had only one recourse to follow; I had to repent after not being able to prove my detractors wrong. What I came to see later is that these writers presented facts and information which could be verified by study and such valuable factual information proved what I accepted by "faith" to be wrong. Faith should be necessary only in the absence of facts and the absence of evidence. I could not prove those who exposed my faith as fantasy. After a laborious six months of manuscript study alone I was literally beaten into submission by the Jewish Tanakh which read differently in hundreds of places from my Christian Bible. We must remember we are expecting to have an English translation and not a fictional creationism. I realized I had the latter but yet it had a black binding which said "Holy Bible" on it. Little could be said to be "Holy" about such a travesty passed off upon the Jewish Scriptures. I had never took the time to look to see if my Christian Bible was a faithful translation of the Jewish Scriptures; I never known I needed to look. It never dawned on me that "my" Christian Bible was a horrible translation of the Jewish Scriptures. Understand such adulterated Old Testament passages in my Christian Bible was only "quoted" again wrongly in the New Testament! Now I had the duplication of error! My Christian Bible was wrong both in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament and I had a Master's Degree in Divinity and never knew it because my Seminary never taught us about such things. We took for granted we had the truth. Boy was I wrong! If you want the facts they can be seen at our four websites:
http://paganizingfaithofyeshua.netfirms.com
http://geocities.com/faithofyeshua
http://www.faithofyeshua.faithweb.com
http://web2.airmail.net/bennoah1
The same can be said for trying to prove Yeshua as "the Messiah" from the New Testament. The New Testament if full of "false prophecies" which when studied in-depth and compared with the Jewish Palestinian Masoretic text only discloses to the serious student a compilation of orchestrated and purposeful misquoted and mistranslated Jewish texts which have been cleverly taken out of context which are then twisted to make "false-fulfillments" that none of the original Jewish writers ever intended!!!! The hundreds of falsified non-prophecies when examined individually and compared with the true Jewish Bible and the Palestinian Masoretic Text (which reads completely different from your "fixed" Christian Old Testaments") reveals to the serious student the foolishness of such an attempt to present Yeshua as "the Messiah" in the New Testament. He more than likely was "the Messiah" in waiting, but owing to Israel's moral and spiritual failure in the first century, the prophecies could not be fulfilled and thus the Kingdom postponed and it yet awaits Israel's merit today. Misquoting and misrepresenting the Jewish texts only discredits those who do so and blasphemes God. Those who read such falsehoods and forgeries only join the line of prior blasphemers of God and His Word and never know it. We have stern warnings given through Moses not the alter or change the Word or God and such was done in the "selling of Yeshua" as Messiah to the non-Jews by Gentile theologians and monks who both controlled and altered the written documents which later would become the New Testament. Such is a discredit to Yeshua who said:
Matt 5:18
18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
But to tamper with the Jewish Scriptures in order to pass off Yeshua as "the Messiah" by the Gentile Church through altering and changing the Jewish Scriptures is a crime of immeasurable proportions! Understand that the vast majority of Christians have never read the true Jewish Scriptures for if they had and if they had taken the time to compare the Jewish Messianic Scriptures in the Jewish Tanakh against the Christian Old Testaments (line upon line, precept upon precept), then they would see of what I speak and my alerting the Christian community of such a damnable deed would not be necessary. In reality Christians have never read the Word of God before but only it's substitute handed down by anti-Semitic non-Jews. We can thank Constantine and Rome for such a gift of ignorance and deception.
Now, let us continue looking at "how" the Kingdom was to come and what the role of the Messiah was in bringing about the Kingdom in the next article in this series. More to follow. Shalom.