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No Peace - No Messiah Page 2
According to Jesus’ own words world evangelism has to be accomplished in the time between his first and second coming. Therefore there must be an extended period of time involved, a much greater period than that anticipated by the early church which looked for the Lord’s return in their lifetime. Since the sad history of the church includes periods of great unfaithfulness to the original message of the Gospel this period of time has been extended to our own day.
The significance of our own day is that despite the continuing unfaithfulness of much of the visible church, the message of the Gospel is going out into all the earth. The effect of world evangelism is the only division which has eternal significance - not the division of Jew and Gentile, black and white, male and female, rich and poor – but the division of lost and saved:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, which when it was full they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels but threw the bad away. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 13:47-50.
Those who are saved receive new spiritual life which begins now and goes on into eternity. This new life is required to bring in the age of peace and justice promised in the Messianic age, and why there has to be judgement first. You cannot have a new kind of society without new people. The dismal failure of Communism to produce the better society it promised is a clear witness to this.
Jesus did not fail – nor is he going to fail!
Therefore the Christian doctrine of the second coming does not imply that Jesus failed the first time and is coming back down to have another go. Anything but. Jesus succeeded completely when he came the first time, opening up a fountain for cleansing from sin for Jew and Gentile alike through his sacrifice for the sins of the world. he fulfilled the Messianic prophecies to the letter. He was born to a virgin (Isaiah 7:14) in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). He preached a message of good news to the poor bringing release to those in captivity to sin and sickness (Isaiah 61:1-2). He laid down his life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, was executed as a transgressor, although without sin himself, prayed for those responsible for his death, was buried in a rich man’s tomb and rose again from the dead on the third day (Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, Zechariah 12:10, Psalm 16:8-11).
All this happened before the destruction of the second temple as prophesied in Daniel 9:25-26. This prophecy in Daniel actually says that ‘Messiah will be cut off but not for himself’ (speaking of the sacrificial death of Jesus) and that following this ‘the people of the prince to come (i.e. the Romans) shall destroy the city (Jerusalem) and the sanctuary (the Temple)’. The fall of Jerusalem will be followed by wars and desolations. As we have seen in the previous chapter this is a specific prophecy showing that the first coming of the Messiah is followed by the destruction of the Temple and wars and desolations. This counters the argument that the Messiah will cause the Jewish people to return to Israel, the Temple to be rebuilt and there to be an era of world peace and that since the opposite happened when Jesus came, he cannot be the Messiah.
Jesus will not fail when comes again either. At that time prophecies as yet unfulfilled will be fulfilled. He will come in the clouds of heaven (Daniel 7:13, Mark 14:62) and every eye will see him (Zechariah 12:10, Revelation 1:7). He will come with the ‘holy ones’ or saints (Zechariah 14:5, Revelation 19:14). The point of His return to earth will be the Mount of Olives, just outside Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:4, Acts 1:11). He will bring an end to the world conflict which will be raging over Jerusalem and will threaten the world with the final holocaust (Zechariah 12-14, Revelation 16-19). He will destroy the ‘Babylon’ world system responsible for all corruption and wickedness on earth (Jeremiah 51, Revelation 18). He will set up godly rule from Jerusalem bringing peace and justice to the nations of the world (Isaiah 2:1-4, Revelation 20:4-6). Following the Millennium (1000 years rule of Messiah) the world will end with one final satanic rebellion against the Lord after which God will create the new heavens and new earth which will last for eternity (Isaiah 66:22-24, Revelation 20:7-21).
Footnotes:
1. The Real Messiah? By Aryeh Kaplan page 71.
2. Operation Judaism Fact Pack compiled by Rabbi S Arkush. Pages 13-15.
3. Rabbi Alshech lived in Safed in Upper Galilee in the second half of the 16th century. This passage is quoted in ‘Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah’ by David Baron page 442.
4. ‘Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah’ by David Baron page 441.
5. Sukkot 52a
6. Sanhedrin 98a
7. ‘The New Christian Missions to the Jews – How should we respond?’ by Rabbi Arye Forta in L’Eylah – A Journal of Judaism Today published by the Office of the Chief Rabbi. Issue 25 page 22.
8. J.W. Etheridge, ‘The Targum of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel’ page 166-170.
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