Many of you may have encountered the question, often expressed as a challenge, similar to the one I received from a visitor to this website in which the legitimacy of Yeshua's claim to being Messiah is questioned. It may be THE most often used argument/challenge from counter-Missionaries as they strive to counter the Messianic mission. Most counter missionaries and others who attack Yeshua and the New Testament faith use variations of the theme expressed in such a question as a primary weapon in their attack.
"... a friend of mine has give me a some literature stating that Yeshua cannot be the true Messiah because in order to be the real Messiah the following prophecies would have to be fulfilled.Can you help me out here - is the above correct and if so and Yeshua is the Messiah how come these prophecies have not been fulfilled?"
- World Peace (Isaiah 2:4; Ezekiel 39:9)
- Universal Knowledge of God (Isaiah 11:9, Jeremiah 31:33)
- construction of the third and final Temple (Ezekiel 37:26 on)
- End to disease and death (Isaiah 25:7, 35:5,6)
- The dead will awake to everlasting life (Isaiah 26:19; Daniel 22)
- Etc Etc Etc
This is an excellent question and worthy of a response. Often such questions worry Messianics, and they run for cover as they hastily try to avoid having to answer since they generally have no verses with which to adequately respond. Most Messianics stumble as they try to provide an answer and often have no answer. Such a non-response is evidence of a weak basis of faith and should never be present. Instead, we should remember the advice of the apostle Peter:
Well, there IS an answer to such questions, and it is simple. The secret lies in HOW to answer the question. Note that I earlier stated how most Messianics become anxious when the Messianic resume challenge is made because, as I stated, "they generally have no verses with which to adequately respond." Therein lies the solution to the Messianic dilemma faced when Yeshua's Messianic resume is challenged. Did I say solution? Did I mean to imply that having no verses still allows the challenge to be answered with clarity? Yes! In fact, the answer to the question does not need a single verse! The answer lies hidden in the challenge itself!
Let me get back to basics for a moment so that the beautiful simplicity of a legitimate response to those who challenge Yeshua's Messianic resume may be grasped.
The Bible is like any other book in the sense that it is assumed that the Holy Scripture's recording of history, instructions, and prophecies of future events will be read and applied using a comprehensive and common sense approach.
Within this website I repeatedly emphasize the comprehensive approach versus pick-and-choose Bible context shredding and common sense versus twisted distortions of Kabbalistic mysticism and "mystery." The more important of the two is common sense since the comprehensive approach is simply one ingredient of common sense. Comprehension is a subset of common sense. I emphasize these two basics of correct study with the hope that people will understand the critical importance of applying comprehension and common sense during their own personal studies.
It is that comprehensive and common sense approach, for instance, that utterly destroys just about all the arguments of those who wish to promote the concept of a mangod "God in the flesh" Messiah. Knowing this, the mangod promoters avoid the use of common sense and seek to ensnare people with all manner of mystical fantasy, context shredding, and extremes of speculation. They also often engage in "verse wars." Those who promote the particular error of Messiah's deity despise those like myself who expose their failure to apply God-given human common sense. No one likes to be shown to be foolish. Sadly, the mangod Messiah leadership camp is full of educated fools.
As hinted at in the previous paragraph, an almost universal error in Bible study is what I call the "verse wars" mentality, where Bible verses become artillery shells and missiles that are fired back and forth between people of opposing views. When people read virtually any other book, whether it be a fictional novel, textbook, or a recording of history, they apply a general common sense reasoning approach. They also seek to comprehend the entirety of the text and do not bother with the minutiae of extracting and dissecting every single word or sentence. They realize that the objective is to comprehend the overall theme or teachings of the text and not to entangle themselves in unreasonable and biased searches for contradictions or in areas of the text that are relatively trivial compared to the overall theme. My point is that with almost all other forms of texts, overall comprehension is the goal. The objective is to grasp an overall understanding of the major theme of the material.
Why then is a common sense reasoning approach so often abandoned when the Bible is read? Yes, despite denials to the contrary it is usually abandoned.
Most people wrongly view the Bible with a verse-by-verse mindset instead of with the intent to grasp the overall context of the message. They chop and slash the Bible into numerous not-so-neat little sections to which they apply bias. Traditional Christianity even has a fancy word for their hatchet job that they apply to 3 of their major Bible slices. It is called "dispensationalism." But MOST people, not just traditional Christians, study the Bible without using the same common sense reasoning approach they use to comprehend other literature they read. Actually, Judaism is just as bad or even worse since by equating Judaism's Talmudic literature to Scripture they magnify the problem immensely. It is for this reason that even people who have memorized hundreds of Bible verses are often still ignorant of the overall message of Scripture. They abandon the comprehensive approach and engage it "verse wars," which in the case of Judaic adherents includes the use of Talmudic traditions. Verses are launched back and forth between those who hold differing opinions, and thus the underlying basic comprehension of the totality of Scripture is lost or ignored. They get lost in the forest of Scripture because they are too busy focusing on the leaves of each verse, or even each word. When the effect of bias is included in the "verse war" scenario it is almost a certainty that comprehension of many of the main points of Scripture will never be realized or that they will be severely distorted. Likewise, when a "mystical" or "mystery" or "rabbinic" bias is added common sense is completely abandoned and the reader is doomed to a misunderstanding of Scripture.
The reason for the last few paragraphs was to emphasize to you that common sense MUST be applied when interpreting Scripture and that overall comprehension instead of slashing and subdividing Scripture (focusing on the forest instead of the leaves) is part of that common sense method.
Well, use of common sense reasoning provides the answer to the challenge put forth by counter missionaries that I focus upon in this article. Because of their abandonment of common sense and use of "verse wars," those who challenge Yeshua's Messianic resume commit a serious error in comprehension.
Ok, what is the basic premise behind the counter missionary challenge to Yeshua being Messiah?
At first their argument seems credible, even irrefutable. However, there is a fundamental issue they ignore. It can best be explained using the "cart before the horse" scenario.
Picture in your mind a horse pulling a cart. Now picture that the horse is in a race. When the horse crosses the finish line has he won the race? Yes? Well, what about the cart? Is the horse still the horse even before the cart crosses the line? Is winning the race defined by the horse or the cart?
Now picture a famous sports athlete. Before the athlete becomes famous is he not yet who he was AFTER his accomplishments? Did he cease to be who he was? Did he not exist until he became famous? Do the accomplishments define him, or is he already defined before his accomplishments?
Does WHAT you do or, more importantly, WHEN you do it, define WHO you are? Of course not! Yeshua will most certainly be used to bring about all those things but BEFORE he does it he will already be (and is) the anointed one.
Counter missionaries who use the "resume" argument are correct in their comprehension of some of what Messiah will accomplish during his earthly reign; however, they show a lack of common sense reasoning by FORCING Messiah to be defined PURELY by the accomplishments they itemize. Was King David a messiah (anointed) before he ruled? Of course! Scripture clearly shows that. Likewise, Yeshua is Messiah even though he is yet to reign from Jerusalem as God's anointed King of all the earth.
Messiah represents the horse and athlete in the previous examples. The cart and the athlete's accomplishments represent what FOLLOWS Messiah. Note what I said, the accomplishments represent what FOLLOWS Messiah. Yes, Messiah will accomplish those actions; however, the man Yeshua, who is Messiah, is ALREADY the chosen One BEFORE those accomplishments take place which FOLLOW his return to consummate the Kingdom of God on earth. He exists and is already chosen even before the Kingdom comes.
What counter missionaries define is the situation (note that - the situation) that will occur during Messiah's reign. Messiah is Messiah even before that situation and those accomplishments occur. If Messiah doesn't exist until such things occur, then Messiah will never be able to exist! He MUST exist BEFORE they occur; otherwise, he will never accomplish them. The horse is pulling the cart and crosses the line before the cart, but the horse is still the winning horse even before the cart finishes. Likewise the athlete is still the person he was after he becomes famous. All that changes is that he adds to his list of accomplishments.
This is really a common sense issue folks. What Messiah accomplishes does not affect who he is. He is Messiah BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER those accomplishments. Counter missionaries who challenge Yeshua's Messianic resume are "putting the cart before the horse!" All of the things those who use the resume challenge point out will be accomplished by Messiah in the world to come, but they do not necessitate who Messiah is and they do not PRECEDE Messiah, they FOLLOW him.
I hope you get my point. I was intentionally repetitive in hope that you could grasp the simplicity of this response to counter missionaries.
But some will scoff at this by claiming my response is illegitimate because Yeshua did not accomplish those things before his death, and it is here that we get to what counter missionaries truly reject. In fact, it is this same rejection that permeates ALL of their arguments. They reject the New Testament, and thus they reject the promise of the resurrected Messiah Yeshua's return to earth to establish the Kingdom and fulfill the very prophecies they use to challenge his Messianic claim.
Remember earlier I asked, "Does WHAT you do or, more importantly, WHEN you do it, define WHO you are?" Anti-Missionaries who dispute Yeshua's being the Messiah are, to be precise, disputing the WHEN regarding Messiah's accomplishments. They demand that their "when" is the only legitimate time "when" Messiah can accomplish what they itemize as being Messiah's resume. However, even Judaic counter missionaries accept that there will be a resurrection of the dead. What they refuse to consider is that Messiah will be returned AS the resurrected Messiah to COMPLETE his mission by fulfilling the prophesied accomplishments that they hold forth as a challenge to his Messianic resume. They refuse to consider that the "WHEN" will be upon Messiah's return. This represents another way in which they "put the cart before the horse." They err in the "WHEN" of Messiah and wrongly demand that God adhere to their timeline and Plan instead of them adhering to His.
At this point we necessarily enter into the realm of faith. Can Judaic counter missionaries prove Moses existed and received the Divine teachings from God at Mt. Sinai? No. They accept it by faith. Can Judaic counter missionaries prove all of the historic accounts of the Tanakh? No. They accept it by faith. Can Judaic counter missionaries prove the Tanakh is infallible? No. They accept it by faith. Can they prove Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal at Mt. Carmel? No. They accept it by faith. Can they prove God created all things in the universe from nothing? No. They accept it by faith. etc.... If they tell you otherwise they are either lying or foolish. They and I accept those things by faith.
Yet, even though there is FAR more manuscript evidence and recent (relatively speaking) history to prove the New Testament to be reliable, they apply a double standard and reject that it can be accepted by faith to be true.
Do Judaic counter missionaries have the history of devotion to their faith to be proof of Scripture? Yes, but Messianics like myself have FAR more who would testify to the faith. Can Judaic counter missionaries show evidence of Judaic influence as evidence of the truth of Scripture? Yes, but Messianics like myself have had FAR more influence. The fact is it is NOT Judaism that has spread the concept of the God of Scripture to the world. It is Christianity; therefore, despite the doctrinal errors of Christianity, it has done FAR, FAR more to advance God's Kingdom that has Judaism.
So why do Judaic counter missionaries feel ONLY they can legitimately use faith as their primary evidence but Messianic followers of Yeshua cannot? That is a question for another day and one you should consider. The ultra-Semitic double standard of Judaic counter missionaries is repulsively elitist and vain.
Of course, all those within Christianity who believe in a "heaven when you die" existence and who deny the future earthly reign of Messiah are blown out of the water by the counter missionary challenge we discussed. They truly do have NO legitimate response. Their only reply is to allegorize and spiritualize the many prophecies used in the challenge into mindless nonsense. They thus reveal a SERIOUS lack of both Biblical comprehension and common sense. I will not elaborate on that except to say such people are WAY, WAY off the mark and in need of a big dose of anti-bias and common sense before they will even begin to grasp some of the most basic aspects of truth. I was a member of such a group, the church of Christ, for many years. One of the many reasons I left was their outlandish denial of the future earthly reign. It is with such people that counter missionaries have their greatest victories.
So, the response to the original challenge is simple. Messiah will accomplish those prophecies when he returns. They FOLLOW his anointing and do not define him as Messiah since it is God who anoints him, NOT the Judaic counter missionaries who choose to reject God's anointed one. The positions of Messiah and God are already taken, and it is time for counter missionaries to realize they are neither.