The Coming of Christ Foretold: The Bible is often referred to as the inspired word of God. That is really a very simple way of describing God putting words in the writer’s head and the writer scratched them down on the scroll.
Throughout the Bible, God makes sure that His most important points are repeated often and this is especially important in the prophesies concerning the coming and return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are told 176 times that Jesus the Messiah will come. The story is told in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) in the writings of the prophets, but also in the Psalms more than 500 years before His birth.
Told in detail about the crucifixion of Christ
Take for example Psalm 22, which is not a prophesy of the coming of Christ, but a very accurate description of His crucifixion. Another interesting passage is in Isaiah 43, which likewise describes the happenings on that day. But God then tells his writers 257 times that Jesus will come back, not as a child, but as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
But there has always been disagreement on who the Messiah would be. Jewish scholars were looking for a military leader, who would crush the Roman occupation of Israel.
A mild, soft-spoken craftsman from Nazareth was not their idea of the person who would fit that job description. The disagreement rages on. Jews very much believe in the Messiah, just not Jesus.
Some Jews accept Jesus as the Messiah
Some Jews, however, accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, while still holding tightly to their Jewish traditions, so are they Jews or are they Christians? The answer in the opinion of this writer is that they are both. Christianity is just an extension of Judaism, and this is brought out nicely in the television series “The Chosen,” that depicts Jesus as being very Jewish.
Jesus said that he did not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. I think we’ll all know everything when He returns.
176 Prophecies on First Coming
257 Prophecies on Second Coming
433 Total Prophecies about Jesus the Messiah
Much debate about Jesus/Yeshua
Scholars have debated the prophesies of the coming and return of Christ for centuries. Jewish scholars have laid our their case for why Yeshua/Jesus could not be the Messiah, which has been argued and discussed down through the ages.
Christians find it difficult to believe the people don’t see that all of the Prophesies point to Jesus, but if it is impossible to prove the existence of God, it is likewise impossible to prove the deity of Jesus.
Faith is key to belief
That gets us back to a familiar and all-important point: FAITH. God wants us to accept His word by faith. Intellectuals will dissect every sentence, Theologians will examine every possible interpretation and some regular people will just believe what they want to believe.
The proper balance of knowledge and faith is essential. One should always know what they’re talking about. The evidence is there. Sometimes people just end up with opposite conclusions. What is really sad is people will sometimes know something is true, but they ignore the truth. They just don’t want to believe it.
Everything points to Jesus the Christ
The bottom line here is that everything in Scripture hinges on one essential and unavoidable question– what is the true identity of Jesus of Nazareth? The prophesies must point to a conclusion. The evidence is all there.
If Jesus is not the one the prophesies point to, then was there another, or when will Messiah come? Christians believe it all falls on Jesus. The rest of the world challenges that claim.