Christianity Clarified Volume 53

[0:00] Christianity Clarified, Volume 53, Track 1, The Jewish and Christian View of Prophecy. We continue engaging the struggle between Jews and Christians regarding the identity of Israel's promised Messiah. Jews, in good faith, are persuaded Jesus was not God's promised Messiah, and they continue to await their real Messiah to make His appearance.

[0:26] Christians, in equally good faith, believe it was Jesus who clearly fulfilled the promises God gave through the Jewish prophets. Our request for both groups is for objective weighing of the evidence. In doing so, one can at least, whether Jew or Gentile, say the issue was given a fair hearing.

[0:50] We would also repeat the previously asked question put to both Jews and Christians, and it is simply this. If what you now believe about Jesus being or not being the Messiah is not true, would you want to know it? And as regards the evidence for Jesus being the Messiah, Christians have no better place to go but the New Testament. Jews, after hearing the record of fulfillment in the New Testament, will have to decide whether to accept that record, and if not, should be able to give reasons for their rejection of the New Testament record of fulfillment in order to satisfy their own intellectual honesty. In not accepting the New Testament, they must, of course, limit themselves to the prophecies given in the Old without any record of their fulfillment, because apart from the New, there is no record of the fulfillment of prophecies, not only about the

[1:56] Messiah, but about many other prophecies in the Old as well. For that, one must consult the New, which records scores of Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah and other issues.

[2:10] In rejecting the New Testament, Jews are left with a strikingly incomplete account. With the Old Testament alone, one is left without an end to the story.

[2:23] Both testaments are necessary to capture the entire saga of redemption, the Bible's major theme. It records a story spanning thousands of years. The Old Testament alone leaves the drama of redemption hanging without any resolution or closure. It's like an author who has written a two-act play, but presents only the first act. That is precisely where the Old Testament leaves one when not followed with the rest of the story as it records fulfillment in the New. And as we consider only the more well-known Messianic prophecies which the New Testament documents as fulfilled by Jesus, then both Jews and Christians are asked to examine them and determine whether they ring true or false.

[3:16] But at least they will have been heard, even if subsequently rejected. Intellectual integrity, it seems, at least requires they receive a hearing.

[3:30] Will you examine them with us? Christianity Clarified, Volume 53, Track 2, Isaiah 7 and Luke 1 The Jewish prophet Isaiah made a most stunning prediction imaginable in his seventh chapter regarding the arrival of the Messiah. He wrote, Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel.

[4:00] The New Testament fulfillment of this 700 years later is recorded by Luke in chapter 1. Having heard the angel Gabriel say she would be honored by God to be the bearer of the Messiah, the Virgin Mary replied, How can this be, since I do not know a man?

[4:19] The angel answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore that Holy One that is to be born will be called the Son of God.

[4:31] As impossible as this sounds to us, it did also to Mary. The angel concluded by informing her, Her cousin Elizabeth, even in her old age, is also going to bear a child, and is already six months along.

[4:49] For with God, said Gabriel, nothing is impossible. Joseph, to whom Mary was engaged, was told of the entire matter in Matthew chapter 1.

[5:00] Of course this is all humanly impossible. That's why the entire situation qualifies as a miracle. Could not the God who created the heavens and the earth handle a supernatural pregnancy?

[5:16] In fact, two supernatural pregnancies, one from Mary without the aid of a man, and one from Elizabeth well past the age and possibility of becoming pregnant.

[5:26] And why was it necessary that Jesus be born under such extraordinary circumstances? But had He not been born such, He would have been conceived as all the rest of us, necessarily with a corrupt human nature that marks all of us as fallen creatures.

[5:46] Such a condition would not befit one who needed to be without sin. And because He was without sin, He was eligible to redeem those who were in sin.

[5:57] In this role, He was the sinless Lamb of God, capable of paying the price of redemption, which was, of course, His death in substitutionary atonement.

[6:10] Jesus became the fulfillment of Israel's sacrificial Passover Lamb. This is what the striking prophecy from the pen of the Jewish prophet Isaiah is all about, as he foretold it 700 years prior to the birth of Jesus.

[6:28] Israel's animal sacrificial system, imposed upon the Jews at Mount Sinai by God, found its culmination in that one final sacrifice made by Jesus as God's Lamb to take away the sin of the world.

[6:46] This would become the singular event of all time for the entirety of the human race, via Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[6:57] Little wonder, then, Jesus Himself said in John's Gospel, chapter 4, salvation is of the Jews. And hallelujah, what a Savior!

[7:09] Christianity Clarified, volume 53, track 3. Genesis chapters 12, 26, and 35. No prediction of any Jewish prophet has such past and future worldwide implications as that given by Moses in Genesis chapters 12, 26, and 35.

[7:30] Chapter 12 records, I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. And again, in chapter 26, God addresses Isaac, saying, I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven.

[7:49] I will give to your descendants all these lands, and in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Later in chapter 35, to Isaac's son Jacob, the promise is repeated when God says, The principal seed of which the prophet spoke is that, of course, of the Messiah, promised to be sent by God.

[8:16] And in the main, he it would be who would bless the nations of the world by his own substitutionary death for the sins of all humanity. This payment, made by his sinless sacrifice, would swing open wide the door of access to God through the Messiah.

[8:36] There could be no greater blessing for the human race than that. Isaiah 53, to be considered later, spells out in detail what the Messiah as the suffering servant would have to endure in order to become that vehicle, bringing worldwide blessing.

[8:54] Gentiles for certain, and even many Jews, have no idea how strategic and central to the cause of all humanity is this promised Messiah.

[9:06] His accomplishments, in particular his death and resurrection, are beyond any other events since creation as to its strategic necessity.

[9:17] If Gentiles understood this, anti-Semitism would cease, replaced with a profound sense of gratitude toward Jews and things Jewish.

[9:28] And, if Jews understood this essential theme to have been vested in Jesus of Nazareth, the world would be brought together in a way never before realized.

[9:39] This is precisely what the prophets have foretold. Though far from realized in our present day, so filled with division and strife, this togetherness promised will come to pass in the second coming of the Messiah.

[9:55] It is as certain of fulfillment as was the prediction and fulfillment of his first coming to Bethlehem. Since the time of his first coming, promised in Genesis 3, until its fulfillment, 4,000 years had passed.

[10:10] And since his first coming, 2,000 more have passed. Our confidence in his second coming rests in the fulfillment and reality of his first coming. And though our Jewish friends do not see it this way, the evidence powerfully points in this direction.

[10:27] Jews, as well as Christians, will at least want to hear the evidence. Then, each can make up their own minds. We will pursue it upcoming.

[10:38] Please come with us. We'd love to have you join us. Christianity Clarified, Volume 53, Track 4. Psalm 8, Hebrews 2, 2 Corinthians 5.

[10:52] To simplify the previous segment regarding the strategic necessity of the Messiah who would impact the entire world, supporting reference is given in Psalm 8.

[11:03] Here, the psalmist addresses God and asks Him, What is man that you have thought of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than God, and you crown him with glory and majesty.

[11:20] You make him to rule over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet. This is clearly a messianic reference of which the psalmist speaks.

[11:32] Jesus, throughout his three-plus years of public ministry in Israel, most often referred to himself as the Son of Man. This was in addition to his being declared the Son of God, even in an audible voice from heaven on two different occasions.

[11:51] As the Son of God, Jesus represented his Father in heaven, and as the Son of Man, He represented the entirety of humanity on earth, from Adam onward.

[12:03] He reconciled the two in his own sacrificial death, erasing the debt of sin against humanity. In the New Testament, which Jews find unacceptable, significant content is found in chapter 2 of the letter to the Hebrews.

[12:21] It is in fulfillment of the Psalm 8 passage referenced earlier, speaking of and to God the Father, You have put all things in subjection under his feet.

[12:34] Subjecting all things to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. But now, we do not yet see all things subjected to him, but we do see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus.

[12:50] Because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.

[13:01] For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, to perfect the author of their salvation through suffering.

[13:13] It is difficult, if not impossible, to separate this fulfillment in the New Testament from the prophecy of Psalm 8 in the Old, the Jewish Tanakh.

[13:25] They both set forth the concept that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Thus, he balanced the moral scales of the universe.

[13:37] It is also reiterated in 2 Corinthians 5 that states, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.

[13:48] This fifth chapter closes with an utterly magnificent claim that God made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, that is, in Christ.

[14:03] And you can see, can you not, why the Bible places such a profound emphasis upon this reality. Indeed, not since creation itself has anything occurred of such importance.

[14:18] Christianity Clarified, Volume 53, Track 5, Messiah Must Come from Judah. A truly remarkable passage with great bearing, not only on history, but prophecy as well, both fulfilled and unfulfilled, is found in Genesis chapter 49.

[14:36] The patriarch Jacob, son of Isaac, and grandson of Abraham, is on his deathbed. Surrounded by his 12 sons that he would soon leave behind, he gives a prophecy that will come true of each of his sons.

[14:53] And of the 12, it will be Judah, the fourthborn, upon whom a remarkable prophecy is uttered. To him Jacob said, Judah, Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise.

[15:08] Your hands shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's children will bow down before you. You are a lion's whelp, and as a lion, who shall rouse you?

[15:21] The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes. And to him shall be the obedience of the people. Most scholars, Jewish and Christian, believe the term Shiloh refers to the coming Messiah.

[15:39] Prophetically, the royal line of Judah as a dynasty will be established beginning with King David, the previous shepherd lad. Thereafter, every king that will occupy the royal throne in Jerusalem would be a direct descendant of Judah and David.

[15:57] Matthew chapter 1 and Luke chapter 3 both reveal the precise genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth, Messiah of Israel. Judah is in verse 3 of Matthew 1, and the passage records the genealogy of Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus, thus allowing legal throne rights to be bestowed on Jesus, the adoptive son of Joseph.

[16:24] Royal throne rights were derived from his mother Mary, also a direct descendant of Judah through David the king. Those references, plus that of Hebrews chapter 7 reminding us it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah.

[16:42] And even more stunning is the record offered by St. John the Apostle in the book of the Revelation chapter 5. It says, John, Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seals.

[17:03] And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures stood a lamb as though it had been slain. This is such a remarkable content, and so far removed from coincidence it is incalculable.

[17:18] In his first coming, Jesus was a sacrificial lamb corresponding to Israel's annual sacrifice of the Passover lamb, which, by the way, was the very same day on which Jesus was crucified as the lamb of sacrifice.

[17:36] But when he returns, it will be as the conquering lion who will claim what he paid for when he came the first time. It all fits just as we should expect an inspired record to fit, and we have every reason to rejoice in it.

[17:55] And we do. Christianity Clarified, Volume 53, Track 6, Messiah Must Come Out of David, Part 1 Unquestionably, the statements found in Psalm 110 appear among the most mysterious in Scripture, but only on the surface.

[18:15] The writer of the psalm is David the king who lived a thousand years before Jesus was born. David wrote, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I put thy enemies beneath thy feet.

[18:32] Then Jesus asked the Pharisees, If David then calls him Lord, how is David his son? They had no answer. And again, on the surface, the quote sounds much like double talk.

[18:46] How can David call the Messiah Lord and yet have the Messiah to be David's son? It appears to make no sense at all. And we can see why the Pharisees were too puzzled to even offer an answer.

[18:58] Well, the answer is, David did live a thousand years before Jesus, the Messiah, was born. No doubt about it. And the only way this riddle is solved is the realization that despite Jesus of Nazareth not arriving on earth as the Messiah until the first century, that spoke only of his humanity.

[19:17] In that respect, he was indeed David's son. But in his deity, Jesus as the Son of God preexisted David the king, having the same eternal nature as God his Father.

[19:30] That is what made Jesus as the Son of God David's Lord. His physical birth, wherein he was the human incarnation of God born in Bethlehem, made him David's son.

[19:43] Such, of course, necessitates the preexistence of the Son of God with God his Father from all eternity. And while this explanation is rejected by official Judaism, not only do they not have a better answer, they today still have no answer at all, much like the Pharisees of Jesus' day had no answer.

[20:04] That's because there is no other answer. Not only is that the only answer, but it comports beautifully and agreeably with all other explanations regarding the being and nature of Israel's Messiah.

[20:18] Jesus, as a human being, did not exist prior to Bethlehem. It was only then that the name Jesus was given him. The angel Gabriel told Mary, Thou shalt call his name Jesus.

[20:31] He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end.

[20:43] And Mary said to the angel, How can this be since I am a virgin? The angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God.

[21:02] And before critics began objecting, That can't be. That's crazy. That's fantasy. Mythology. Plain and simple. Well, then they must contend with the simple explanation offered by the angel when Mary also considered it impossible because she was a virgin.

[21:19] And Gabriel patiently explained, With God nothing is impossible. Let's pursue this explanation somewhat up next.

[21:32] Christianity Clarified Volume 53 Track 7 Messiah Must Come from David Part 2 In 1 Samuel chapter 16 it is David the shepherd lad who was anointed by the prophet Samuel to be the next king of Israel.

[21:48] David, as the youngest of eight sons of his father Jesse, was looked upon as the least likely for the honor. But David was God's choice from the beginning. And despite his later sins and other foibles, it would be David alone who would be spoken of as the man God would cast in the role as a type of the Messiah, who was to directly descend from David a thousand years later.

[22:14] All Jews knew that when their Messiah makes his appearance, he would be known as the son of David. And as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, some in the crowd were heard to shout, Hosanna to the son of David.

[22:30] They were among those who believed Jesus of Nazareth to be their long-awaited Messiah and obviously knew Jesus to be a descendant of David. But there were also Pharisees in the crowd that demanded Jesus make his followers stop shouting that.

[22:47] And these were among those who did not believe Jesus was the Messiah. And to them, Jesus replied, If these become silent, the stones will cry out.

[22:59] It appeared to be Jesus' way of saying he would not be denied as Israel's Messiah, nor would he order his disciples to stop saying that. Luke's Gospel, chapter 19, describes the whole scene.

[23:13] And it was here also, at this scene, Jesus wept over Jerusalem because they did not understand the true significance of his arrival. Jesus, being not only the son of David biologically, but also is identified as David's Lord.

[23:31] Whatever could that mean? It was the question Jesus asked of the Pharisees in Matthew 22 when he turned to them and said, What do you think about the Messiah?

[23:42] Whose son is he? They replied, Well, he is the son of David. And then he asked them, Then how does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies beneath thy foot.

[24:00] If David then calls him Lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to answer him. This incident in Matthew has to be one of the most telling and dramatic in describing the true identity of Jesus.

[24:16] Jews regarded all of their ancestors as their father. They were not talking in terms of immediate father as in the preceding generation like we use the term father today.

[24:28] All Jews, for instance, even today, regard Abraham as their father even though he died thousands of years ago. In talking to the puzzled Pharisees, Jesus was quoting a well-known passage to all Jews, but one they never understood.

[24:45] It is God the Father who is speaking to God the Son in Psalm 110. And it reads, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet.

[24:56] Jewish scholars, to this day, find it an entirely unintelligible statement. But it makes very good sense if it refers to God the Father speaking to Jesus, his Son.

[25:09] And all the remainder of Scripture insists that it does. More of this enigma is up next. Christianity Clarified, Volume 53, Track 8.

[25:20] Messiah is the Son of God, Part 1. An astounding writing of the Jewish psalmist is recorded in Psalm 2, verses 7 and 8, that read, I will declare the decree.

[25:33] The Lord has said to me, 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.

[25:46] Then in verse 12, Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in him.

[25:58] It was the Jewish rabbi Shimon bar Yochai who explains the phrase Kiss the Son in these words, You are the faithful shepherd.

[26:10] About you it is said, Kiss the Son. You are great here below, the Lord over all of Israel, the Lord of the ministering angels, the Son of the Most High, the Son of the Holy One.

[26:24] Blessed be he and his Shekinah. That quote is from the Jewish source Zohar, part 3, page 307a.

[26:35] And add to Psalm 2 that which is found in Psalm 89, verses 26 and 27. He shall cry to me, You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.

[26:50] Also I will make him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. Well, for those disputing the eternal Creator God, having a Son of the same essence and nature of God the Father, they have our sympathy.

[27:07] But they certainly do not have our concurrence. Attempting to understand and limit the almighty, infinite God by applying standards of humanity to Him is completely off the mark.

[27:21] We cannot gain an understanding of God by imposing our known parameters of being to Him and expect Him to be confined to our assessment.

[27:33] God simply will not comply by being precisely what we believe and want Him to be, and nothing more. He is as He is, and as He has been pleased to reveal Himself.

[27:46] Theologically, God is free and unencumbered, and by defining God's freedom it has meant that He conducts Himself in accord with His own good counsel. His being and power are without limitation.

[28:00] If God has what we might call limitations, they are only those that require Him to be true to His own nature and character. God cannot be untrue or contradictory to His own holy nature.

[28:12] The gods of the pagans, Romans, Greek, and others were all deities of capriciousness, fickle, irrational, possessing all other traits that characterize fallen humans.

[28:26] It is not so with the thrice-holy God creator of the universe. Here is another question that we should ponder. Do you think God has seen fit to reveal all that He is and all that He is about only in nature and in the Bible?

[28:41] And if God is infinite and we believe Him to be so, there is much about Him He has not disclosed. There are, of course, many things about God and man that are wholly different, not only in degree, but in kind as well.

[29:08] Still, there are also areas where we assume God is totally unlike humans. And perhaps the most pronounced of these areas is that of God having a Son.

[29:20] To many humans, such is unthinkable because they believe were that the case, the Son must have come into being as our sons come into being. A male conjoins with the female and a son is born of the two.

[29:36] Assigning such an arrangement to the Creator God of the universe is unthinkable. And we would concur. Our misunderstanding lies in the erroneous idea that there could be no other way a Son could be in the picture except via this method.

[29:53] However in the world could we arrive at such an idea? Such would be to limit the deity to an operation that defines humanity.

[30:04] We have no right to do that. Our fallacy is in assuming the Son of God to be the product of the Father and in human terms then to have also involved a mother.

[30:19] We have made in the past much of faulty assumptions and will continue to do so since that is the seed of much error. And there is a gross faulty assumption in humanizing the deity.

[30:36] I suspect that is related to the fact that the eternal Son did take upon himself human flesh and become the God-man Emmanuel.

[30:46] But his existence predated Bethlehem. That is why and how he could make the stunning statement in John chapter 8 saying before Abraham was I am.

[31:02] Simply put for God to be a Father and have a Son there need not have been the arrangement like that of mere mortals in order to bring it about.

[31:13] In part this was because the Son was not brought about. The Son is eternal as eternal as is his Father. I know I know that does not compute with us.

[31:27] Of course it doesn't. It does not with Jews and it does not with Muslims either. Nor does it compute with Christians if all we have to bring to the issue is the limitations of human comprehension.

[31:42] Let's face it neither God having a Son nor the Holy Spirit being added constitutes the divine trinity. None of that computes with existence as we see it whether divine or human and that's just the problem.

[31:57] we are unwilling to allow God to depart from what we can comprehend him to be. But we may be assured of this if we refuse to embrace the being of God unless we can get our brains around him we do both God and ourselves a major disservice.

[32:18] And to insist God can't have a son unless he got him the way we get ours qualifies as one of those major disservices for certain.

[32:31] Christianity Clarified Volume 53 Track 10 God Can Do a God Thing The unbelief and arrogance found in some humans and their assessment of things miraculous is something to behold.

[32:48] There are those who regard themselves as being of such superior intellect that they are prepared to say what can and cannot be. And the birth of Jesus of Nazareth to his mother Mary without the usual involvement of a male partner just cannot be.

[33:06] No siree. Impossible. Well of course it's impossible. If it were possible it wouldn't be a miracle now would it? Some humans and today perhaps more than ever are persuaded there are natural confines for these issues that simply cannot be bridged.

[33:29] We fully concur. That's why the virgin birth is not confined to the natural but is right at home in the sphere of the supernatural. To add to the completely unnatural conception that Mary would experience the angel Gabriel had earlier thrown in another just can't be possible situation about another woman and another pregnancy.

[33:57] While Mary couldn't possibly become pregnant without a male donor Mary's cousin Elizabeth couldn't possibly become pregnant because she was well beyond the childbearing age.

[34:08] She and her husband Zacharias had no doubt tried for years to have a child with no success. The text tells us in Luke chapter 1 that the angel Gabriel appeared also to Zacharias and told him his petition had been heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you will give him the name John.

[34:34] But all Zacharias could think about was the impossibility of it all. I am an old man and my wife has advanced in years. Well it is not a stretch to confidently infer that Elizabeth was now well beyond childbearing likely having already experienced menopause and all those miraculous elements that God designed into the female anatomy of Elizabeth just didn't work any longer.

[35:04] her making a baby and maturing it in her body simply could not be done normally naturally ordinarily and yes here we go again it will have to be a God thing just like Mary's pregnancy without a man would have to be a God thing but is God up to doing a God thing?

[35:28] for those who embrace atheism there is no God to do a God thing and for many who at least give God credit for existing still they insist he must operate within certain parameters of what we humans deem acceptable and a woman beyond the time of childbearing having a baby is not within those parameters the intellectual arrogance of some people knows no limits they provide their superior intellect capabilities to whatever the issue and decide what is or is not possible and that of course includes what God can or cannot do provided of course there is a God and sometimes one wonders where we can go to resign from this human race my my Christianity Clarified volume 53 track 11 Old and New Testament connections it is true there are a number of passages found in the Jewish Tanakh that simply defy any satisfying interpretation that is unless you refer to certain

[36:33] New Testament passages that clearly reveal their fulfillment and meaning the problem is Jewish folks refuse to accept the authority of what they refer to as the Christian New Testament truth be told however the so-called Christian New Testament is actually much more Jewish than it is Christian as is the case with the Old Testament the Jewish Tanakh being exclusively Jewish with all its human penmen so also is this the case with the New Testament all Jewish the dramatic difference is found in the merging of Jew and Gentile to form one new entity or spiritual body called the church that came to be called Christianity the most concise and clear expression of this is found in Ephesians chapter 3 and it truly is revolutionary but despite that still all contributors to the New Testament are Jewish just as is the case with the Old by availing ourselves of the New numerous passages found in the Old are marvelously explained but by refusing to consider the New as the Jewish do they are cut off from fulfillment that would not only enlighten them but enable them to connect so many loose ends left dangling by limiting oneself to the Tanakh and two stunning examples come to mind the first is found in

[38:02] Psalm 2 verses 7 and 8 I will declare the decree the Lord has said to me 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 possessions and verse 12 following is equally puzzling it says kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little blessed are all those who put their trust in him these could not be more messianic in meaning they could not possibly apply to David but it surely makes sense they apply to David's greater son the Messiah listen to how Hebrews chapter 1 in the New Testament opens God who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by his son whom he appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the worlds who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high it couldn't be more messianic and to say it doesn't fit Jesus of Nazareth is simply denial kiss the son lest he be angry says the psalmist which simply means to make amends with the son in other words men are to get their relationship with Jesus as their

[39:39] Messiah a top priority and in doing so to kiss the son means to be at peace with him and his father who sent him remarkable stuff found only here in the New Testament Christianity Clarified volume 53 track 12 Isaiah chapters 11 42 and 48 numbers of Jewish rabbis have offered commentary on prophetic passages throughout the Tanakh one well known by the name of David kimchi addressed Isaiah chapter 11 by saying the person of whom Isaiah spoke as the Messiah of Israel here is Isaiah's text the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord then from Isaiah 42 behold behold my servant whom I uphold my elect one in whom my soul delights

[40:40] I have put my spirit upon him he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles and Isaiah 48 come near to me hear this I have not spoken in secret from the beginning from the time that it was I was there and now the Lord God and his spirit have sent me what can be said on behalf of the Jewish apostle Matthew who assigned fulfillment of these passages to the same person as did Rabbi David Kimchi saying they would be fulfilled by Israel's Messiah the Rabbi said they spoke of Messiah and Matthew says they do indeed and that Messiah says he is none other than Jesus of Nazareth Matthew states in chapter 3 that when Jesus had been baptized he came up immediately from the water and behold the heavens were open to him and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him added to that is another account of fulfillment from Isaiah given by the apostle John in chapter 1 and John bore witness saying

[41:46] I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove and he remained upon him I did not know him said John but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me upon whom you see the spirit descending and remaining on him that is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and I have seen and do testify that this is the Son of God other gospels in the New Testament namely Mark in chapter 1 Luke chapters 3 and 4 as well as the Acts of the Apostles in chapter 10 these New Testament accounts all see Isaiah's prophecies to be the Messiah of Israel the gospel and Acts passages agree and state that Messiah is to be none other than Jesus of Nazareth Rabbi Kimchi one of the more famous Jewish grammarians and scholars added much by way of commenting to Talmudic and Hebrew literature and he was also known as

[42:47] Redak he lived in France born in 1160 and died in 1235 he never identified Israel's prophecies to have been fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth only that they spoke of the Messiah without assigning a personal name the New Testament does the numerous passages quoted clearly state that Messiah and Jesus of Nazareth to be one in the same person and for anyone Jew or Christian to say that's impossible we can only say with God nothing is impossible but we would also ask really now how improbable is it how likely is it all those references can only be coincidental all whether Jew or Gentile need to ponder these well very well Christianity Clarified volume 53 track 13 Isaiah 9 fulfilled in chapters 4 and 8 of Matthew the prophet

[43:48] Isaiah is wonderfully replete with so many stunning prophecies regarding Israel's Messiah and he penned his prophecies under the inspiration of God himself already noted Isaiah told us so many things that would be true of the Messiah when he came and here are more he tells us where in Israel the Messiah will commence his mission said he in Isaiah 9 but there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish in the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea the land beyond the Jordan Galilee of the nations the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness on them has light shined and thus prophesied Isaiah in chapter 9 nearly 700 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem and in a positively stunning account of the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy please hear what the apostle

[44:53] Matthew recorded in chapter 4 of his gospel now when Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been put in prison he departed to Galilee and leaving Nazareth he came and dwelt in Capernaum which is by the sea in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet Isaiah saying the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned similar accounts of Jesus fulfilling Isaiah's prophecies are found in Mark 1 Matthew 4 8 and John 2 and what can be said about these multiple New Testament references being fulfilled in unmistakable detail from what numerous Jewish prophets predicted and thus far only a small percentage have been considered from what the prophets recorded could it be that in the fulfillment of what the prophets predicted the New Testament passages spoke of their fulfillment in the person of Jesus of Nazareth or could it be the most elaborate conspiratorial hoax ever contrived in the history of man can you imagine the depiction the coordination the elaborate and detailed components along with the proper framing of the time places personnel and that over a period of multiple years merely being the work of deceivers who wanted to make the case for Jesus of Nazareth being the

[46:30] Messiah if so it would all have been a carefully intricate and detailed hoax contrived by people of different generations who did not even know each other and what possibly could they have stood to gain that all transcends any sense of logic and as well goes beyond any ability to manufacture such a monumental hoax we all need to give serious thought to this very serious thought especially so if we positively answered that question posed earlier if what you now believe about Jesus of Nazareth is not true would you want to know it somber question eh Christianity Clarified Volume 53 Track 14 Isaiah 61 Fulfilled in Luke 4 The prophet Isaiah has for more than 2,000 years been regarded by the Jews as one of their finest his content is voluminous exceeded in duration only by Jeremiah about 200 years later in Isaiah 61st chapter references made regarding the one who will come with a special message to deliver to Israel he is also described as being anointed by the Lord and the very word anointed or anointed one is synonymous with the word

[47:54] Messiah here in part is the message this anointed Messiah will deliver to Israel the spirit of the Lord is upon me he has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted he has sent me to lift up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to prisoners to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God 700 years before the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem Isaiah prophesied those words now let's fast forward those 700 years and we arrive at Nazareth in the hometown of Jesus in Luke's gospel chapter 4 Jesus as was his custom entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him and he opened the book and found the place where it was written the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set free those who are downtrodden to proclaim the favorable year of the

[49:07] Lord stopping abruptly there Jesus closed the book gave it back to the attendant and sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon him and he began to say to them today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing to say this whole scene was electrifying would be an understatement Jesus told them he was fulfilling then and there what Isaiah prophesied not only was where Jesus stopped reading significant in that he omitted the statement Isaiah continued with saying and the day of vengeance of our God why Jesus omitted it was because it did not coincide with his then present coming but with his later second coming commonly referred to as his second coming also the amazement of the synagogue crowd would soon turn to hostility and this was because

[50:11] Jesus had the audacity to cite God's care for the widow of Zarephath a Gentile woman and then another Gentile named Naaman who was commanding general of the army belonging to Syria a perpetual foe of Israel the crowd clearly considered Jesus favorable references to Gentiles as nothing short of fighting words words that they believed deserved the death of whoever spoke them but his hour had not come Jesus would not die by being thrown off a cliff by a hostile crowd but his hour would be coming three years hence on a cross the very purpose for which he came Christianity Clarified Volume 53 Track 15 Isaiah 35 No single item would so validate the Messiah when he would come as the miracles he would perform they were several and they were undeniable again the prophet

[51:16] Isaiah is replete with the same in quantity and quality in chapter 35 he prophesies that when the Messiah comes says Isaiah then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped then the lame shall leap like the deer and the tongue of the dumb sing for water shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert can there be any serious doubt as to the Messiah ship of Jesus when Matthew records his miraculous works saying the blind see and the lame walk the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them one may consult parallel passages also recording fulfillment of the Isaiah passage and they're found in Mark 1 Matthew 4 8 and 9 12 Luke 11 John 2 6 and 11 all these and more constitute a plethora of such deeds done by Jesus of Nazareth and they were intended to validate the messianic claims Jesus had made understandably they were the talk of the entire nation even as the

[52:35] Pharisees Nicodemus in John chapter 3 was forced to admit when he told Jesus we know that you have come from God for no man can do these miracles you are doing unless God is with him indeed the acknowledgement of Nicodemus will be strengthened further when he and a fellow Pharisee named Joseph of Arimathea show up to claim the body of Jesus following his crucifixion such as found in Matthew 27 Mark 15 Luke 23 and John 19 as regards the prophecies in the Old Testament and the fulfillments recorded in the New there is no dispute about the prophecies but the fulfillment claimed in the New Testament passages and attributed to Jesus is met with vigorous dispute can the differences be resolved apparently not why not the reason being there is no middle ground to negotiate or be reached neither

[53:36] Jews who reject Jesus as the Messiah nor Christians who accept him as such have any middle ground on which they can meet it's all or nothing compromise is not an option there is no possibility of Jesus being the Messiah kind of either he is or he is not and away with that nonsense about the issue being decided by those who have subjective preferences the concept about Jesus being the Messiah for those who want to believe that while at the same time not being the Messiah for those not wanting to believe that that's complete nonsense much like the woman who is a little bit pregnant but still not completely pregnant there has to be an answer and it must be an is or is not the Messiah that came to Israel born in the reign of Herod the great died by crucifixion outside the city of Jerusalem and what's writing on the right answer only everything bring your best brain to the next session you will need it

[54:42] Christianity Clarified volume 53 track 16 Jesus and his necessary miracles the entire issue about Jesus having performed the many miracles attributed to him by all four of the Gospels is absolutely critical and key to the identity of the Messiah with so many of the prophets predicting that many miracles would be performed by the Messiah when he came had Jesus not done so he would have immediately been disqualified of Messiahship not only by the ruling class that did in fact deny him but also by the common people who accepted him as well true enough the ruling class did reject Jesus and helped orchestrate his arrest and death but what about those masses those common people who heard him gladly they fervently embraced him and many regarded him as the Messiah largely on the basis of his miracles after after after all they were among those who were personally benefited by the undeniable healings they experienced and not for a few but for many who came to him from miles around everything from deafness blindness palsy demon possession raised from the dead and others were simply undeniable anyone on the receiving end of Jesus miracles certainly knew whether their healing was real or not there was no way that there was some sort of mesmerism or sleight of hand that made the healings look real that could have explained what so many had experienced there could be no question

[56:18] Jesus of Nazareth was the real deal he had as Nicodemus said in John 3 come from God for no man could do the miracles you do unless God is with him so in view of the multiple testimonies from multiple recipients and the multiple accounts provided by the multiple gospels how is it that anyone today Jew or Gentile can possibly dismiss the messianic role of Jesus of Nazareth there apparently is but one way they must deny the validity of the accounts given in the four gospels themselves because if one does not do that it then becomes incumbent upon the reader to accept those accounts of Jesus performing miracles as well as embracing the only conclusion then to be reached Jesus was indeed the Messiah of Israel the written accounts of the miracles and the miracles themselves are a pair they go together if either is accepted the other requires acceptance as well if logic is worth anything it begs that question previously asked to be applied to this issue remember if what you now believe about the gospel accounts of

[57:33] Jesus and his miracles is not true would you want to know it anyone honestly answering in the affirmative has just positioned himself to be a recipient of truth and God is quite capable of revealing it so whatever your position regarding Jesus as Messiah there is a position that is the true position and to reach that should be the goal of anyone with intellectual integrity after all what do you have to lose only error to which we would eagerly say good riddance please think on these things whether Jesus is a yea or nay to you presently what hangs in the balance for you only everything one must understand the absolute necessity of the miraculous in order to make any sense of the world the reason miracles are so critical is because they transcend the natural the norm and it is only the norm that many embrace partly because that is all they have experienced and they naturally expect and require all events to occur within those parameters their norm this of course requires all that happens be explainable only by natural causes it's a must have position embraced by all of an atheistic persuasion to these whatever may be touted as a miracle operating outside the bounds of the natural isn't really a miracle or supernatural at all it is merely a mistaken explanation of the event that may appear to be miraculous but actually has a perfectly natural not supernatural explanation to it if only it can be discovered such of course dismisses the need for a god who operates outside the realm of the natural and to the atheist what appears to be genuinely miraculous must have a supernatural miracle working person behind it and since such a person does not exist neither does what appears to be miracle they go together and you can't have one without the other this is in part why miracles and their genuineness are so important if real they require the action of one who operates apart from and above the natural such also explains in part the arrival of one operating beyond the natural entering into the natural world and doing things the natural world says are impossible it was a supernatural person named

[60:25] Jesus of Nazareth who entered this earth that normally functions within the parameters of what can be called naturalism but he was not limited by the natural for he had authority in the supernatural such was the basis for all the miracles with which he was credited from human diseases and even death to his expressing authority over nature itself in calming angry waves Jesus repeatedly made miracles his messianic calling card not even the ruling class who rejected his claims of messiahship could reject the authenticity of his miracles they denied that Jesus performed them in the power of God but insisted he was empowered by Satan himself yet that the miracles were real they never denied and as astounding as it was Jesus delegated his miraculous powers to his apostles as recorded in Matthew chapter 10 and the same apostles continued the miraculous in the book of Acts and in chapter 4 one of the ruling class was heard to say many miracles have been performed by these men and we cannot deny it but let's threaten them to stop or they will be punished if we don't stop them everyone will believe wow what an incredible admission and an equally incredible action plan against them more just ahead

[61:57] Christianity clarified volume 53 track 18 the fallout from miracles what must surely be one of the more embarrassing and irresponsible statements ever made by those who were in a position to know better is found in the Acts of the Apostles chapters 3 and 4 this was all in regard to a miracle a deed that was simply beyond the ability of any human to perform throughout the four gospels the single thing that propelled Jesus of Nazareth to the level causing many to regard him as a long awaited Messiah was his miracles and so many of them not only did Jesus perform miracles but he also gave power to his 12 apostles to do likewise and later to a group of disciples numbering 70 as recorded in Luke's gospel chapter 6 even after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus the apostles continued performing miracles as the book of

[62:58] Acts records that miraculous ability was again demonstrated in chapter 3 when Peter and John in the name and power of Jesus healed a beggar who had been lame from birth and was then over 40 years old now this man who had never stood on two good legs was leaping jumping running around in the presence of all and it caused quite a stir because the crippled man had no doubt been a daily fixture at this personal begging location near the temple gate responding to all the public commotion that this miracle produced the priest captain of the temple guard Sadducees Annas the high priest Caiaphas all of these confronted the apostles and demanded an explanation for all the turmoil that had occurred soon the rulers dismissed the apostles and called for a private conference where they could discuss the situation away from the eyes and ears of the public and the official response that their collective wisdom produced was the unspoken admission they simply did not know how to handle this thing they only had two possibilities of response to this miracle number one they had to admit the reality of it and admit it was through the power of the person of

[64:22] Jesus and he had conferred this upon his disciples so that the lame man was healed but that was clearly out of the question for them to admit that but also be admitting Jesus was Israel's Messiah and they contributed to his death option number two they could not deny the miracle took place because all the people in the area knew it did especially the lame man who was born lame over 40 years ago the most they would be able to do would be to try to contain the issue by taking steps that this miracle business would not continue so the ruling council had Peter and John come before them again to give them the verdict there will be no more preaching about Jesus and resurrection you are forbidden to continue this any further there will be serious consequences if you do not cease and desist in hearing the rulers verdict Peter and John responded they were simply unable and unwilling to stop speaking about what they had seen and heard and knew so the persecution plot will thicken

[65:36] Christianity Clarified Volume 53 Track 19 The Fallout From Miracles Part 2 The issue at hand regards the lame man over 40 years of age who had never walked a day in his life Peter and John apostles of Christ had used the power given to them by Jesus to perform the healing and it caused quite a stir and the consequences following the interpretation of that issue are understandably stunning the miracle was either real or it was not but the authorities that questioned Peter and John were themselves convinced it was real they even admitted they could not deny it because by then nearly all of Jerusalem had heard of it and had to be talking about it one gets the impression that if there had been any way they could have denied it they would have but they couldn't to do so would have made them look like fools because all the people knew it was real so what to do what to do and what about us moderns of today what are we whether Jew

[66:52] Gentile or Christian what are we to make of this as earlier noted these appeared to be but two possibilities it was real or it was not real but the text of Acts chapter 4 solidly attests to its reality but that will cause some to say therein lies the problem and the solution the problem is the unreliability of the text for it is found in the New Testament and that is not acceptable to consider it as inspired of God because it isn't the New Testament say the Jews or most of the Jews is not part of the word of God therefore everything contained in the New Testament including the lame man's healing in Acts chapter 4 is simply untrue it never happened at all it was only written that it happened and only Christians believe it because only they accept the New Testament well if that is true that answers the question about miracles at least this miracle and others in the

[67:57] New Testament that were reported to have happened some Jews even suspect that Christians who wrote the New Testament felt the need to doctor the content by sprinkling miracles throughout so as to compete with the miracles contained in the Old Testament the Jewish Tanakh well first of all let's be reminded Christians did not write the New Testament it was humanly penned by you guessed it Jews Jews exclusively Peter and John both involved in that healing of the lame man were thoroughly Jewish as were all the other ten of the twelve apostles and the seventy also that Jesus sent out to preach and heal Jewish all Jewish everyone who hears this content about this man's healing as well as the many miracles by Jesus and his disciples you have to do something with it you may believe it you may deny it but you cannot do neither and you most certainly cannot do both decisions decisions only you can make it and the consequences that will follow you whichever you choose are absolutely real and serious as serious as serious can get and eternity will reveal it to be so christianity clarified volume 53 track 20 wishy-washy regarding messiah the issue of israel's messiah is so important it throbs throughout the bible nearly all of israel's prophets major and minor make some reference to their coming messiah gentiles who are most of us have little appreciation of the depth of regard the jew has for their messiah and as for the idea about jesus of nazareth being identified as that long awaited messiah well that singular issue is that which divides jews and christians more than any other christians believe jesus was the promised messiah as attested to throughout the new testament and that say the jews is the crux of the problem because they do not believe the new testament to be the word of god as is the old which they do accept and it's also called the tanakh therefore jews conclude that christians are simply misled in believing jesus to be the messiah furthermore the new testament that records him to be the messiah is necessarily wrong as well well without putting words into the mouths of the jews what else could they conclude other than the christian new testament is wrong and those who believe it are necessarily wrong as well but in this day of political correctness there are jews who see themselves as conciliatory and more diplomatic even less judgmental if you will these are they who say even though jews believe the christian new testament is wrong it's fine for christians who choose to believe it really it's fine for someone to believe something that's wrong how is that fine well here is how if you believe the new testament is true and jesus is the messiah then it is true to you and for you if you do not believe it as jews do not believe it then it is not true to them or for them this allows subjective truth to trump objective truth meaning something is true or not true depending upon which you believe it to be thus truth is determined by those who believe it that way each personalizes what is or is not true and no one need be wrong you have

[71:58] your truth then i have my truth everyone is right whichever they believe while this will pass the test of political correctness it miserably fails the test of common sense and the basic laws of logic because truth is not like beauty that is in the eye of the beholder truth is that which corresponds to reality whether or not anyone believes it merely believing something doesn't make it so and refusing to believe something doesn't make it untrue facts are stubborn things and they will not yield their factuality to anyone pro or con this postmodern nonsense is also referred to as creating your own reality whereby a thing is true or not true depending on whether you accept it as true or not true can you not see that attempting to create your own reality is simply not the way the real world works never has been and never will be oh yes one other thing the Christian New Testament was written in its entirety not by Christians but by

[73:00] Jews every one of them as Jewish as Abraham Isaac and Jacob just for the record the factual record Christianity Clarified Volume 53 Track 21 Preview of Upcoming Volume 54 Christianity Christianity Clarified Volume 54 will commence with the 1,081st session to be conducted how many such sessions will be available by completion is still undetermined it is hoped that those who have taken this journey with us have grasped the importance of the topics in our view there are no topics more worthy enlightening or comforting than those found in the word of God the intent for upcoming volume 54 is to conclude the content addressing the Jewish people and the prophecies provided by Israel's prophets in that regard more very critical content lies ahead that will be of great benefit to

[74:04] Jews and Gentiles as well we intend to be confirming to Christians while providing serious food for thought among the Jewish in every case we believe truth is available and well capable of being searched out and arrived at and concluding the content that will be directed toward the Jews we then will undertake the same rigorous consideration of Roman Catholicism after the conclusion of which the plan is to do the same with Protestantism both historic and present such will allow us to pronounce Christianity clarified clarified but only for the current time much has been omitted due to the demand for brevity with each of the 20 segments on one CD being just three and one half minutes in duration so much lies ahead that I think you will find enlightening and encouraging once again this is

[75:08] Pastor Marv Wiseman and the good folks at Grace Bible Church thanking you for being a part of our ongoing study may the Lord richly bless you he has us already