THE ANOINTED ONE
350 Reasons Jesus Is The Messiah
by
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Chapter 1
Introduction
(creative number- 182421733)
When we look around and see pessimism on every side, we should remember the Bible is the only Book in the world that predicts the future. The Bible is more modern than tomorrow morning’s newspaper. The Bible accurately foretells the future, and it says that the consummation of all things shall be the coming again of Jesus Christ to this earth. If your life is dismal, depressed, and gloomy today, Christ can turn those dark clouds inside out. The sunlight of His love can still shine into the darkest part of your life.
—Rev. Billy Graham
The Hebrew prophets and their scriptures foretold a Savior, a King, a Priest, and a Prophet. More than that, He would defeat sin, making eternal life possible for all humanity. From a Jewish perspective, this person was described in the scriptures as the Messiah. The Christian faith is founded on the belief that Jesus is the Messiah prophesied by the Hebrew prophets. Therefore, why do so many Jews not accept Jesus as their Messiah? Why do people reject Jesus as their Messiah without reading and understanding the scriptures? Why do people misrepresent the scripture? Why do people become irritated or defensive when explaining Christianity and our faith in Jesus as the prophesied Messiah?
In my previous book, published in 2020, What Is Satan Up To? A Christian’s Perspective in the 21st Century, I discussed the spiritual warfare humanity has faced from the beginning and will continue to face.1 I conveyed how Satan continues to create confusion, chaos, misinformation, and misery in the world. Satan has been busy confusing the world with philosophy and false religions, generating chaos in our families and a lack of truth-telling from our news media, social media, and politicians. As mentioned in my book, there are over forty-three hundred religions in the world. Approximately 75 percent of the world’s population practices one of five religions (Christianity—2.22 billion followers; Islam—1.5 billion followers; Hinduism—1.05 billion followers; Buddhism—488 million followers; and Judaism—13 million followers). Approximately one-third of the world’s population practices Christianity. Christians follow the Old Testament and the New Testament and accept Jesus as their Messiah. Since the messianic prophecies were given to the Jewish people from God by His prophets, why do Judaism and many Jewish communities not accept Jesus as their Messiah and reject the New Testament? As I have posed these questions to my Jewish friends and have researched this topic, several reasons are given by many Jews for not accepting Jesus as their Messiah. Some of these reasons are listed below:
1. Jews reject the Christian scriptures (the New Testament). They believe it was corrupted over time. Also, the Hebrew scriptures were not translated correctly by Christians.
2. The Torah does not speak of Jesus.
3. Jews do not believe in a suffering Messiah and the Crucifixion.
4. Jews do not believe in Jesus being resurrected.
5. Jews believe they do not need salvation; they also question salvation for the Gentiles (a non-Jewish person).
6. As for the messianic prophecies, Jesus did not fulfill them. He did not bring peace.
7. Anyone who changes the law is a false prophet.
8. Jews do not believe that God has a son.
9. Jesus fulfilling the prophecies was a coincidence (by chance), or Jesus purposefully made the predictions happen, or His disciples fabricated the scriptures in the New Testament.
10. The New Testament and Christians are anti-Semites.
There are additional objections; however, the ten criticisms raised in this book reflect the significant tenets of the above challenges. Moreover, I want to emphasize that these criticisms are also made by many non-Jewish people who do not believe in the gospel of Jesus as being the Messiah. My goal in this book was to use the messianic prophecies in the Bible to demonstrate how Jesus fulfilled those prophecies as foretold by the Hebrew prophets. Hence, unless otherwise stated, most of the scriptures captured in this book are from the New International Version (NIV) Bible.
I would like to set the stage for this book and begin my reasoning with the following verse in the New Testament from the Gospel of John (John 5:39), where Jesus tells us the following passage:
You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me.
The John 5:39 passage in the New Testament is forthright concerning the prophecies that testified about Jesus as the Messiah through the Hebrew prophets in the Old Testament. Thus, this verse sets the foundation for this book. My goal is to use the Old Testament messianic prophecies and demonstrate how they were fulfilled in the New Testament through Jesus and no other person.
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About the Book
Why do people reject Jesus as their Messiah? There are many reasons—a lack of understanding of the Bible, belief that the Messiah has not come yet but will come, the idea that the New Testament was fabricated, or belief that humans do not need salvation. No matter the reasons for rejecting or accepting Jesus, it is vital to know the facts.
The Anointed One examines ten common objections given in response to the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies through Jesus Christ and then provides biblical and historical evidence to address these issues. Some of these objections include the following:
• The New Testament was corrupted over time.
• There is no mention of Jesus in the Old Testament.
• Jesus did not fulfill the messianic prophecies.
• Jesus was a false prophet.
• Jesus, along with His disciples, fabricated the scriptures in the
New Testament.
In contradicting these points, this study presents intelligent, honest, fair, and direct responses to these belief systems using the Hebrew scriptures and the Christian Bible. It cites a significant amount of scripture and features testimonies from Jewish rabbis and individuals who have accepted Jesus as their Messiah. Offering solid evidence for the case that the messianic prophecies were fulfilled through Jesus, the Anointed One, this study invites you on a journey to pursue and seek the truth.
About the Author
Ramin Pourfarzib, PhD, is a Christian, author, and scientist. He has held many leadership positions at various pharmaceutical and diagnostic laboratory companies in the past twenty-eight years and currently works as a consultant for the pharmaceutical industry. He is the author of more than seventy papers and abstracts in several academic journals throughout his career. He serves as a deacon at Rechoboth Baptist Church in Tennessee.