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PROOF THAT YAHSHUA IS THE CHRIST
By
Bertrand L. Comparet
As we approach the anniversary of the greatest day in all
history, the day of Yahshua's resurrection, it would be well for us to give some
thought and study to just what it is that we celebrate with such faith and joy.
What is the foundation upon which our faith is built? What is the meaning of the
tremendous events of that last week in Yahshua's earthly life? What was
accomplished thereby? For the answers, we must look to both the Old and New
Testaments, for they are the parts of one book and each proves the authenticity
of the other.
We know the Old Testament is truly the inspired word of
Yahweh, because its greatest prophecies were fulfilled in the New Testament. We
know the New Testament is also the inspired word of Yahweh. Its great events
were those, which had been prophesied in the Old Testament.
Remembering this, let us review the scriptures dealing
with Yahshua's ministry and see just what He accomplished. I need not review the
fall of Adam, causing the loss of our original position in Yahweh's plan. This
made necessary a Redeemer for Yahweh's children, eventually to be known as
Israel, this is familiar to all Christians. The Redeemer is one of the principle
themes of the Bible. Most of it in the Old Testament is not generally understood
because so much of it is stated in the form of symbols and ritual.
The first promise of a Redeemer is found in Genesis
3:15, Yahweh had called Adam, Eve and Satan before Him to account for their
actions. Yahweh told Satan, "I will enmity between thee and the woman and
between thy seed and her seed: He shall crush thy seed and thou shalt
bruise his heel." The Redeemer, who destroys the power of Satan, is to be a
descendant of Eve. The time when He would come is not stated yet. It is obvious
from certain other verses of scripture, that Yahweh further told them, in
considerable detail, that He Himself would be the Redeemer. He would pay the
price for us and the penalty of death.
Abel knew this, for he understood the necessity and the
significance of the blood sacrifice. In Hebrews 11:4 Paul tells us,
"By faith, Abel offered unto Yahweh a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain". You can't possibly have faith in something that you have never heard
of, so this confirms Abel's knowledge of the promised redemption. There is also
another clear evidence of this. Yahweh had said, in the presence of Eve, that
the Redeemer would be of her seed or descendant, though He didn't specify in
which generation He would come.
When Eve bore her first child Cain, the King James Bible
quotes her as saying; "I have gotten a man from the Lord". In the
original Hebrew, what she said was, "I have gotten a man, even
Yahweh." Yahweh, as most of you know, is the name of our God. Eve thought
that her first-born child would be the Redeemer, Yahweh born in a human body.
Well, she is not the only one who has hoped for redemption before the appointed
time. Note however, Eve understood the Redeemer was to be Yahweh.
In further corroboration of this, the great prophecy of Isaiah
9:6, which all agree refers to Yahshua says, "For unto us a child is
born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulders:
and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty Yahweh, the
Prince of peace." In fulfillment of it, Yahshua told the apostle Philip,
recorded in John 14:9, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the
Father." It was not merely death alone that could make the sacrifice, which
brings redemption, for all things die under the curse of sin. Emphasis was
always laid upon the shedding of blood, a violent death of the sacrifice, not
the natural death of ordinary mortality. In Leviticus 17:11 we are told,
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you,
upon the altar to make an atonement for your soul." In Hebrews 9:22
Paul says, "For almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and
without the shedding of blood is no remission."
The blood sacrifices of the Old Testament were never
intended to be considered as sufficient in themselves. They were just symbolic
of the great sacrifice, which was to be made, not by us but for us, by Yahweh.
In the thousands of years this knowledge was carried down from generation to
generation, it was heard by the surrounding pagan people, who lacked the
spiritual insight which Yahweh gave to His own people Israel. The pagans wove it
into their own pagan religions in a distorted and parodied form. To the pagans, man
had to make the sacrifice to appease angry gods. Only in our own religion have
we the pure truth that Yahweh made the sacrifice to save us.
The great Patriarchs understood this. Consequently we
find the incident, recorded in the Genesis chapter 22, where Yahweh tells
Abraham to take his only son Isaac, and offer him as a sacrifice, a burnt
offering. Abraham cheerfully starts out to do this, not with the grief of a
loving father about to lose his only son, but with serene confidence. When Isaac
asked his father, "Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for
a burnt offering? Abraham replied, My son, Yahweh will provide Himself a lamb
for a burnt offering." Abraham understood the reality that Yahweh would
provide the lamb slain from the foundation of the world as the sacrifice for us.
Even in the symbol, the burnt offering, Abraham's faith was rewarded. Yahweh did
provide the ram, caught in the thicket as the sacrifice, so this saved Isaac.
Yahshua's authenticity and authority as Redeemer depend
upon His being the one named in the Old Testament as such, the one who fulfills
the Old Testament prophecies. He recognized this as He always cited these
prophecies as proof of His authority. Yahshua opened His ministry this way, Luke
4:16- 20 tells it as follows. "And he came to Nazareth where He had
been brought up; and as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the
Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto Him the book
of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where
it is written, The spirit of Yahweh is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to
preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent Me to heal the broken hearted, to
preach deliverance to the captives and recovering sight to the blind, to set at
liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of Yahweh, And He
began to say unto them, This day is scripture fulfilled in your ears."
At the very start, He quoted Isaiah 61:1-2 as His authority.
In John 5:39,46 Yahshua told the Jews,
"Search the scriptures: for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and it
is they which testify of Me. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed
Me: for he wrote of Me." When John the Baptist was in prison, he began to
wonder if he could have been mistaken and sent some of his disciples to ask
Yahshua, "Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another?"
Yahshua again based His authority on the scriptures, for in the Matthew
chapter 11 He told John's disciples, "Go and show John again those
things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame
walk, and the poor have the gospel preached to them."
Yahshua was not merely saying report that I do miracles,
for this would not have been proof. The magicians at Pharaoh's court were able
to duplicate a number of the miracles that Moses performed. The things which
Yahshua reminded them of were all mentioned in Isaiah 3:5-6 & 29:18-19.
What Yahshua really was telling John the Baptist was,
"John you know the scriptures, remember what Isaiah said, you see I am
fulfilling his prophecies. I need not boast of Myself, the scriptures identify
Me." In Matthew 5:17 Yahshua said, "Think not that I
come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to
fulfill."
As Yahshua recognized, the proof of His identity and of
what He accomplished, does not rest upon His ability to perform miracles. The
shallow and unspiritual Jews constantly demanded that He perform a miracle as a
sign to prove who and what He was. He always refused, for that would prove
nothing. The proof must and did consist in His fulfillment of those Old
Testament prophecies, which foretold what the Messiah, the Redeemer, would do
when He came.
Much of the Old Testament prophecy is found in its
symbols and rituals. For example, all of the great feasts or holy days were
symbolic of either the first or second coming of Yahshua. The spring festivals
were symbolic of His first coming, crucifixion and resurrection. He fulfilled
the reality, of which these were the symbols, each on the day of the appropriate
festival. The fall festivals are symbolic of His second coming, for which we are
now waiting expectantly. We know that in whatever year He comes, He will fulfill
the realities symbolized by these fall festivals, each on its own day.
The first of the spring festivals was the Passover, for
the salvation and redemption from death, Yahweh's deliverance of His people
Israel. This was so important that in Exodus 12:14, Yahweh commanded that
celebration of the Passover should be an ordinance forever among His
people Israel. Clearly it symbolized the sacrifice of the Lamb of Yahweh, slain
from the foundation of the world.
The celebration of the Passover was first commanded when
the people of Israel were still in Egypt. Moses had performed many miracles as
proof that he was sent by Yahweh to command that Pharaoh release the nation of
Israel. Some of these miracles wrought great devastation in Egypt, but still
Pharaoh would not yield. In Exodus chapter 12, Yahweh warned Moses that
He was going to pass through the land of Egypt and kill all the first born, from
the cattle in the fields to the first-born son of Pharaoh. The people of Israel
would be spared if they would follow the instructions, to kill and eat the
Passover lamb and put its blood on the doorposts outside their front door.
They could not just secretly eat the lamb while hiding at
home. There must be a public proclamation of their faith, by putting the lamb's
blood on the doorposts. By the death of the lamb they would be delivered from
death. It was by showing Yahweh that they relied upon the blood of the lamb that
they would be saved. By eating the flesh of the lamb, they gained strength for
their journey out of Egypt, from slavery to freedom. All this is symbolic of our
salvation and redemption by Yahshua upon the cross; let's examine it in detail.
The lamb for the Passover offering was to be selected
on the 10th day of the Hebrew month Nisan (Nee-sawn), but not actually
sacrificed until the 14th day of Nisan. Yahweh instructed Moses in Exodus
12:3,6, "In the 10th day of this month they shall take to them every
man a lamb, according to the household of their fathers, a lamb for an
household, And ye shall keep it until the 14th day of the same month; and the
whole assembly (qahal) of the congregation (edah) of Israel shall kill it in the
evening." The Hebrew words translated here, in the evening, actually mean
between noon and sunset, or in the afternoon.
Then Yahweh commanded Moses to tell Israel in Exodus
12:22, "They shall take of the blood and put it on the two side posts
and on the lintel of the door of the houses where they shall eat it". The
flesh of the lamb was to be roasted and eaten with bitter herbs. The families
were to be ready to march out of the land of Egypt immediately. This command
further provides that not a bone of the lamb may be broken.
So much for the symbol of the Passover, now
let us see how the reality fulfilled it. On the 10th day of Nisan, Yahshua was
selected for death, Mark 11:15-18 records it. "And they came to
Jerusalem; and Yahshua went into the temple and began to cast out them that sold
and bought in the temple, and overthrew the seats of the money changers, and the
seats of them that sold doves; And He taught, saying Unto them, Is it not
written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? But ye
have made it a den of thieves! And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and
sought how they might destroy Him: for they feared Him, because all the people
were astonished at His doctrine."
On the 14th day of Nisan, Yahshua was crucified, the day
the Passover lambs were killed. In fact, He died at the very hour, which was in
the midst of the slaughter of the lambs. The Hebrew day began at sunset. The
night was divided into four watches of three hours each. The day was divided
into 12 hours, beginning at sunrise, which at that time of year was about 6 A.M.
in our time. He was crucified somewhere around noon, the sixth hour of the day
in Hebrew time.
John 19:14, speaking of the end of His trial
before Pontius Pilate, says it was about the sixth hour. Luke 23:44,
speaking of the time just after Yahshua was nailed to the cross, also says it
was about the sixth hour. Since neither man carried a wristwatch, John
estimated the end of the trial to be slightly before noon, while Luke estimated
the crucifixion to be soon after noon.
All the Biblical accounts agree that there was darkness
over the land from the sixth hour (noon in our time) until the ninth hour, or 3
P.M. in our time, when Yahshua died on the cross. Remember, the Passover lambs
were to be killed between noon and sunset and this was in the very middle of
that period. John 19:33, 36 records that while the legs of the two
thieves were broken to hasten their deaths, not a bone of Yahshua's body was
broken, thus fulfilling the rules regarding the Passover lamb. In Corinthians
5:7 Paul reminds us that Yahshua, our Passover, is sacrificed for us.
This sacrifice made for us by Yahshua was, in every
respect, His own voluntary act, even to the instant of death itself. In the King
James Bible Matthew 27:50, "Yahshua when He had cried again with a
loud voice, yielded up the ghost". This is not an adequate rendering of the
Greek, which says He dismissed His spirit, an act of His own will. This
fulfills His own words in John 10:17-18, "I lay down My life, that I
might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of
Myself."
Since Yahshua's sacrifice upon the cross was the
fulfillment of the Passover, Yahweh expressly commanded in Exodus 12:14,
"This day shall be unto you for a memorial: and ye shall keep it a feast to
Yahweh throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever."
Perhaps you are wondering why we no longer celebrate the Passover in the old
way. There is a good reason for this. The Passover, as the ordinance in the Old
Testament prescribed it, looked to the future, to something, which had not yet
happened. It was the believer's proclamation, "I believe that my Redeemer
will someday in the future, come and make the true sacrifice for me,
giving His life to redeem mine."
As long as Yahshua had not yet come, this was the proper
form for it. After He had actually come and given His life for us, we could no
longer say that we were still waiting for something to be done in the future. To
do so would be a rejection of what He had already done for us. It was still to
be an ordinance forever, but its form must be changed so that it
now recognized that our redemption has already been accomplished. This is why
Yahshua taught us the new form of it, Yahshua's supper or communion. We still
symbolically eat the sacrifice for the nourishment of our spirit, "Take,
eat, this is My body." Matthew 26:26 and Mark 14:22. We still
symbolically proclaim our faith that by His blood we are redeemed. Matthew
26:28 says, "This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for
many for the remission of sins." The form is changed, to show our
recognition that our Redeemer has already come and redeemed us. However, the
real meaning of the sacrifice is indeed eternal.
Yahshua's crucifixion came at the prophesied time. His
ministry covered three years. The Gospel of John records at least three and
possibly four Passovers in this time. The first Passover is recorded in John
2:13-25, which also records Yahshua's first cleansing of the temple by
driving out the moneychangers. John 5:1 mentions, " A feast of the
Jews; and Yahshua went up to Jerusalem". It is not further identified,
while it might be the second Passover, we can't be sure of this. John 6:4
records what is at least the second and possibly the third Passover. John
11:55 shows that Yahshua's last visit to Jerusalem, ending in the
crucifixion, was also for a Passover, this was just possibly the fourth
Passover. As Yahshua's ministry had already begun before the first of these
Passovers, either three or four is consistent with the ministry of three years.
For the significance of this, let us first turn to the
prophet Daniel. In Daniel 9:26-27 the prophet says, "And after three
score and two weeks shall the Messiah, the Prince be cut off, but not for
Himself: And He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the
midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease".
We know that the three score and two weeks, sixty-two weeks, or 434 days, had
worked out correctly on the prophetic scale of one year for a day.
The people of Judea knew the Messiah was due and were
restless in anticipation of their deliverance. This is why the Romans were so
worried about what even a small disturbance might cause. As to the words, in the
midst of the week, a week on the prophetic scale being 7 years, then in the
midst of the week, would be any time after three years. As we have seen,
Yahshua's ministry fulfilled this. That He did confirm the covenant with many,
is proclaimed by Paul in Romans 15:8 where he says, "For I say that
Yahshua the Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of Yahweh. To
confirm the promises made unto the fathers".
Paul shows us that Yahshua did cause the sacrifice and
the oblation to cease, as Daniel prophesied. In Hebrews 10:11-18 we read,
"And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering often times the
same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: but this Man, after He
had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of
Yahweh; For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for
sin." Although the Jews still curse and revile Him, even they seem to
have recognized the futility of offering any more animal sacrifices. Nowhere in
the world today have they revived the ancient sacrifices.
On what day was Yahshua crucified?
This will indeed surprise you. One thing is certain; He was not crucified on
a Friday! Yes, I know that nearly all churches celebrate Friday as the
crucifixion day, but they are certainly wrong. Note that the word Sabbath not
only means the regular weekly Sabbath Saturday, but it also means several other
holy days, which are expressly called Sabbaths in the Bible. For example, let's
take the New Year, the so-called feast of trumpets. In the Hebrew Leviticus
23:24-25 reads thus: "Speak unto the sons of Israel saying, In the 7th
month, on the first of the month, a memorial of shouting, a holy
convocation; ye shall do no servile work and ye shall bring near a fire
offering to Yahweh." You will note that this was on the first day of the
seventh month; regardless of the day it might be it was always a Sabbath.
Let's take a look at the Day of Atonement. In the Hebrew Leviticus 23:27-28,
31-32 says, "On the tenth of this seventh month is the day of
atonements: ye have a holy convocation: and ye humble yourselves and bring
near a fire offering to Yahweh; and ye do no work in this selfsame day, for it
is a day of atonements, to make atonement for you before Yahweh your God. Ye do
no work, a statute age long to your generation in all your dwellings. It is a
Sabbath of rest to you."
The words holy convocation and Sabbath are practically
interchangeable as every holy convocation is a Sabbath. Let's take Leviticus
23:2-3 to illustrate this. In the Hebrew, it says "appointed seasons of
Yahweh which ye proclaim, holy convocations are these: they are My
appointed seasons: six days is work done and in the seventh is a Sabbath of
rest, a holy convocation".
The Passover began with the evening of the day of the
preparation. This is the day on which the lambs were killed and on which day
Yahshua was crucified. Nobody can dispute the Passover is a holy convocation, a
Sabbath, Leviticus 23:5-8 makes it so. Here is how it reads in the
Hebrew. "In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month, between the
evenings, is the Passover to Yahweh; and on the fifteenth day of this month is
the feast of the unleavened things to Yahweh; seven days unleavened
things do ye eat; on the first day ye have an holy convocation, ye shall do no
servile work; and ye bring near a fire offering to Yahweh seven days; in the
seventh day is a holy convocation; ye do no servile work."
Yahshua was crucified on Nisan 14th, the Passover, the
day the lambs were killed. The next day Nisan 15th, was the first day of the 7
day feast of unleavened bread, a holy convocation or Sabbath day. This was
regardless of the day of the week on which it fell. All the gospels agree that
the day following the crucifixion was a Sabbath. John 19:31 also
mentions, that Sabbath was an high day, not just an ordinary Saturday
Sabbath of every week, but a special Sabbath, a high holy day. It was a special
day for it was the first day of unleavened bread.
The next thing to note is that all four gospels
say that Yahshua was resurrected on the first day after the Sabbaths. Note that
Sabbaths here is in the plural. The King James Bible doesn't show this, but in
the original Greek, all four gospels Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2, 9, Luke
24:1, and John 20:1 show this. These plural Sabbaths shows Friday was
the high holy day Sabbath, the first day of the feast of unleavened bread,
followed by Saturday, the ordinary weekly Sabbath. So, the Sabbath
necessarily occurred on a Thursday, not Friday. Note that if the High Holy
Day Sabbath had fallen on Saturday, this would not have made two Sabbaths of it.
Yahshua said in Matthew 12:40, "For as Jonah
was 3 days and 3 nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Nobody can make 3
days and 3 nights out of the time from 4 or 5 o'clock Friday afternoon, until
sometime early Sunday morning before dawn. Two nights, one day and a tiny
fraction of another is all you can count. However, if He was in the tomb part of
Thursday, all of Thursday night, all of Friday and Friday night, all of Saturday
and most of Saturday night, you have two whole days and part of a third day, two
whole nights and most of a third night. He did not say that it would be 72
hours, so it need not be full days and nights down to the very last minute.
We see that in His crucifixion Yahshua fulfilled, on the
correct day, all the realities of salvation and redemption of which the Passover
was the symbol. Yahshua is fully identified as the true Messiah or Christ,
promised to us in the scriptures. We have an Old Testament high holy day to
consider, the feast of the firstfruits. On the morning after the Sabbath
following the Passover, each Israelite was to bring to the temple some of the
firstfruits. This was in the spring when the grain was harvested. The barley
ripened several weeks before the wheat, so the firstfruits offering was of
barley. The offering was to be a sheaf of barley, containing many kernels
of grain.
This was a symbol which Yahshua fulfilled in His
resurrection, as Paul recognizes in I Corinthians 15:20, 23, "But
now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them
that slept. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits:
afterwards they that are Christ's at His coming." On the morning of the day
after the Sabbaths, the exact time of the feast of firstfruits, Yahshua became
the firstfruits from the dead. Note another thing, the firstfruits offering was
a sheaf of grain, containing many kernels of grain. Yahshua also fulfilled this
because at the same time, He also resurrected many people. We read in Matthew
27:52-53, "And the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints
which slept arose and came out of the graves after His resurrection,
and went into the holy city and appeared unto many."
The firstfruits offering was both a pledge that the tithe
would be brought into the temple when the harvest was complete and also a symbol
of that tithe which represents Yahweh's elect. In the Hebrew they were called
the qahal and in the Greek the ekklesia, the called out ones, translated into
English as the word church.
Was the resurrection something new and unheard of? No,
Yahweh had prophesied this in the Old Testament. In Hosea 13:14 Yahweh
promised us, "I will ransom them from the power of the grave: I will redeem
them from death." How would this be done? Isaiah 26:19 clearly
prophesies exactly what Yahshua did, for it says, "Thy dead men shall live:
together with My dead body shall they arise! Awake and sing, ye that
dwell in the dust: for thy dew is dew of light, and the earth shall cast out the
dead." Truly, together with His dead body they did arise, when Yahshua
presented His firstfruits from the dead. Clearly He had the authority and power
to make and to fulfill His wonderful promise. In John 8:51 Yahshua
states, "Verily, verily, I say unto you: if a man keep My saying, he
shall never see death."
This is recognized and confirmed in the New Testament. In
Hebrews 2:9, 15 where Paul says, "But we see Yahshua, who was made a
little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and
honor; that He, by the grace of Yahweh, should taste death for every
man. And deliver them who, through the fear of death, were all their
lifetime subject to bondage."
Some other religions have preached a form of immortality,
but only in a spirit world to which none of the dead could go. Also from which
none could ever return and where their life was really little more than mere
existence. It was not inspiring and they have had few martyrs willing to die for
their faith. Only Christianity has the tangible evidence, proven by many
eyewitnesses, of the fact of the resurrection. Some 5,000 people saw this over a
period of 40 days. We have more than just faith. We can say, not just I hope or
I believe but, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand, at
the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see Yahweh: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes
shall behold and not another." Job 19:25-27.
There
remained one more spring festival to be fulfilled, that of Pentecost. It was
called in the Hebrew, the feast of weeks. As we saw, the firstfruits offering
was just a pledge, made before the principal harvest was ripe. The wheat needed
another month to ripen, to be ready for the harvest. Leviticus 23:15-21
gives the rules for the feast of weeks. "And ye shall count unto you from
the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave
offering: seven Sabbaths shall be complete: even unto the morrow after the
seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days: and ye shall offer a new meal
offering unto Yahweh." By this time the whole grain harvest was complete,
what had been merely promised in the firstfruits offering, could now be fully
given.
Yahshua fulfilled this symbol also, on its own day. When
His followers had seen Him with their own eyes after His resurrection, they were
filled with triumph and wanted to start their work at once. However, it was not
time yet, so Yahshua told them in Acts 1:4-5, "You should not depart
from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which ye have heard from
Me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy
Spirit not many days hence." The apostles were impatient and asked Him,
"Yahshua, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And
He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the
Father hath put in His own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the
Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in
Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the
earth." Acts 1:6-8.
It is not enough that they were now ready to be His
witnesses. It must be done in the way and at the time Yahweh had prophesied, in
order that it might bear the proof of its genuineness. Accordingly we read in Acts
chapter 2 that on the exact day of Pentecost, the feast of weeks, Yahweh
gave the fullness of His Spirit upon them, the power to do what up to that time,
they could only wish for. In the resurrection they had seen the firstfruits, the
demonstration of Yahweh's power and that Yahshua the Christ was the one who had
it, the promise of what was yet to come. It was as Yahshua had promised, and on
the exact day when the scriptures symbolically foretold its coming, they
received the power upon themselves. The New Testament records they now had the
power to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, even raise the dead, acting under
the Holy Spirit, which Yahshua had promised them.
We started out this lesson with the proposition that just
the mere ability to work miracles was not enough to prove the One who did them
was our Redeemer. There were many men in ancient times who could do things we
cannot now duplicate or explain. Only the One sent by Yahweh to redeem us could
be the Christ. Proof of His identity and authority, must be found in the
prophecies in which Yahweh had given us the signs which would identify Him.
We saw that Yahshua agreed with this. In John 5:31,36
Yahshua said, "If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. There
is another that beareth witness of Me: and I know that the witness which he
witnesses of Me is true. I have a greater witness than that of John: for the
works which the Father hath given Me to finish, the same works that I do, bear
witness of Me that the Father hath sent Me."
We have examined in detail the great prophesies in which
Yahweh had pointed out what the Messiah, would do and what He would accomplish
by it. We have seen that Yahshua correctly fulfilled, even to the exact day when
He did each of the works, which Yahweh had set out for Him to do.
We have the proof in actual demonstration He is our
Redeemer. He has paid the penalty for us; He has brought us the gift of eternal
life and by His resurrection has proven it to be a fact. There can be no
possible doubt that Yahshua is in truth the Christ. Truly, I know that my
Redeemer liveth. |