Posted on 11/29/2015 8:04:17 AM PST by Kaslin
One of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes points out, as only Lewis could, that Jesus was either the Messiah (and the Son of God) as prophesied in the ancient Jewish scriptures, or He was a liar, a lunatic, or, worse, the "Devil of Hell."
Wrote Lewis: "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
Indeed, to my Jewish friends, I say this: We Christ followers love your Messiah. And make no mistake about it, Jesus is your Messiah. He is our Messiah. He is the Messiah. Messiah means savior, and Jesus is the Savior of all mankind.
To be sure, if both Christ's words and the Holy Spirit-inspired teachings throughout both the Old and New Testaments are to be believed, and they are, then Christianity and Judaism are not competing religions at odds with one another. Rather, Christianity merely represents the final culmination of Judaism, and Christ's promised incarnation, death and resurrection, the fulfillment of the long awaited Jewish Messiah prophesied throughout the Old Testament.
In his latest book, "The Emmaus Code: Finding Jesus in the Old Testament," author and attorney David Limbaugh thoroughly unpacks this reality and "unlocks the mysteries of the Old Testament and reveals hints of Jesus Christ's arrival through all thirty-nine Old Testament books."
"The key to the secrets of the Old Testament, Limbaugh argues, is the crucial New Testament encounter between the risen Jesus and two travelers on the road to Emmaus," notes the book's description. "With that key, and with Limbaugh as a deft guide, readers of 'The Emmaus Code' will come to a startling new understanding of the Old Testament as a clear and powerful heralding of Jesus Christ's arrival. Limbaugh takes readers on a revealing journey from Genesis through Malachi, demonstrating that a consistent message courses through every one of the Old Testament's thirty-nine books: the power, wonder, and everlasting love of Jesus Christ."
The "Emmaus Code" is a project that God long-ago placed on Limbaugh's heart. "Jesus is prophesied in the Old Testament and fulfills those prophecies in the New Testament," he writes. "For years, I have wanted to write a book to share my enthusiasm for the Old Testament and explain how it is foundational to the New Testament as the first act of a two-act play. I have wanted to show the many ways Christ is foreshadowed in the Old Testament.
"My new book, 'The Emmaus Code: Finding Jesus in the Old Testament,' is the culmination of a project I began some 20 years ago. In the book, I try to demonstrate that the Christ-centeredness of the Old Testament is the key to understanding all of Scripture. The book is a primer on the Old Testament. I take you through each period of Old Testament history, introduce and discuss all the threads and themes pointing to Jesus in the Old Testament, and finally give you an overview of each book of the Old Testament and detail how each one prefigures Jesus Christ.
"My goal is to increase the reader's appreciation for the Old Testament and for its Christ-centeredness, for once we have a better handle on the Old Testament and understand that Jesus is its focus, the Bible will come alive for us in ways we never anticipated and our faith will be strengthened and energized. That is certainly my experience, and I pray the same thing happens for you."
Having just finished the book, I can say with enthusiastic certainty that Limbaugh accomplishes his goal. He demonstrates, like the trial lawyer proving his case beyond any reasonable doubt, that Jesus is not just hinted at in the Old Testament, but that His presence permeates the ancient Jewish texts. As John 1:1 reminds us, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
Christ is the Word and the Word is God.
The "Emmaus Code" will change your whole perspective on the Bible. The Old Testament will come to life for you and you will see clearly, perhaps for the first time, that its primary purpose was, and is, the foretelling of the coming of Christ Jesus.
When Jesus asked the apostle Peter, "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the son of the living God" (see Matthew 16:15-16).
"Jesus replied, 'Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven'" (Matthew 16:17).
Christ points to Himself as the Old Testament Messiah.
David Limbaugh establishes, masterfully, the veracity of Christ's claim.
"We have to pass it, to show you what's in it!" THAT is the most absurd statement I've heard in my lifetime.
Some do my friend:
1 Peter 3:5 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
Ahh, how can you possibly say that unless you read the book?
It seems you have pre-judged the book.
Wow, who knew saving souls was so expensive?! You could get a case Budweiser for that! /s
The Parable of the wine skins explains it all..................
The Messiah needs to come again, and do everything the Jewish Scriptures actually teach he will do, to prove he came a first time. (Friar Nancy Pelosistein)
Thank you for your advice. I meant that what is in the scriptures and the blessings I receive are enough for me. I don’t require scientific prove that Our Lord existed. He is was and always will be.
I would like to get this book.
Re: “I don’t require scientific prove that Our Lord existed. He is was and always will be.”
I agree. However, if there is historical evidence one can present to someone who has an honest question regarding His existence, then it is nice to be aware of that evidence. Remember what Peter said, “always be ready to give a reason/answer (defense) for the hope that lies within us.”
bkmk
Most people here are focusing on the C. S. Lewis quote, so perhaps we should mention that it is from the book Mere Christianity. It’s a classic.
bump for later
Heh, but that’s pretty close anyway.
When the Messiah comes [back] and says he didn’t claim to be God, his “followers” are going insist that he’s a fake.
Oh He claimed it alright, and often enough. “Before Moses was, I AM”, for instance.
John 10:29-36
29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
30 I and my Father are one.
31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?
33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
Yup. Sure. And he was a gluttonous man and a winebibber too. Well if CNN or CBS says something is so, it must be true.
34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
36 Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
That is, claiming to be the "Son of God" is not making himself God and therefore NOT blasphemy. It fell on deaf ears. Sure he existed before Abraham, because he was a promise from God, which was the Word of God, which is true when spoken, no matter how far ahead in human time it is promised before it manifests in the physical world.
Oh well, people are firmly rooted in their beliefs.
Search the scriptures and see if you can find an apostle earning a salary by selling his books.
Go 9 chapters back in John’s Gospel and you’ll find the Evangelist strenuously disagreeing with you.
“kai theos ein o logos”
“and the Word was God”
John 1:1 is a statement of fact of Gen 1:1. That word is elohim.
Same word here, the one that those argumentative folks (in John 10) interpreted narrowly, preferring to hurl the blasphemy accusation:
Psalms 82
A Psalm of Asaph.
God [elohim] standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods [elohim].
How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
I have said, Ye are gods [elohim]; and all of you are children of the most High.
But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
Arise, O God [elohim], judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.
0430 ‘elohiym {el-o-heem’}
plural of 0433; TWOT - 93c; n m p
AV - God 2346, god 244, judge 5, GOD 1, goddess 2, great 2, mighty 2,
angels 1, exceeding 1, God-ward + 04136 1, godly 1; 2606
1) (plural)
1a) rulers, judges
1b) divine ones
1c) angels
1d) gods
2) (plural intensive - singular meaning)
2a) god, goddess
2b) godlike one
2c) works or special possessions of God
2d) the (true) God
2e) God
***
“judge”, “judges”
The irony is thick with that one.
Plenty of experts graduated from the Emily Litella Seminary of Semantics, the same folks who have clever solutions for the “Nazarene prophecy” in Matthew 2. That one surely is exhibit A for how God has scholar-proofed the NT (along with the whole of Scripture).
Because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not...
That’s all right. I don’t need to argue with people. Everyone has their beliefs. I write for those passing by who are interested.
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