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prophecy. Prophecy is inherently historical. It stands or falls based only on
whether it does or does not accurately predict future historical events. God
used prophecy to prove the authenticity of the Bible as his word. Of all the
religious documents in the world, the Bible is the only one that deals with
events of the future with the same certainty that it deals with events of the
past and present. No other book, religious or otherwise, includes the minute
details and the grand scale of prophecies as does the Bible; whether
discussing the rise and fall of empires and kingdoms that had not even been
created when the prophecy was written, or prophecies of individuals who would
not be born for hundreds of years afterward. One of these individuals the
most important one is the Messiah.
"The Messiah has always been central to Judaism, Mr. Hawthorne. The prophet
Isaiah said that he would be born to the linage of Jesse.28 Jeremiah narrowed
it down further to the descendants of
Jesse's eighth son, David.29 The prophecies get incredibly more specific after
that. Isaiah said that the Messiah would be bom to a virgin.30 The prophet
Micah said he would be born in the province of Judah, in the small village of
Bethlehem.31
28 Isaiah 11:1-2 & 11:10.
29 Jeremiah 23:5.
90 Isaiah 7:14.
31 Micah 5:2 (written circa 710 B.C.).
Matters of Fact and Faith 13 7
"Isaiah went on to say the Messiah would be called Mighty God, the Everlasting
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Father, and the
Prince of Peace;32 that his ministry would begin in Galilee;33 and that he
would perform numerous healings and other miracles.34
"But to make it even more exact, the prophecies of Zechariah and Daniel even
specified when and how the Messiah would arrive in Jerusalem, so that no one
who was willing to see the truth could miss it. According to these prophecies,
the Messiah would come into Jerusalem riding on a donkey35
483 years after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem,36 which had been destroyed by
the Persians. That decree was issued by the Babylonian Emperor Artaxerxes in
457 B.C.37 When you account for the fact that there was no year zero, that
means the Messiah was to come in the year 27 A.D. From the
Gospel of Luke, we know that Jesus was born during the first tax taken while
Quirinius was governor of Syria,38 or about the year 7 B.C.,39 so in the year
27 he would have been 33 or 34
when he rode in to Jerusalem and a week later was crucified. In brief, he
exactly fulfilled
Zechariah's and Daniel's prophecies.
"But if that's not precise enough for you, Zechariah said that the Messiah
would be betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver; that the money would be
thrown on the floor of the Temple; and that it would be used to buy a potters'
field."40
For the moment, at least, Decker was interested enough in what Rosen was
saying that he did not
file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...0Trilogy%20(3)/03%20-%20Acts%20o
f%20God.txt (65 of 208) [12/24/2004 11:53:45 PM]
file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/BeauSeigneur,...he%20Christ
%20Clone%20Trilogy%20(3)/03%20-%20Acts%20of%20God.txt take note of the fact
the 'friend' the prophet Zechariah referred to was obviously
32 Isaiah 9:6.
33 Isaiah 9:1-7.
34 Isaiah 35:3-6.
35 Zechariah 9:9.
36 Daniel 9:25-26.
37 Artaxerxes I served as Emperor of Babylon from 464-424 B.C. According to
Ezra, chapter 7, Artaxerxes issued this decree in the seventh year of his
reign, i.e. 457 B.C.
38 Luke 2:2.
39 John E\der,Prophets, Idols and Diggers, (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill,
1960), p. 160.
40 Zechariah 11:12-13.
138 Acts of God
Judas ... or as Christopher had revealed, Decker himself in a past life.
"And Isaiah said," Rosen continued, "that at his trial, the Messiah would not
defend himself, but would be led as a lamb, silent to the slaughter.41
"Writing more than a thousand years before anyone had even heard of
crucifixion, King David prophetically described the Messiah's death in painful
detail down to the piercing of his hands and feet, the taunting of the crowds,
and the casting of lots for his clothing.42 Isaiah gave additional details of
the crucifixion of the Messiah43 and said that though he would be innocent of
any wrongdoing, the Messiah would be executed with criminals, and then buried
in a rich man's grave.44
"But the prophets said Messiah's death would not be in vain. In fact, Isaiah
explains that the
Messiah would intentionally give his own life as a sacrifice to save each of
us: that he was pierced for our sins, and crushed for our iniquities.45
"The prophecies also reveal that Messiah would be resurrected.46 And though he
had been killed, what he had done and said would be told throughout the
world47 for generation after generation, forever, and that ultimately, all
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people of all nations would bow down to him.48 It doesn't take a
Bible scholar, Mr. Hawthorne, to see that all of these prophecies are
describing Jesus. In fact, the only way you could miss it is if you wanted to.
"Christopher told you49 that Jesus came to earth to settle an argument between
Lucifer and Yahweh, and that while Jesus originally sided with Yahweh, after
living thirty years among the
41 Isaiah 53:7.
42 Psalm 22:7-8 and 16-18.
43 Isaiah 52:13-53:12.
44 Isaiah 53:9 & 53:12.
45 Isaiah 53:4-6; 53:8; 53:11-12.
46 Isaiah 53:10-11; Psalm 16:10 and 30:3.
47 Isaiah 49:6.
48 Psalm 22:27-31.
49 See Birth of an Age, Book Two of The Christ Clone Trilogy, pp. 197-198
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