Thursday, January 11, 2007

Messiah part 2

Messianic Prophecy number 2:
The Messiah will be a descendant of Abraham and through him everyone on earth will be blessed.
We're going to deal with the second part first, as that comes first in the bible.
"Through him everyone will be blessed."

Genesis 12:3
"I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

This is actually addressed to Abraham, and nowhere does it say that in turn people will be blessed through his descendants. Now maybe we can say it is in a way through him, as people are supposedly blessed by believing in Jesus, and it is supposed that Jesus is descended from Abraham. Since this prophecy is combined, we'll assume this is the case, that the blessing is added only in so far as Jesus is a descendant of Abraham.

"All people on earth will be blessed through you."
First, all people on earth will most certainly not be blessed through Jesus. Ignoring the fact that the majority of humans do not accept him as savior and therefore are not "blessed through him"
can we really say people murdered during the inquisition, in the name of Jesus, were really "blessed by Him?" I think not. I happen to believe that "all people on earth" includes EVERYONE. That's not interpretation, that's linguistic definition.

The other part of this prophecy is from Genesis 18:18
"Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him."

Notice this says nothing at all about the Messiah being his descendant, only that all nations will be blessed through Abraham. So how is this even considered a messianic prophecy?

Now, the supposed fulfillment is from Acts 3:25-26
"And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, 'Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.' When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways."

Chapter 3 shows a miracle performed by Peter and John after the crucifixion of Jesus. They give a speech in response to the amazement of the crowd. Before this line, they mention a prophecy that there will be a prophet like Moses who comes to the people, they do NOT mention a savior, though they then make it clear they look at Jesus as being a savior who has come to lead them from their wicked ways.

The biggest problem comes from the fact that Jesus is not, in fact, a descendant of Abraham. Two of the gospels give a lineage, one from Abraham, one from Adam which goes down to Joseph, husband of Mary mother of Jesus. Joseph may have been a descendant of Abraham. Jesus was NOT Joseph's son. Anyone who knows the story of the nativity knows that Mary supposedly became pregnant by the divine act of God, making Jesus the son of God and the son of Mary, but at no time did Joseph play a biological role. Jesus therefore is NOT a descendant of Abraham unless it is through Mary, and nowhere is any argument ever made or any evidence (even a genealogy) given to lead us to believe Mary was a descendant of Abraham. Given that the Jews had a very patriarchal society, descendancy would be tracked only through the male line. This means that Jesus could not possible fulfill this "prophecy" of all people being blessed through Abraham. And if Abraham must be the ancestor of the messiah, Jesus can not be the messiah.

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