>>128995>>128996These are the same exact thoughts I struggled with back when I was an atheist. "jesus was just a rabbi" or "paul didnt even meet jesus". I have a drop of thought in my heart that you might be a muslim. forgive me if i guessed wrong.
If you still struggle to believe who Jesus is and what He did, I want you to ask these questions to yourself:
1) Prophet Daniel saw "One like the Son of Man" in the heavens, who had the authority to give direct orders to Angel Gabriel. Who could this Man with such authority be?
2) Why did God give Abraham such a specific instruction as "Would you sacrifice your only begotten son for my sake?" And when Abraham agreed to do this and loaded the wooden planks on the shoulders of his son Isaac and went up the hill to prove himself, why did God honor Abraham so much for this specific action that He promised to him that all the prophets will descend from Abraham?
3) Why did God, since the beginning of the book (Genesis), instruct humans to shed animal blood for the remission of sins? Why did He institute the practice of shedding innocent blood in the first place? Did God enjoy seeing poor animals suffer, or was He pointing to another "Sacrifice" this whole time?
Prophets in the old testament never saw Jesus either, but their own words pointed to Him the whole time. There are super-specific verses in the Tanakh that testify to who Jesus is, and prophesy His coming, His life, His passion and His return. you say all of this happened "coincidentally". How? Jews had no reason to glorify Jesus whom they hated, but their own book proves Him. As I said, God is a parable-teller, He is the author of this grand story we know as the universe, and it's full of His parables. He worked in such a way that even His enemies are forced to testify His truth.
Here are some of the most clear prophecies about Jesus Christ in the Tanakh(Old Testament):
1) Isaiah 53 talks about a certain someone who was trying to tell the Truth, yet the people of His day didn't listen to Him, instead they despised him and rejected Him and mocked Him. Yet, this Man still "takes up the pain and suffering (which we deserved) upon Himself. Then, this man gets "pierced" for our transgressions, gets crushed for our sake. The punishment that brings peace to us humans was afflicted to Him, and "by His wounds we are healed". Now, this was not written by Christians. These were said by the prophet Isaiah, centuries before Jesus. How did he guess these details so accurately?
2) Psalm 22 describes word for word what happened to Jesus on the cross. Yet, it is written by David thousands of years before Jesus. It reads like it's a poem that Jesus wrote for Himself. And also, Jesus quoted the beginning verse of this psalm while He was on the cross. When Jesus was on the cross, the others around Him mocked him saying, "If you are the son of God as you say, then get down from that cross, you can't even save yourself." . Psalm 22 says (direct quote): "All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. “He trusts in the Lord,” they say, “let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.” When Jesus was on the cross, the pharisees and the roman soldiers were around him in a circle. His hands and His feet were nailed to the cross, he was very thirsty yet refused to drink the wine they offered, and they even pierced Him with a spear, which caused water to sprout out of His body. Now direct quote from Psalm 22: "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me." Now here is an amazing detail, when the Roman soldiers brought Jesus the cross, they stripped Him naked, and then tore the clothes to pieces to share the cloth material within themselves. But his outer garment was a seamless one that couldn't be torn to pieces like that, so they instead did gambling to decide who gets that one. Now hear what it says in the continuation of Psalm 22: "They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.". Now I don't know how you can say this many details lining up in one verse written like a lamenting poem is a coincidence. There are many, many prophecies about Jesus like this one in the Old Testament. Here's more:
3) Zechariah 12:10, God is speaking about Himself, saying that the house of david will somehow "pierce" him and then they will "mourn like one mourns for a firstborn son." Here is the direct quote: "They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. "
4) Isaiah 6:9 says that a "child" is born to us, but somehow this baby has the attributes of God, and His rule will last forever unlike any earthly king. Direct quote: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever."
There are more. So you can't really say that the apostles exalted Jesus so much that they made Him their god, Jesus was really God, just as the previous prophets testified without realizing. If you want to learn more prophecies fulfilled by Jesus you will find many more. His entrance to Jerusalem on the top of a small donkey instead of a big war horse has a meaning. He says, in my first coming I am humbling myself, I'm on this small donkey. But on my return, I will come with my Power, that is when I'll arrive on a horse. Even this detail is in the Tanakh the book of jews, on Zechariah 9:9
"See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
" . There are even more of these prophecies fulfilled by Jesus, about 500 of them.