Is God a Moral Monster? (Frank Turek)

Jesus' Triumphal Entry: William Lane Craig

Unequaled Greatness of the Son of God: Art Azurdia

Who is the Angel of the Lord?

Throughout the Old Testament, we routinely encounter the mysterious character who goes by the title "The angel of the Lord." By looking at the numerous appearances of this individual, we can piece together clues as to His identity. The first time the angel of the Lord is introduced, he makes an appearance to Hagar, the servant of Abraham's wife Sarai. In Genesis 16:7-13, we read,

⁷ The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. ⁸ And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

⁹ Then the angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” ¹⁰ The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”

¹¹ The angel of the LORD also said to her:

“You are now pregnant
and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
for the LORD has heard of your misery.
¹² He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward all his brothers.

¹³ She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” ¹⁴ That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

What is of particular interest here is that the angel of the Lord speaks as though He is distinct from Yahweh yet also presumes Himself to be the very mouthpiece of God. In fact, he speaks in the first person and says "I will increase your descendants." This is very peculiar. What's more, in verse 13, Hagar identifies the Angel of the Lord as "the God who sees me."

Isaiah 53: The Suffering Servant Poem (Written ~700 B.C.)

For a defence of the Messianic nature of this prophecy, please see my previous article here.

Christ in the Story of Ruth

In previous blog posts, I have drawn attention to various Old Testament foreshadows and prototypes of Christ. In this article, I want to draw attention to yet another old testament parallel to Christ. This one occurs in the book of Ruth.

The story of Ruth begins with a man by the name of Elimelek, along with his wife Naomi and two sons Mahlon and Kilion, going to live in the country of Moab, in order to escape a famine. Tragically, Elimilek dies, leaving his widow Naomi with her two sons. The two sons both marry Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. The two sons die after having settled in the land for about a decade, and only Naomi and her two daughters-in-law remain.

Having learned that God had provided food in Bethlehem, Naomi sets out to return home from the land of Moab. She urges Orpah and Ruth to return to their own land to find another husband and start to rebuild their lives. Orpah complies with Naomi’s request, but Ruth insists on travelling back to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law.

Does Isaiah 53 Speak About Jesus? A Response To Critics

I have always viewed the exquisitely detailed Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 53 as one of the most powerful and compelling reasons for thinking that Christianity is indeed true. Written some 700 years before Christ’s life on earth, this prophecy details the suffering and redemptive purposes of the Messiah. Moreover, the presence of the entire book of Isaiah in the Qumran scrolls gives us confidence that this prophecy pre-dates the first century by at least a couple hundred years. Its presence among the Jewish Scriptures precludes any possibility of Christian tampering anyway, and such a possibility is uniformly rejected among contemporary scholarship.

So what does this passage say? Take a look at the following video:

Some might point to the fact that contemporary Jews reject this passage as being messianic. However, having read the conventional views among them, I think such a view is untenable. Firstly, if the passage — as most contemporary Jews maintain — is really a personification of the nation of Israel, then the passage makes no sense when it says “…for the transgressions of my people [i.e. Israel] he was striken…though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.” The term “the servant” is also used of the messiah in other parts of the Bible, such as in Zechariah 3:8 (“I am going to bring my servant, the Branch”)

Moreover, most contemporary Jews are simply not familiar with the chapter – it is curiously avoided in the synagogue readings. We can, however, settle the issue of the passage’s historical Judaic interpretation by going to the ancient sources. Jonathan ben Uziel (early 1st century), for example, in his Targum (an Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible), paraphrasing Isaiah 53, wrote: “My servant, the Messiah, will be great, who was bruised for our sins.” Furthermore, the Talmud (in the Midrash Tanchumi) states with reference to Isaiah 52:13 that “He was more exalted than Abraham, more extolled than Moses; higher than the angels.”

Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees in John 5, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”

The apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:10-12, ”Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.”

Could this passage really refer to anyone besides Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world? Is all this just one big happy coincidence? You decide!

Joshua the Highpriest as a Foreshadow of Christ

Previously on this blog, I have highlighted the types and foreshadows of Christ which are found in the Old Testament Scriptures with respect to the Abraham affair and the Passover celebration. In this post, I want to consider yet another remarkable Old Testament foreshadowing of Christ, this time from the book of Zechariah. Let’s take a look at the sixth chapter in this prophetic book:

⁹ The word of the LORD came to me: ¹⁰ “Take silver and gold from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon. Go the same day to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah. ¹¹ Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and set it on the head of the high priest, Joshua son of Jehozadak. ¹² Tell him this is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the LORD. ¹³ It is he who will build the temple of the LORD, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.’ ¹⁴ The crown will be given to Heldai, Tobijah, Jedaiah and Hen son of Zephaniah as a memorial in the temple of the LORD. ¹⁵ Those who are far away will come and help to build the temple of the LORD, and you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you. This will happen if you diligently obey the LORD your God.”

The first curious thing to notice of in this passage is the significance of the character names. The name “Joshua” is translated from the Hebrew “Yehoshua” — which is the same name that is translated “Iesous” in the Greek Septuagint. In our English New Testament Bibles, the name “Iesous” is translated “Jesus”. We would also do well to take note of the name of Joshua’s father — Jehozadek. The name literally means “Jehovah Righteousness” (readers may recall the translation of the name of Melchizedek as “King of Righteousness”). Isn’t it a curious set of coincidences that not only is the one who would be explicitly said to be prototypic of the coming Messiah given the name “Jesus”, but his father bears the name “Jehovah Righteousness”?

Beyond the Shadow of a Doubt: The Passover as a Foreshadow of Christ

Previously, I posted a blog entry on the Abraham affair as a foreshadow — a prototype — of the Gospel. As with most of the arguments for Christianity, the evidence from Old Testament foreshadows and prophecies is most compelling when taken as a cumulative argument. In other words, it becomes most convincing when many different examples are considered together. In this blog entry, I want to consider another well-known example of this category of evidence: The Passover, an event which has been celebrated by Jews for thousands of years.

You Need The Box Top To Make Sense Of The Jigsaw Of The Old Testament: The Abraham Affair

When asked for what I consider to be the most compelling argument for the truth of Christianity, I often offer the cumulative force of the argument from prototypic foreshadowings of Christ and the new covenant which are so delicately interwoven into the Old Testament fabric. Just as one needs the Box Top to make sense of a jigsaw puzzle, so one needs Christ in order to properly understand what’s going on in the Old Testament. In this article, I present one of those foreshadows.