Introduction to the True Messiah
Yeshua himself claimed to be the Son of God, the Son of Man, and the Messiah according to the Gospel of Matthew. The Gospel of John and the book of Revelation tell us that Yeshua is the incarnation of the Word of God who was with God in the beginning even before the creation of the world. To prove Yeshua to be the Messiah, the Gospels and some writings of his disciples must be in perfect agreement with the Scriptures in the Hebrew Bible, which we have proved to be the true Word of God by demonstrating the perfect fulfillments of all the numerical prophecies (see Part III).
We will not discuss any other New Testament writing that is not directly from his disciples for the following reasons. First, these writings do not directly record the words and acts of Yeshua. Second, we cannot unambiguously prove the identities of the authors who wrote the New Testament epistles.
For the above reasons, we only focus on the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of John, and the book of Revelation, which are generally believed to be written by the disciples of Yeshua. If these three books are in perfect agreement with the Scriptures in the Hebrew Bible and all the prophecies of Yeshua recorded in these books are fulfilled exactly, then these books must be truthful and inspired by God just as the Hebrew Bible. After this conclusion is well established, then any other writing that is not consistent with the teachings in these three books must be treated with caution.
The Messiah must be the Son of Man according to Daniel's vision (Daniel 7:13-14), "I was watching in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before Him. Then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed."
The Son of Man came to the Ancient of Days (God the Father) and was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, which is everlasting. All peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. These verses tell us that the Son of Man is the Messiah, who is the king of kings and the lord of the lords on the earth.
The Messiah must be the Son of God according to Psalm 2:
Psalm 2:7 clearly tells us the Messiah is the Son of God. The Son of God will rule the nations with a rod of iron and shall dash the rulers on the earth to pieces like potter's vessel. All the kings and judges of the earth must be wise, be instructed, serve Yehowah with fear, rejoice with trembling, and kiss the Son. If they do not respect the Son and if his wrath is kindled only a little, they will thus perish. Blessed are all those who put their trust in the Son.
Therefore, the Hebrew Bible teaches us that the titles: the Son of Man, the Son of God, and the Messiah are given to the same being. If Yeshua is the Messiah, he is also the Son of Man and the Son of God. The Gospels of Matthew and John agree with the teachings of the Hebrew Bible. Matthew recorded Yeshua's statement that there is only one teacher the Messiah (Matthew 23:8). John also stated (John 1:17): "For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Yeshua Messiah." Therefore, only the Messiah is the true teacher and only his interpretation of the Hebrew Bible is truthful.
In order to unambiguously prove that Yeshua is the true Messiah, all the numerical prophecies about the Messiah in the Hebrew Bible must be perfectly fulfilled in Yeshua and all the numerical prophecies foretold by Yeshua himself must also be fulfilled exactly. If Yeshua were a false messiah, none of his prophecies would be fulfilled.
We have shown that the 70-week prophecies in Daniel 9:26-27 were perfectly fulfilled in Yeshua (Chapters 16 and 17). We have further shown that Ezekiel's 40-day prophecy on the destruction of Jerusalem was also fulfilled perfectly in Yeshua (Chapter 23). These are the numerical prophecies. No one would be able to fabricate stories about Yeshua to perfectly match these numerical prophecies. This is because the writers in the time of the Messiah (2,000 years ago) could not have figured out the exact starting times of the prophecies if they had not been inspired by God. In the following chapters, we will show that all the numerical prophecies foretold by Yeshua himself were fulfilled perfectly. The perfect fulfillments of Yeshua's own prophecies prove that he is the true Messiah.
In addition to the perfect fulfillments of these numerical prophecies, there are other descriptive prophecies in the Hebrew Bible (e.g., the books of Isaiah and Zechariah). Many rabbis in modern Israel still do not believe these clear descriptive prophecies on the Messiah. They attempt to provide alternative interpretations to the prophecies, which appear reasonable but are not correct and self-consistent. In the following chapters, we will also present some descriptive prophecies on the Messiah in the Hebrew Bible to see if Yeshua is the true Messiah foretold by these prophets of God.