composer of Psalms!!
[fn22]
As Mr. Everett says, I "cheerfully leave this part of the controversy,
with the answer to this question which every rational inquirer will
give;" p. 63.
Mr. Everett, however, in maintaining that the Messiah, was to be
merely a preacher of righteousness, a founder of a new religion, and a.
spiritual saviour of the souls of men, not only opposes dicta of the
prophets of the Old Testament, but is expressly contradicted by the
doctrine of the New, which maintains the same ideas of the Messiah
that the prophets teach and the Jews believe; and this with the
indulgence of the reader's patience I will plainly show.
The angel is recorded, Luke, ch. i. 31, to have told Mary, concerning
Jesus whom the author of that Gospel supposes to have been the
Messiah, that "the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father
David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his
kingdom there shall be no end." Now this is precisely the doctrine,
concerning the Messiah, believed by the Jews from that time to the
present; for we see that Luke represents that the Messiah was not to be
merely a spiritual saviour of the souls of men, but was actually to set
upon the throne of David, and reign over the house of Jacob for ever;
which is precisely what the prophets teach and the Jews believe.
Again, in the same ch. 68, the writer of that Gospel represents
Zecharias, when filled with the Holy Ghost, as predicting concerning
Jesus as follows. "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited
and redeemed his people, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David: as he spake by the mouth of his holy
prophets which have been since the world began: that we should be
saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us: to
perform the mercy promised to our Fathers, and to remember his holy
covenant: the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, that he
would grant unto us, that we being delivered from the hand of our
enemies, might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness
before him all the days of our life."
Here we see again that in Luke's opinion the Messiah was not to be
merely "a spiritual saviour of the souls of men," but that he was to
"save Israel from their enemies and from the hand of all that hated
them," and this too is precisely what the prophets teach and the Jews
believe.
Again, from the first ch. of Acts 6. it is evident, that the primitive
Christians did not believe that the Messiah was to be merely a spiritual
saviour of the souls of men, but that he would perform for Israel what
was promised by the prophets. For the Apostles are represented there as
asking Jesus, previous to his ascension, saying "Lord wilt thou at this
time restore again the kingdom to Israel?"
The way the writers of the New Testament, get over the objection to the
Messiahship of Jesus, founded on the nonfulfillment by him of the
splended visions of the prophets relative to the restoration of the
dispersion, the punishment of their oppressors, and the diffusion of
universal happiness to the tribes and of the world, (which they
represent as the consequence of the coming of the Messiah) is, not by
maintaining that the Messiah was to be merely "a spiritual Saviour of
the souls of men," but by affirming that Jesus would shortly come again
into the world to fulfill them. "The Lord Jesus," says the writer of the
second Epistle to the Thessalonians ch. i. 7, "shall be revealed from
Heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on
them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the
presence of our Lord, and from the glory of his power: when he shall
come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired of all them that
believe."[fn23]
Again, in the xii. ch. of the Revelations, Jesus is apparently spoken of
as destined "to rule all nations with a rod of iron." And in the ii. ch.
Jesus is represented as saying, that "he that overcometh and keepeth my
words unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations; and he
shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be
broken to shivers even as I received of my Father," v: 26, and lastly,
not to be tedious, there is a passage in the xix. ch. of Revelations,
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