Messianic Fulfillments

In Messianic Fulfillments Hayes Peter Mauro examines the role of Christian evangelical movements in shaping American identity in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Focusing on Christianity's fervent pursuit of Native American salvation, Mauro discusses Anglo American artists influenced by Christian millenarianism, natural history, and racial science in America. Artists on the colonial, antebellum, and post-Civil War frontier graphically projected their idealization of Christian-based identity onto the bodies of American Indians. Messianic Fulfillments explores how Puritans, Quakers, Mormons, and members of other Christian millenarian movements viewed Native peoples as childlike, primitive, and in desperate need of Christianization lest they fall into perpetual sin and oblivion and slip into eternal damnation. Christian missionaries were driven by the idea that catastrophic Native American spiritual failure would, in Christ's eyes, reflect on the shortcomings of those Christians tasked with doing the work of Christian "charity" in the New World. With an interdisciplinary approach drawing from religious studies and the histories of popular science and art, Messianic Fulfillments explores ethnohistorical encounters in colonial and nineteenth-century America through the lens of artistic works by evangelically inspired Anglo American artists and photographers. Mauro takes a critical look at a variety of visual mediums to illustrate how evangelical imagery influenced definitions of "Americaness," and how such images reinforced or challenged historically prevailing conceptions of what it means (and looks like) to be American.

In The Messianic Hope, book six of the New American Commentary Studies in Bible & Theology series, Jewish Studies professor Michael Rydelnik puts forth a thesis that the Old Testament was intended by its authors to be read as a messianic primer. He explains at length how the text reveals significant direct messianic prophecy when read in its final form. Users will find this topical study an excellent extension of the long-respected New American Commentary series.

The ultimate, all-in-one resource on what the Old Testament says about Jesus As Jesus walked the Emmaeus road, he showed his companions how the whole of Scripture foretold his coming. Yet so often today we’re not quite sure how to talk about Jesus in the Old Testament. How do you know what applies to Jesus? And how do you interpret some of the strange prophetic language? Get answers and clarity in this authoritative and reliable guide to messianic prophecy from some of the world’s foremost evangelical Old Testament scholars. In this in-depth, user-friendly one volume resource you get: -essays from scholars on the big ideas and major themes surrounding Messianic prophecy -A clear and careful commentary on every passage in the Old Testament considered Messianic -Insights into the original Hebrew and helpful analysis of theological implications Watch the Scriptures come into full color as you see new meaning in familiar passages and further appreciate God’s masterful handiwork in preparing the way for Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah.

The Hebrew Messiah: The Glory and Triumph of Israel takes seriously the witness in the Tanakthe books of teaching, the prophets, and the writingsthat Judaism receives as its Scripture. It listens to that witness to discover the truth of the Hebrew Messiah. Drawing upon study inspired by an intense interest to explore and appreciate the riches of Judaism, Allan Russell Juriansz has poured his findings into this exploration of the crucial role of Ha-Mashiach, the Messiah, in the Tanaks works that span a millennium of Jewish life and reflection. The exploration of The Hebrew Messiah begins by sketching out the contemporary scholarly climate in Judaism. Then it conducts a detailed survey of the witness to the Messiah in the Tanak, particularly in its prophetic writings. Next, it examines the place of this witness to the Hebrew Messiah in the life of modern Jewry. Finally, The Hebrew Messiah concludes by celebrating the good news that Ha-Mashiach is the glory and triumph of Israel. The Hebrew Messiah: The Glory and Triumph of Israel will satisfy the curiosity of all who desire to know how intimately and extensively the witness to the Messiah is woven through the tapestry of the Tanak. It will speak to members of the modern Jewish community who desire to take a fresh look at the foundations of their faith. Finally, it will offer Christians the blueprint for their understanding of the Messiah available to them. He is the Hebrew Messiah, Israels glory and triumph.

Christians in general—and preachers of prophecy in particular—attribute the fulfillment of hundreds of Old Testament messianic prophecies to Jesus of Nazareth. Often these claims arise in the uncritical environment of Christian churches or popular literature that is treating messianic prophecy. People with critical thinking abilities, and those endowed with a skeptical nature, often have key questions that remain unaddressed in such environments. These thinkers and skeptics are the people that will be most interested in this work. The primary question addressed is this: “Do critically acceptable historical-evidential reasons exist for believing that Jesus Christ is the direct fulfillment of some specific Old Testament messianic texts?” Approaching this question within a framework that eliminates any possibility of staged prophetic fulfillment, and those that may occur by mere chance or collusion, produces results that must be taken seriously. Even with these strict criteria, Jesus emerges as the only viable candidate to fulfill some of the prophecies included in this study. For other prophetic texts, the evidence is not as abundant or convincing. However, even these texts yield several minimal facts that directly impinge on New Testament claims about Jesus.

Since the calls of the Second Vatican Council, Roman Catholic theologians have sought to overcome an overarching problem facing Jewish–Christian relations, the concept of "supersessionism"; the idea that God has revoked the spiritual and historical promises made to the Jewish people in favour of granting those same privileges to a predominantly Gentile Church. Israel, the Church, and Millenarianism breaks new ground by applying an ancient principle to the problem of Israel’s "replacement": the early Church’s promotion of millennialism. Utilizing the best in Patristic research, Aguzzi argues that these earliest Christian traditions made room for the future of Israel because Christ’s reign in the Church was viewed as provisional to his historical reign on earth—Israel’s role in salvation history was and is not yet complete. Aguzzi’s research also opens the door for a greater Catholic understanding of the millennial principle, not shying away from its validity and relevance for understanding the importance of safeguarding Jewish particularity, while concluding that the Synagogue and the Church are indeed on a parallel trajectory; "...what will their...[Israel’s]...acceptance be but life from the dead?" (Romans 11:15). Ultimately, the divine will is fulfilled through both Christian and Jewish means, in history, while each community is dependent, in different ways, upon the unfolding of God’s future and the coming Parousia of Christ.

Thē Messiah The author of this book, Thē Messiah, wishes to extend and invitation to all Jews to reconsider what the Lord God's prophets of old had to say relative to the promised Messiah. Is He to be the One who would come strictly as a conquering hero after the similitude of King David or is He, in fact, One Who is even more powerful than that: One Who could not only conquer death but One who could put away even sin for all eternity? Just how big (or small) is the Jewish Messiah? The author would also like to extend an invitation to all believers to reconsider realistically a variety of factors, not the least being the Blessed Hope, which hinge and revolve around and upon the seven major Festivals of the Jewish faith. Yeshua Himself said, "Think not that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. For truly I say unto you, 'Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.'" (Matthew 5:17-18) The seven basic festivals of the Jewish faith are a major part of the law and the prophets. Yeshua has fulfilled to the very day the first four festivals and shortly He shall fulfill the last three festivals to the day! Perhaps even more important, the author would like to extend to the nonbeliever an invitation to reconsider, in light of all eternity, the path upon which has been chosen. Yeshua extends the following invitation to one and everyone irregardless: "Come now, and let us reason together...though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." (Isaiah 1:18)