Was Jesus a Messiah?

When people of "trust"--politicians, religious leaders, astrologers--attempt to convince others to believe in what they believe they invite an honesty check on what they are promoting.

The Bible invites scrutiny since it is one of the most promoted of story books around, especially now that TV shows are showing Bible stories and new "revelations", as "new" information comes to light through study and archaeological digs.

Religious leaders and others promoting the Christian belief have had 2000 years to create what I call "explain-aways", which they use to obscure contradictions and errors that abound in the Bible; errors, such as bats are birds per Leviticus 11:19; birds with four feet per Lev. 11:20-21 etc.

These "explain-aways" consist of "reinterpretations" to outright lies. Reinterpretations, such as God's "day" as found in Genesis 2:17. When God said that if anyone ate of the "tree of knowledge of good and evil" Adam would surely die that day. Adam did not die that day after eating of the fruit and that made God in affect a liar. To get around that dilemma God's day was changed from a day to mean a period of 1000 years. That creates another dilemma for if a day is now 1000 years how is the Sabbath falling on the 7th day explained as per Exodus 31:15? Apparently to some the Bible scriptures do not mean what they read to mean.

Deceit is part of the Christian tradition from the beginning, for Paul advocates deceit to save souls in 1 Corinthians 9:20, "...to the Jews I become like a Jew, to win the Jews."

We find contradictions in the Bible, as illustrated in John 1:18, where he states, "No one has ever seen God..." and in Exodus 33:20 God says, "and he said, "thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me, and live." Yet in Genesis 32:30, "... and Jacob called the place "Peniel": for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." (See also Numbers 14:14, Job 42:5, Deut. 5:4 & 334:10)

Jesus himself misquoted the Bible, for in Mark 2L25-26; "And he said unto them, Have ye never heard what David did, when he had need, and was hungered, he, and they that were with him? How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat of the shew bread." In contradiction 1 Samuel 21:1 states that David came to Ahimelech the priest. Abiathar was the son of Aitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David." Jesus also quoted scripture from the OT, which did not exist, such as in John 7:37-38: "In the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying "if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink, He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of water." No such scripture exists in the OT.

All of this is pretty tame, though it illustrates the lack of "divine inspiration" attributed to the Bible; the argument being that if it were truly divinely inspired it would be without errors or contradictions.

The basis for Christianity lies in Jesus being the Messiah, a prophet, and a deity. Very little prophecy was fulfilled that would prove his being the Messiah, and nothing in the OT makes mention of any "second coming", or of a Messiah being a deity. There is nothing in the OT about "original sin", and of a need for the world being "saved".

According to the scriptures Adam's sin was his alone; his children did not inherit his guilt. However, the subject of "original sin" is another topic left for another time.

One argument against Jesus being the Messiah is the failure of his prophecy about how long he would remain buried. In Matthew 12:38-39 Jesus prophesied, "Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said unto him (Jesus), "Teacher we want to see a miraculous sign from you".
"He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign, But none will be given except for the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." The scripture applying to Jonah can be found in Jonah 1:17. Also of note is Deut. 18:22, about false prophets.

The Jews reckoned time in periods of light and dark; a day measured of light from sunrise to sunset; night being dark, from sunset to sunrise. Jesus was put in the tomb in the waning hours of Friday, since Jesus was said to have died about 3 o'clock, the ninth hour of a 12 hour day. That means if would be a stretch to include Friday as counting one day; but, for sake of argument we'll include Friday in the count, since some claim that parts of a day counted as a whole day.

Friday night (from sunset to sunrise) counts as the first night. From sunrise Saturday to sunset counts as the second day. From sunset to sunrise Saturday night counts as the second night. Now according to the gospel accounts the women arrived at the tome just before or at sunrise Sunday so Sunday can't be counted as one day since Jesus was already gone from the tomb. In fact he could have risen on Saturday or at any time before Sunday since no one saw him leave.

The total count then is two days and two nights. Jesus's sign of a miracle failed and thus he is no prophet or Messiah. However, other facts, as revealed in the Bible, also eliminate him as being the Messiah. Consider the claim made that he was a legitimate descendant of David and thus a claimant to the throne.

Matthew and Luke both wrote down Jesus' genealogy in an attempt to prove that Jesus was the Messiah by virtue of his supposed descendency from King David. Both listed Shealtiel and his son Zarubbabel. They both left out Jehoiakim, whose line was cursed by God in Jeremiah 22:18-30; "This is what the Lord says: Record this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper none will sit on the throne of David." Including Jehoikim would have been embarrassing and would have disproved Jesus' claim to be a Messiah. The genealogy appears in its entirety in 1 Chronicles 3:16, which showed the lineage to be: Josiah, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachim (aka Jeconiah, Coniah), Shealtiel, Zarubbabel--who is listed as being the son of Pedaiah, though Ezra 3:2-8 and others list Shealtiel as father to Zarubbabel. Another problem, in Luke's genealogy (Luke 3:31) is that he puts Nathan, the brother to Solomon, as being in the lineage. However, it was through Solomon that inheritance to the throne was to be passed as oer 1 Chronicles 22:9-10. These contradictions and errors illustrate the problems that exist in the Bible--who and what to believe?

By now the reader's head is swimming due to "scripture overload". The complexity and confusion found in the scriptures is the reason few people read the Bible with a critical eye. It is tedious work and few people read the Bible to determine truth, they do more for confirmation of faith and belief, as they are already predisposed in believing in something they already have some knowledge of derived from their culture--who hasn't seen "The Miraacle of 49th Street", or whatever street it was?

This predisposition to believe in something allows over-zealous religious teachers and leaders to practice their deceit, much as Paul did, by means of Propaganda and "explain-aways".

One last point for those who believe in the "virgin birth"--anyone causing a pregnancy without the consent of the woman and without her knowledge is a rapist, and double criminal if the woman was already betrothed, such as the case of Joseph (Matt. 1:18). It seems, according to the scriptures, that God broke one of his own Commandments.