DANIEL’S PROPHECY OF THE MESSIAH
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Part I
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Daniel 9, Verses 20 through 27 presents his prophecy of the Messiah at the First Advent, giving the year he was to begin his ministry and the year he was to be “cut off,” or crucified.
When Christ Jesus began his ministry, he came “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:14, 15). “The time is fulfilled,” he claimed. What time? Out of all the verses of the Bible, there is only one prophesied timed event due during the year our Lord spoke those words—Daniel’s famous prophecy giving the exact year the Messiah was to appear, A.D. 27 (Daniel 9:24-27).
Jesus’ words, “The time is fulfilled,” tell Christians something more about the Messiah’s study of Scripture and the import he placed in the Holy Word.
This Messianic gift is God’s blessing to faithful humanity. Though Jesus may teach and heal for a few years, the truth behind his teaching and healing is everlasting, a divine right just waiting to be claimed as part of humanity’s divine inheritance. The everlasting righteousness is that ever-present impersonal Christ, the Stone cut out of the mountain without hands to reign in evil and bless humanity. Where the God of Truth sits on the bench, each individual must claim this inheritance in that court of justice, the court of righteousness, the supreme court of divine Rights. The Judge loves and rules in favor of humanity’s counsel, tsedeq, the impersonal Christ.