While listening to a Books on Tape rendition of Tribulation Force, the second novel in the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, I was struck by the unique way one of the characters presents his conclusion that Yeshua is the Messiah.
Tsion Ben-Judah is a fictional rabbinical scholar who has been commissioned by the Israeli government to conduct a study on how the Jews would be able to recognize the Messiah when he comes. He likens the process to the way a letter placed in the mail will be delivered to the one person it has been addressed to, with not even that many markers needed to track them down.
In other words, by sending the letter to a particular country, you eliminate much of the world. The city narrows it down even further. Then the potential recipients are cut into smaller and smaller fractions as the letter makes it way to a certain street, a certain number on that street, and then a certain apartment. And finally, with the recipient's first and last name on the envelope, you have singled him or her out of all the billions of people who populate this planet.
In the same way, the Old Testament has given many clear prophecies that only one person in the entire human race could ever fulfill. Like the address on the letter dropped in the mailbox, these Messianic prophecies eliminate, eliminate, eliminate until only one person can be their fulfillment.
Since I'm not sure what the rules are for posting long quotes on a blog, and I don't want to wind up getting in trouble for not having the authors' permission, I'm not going to copy this process of elimination that Tsion goes through. However, if you are interested, you can find it on pages 391-396 of the book. Of course, none of it is new, and it can all be found in your Bible too, but I just thought it was a fascinating analogy.
This was amazing. I remember loving that first book so much - and was so disappointed when it was made into a movie. There was so much the book explained that was left out.
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