#first coming

The famous John the Baptist. Many of us have heard of or learned about him before. On the surface, it looks like he was one of the first to believe in and follow Jesus. But there is more to his story that many often miss.

What John the Baptist Is Known For

First off, who was John the Baptist? To make things clear–yes, he was Jesus’ cousin, and no, he was not the same John that wrote various books of the New Testament. 

John was born to Zechariah the priest and Elizabeth, who was barren, and they were both “well along in years.” He was a child that came after much prayer, but wasn’t to be any ordinary child.  The angel Gabriel paid a visit to Zechariah and told him the news that John would have the task of bringing many people back to God (Luke 1:16). 

Like his name, John the Baptist is well-known to us today for baptizing people in the Jordan River. But that usually seems to be the end of what most people know. So, let’s dig deeper into his story.

John’s Task

According to Malachi 3:1, it prophesied that a messenger would come to prepare the way before the Messiah, Jesus, came.

“See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty. 

Jesus testified in Matthew 11:10-11 that this person was John the Baptist. He came to prepare the Jewish people for their Messiah, Jesus, to come. He gathered them together, taught and baptized them, and created disciples from them.

In fact, the actual reason why John baptized people was so that the Messiah could be revealed to the people. 

…the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel…I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’

John 1:31, 33

So we can see why John was baptizing and why Jesus went to be baptized by him. When the holy spirit came and remained on Jesus after his baptism, John was able to testify that the Messiah had finally come. “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” he said, “I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God”  (John 1:29, 34).

Now, the Messiah God had prophesied about, the messenger of the covenant spoken of in Malachi 3, had arrived and people would be able to go learn the truth from him. 

What Happened Next with John the Baptist

After discovering the Messiah, Jesus, John sent all his disciples over to him, so that they could be with and learn from the promised Messiah, the Son of God. He himself joined and helped Jesus carry out his ministry. 

False.

Wait, what?

That would have made sense, right? At first, John did acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, as the one all people should go to. But he himself didn’t abide by his own words. He kept some of the disciples as his own and also continued baptizing after Jesus had been revealed (John 3:23).

Let me ask you: no matter what good work John the Baptist had been doing, would it be God’s will for him to continue baptizing, gaining disciples, and then not send them over to Jesus? No. John himself said that it was his task to become less so that Jesus could become greater, but his actions didn’t match his words (John 3:30).

Continue Reading

We talk of the Second Coming; half the world has never heard of the first. – Oswald J. Smith

“We talk of the Second Coming; half the world has never heard of the first.”–Oswald J. Smith

There are questions every believer should ask themselves. The first, and most important being, “How well do I know God’s word, the Bible?” 

According to Jn 1:1-5, God’s word is equated to God’s spirit, life, and light. Therefore, we can receive these things by receiving God’s word. Jesus and his disciples created children of God by spreading the testimony regarding Jesus, who fulfilled all the prophecies of the Old Testament. Likewise, we become children of God when we know God’s true word. 

How can we know God’s true word? We must be taught by someone who knows. At the first coming of Jesus, nobody understood God’s word but Jesus. Only Jesus understood the true meaning of scripture regarding things like Sabbath and the secrets of the kingdom of heaven (Mt 13). Jesus taught these things to the disciples because they were humble and seeking after God. 

But the Jewish leaders at the time used their own thoughts to teach scripture, and they were wrong. They “travel over land and sea to win a single convert” and “make him twice as much a son of hell” as they are. The “blind guides” are “full of dead men’s bones” (see Mt 23). In fact, this reality was prophesied in the book of Isaiah. 

The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.” Isaiah 29:13

The teachers at the first coming did not know God’s word apart from their own thoughts and traditions...do we? Therefore, let us reflect upon ourselves. How well do we know the Bible--according to the Bible? 

Here we go Tumblr...

I guess this is gonna was gonna happen sooner or later, so I might as well just get it over with.