Faith and Repentance

FULFILLMENT AND TYPOLOGY

Prophecy is a declaration of something to come, a prediction forth telling by God to man. When God speak He set in motion spiritual activities and the destiny of all things. Many of things which God in the past prophesied have already come to pass with perfect accuracy, other things spoken forth by God are yet to be fulfilled in the course of God's timing.

Old Testament prophecy contains exciting expectancy of the coming Christ, the Anointed One while the New Testament contains the manifestation of him. There have been described in the old testament 300 prophecies of the first coming of the Messiah and 500 of His second coming, all of them made hundreds of years before the birth and fulfilled to the letter in Jesus, the Messiah. Prophecy recorded in the Old Testament binds the Old and New Testament inseparably together.

In this term paper I will focus on two major methods that New Testament writers used to connect the Hebrew Bible with Christian New Testament which is Fulfilment and Typology.

Fulfilment deals with the very words of the prophets who, according to New Testament writers, verbally predicted events that the Messiah would accomplish. Typology is similar, yet it is not a prediction, nor does it directly correlate to future events in the manner that fulfilment does. Rather, it is simply an event from the Hebrew Bible that is said to foreshadow another event in the Christian New Testament.

Regarding fulfilment, the New Testament writers have identified Jesus Christ as the Messiah. They believed that the prophecies from the Hebrew Bible have been performed by Jesus and that He was sent by God. Some of the prophecies could have been easily fulfilled by someone that knew then well, while others could not have been fulfilled by being self aware.

First of all, God told Abram in Genesis 12:3 that the world would be blessed through him. A Messianic prophecy was that the Messiah would be a descendent of Abraham, from the tribe of Judah, and also from King David. The genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:2-6 reveals that He descended from Abraham, Judah, and King David. Thus, the author of Matthew is asserting that according to Jesus' forefathers, He qualifies as being the Messiah.

In addition, The Messiah would also be a prophet like Moses. A specific example comes from Deuteronomy 18 and is quoted in Acts: "For Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you another prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you'" (Acts 3:22). Because Jesus was known as a great teacher, the author of Acts believed that Jesus was the prophet who Moses was foretelling would arrive.

Also, Isaiah 7:14, says that the Messiah was to be born of a virgin. That is he shall be born without mans seed. We know that this is impossible, so obviously this birth would have to be supernatural. Albert Baylis comments on Isaiah 7:14 "This final child, who is called by divine names (Mighty God, Everlasting father), brings the light of salvation to Israel first in Galilee and then on David's throne forever"

Specifically, in Matthew of the New Testament, Jesus is born of the Virgin Mary. An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and instructed him to call the child Jesus. (1:21) the author of Matthew is practicing the belief that because Mary was a virgin, this must be the same woman who was prophesied in Isaiah. A very similar account is recorded in Luke 1:26 - 35; only with one exception in Luke's account of the dream. In Luke, the angel proclaims this: "'He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David'" (Luke 1:32). The author of Luke is affirming that Jesus is indeed an heir of David and that He is the Son of God.

However, the Messiah would not be accepted by His people. Isaiah, who gave a prophecy of "The Suffering and Glory of the Servant" about 700 years before the time of Jesus, paints a vivid picture of the Servant's crucifixion. At the time of Jesus, Rome was the supreme political and military power in the civilized world. Jesus was sentenced to die on the cross, because He claimed to be the Messiah. Isaiah 53:5 states: "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds, we are healed." In Isaiah, the Servant is bearing the sins of many. In Matthew 20:28, Jesus Himself said, "'Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'" The author of Matthew claims, for instance, that because Jesus called Himself a servant, He may be the same individual that Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 53. Jesus was not only known as a servant, He was also known as a healer. In Matthew 8, Jesus healed those who were sick and demon-possessed. The author of Matthew is identifying this with Isaiah 53:4: "He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases."

In addition, Paul, in Romans 10, is writing about Israel's disbelief in Jesus. First, Paul quotes Isaiah 28:16: "'Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.'" Paul is interpreting that who trusts in Jesus will not be put to shame. Also, he directly quotes Isaiah 53 in verse 16: "But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "'Lord, who has believed our message?'" In this passage, Paul has interpreted that Jesus is the Servant described in Isaiah 53 and is addressing Israel's disbelief in Jesus as the Servant.

Isaiah gives more specific details, such as being assigned a grave with the wicked and being buried in a rich man's tomb. In Matthew of the New Testament, chapter 27 accounts for both predictions in verses 38 and 57-61. In Psalm 22:18, it states that men will gamble for a man's clothing, and although He was pierced through His hands and feet in verse 16, verse 17 states that He can count all his bones. The Romans were expert murderers and would break the legs of those being crucified, in an effort to speed up their deaths. However, Jesus already died before they could do this. (John 19:33)

Jesus was indeed crucified, but according to another prophecy, He had to rise again. The Gospels