No Peace – No Messiah

By Tony Pearce

In the prophecy of Daniel mentioned in our article “The Fall of the Second Temple,” it says that Messiah will come before the destruction of the second Temple and that following his coming there will be wars and desolations.  This of course does not square with the majority view of Messiah in the Jewish community today.  In discussion with a Jewish friend, he said to me, ‘Your Jesus can’t be the Messiah, because there is no peace in the world.’

I told him that Jesus came the first time to save us from our sins in fulfillment of the prophecies in the Bible of the Suffering Servant and that he is coming again to judge the world in righteousness and bring in the promised age of peace and justice.

“Where did you get this idea of a ‘second coming’ from?  Was it because Jesus did not succeed the first time that he’s got to have another go?  It doesn’t say anything in the Bible about the Messiah coming twice.”

Maybe he had been reading this in Rabbi Kaplan’s book, The Real Messiah?,  which states: “The main task of the Messiah was to bring the world back to God and to abolish all war, suffering and injustice from the world. Clearly, Jesus did not accomplish this.  In order to get around this failure on the part of Jesus, Christians invented the doctrine of the ‘Second Coming’.  All the prophecies that Jesus did not fulfill the first time are supposed to be taken care of the second time around.  However the Jewish Bible offers absolutely no evidence to support the Christian doctrine of a ‘Second Coming.” (1)

He may also have read the “Operation Judaism Fact Pack” compiled by Rabbi Arkush, which is designed to give the answer to Christian claims that Jesus is the Messiah.  This is what he says the Messiah will do when he comes.

1. Messiah will bring universal peace.  Isaiah 2:4
2. Families will live together in perfect harmony.  Malachi 3:24
3. Even the animals will live together in peace.  Isaiah 11:6
4. There will be no more illness.  Isaiah 35:5-6
5. There will be no more sorrow.  Isaiah 65:19
6. There will be no more death.  Isaiah 25:8
7. The exiled of Israel will return to their land.  Ezekiel 39:25-28
8. The ten lost tribes will also return.  Isaiah 27:13
9. Even the dead will rise up and return.  Ezekiel 37:12
10. The nations will be gathered for judgment.  Joel 3:2
11. No sin will be found in Israel.  Jeremiah 50:20
12. The cities of Israel will be rebuilt with precious stones.  Isaiah 54:11-12
13. Even Sodom will be rebuilt.  Ezekiel 16:55
14. The Divine Presence will dwell among Israel.  Ezekiel 37:27-28
15. Joy and peace will reign in Jerusalem.  Isaiah 65:18-23
16. All Israel will keep the Law.  Ezekiel 36:27
17. Sacrifices will again be offered in the Temple.  Malachi 3:3-4
18. There will be no more idolatry.  Isaiah 2:18
19. All nations will be united under one rule.  Daniel 2:44
20. There will be only one faith and all nations will worship the God of Israel.  Isaiah 66:23 (2)

Clearly there has not been universal peace since Jesus came, and if you put the average lion in a cage with the average lamb there would not be a very bright future for the lamb.  So does this mean that Jesus is not the Messiah prophesied in the Bible? Click here to continue reading and for footnotes.

Tony Pearce is the author of The Messiah Factor and the founder and director of Light For the Last Days Ministry in the UK.