Unchained Aristotle and Prophecy

Unchained Aristotle and Prophecy

Watch something amazing here and learn something incredible in just nine minutes in a presentation by Rod Anderson called Unchained Aristotle and Prophecy.

https://youtu.be/QVCTDKbSSoU?si=PKOFBVAnC_pzOkuU

Unchained Aristotle and Prophecy: There are many people today who claim that Jesus Christ of Nazareth, was a good man and nothing more. A kind and benevolent teacher healer who made Himself available to the people. But His contemporaries viewed Him differently. In fact they were prepared to worship Him as a God, and even claimed to have existed before His birth in Bethlehem. Throughout Jesus’ three and a half years of ministry, He  appealed to the Old Testament prophets as proof of His Messiahship.

In fact a close study of the New Testament reveals there are over 300 prophecies from the Old Testament, which were expressly fulfilled in Him.  Furthermore, no one can say these prophecies were written after Christ’s time, because the last book of the Old Testament was written 400 years before Christ, so there could not have been any possible collusion.

 On Christ’s first public appearance He appealed to prophecy by saying : “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Luke 4:21.

 And in Mark 1:15 Jesus declared, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.”

 After His crucifixion and resurrection, He said to two of His disciples, ‘O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.’ Luke 24:25.

 And to show His disciples how they should study the Old Testament prophecies, the Bible says that Jesus, ‘beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.’ Verse 27.

 Meaning Jesus revealed the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament showing how He had fulfilled them all. However much atheists and anti-theists may flout Bible prophecy, they admit that the Old Testament gives frequent warnings regarding the coming of a remarkable personage. They will also acknowledge that for over one thousand years the whole Jewish nation lived in eager expectation of a Messiah. Just a few of the passages upon which the expectation was founded were the promise of the Seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15;  the declaration that in Seed of Abraham should ‘all the nations of the earth be blessed,’  In Genesis 22:18; the proclamation that Shiloh was to come out of Judah before the dominion of that tribe should depart, as foretold in Genesis 49:10; that a prophet like Moses was to come, according to Deuteronomy 18:18, and quoted by Peter in Acts 3:22, as fulfilled in Christ. 

 The prophecies of the coming Messiah were sometimes filled with startling paradoxes. For example, the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah written 720 years before the time of Christ declares

 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities . . . He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not his mouth. . . . He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. An amazing prophecy of which there is no possible chance of complicity, which describes the last week of Jesus’ life.

 Think of this, it is admitted that many centuries before the time of Jesus Christ, certain writings by Jewish writers foretold that a member of the Jewish nation, small and insignificant though it was, should be a blessing to all mankind. Account for it as you please, it is a stubborn fact of history that this obscure Jew, Jesus of Nazareth, from a small and despised race,  has become a blessing to every nation on earth. Furthermore, the time of His coming was clearly marked, in Daniel chapter 9:24-27 which identifies the year that Jesus public ministry would commence and the year in which He would be crucified. To sum up, there are several marvelously demonstrated facts which stand out: 

Centuries before Christ was born a number of Jewish writers, living over a period of 1,500 years, boldly predicted that one of their race would be pre-eminently righteous. He would be a prophet. He would be rejected as the Messiah by the very people who foretold His coming. He would be a blessing to all mankind. He would live in a certain definite, specified time. He would be killed. He would die as a malefactor.

 No one else meets these specifications, only Jesus Christ does.

 On top of these facts, consider this, the truth of the system of Plato or Lucretius or Karl Marx or Buddha or Mohammed does not depend on the question whether they were good or bad men. But if a flaw could be shown in the character of Christ, the whole Christian system would collapse utterly and at once. In estimating the influence of Jesus on history, and contrasting the  difference between Christ and all moralists and philosophers of paganism, we must be honest with the information available to us today. No Greek moralist or philosopher ever opposed the prevailing vices and corruptions of his own time and country. No heathen moralist ever endeavoured to curb the inhuman and horribly bloody sport of gladiators; none spoke against lust, the deliberate, slow killing of infants and slaves by exposure, or the public encouragement and establishment of brothels.  The most indecent revellings were openly practised as part of their heathen religion, and the greatest philosophers and moralists never lifted a voice against them.Plato not only encouraged lying but also recommended a community of prostitutes, and advised that soldiers should not be restrained from even the most obscene and unnatural sensuality. Furthermore, Plato not only expressly allowed excessive drinking at the  festival of Bacchus, but he and Aristotle both directed that means should be used to prevent weak children from being reared.

Plato, Cicero, Epictetus, and other famous philosophers advised men to continue the idolatry of their ancestors. Diogenes  inculcated and practised the most brutal lust, and Cato commended young men for frequenting brothels. And such things were encouraged and protected by the laws of the states. Zeno, the founder, and Cato the most famous adherent of Stoic philosophy, and Seneca, the great moralist of Nero’s time, were all suicides.

To read more on this subject or to watch more videos from the Unchained Series go to http://theorchardmelbourne.org.au

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