Messianic Prophecy and John 8: The Two Witnesses of Christ
Messianic Prophecy and-John-8: The Two Witnesses
My reading today is John 8. It’s a short one.
The question I ask now and always about the many of Jesus’s problems with the Pharisees: are we really supposed to believe that this is just about another confrontation by Jesus to defend himself against a charge of not being the Messiah and the object and reason for God’s worship?
It’s that, for sure, but, really, is that all? No, if we would only dare ask ourselves: to what scriptures must it be said Jesus is synonymous, and the object and reason for God’s worship? The answer is in this document’s title.
Think its not all that important? That the worship of God through his Son is kind of up to you? Anything goes, as long as you have “faith.” Well, hang on. I’ll be brief, but the point made is not without some eternal implications. It can change the whole way you read the New Testament, and it’s scary.
Jesus against the Pharisees is not only about one person against other people, but it’s also about the Word and a false one. If we keep this in mind, knowing what kind of Word this is, it becomes much easier to place ourselves as one with Christ or one with the Pharisees. Understanding the Church and human nature, it becomes a question so terrifying its no wonder we refuse to ask it.
First, read just one standard explanation to what John 8:17 refers to as two-witnesses:
Verse-by-Verse Commentary, many exegetes here on one page.
Question: What are they avoiding here? There is an 800-pound gorilla in the room but were still smoking and watching the football game.
Our revelation from this is mainly that Jesus refers to “your Law” here, not “the Law.” But they don’t get a lot of meaning out of this either when “Law” only refers to a compulsory stricture for man, not the universal sense of the Revelation.
This is all about the problem Jesus Messiah has with evil, false religion. What kind it is. Not in its outward expressions and professions, but inside, and the spiritual filth it hides.
I want to get right into it without too much backstory and buildup, and be brief:
John 8:14 (KJV) Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, [yet] my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go.
Four points to be made.
1. If you experience something first hand and relate it to others, and others don’t accept it as a true account, one expects to be given the benefit of the doubt and not prejudicially rejected. It’s just common morality. This first-hand witness is a form of evidence.
2. But beyond this, what if that experience involves the truth from where I came and to where I am going that is spoken of, predicted in an ancient document? It pertains to the mission for which I was ordained from beginning to end, a beginning that was before time.
Now you, the witness is not just your word, it’s an external source, but you still reject that testimony out of hand. That means you did not, cannot, or will not scripturally ascertain from where you come and to where you are going. You prove it, but still, there is rejection. 3. If I am Messiah, to which I make a claim, it involves having an origin in the prophets of the Old Testament and extending to the present age of their fulfillment and beyond.
“You say I claim by my own witness, but this only applies if I am not demonstrably also the fulfillment of the prophetic Word of God in this ancient document. I say if that is true by this and my demonstration, and I am the living Scriptures in that sense, you can no longer say that I am otherwise. Your witness of yourself fails, mine succeeds not only through my actions, but because another foretold them.
4. “To the extent that you do not know yourself these Scriptures, or want to, and their expected fulfillment, you are not competent to judge whether or not I am the Messiah of those scriptures. By that standard, you do not, yourself have these two witnesses of the truth of your denial, a witness standard that you demand of me. This is your failure, not mine. You use your own authority to proclaim that I am not the Son of the Blessed. I make my claim by the two ultimate witnesses: the miracle of myself and the miracle of the prophetic scriptures of the Father that show myself as the prophesied Messiah.”
John 8:15 (KJV)Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man. 16And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me.
- Please note the word “sent” is a prophetic appointment.
“You judge after superficial appearances. The real appearance that you should regard is scriptural fulfillment or failure.”
“Although I don’t judge according to the corrupt way in which you think is of true judgment, I am a true witness, because the Father, his Scriptures, prophesied of me and stands with me and my works to affirm I am the Son of God.”
The two witnesses are the Father and Jesus. Being synonymous with their word, the two witnesses are God’s prophetic Word and Messiah’s work in sure, open fulfillment of it.
John 8:17 (KJV) It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. 18 I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me.
“You need two to supply evidence whether someone is true or false, and the two witnesses must agree. Since you are judging a spiritual matter, you also need two spiritual witnesses. You accuse me of bearing testimony as true without the support of two witnesses, but this is your sin, as you are using only yourselves as your only sufficient witness of a spiritual matter. All true spiritual evidence is for the Messiah, and the Messiah is known as the one sent by God from the prophets in the OT messianic revelation. The Father’s word and my own fulfillments are the two that bear record as much as the Father himself and Messiah himself.”
19 Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.
“Since you don’t know or believe the Fathers’ word that foreordained the messiah, you would not know who the Messiah is who came into the world and fulfilled that Word before your eyes. If you knew and believed in the true fulfillments of the Messiah (that pertain to me in my work), then you would know the Father and his Word (that spoke of this work to come).”
Now, open up Mattew and start reading the Bible again, but this time, every time “Jesus” is mentioned or alluded to, replace that designation with Prophetic Word. Then, think, “can I say I righteously believe in Jesus that is only a name but not necessarily that Word? That it’s not all that important, that it’s not the point of contact for all theology, that it’s not what the Bible is about, that it’s not the Word of the Father to which Jesus was bound and resurrected to vindicate?”
After all, you had a dream with Jesus in it. A childhood tradition around Jesus. You say, “I believe in Jesus” all the time. You pray to him. You do good works in his name!
Its, again, not just about the Pharisees charging Jesus with not being the Messiah, and Jesus’ contradiction. You have to be honest, test yourself, and put yourself into the place of the faith of the Pharisees. Just once, before you die, and it’s too late.
Do you believe in Jesus, or not believe in Jesus, for a reason that has nothing to do with the oracles of the prophets? Then regard yourself as one of the Pharisees in denunciation of Jesus.
Short, but not without a message for us all.
Please see the following:
Amen Jesus, Amen, and his Prophetic Worship: Passing by Nehushtan
When I Survey the Wondrous Nace, part 1: Passing by Nehushtan
Christ and the Norming of Transcendence: Passing by Nehushtan
