Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 29
29 f until they heard the words from the lips of Jesus that he was the Messiah. The effect of the former miracles which they had witnessed at the advent of Moses and other great prophets was so great upon them that they could not for a moment conceive the idea that the Messiah could appear among them all of a sudden without any previous extraordinary revelation, notwith- standing plain prophetical statements promising such wonders. That was not all. The prophecies clearly told them that the Messiah was to. be of royal descent, a descendant of David that is to say, and he was to re-establish the kingdom of his great ancestor in Israel. He was to. deliver the Israelites from the foreign yoke and bring about their independence by freeing them from the bondage of tyrants. As for his birth, those who could remember it, were highly suspicious of its legitimacy. Ab the most they could take him for a son of Joseph, the carpenter, and the royal descent was far form being established. Within a short time after he set up his claim to Messiahship, they further saw that'dt was vain to expect that he would restore the throne of the prophet-king and deliver them from -the Roman yoke. All their hopes in. relation to Jesus at once failed for no prophecy that declared the manner and object of his advent was fulfilled in his person. According to their calculations, the time had no doubt come, but they could not believe in a person in whom none of the prophecies was fulfilled. They were ready to hail the advent of the Messiah, but not without the realization of the promises which formed the central hope of the prophecy. . Again a large number of prophecies unanimously stated that the time of the Messiah was to be an era of universal peace, harmony and brotherhood and Jerusalem was to be the centre of tho world. Could Jesus be recognised as the Messiah by this sign ? Nothing that had been predicted, had appeared. It was