I wrote this article because I expected to be away from my computer and unable to keep up with current events for a few days.
The coronavirus changed that.
I understand this article is longer than usual.
Most of it is setting the stage for the way it ends.
The book of Romans begins, “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, 2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) 3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom. 1:1-4).
Notice that Paul said Jesus and the gospel of God were promised by the prophets in the holy Scriptures.
The first coming of Jesus, His death, burial and resurrection are not things that the early church or anyone else made up.
They are things that God promised to do and that God had the prophets write in the holy Scriptures before they happened (Rom. 1:2).
Some verses of Scripture actually teach that God planned the first coming, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus before He created this world (I Pet. 1:20; Rev. 13:8).
The written prophecies begin in the Garden of Eden with God’s promise that the Seed of woman (a miraculous virgin birth) would bruise Satan’s head (Gen. 3:15), and they continue all the way through the Old Testament to the end of the Book of Malachi.
As an expert in the holy Scriptures, Paul would have been aware of most or all of the recorded prophecies.
He focused his attention on what some prophets said about Jesus.
Concerning His (God’s) Son Jesus Christ our Lord, the prophets said He was made a descendant of King David according to the flesh (Rom. 1:3).
We can read in the Holy Scriptures that two prophets (Samuel and Jeremiah) said that the Messiah will be a fleshly descendent of King David and He will sit on the throne of David forever (II Sam. 7:12-13; Jer. 33:17).
Put another way: The prophets wrote in the holy Scriptures that the Messiah would come as a human being in the line of King David.
This is the humanity of Jesus, the virgin birth of Jesus, how God made it possible for Jesus to die.
There was a time when Jesus couldn’t die (He couldn’t die until He took on a body of flesh).
Since He has been raised from the dead, He will never die again.
There will be a time when we can’t die (After we are raised from the dead, we will never die again).
But we don’t get our new eternal bodies when we die (We will get them on that great resurrection day).
The prophets said God’s Son Jesus Christ our Lord would come in the flesh as a descendant of King David.
To be clear: God didn’t have to select two descendants of King David to be the earthly parents of the Messiah.
But God inspired Samuel and Jeremiah to prophesy that the Messiah would be a descendent of King David, and God had that written in the Holy Scriptures for people to have a record of it before it happened, so God needed to pick two descendants of King David (He picked Joseph and Mary) to be the earthly parents of Jesus to fulfill what Samuel and Jeremiah wrote.
God also recorded the genealogy of Joseph in the Book of Matthew and the genealogy of Mary in the Book of Luke to verify that Jesus is a descendant of King David according to the flesh.
Let’s take this a step further.
The prophet Moses wrote that Shiloh (the Messiah) would come from the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10).
There were 12 tribes of Israel that God could have picked a couple from to be the parents of Jesus.
But the people that God picked (Joseph and Mary) were from the tribe of Judah.
God picked them to fulfill what is written in the Holy Scriptures.
There is more.
God’s Son Jesus Christ our Lord was born in the flesh as a descendant of King David.
But He was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead (Rom. 1:4).
“Declared” means appointed or identified.
Jesus was identified as the Son of God with a powerful sign.
The Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead.
That didn’t happen to a lot of people, so there should be no question about Jesus being the Son of God.
I want to expand on this.
Jesus is God, the Creator; He always existed, but Jesus didn’t become a descendant of King David until the virgin birth.
This earth was about 3,000 years old before King David was born.
During those 3,000 years, Jesus was God, but Jesus was not a descendant of King David.
Jesus was not even a descendant of King David during the life of King David.
King David was dead almost 1,000 years before Jesus became a descendant of King David.
Jesus became a descendant of King David according to the flesh when He was born of Mary in that stable.
Jesus didn’t lose His position as God when He was born in the flesh.
Jesus just added or took on the position of a human being.
The Son of God became both God and Man; divine and human; the God-Man; the Messiah; God’s Son Jesus Christ our Lord when He was born in a stable.
King David is famous for prophesying several things about the death of Jesus in the 22nd Psalm.
He even prophesied that Jesus would be crucified before crucifixion was invented.
When the Church began on the Day of Pentecost, Peter said it was impossible for death to hold Jesus (Acts 2:24).
Peter preached that the prophet King David foresaw Jesus and said that God would not let His Holy One suffer corruption (Acts 2:25-27; Psa. 16).
“Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses” (Acts 2:29-32).
The Holy Spirit’s resurrection of Jesus from the dead was God’s declaration that Jesus is the Son of God.
Since God swore that Jesus would be raised from the dead and sit on David’s throne and had it written in the Holy Scriptures, it was impossible for that not to happen.
If it didn’t happen, God lied, all prophecy in the Scriptures isn’t true, or whatever.
But it is not possible for God to lie and the prophecies to be wrong.
Peter and many others witnessed the death and resurrection of Jesus.
But what about Jesus sitting on the throne of David?
Jesus had to be raised from the dead if He is ever going to sit on the throne of David.
Where was the throne of David?
It was on earth in Jerusalem.
And since Jesus hasn’t yet sat on the throne of David on earth in Jerusalem, it is impossible for that not to happen in the future.
Jesus will come back and reign as King of kings and Lord of lords in Jerusalem.
In closing: It is impossible for Israel not to get the Promised Land (Gen. 17:7-8), impossible for Israel not to get Jerusalem, impossible for the Rapture not to happen (I Thess. 4:13-18), impossible for there not to be a Tribulation Period (Dan. 9:27), impossible for there not to be a global economic collapse during the Tribulation Period (Rev. 6:5-6), impossible for there not to be a devastating global pandemic during the Tribulation Period (Rev. 6:7-8), impossible for every jot and tittle of all of the prophecies written in the Holy Scriptures not to be fulfilled.
It is also impossible to go to heaven, if one doesn’t truly accept Jesus (Jn. 14:6).
Prophecy Plus Ministries, Inc.
Daymond & Rachel Duck
duck_daymond@yahoo.com