Revelation 19:10 records that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
This is an esoteric concept, but breaking it down into segments and restructuring the sentence helps clarify the meaning.
The sentence reads better when it is written as: the spirit of prophecy testifies of Jesus.
The meaning of the word, testify, is to proclaim the compete truth about something. It is particularly used in a courtroom setting.
The spirit of prophecy is the ability to hear the voice of God just like Christ did, and just like the Hebrew prophets did.
Therefore, it can be deduced that when one truly hears God’s voice, the complete truth about Christ is discovered by the hearer.
I don’t think any believer would argue that Yeshua, better known as Jesus, was sent by God. In the 12th chapter of the Gospel of John, Christ says it plainly.
He that believes on me, believes not on me, but on Him that sent me.
Isaiah saw a vision of Yeshua being sent by God and he wrote about it seven hundred years before the birth of Christ. Isaiah’s words corroborate with Christ’s statement. In the 42nd chapter of Isaiah, it is recorded:
This is My servant, whom I uphold, My chosen one, in whom I delight, I have put My spirit upon him, He shall teach the true way to the nations. (Hebrew Bible/JPS version)
The spirit of prophecy operating in Isaiah, confirms that Yeshua was sent by God.
But, what about the beliefs that are taught by the Christian religion about Christ that are false and actually refuted by the prophets?
Christ taught that religion misleads, blinds and deafens humans. The spiritually deaf cannot hear the voice of God. The religiously minded are sure that they know the truth, but they do not.
A great example of this is the religious leaders of the first century. They wholly believed that they knew the truth and were right with God.
However, when Yeshua shined the light of God through his teachings and works, the religious leaders called him evil. They refused to turn from their religion and follow the true path of which Christ taught.
If they had been able to hear the voice of God, they would have known the truth, that Christ was sent by God to teach them the true way. However, they loved their religion more than they loved God, and it deafened them.
Just like the Jewish religious leaders of the first century were wrong, the Christian Church today is completely off course when it comes to the truth about Christ.
Yeshua was sent by God to teach us the true way, and his teachings were buried. Instead, false teachings were spread in their place.
For one, the teaching that Christ was a biological son of God is a prime example.
The prophet Nathan was very clear in 1 Chronicles 17:10 when he prophesied to King David about Christ.
…The Lord will build a house for you. When your days are done and you follow your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingship. He shall build a house for Me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to Me… (Hebrew Bible/JPS version)
From this passage, it is obvious that Nathan is talking about Yeshua being a biological son of David who would be so close to God that they would have a father/son relationship, which we observe throughout the Gospels.
Incidentally, Christ never taught that he was born of a virgin. If he were, he would have spoken about it.
As mentioned above, Isaiah does not write anything about Yeshua being the biological son of God. Rather, he refers to Christ as the chosen servant to teach us the true way.
These two prophets refute the first few chapters of Matthew and Luke that claim that Mary was inseminated by God to create a Son of God.
Interestingly, the virgin birth was a popular theme in Roman theology during the days of Christ. The Roman gods would inseminate a goddess to produce a son, who would become a god. Furthermore, Yeshua’s birth story as told in Matthew, is almost identical to the Jewish folklore written about the birth story of Abram.
The prophets do not confirm these stories.
In Isaiah chapter 7 King James writes that:
Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son…
Christians use this scripture to support their claims of the virgin birth.
However, in the Hebrew Bible, it is written like this:
Assuredly, my Lord will give you a sign of His own accord! Look, the young woman is with child and about to give birth to a son…
Isaiah was talking to King Ahaz in this passage, and it was a sign for King Ahaz. It had nothing to do with Christ or his birth.
Furthermore, the Hebrew word for virgin is different than the word for young woman, and the Hebrew interpreters used the correct wording in this passage unlike King James.
As I have mentioned in other blog posts, King James was biased in his translation of the Hebrew manuscript into English. King James was a strict Protestant grounded in religion.
It is religion that is determined to make Christ a god to be worshipped rather than for what God had intended. Yeshua was God’s chosen servant that He sent to teach us the true way to connect with Him.
The teachings of Christ got buried by the Christian religion that was started by Paul who taught Christians to worship Christ like some kind of an idol.
The next subject that four of the prophets clearly refute is the belief that God requires blood for the remission of sin.
Hosea 6:6 records:
For I desire goodness not sacrifice; obedience to God, rather than burnt offerings. (Hebrew Bible/JPS version)
Micah 6:6-9 records:
With what shall I approach the Lord, do homage on high? Shall I approach Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Would the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with myriads of streams of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for my sins?
He has told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk modestly with your God. Then, will your name achieve wisdom. (Hebrew Bible/JPS version)
Isaiah 1:11-12 records:
What need have I of all your sacrifices? Says the Lord. I am sated with burnt offerings of rams and suet of fatlings, and blood of bulls; I have no delight in lambs and he-goats. That you come to appear before Me—Who asked that of you? (Hebrew Bible/JPS version)
Jeremiah :21-23 records:
…Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat! For when I freed your fathers from the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them: Do My bidding, that I may be your God and you may be My people; walk only in the way that I enjoin upon you, that it may go well with you. (Hebrew Bible/JPS version)
So, here are four prophets who are clearly expressing God’s views on blood sacrifice to the Children of Israel, who refused to give up that religious practice.
Christians, it only stands to reason, that if God does not want blood sacrifice from them, what makes you believe that he would change his mind and offer Christ up as a human sacrifice? It is ludicrous.
The spirit of prophecy testifies that Yeshua was a biological son of David who was so close to God that they had a father/son relationship, and that Yeshua was sent to teach us the true way to connect with our father just like he did.
His teachings were buried by religion, and it is only through the spirit of prophecy that we can learn the truth about Jesus, the chosen servant of God who was sent to teach us the true way.