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AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION
THIS book is the second in the Messianic Series. The first is entitled The God of Israel; the third, Messiah: His Redemptive Career; the fourth, Messiah: His First Coming Scheduled; the fifth, Messiah: His Historical Appearance; the sixth, Messiah: His Glorious Appearance Imminent; and the seventh Messiah: His Final Call to Israel.
In this Series I endeavor to show, within the narrow limits of the allotted space, the general teaching, at least, of the Tenach concerning God and His Messiah.
The basis of the expositions of the first four books of this series is the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Scriptures. Believing as I do that the original text of the Tenach is the inspired Word of God, I unhesitatingly accept the statements therein as the declarations of the omniscient God. This faith is not a blind acceptance of traditional teaching received from my forefathers but is the result of an honest and conscientious investigation of the evidence, both internal and external, which bears unimpeachable testimony to the inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures.
There are two facts which, on account of their great simplicity, are usually overlooked and which present unassailable testimony to the divine origin of the Scriptures. The first may be expressed in the forceful language of one of my seminary professors: "I know that the Scriptures are true because they have survived so very much poor preaching." The Bible, as no other book in all the world, has suffered, in the house of its friends, from the unskillful treatment given it by the unlearned and from the manipulation of the historical facts and the forcing of an unscientific exegesis upon it, in the interest of a popular theory, by some of the learned. It has likewise suffered from its enemies. The attacks of its foes have been unrelenting and powerful--even to the 'nth degree. Notwithstanding this treatment, which would have silenced all other books forever, the sacred volume has survived this acid test and has a larger circulation today than ever before. According to the doctrine of "the survival of the fittest," the sacred Scriptures, having survived the ordeal described above, must be acknowledged to be of divine origin.
The second fact may be stated in the homely expression, "the proof of the pudding is in the eating." Wherever the Scriptures have been placed in the hands of the masses, without the restraining and blighting influence of a self-appointed dictatorship over the minds and the souls of men, the people have been lifted to higher plains of morals and living.
In view of these facts, I ask the reader to weigh the evidence presented in these volumes with an unbiased mind and to act accordingly.
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