The Bible, the Spirit of Prophecy, and the Church

Jesus the Messiah

Many are the names and titles given to the Son of God. Attention is here called to one expression of a general character that seems to have been in the thinking of the people in Christ’s day. So many of the prophecies had pointed forward to the Messiah that the people had become used to speaking of Him as “the Coming One.” We find this expression in The Desire of Ages, 236. One thing among others that undoubtedly led to that conviction was the prophecy given by Moses centuries before, that God would raise up a prophet like unto him. Hence the people came to speak in a general way of the One who should come. BSPC 25.3

This thought can be observed in several places in the Gospels. We read that John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to Jesus with the query, “Art thou he that should come?” Matthew 11:3. Reference is made to “that prophet that should come into the world” twice in the book of John 6:14; 11:27 The expression “that prophet” was used quite frequently. (John 1:21, 25.) Another prophecy which reads, “Blessed be he that comes in the name of the Lord” (Psalm 118:26), certainly found its fulfillment in Christ Jesus our Lord. On two different occasions these words were applied to Him—once when the people spread palm branches before Him on His way to Jerusalem (Mark 11:9; Luke 19:38), and again when Christ uttered His pronouncement of doom upon the Holy City (Luke 13:35). BSPC 26.1

Many of the leaders of the people would also remember that the Messiah was spoken of as the star that “shall come...out of Jacob” (Numbers 24:17), and also the words of Jacob in the blessing pronounced upon one of his sons, “until Shiloh come” (Genesis 49:10). BSPC 26.2

In all these references one observes the thought of “the Coming One”—either “that prophet that should come” or He that should come “in the name of the Lord.” It was not surprising, therefore, that the people in their understanding of the prophetic portions of the Holy Scriptures should speak thus of the Messiah. BSPC 26.3