The End

The concept of two Messiahs is also demonstrated in a

question by John the Baptist, who was the last of the Old Tes-

tament prophets. While it is true that John first appears in the

New Testament, the early parts of the New Testament still con-

cern the Mosaic Law of the Old Testament. What separates the

physical Old Testament and New Testament is time, not the

different dispensations of Law and Grace. God was just silent

for 400 years!

In the last Old Testament book, Malachi, God speaks of a

messenger who will come just ahead of the Messiah. In the first

New Testament book, Matthew, scripture picks up the dialog

where it was left off in Malachi. God announces through the

angel Gabriel that His messenger would be coming to prepare

the way before Him. That messenger was John the Baptist.

John had the unique position of being both a prophet and the

fulfillment of prophecy. However, this prophet had trouble un-

derstanding his own prophecy! If anyone ever was in the mid-

dle of cataclysmic prophetic events, surely it was John the Bap-

tist. Since we are so far removed from his time and it is easier

for us, in hindsight, to understand past prophecy, perhaps we

can also understand John’s human uncertainty. John sent his

disciples to ask the one called Christ (Messiah) if He was in-

deed the Messiah or if they should expect another (Matt.

11:3). Because it didn’t appear as if Jesus was in the process of

“conquering,” John was beginning to question if perhaps the

Rabbis of his day were right—that there were going to be two

Messiahs.

From our present day vantage point, we can easily under-

stand that instead of having two Messiahs coming at the same

time and each performing different roles, we have one Messiah