As a non Jew born thousands of years after the events in the Old Testament, I am struggling just a bit to understand why I should care that Jesus was or was not the military leader that some Jews were anticipating.
Isn't it quite relevant though, in the sense that the messiah who the Jews supposedly expected in the year Nothing, the super-powered militant leader who would destroy the wicked, conquer the world, and set up an omnipotent theocracy with them as the best boys and no fun whatsoever for anyone else, is the exact same god expected to return any minute now by fundamentalist Christians? Isn't it nice to know that Jesus isn't him?
Mat24:24 writes:
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Not that this is anything new, of course. There were plenty of "messiahs" at that time, Jew and Christian alike, who tried that and failed miserably.
1Jon2:18 writes:
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
The literate fellow, who read that stuff in Isaiah, and set out to be nailed to a pole by Romans, got er done that week.
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