As many know, I am working on finishing my Master of Divinity degree through New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. One of the classes I'm taking this semester is Intro to Koine Greek. This is definitely the most demanding class I have ever taken in my life... but it is so worth it. I find myself getting kicked around by all the vocabulary and grammar stuff, but the ability to see the New Testament in its original language is just amazing.
In class this morning, we were talking about adverbs (I know, real interesting). One of the examples of these being used to show a transition in the scene of a story led us to Luke 2. In the Gospel of Luke, he begins by telling about John the Baptist then moving on to Jesus. This led to a discussion of how Luke is unique among Gospel writers by spending a great deal of time talking about John the Baptist as the forerunner of the Messiah.
The reason for this emphasis is that during the time that Jesus there were many who came on the scene claiming to be the promised Messiah. The one thing that separated Jesus from all the rest of these "imposters" was that He had what was prophesied...
5 Look, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome Day of the LORD comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to [their] children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.
Malachi 4:5-6 HCSB
Jesus was the only person in history who claimed to be the Messiah who had a forerunner. The interesting part of this is that this forerunner was one of the key elements of proving the real from the fake. God has taken great care in providing for us the truth of His plan so that we might know clearly. We can go out into this spiritually pluralistic world and know that Jesus indeed is the one true Messiah!
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