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As
a pre-teen, I was enamored
by theperson of Yeshua.
From
what I knew of Yeshua, heseemed to be the perfect
rabbi,hardly something a young Jewishboy whose parents were
Holocaust
survivors should even consider!”
But,
Joseph became a Believer at
the age of 12 at a Bible study he
had been attending with his baseball-playing
Christian buddies.
“That
began four years of opposition
from my family and Jewish
friends. During that time, my
parents took me to numerous rabbis
who tried to change my mind.
But, I stood firm, although many
of the anti-Yeshua arguments
I heard were very strong,”
Joseph said.
The
more people tried to change
Joseph’s mind about the decision
he had made to follow Yeshua
as his Messiah, the more he
searched the Messianic prophecies
for proof that Yeshua was
the Messiah. Joseph’s quest wasn’t
easy. In fact, over a fouryear period,
his search was painstaking
as he spent many hours at Hebrew Union College’s library
in Cincinnati, pouring over the Messianic scriptures.
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The
clincher for Joseph was the
Messianic Prophecy of
Daniel 9:24-27...
"Seventy
'sevens' are decreed for
your people and your holy city to
finish transgression, to put an end
to sin, to atone for wickedness,
to bring in everlasting
righteousness, to seal up
vision and prophecy and to anoint
the most holy.
"Know
and understand this: From
the issuing of the decree to restore
and rebuild Jerusalem until
the Anointed One, the ruler,comes, there will be seven
'sevens,'
and sixty-two 'sevens.'
It
will be rebuilt with streets and
a trench, but in times of trouble.
After
the sixty-two 'sevens,' the
Anointed One will be cut off and
will have nothing. The people of
the ruler who will come willdestroy the city and the
sanctuary.
The end will come like a
flood:War will continue until the
end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a
covenant
with many for one 'seven.'
In the middle of the'seven' he will put an end to
sacrifice
and offering.
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And
on a wing of the temple he
will set up an abomination that
causes desolation, until the end
that is decreed is poured out on
him.”
After
reading it over and over, and
thinking and praying about this
passage, Joseph discussed it with
one of the college’s reformed rabbis.
This non-believing rabbi admitted
that Joseph wasinterpreting Daniel 9:24-27 correctly
as referring to none other
than the Messiah!
“Yes,
Daniel 9:24-27 clinched it for
me,” affirms Joseph. “It
was clear
that the Messiah had to appear
before the destruction of
the Temple in Jerusalem in 70AD
–
and Yeshua did! It was clear
that Yeshua fulfilled all ofthe Messianic prophecies.”
So,
at the age of 16, four years after
first professing Yeshua to be his
Messiah, Joseph knew for sure –
thanks to the Messianic prophecies
– that his earlierdecision to believe in Yeshua was
backed
up by irrefutable Biblical evidence
– the Messianic Prophecies.
Joseph’s
faith was so solid, that in
time, the rest of his immediate family
came to accept Yeshua also –
Mom, Dad, brother and sister!
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