ix. 22). When the time of His decease drew nigh, Christ still more clearly informed His disciples of the nature of the sufferings which He was about to undergo (Luke xviii. 31-34). On another occasion He told them plainly that He would endure all these sufferings of His own will and because of His great love for mankind, in order that He might give new and eternal life to men (John vi. 51; x. 11-18), if they chose to accept this free gift of God (Rom. vi. 23).

Thus, because of His love towards the children of men, and in order to save them from their sins, He permitted the Jews to seize Him, to mock and buffet Him, and to deliver Him up into the hands of the Roman governor of Judaea, Pontius Pilate, to be scourged and crucified (Matt. xxvi. 47-xxvii. 56; Mark xiv. 43-xv. 41; Luke xxii. 47-xxiii. 49; John xviii. 1-xix. 37). Thus was fulfilled what had been prophesied regarding Him by David (Ps, xxii) and Isaiah (lii. 13-liii. 12), many hundreds of years beforehand.

The Lord Jesus Christ was executed as if He had been a criminal, though His judge, Pilate, acknowledged Him to be innocent of any crime (Matt. xxvii. 24). It was customary among the Jews at that time to cast the bodies of criminals into a place called the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, outside the walls of Jerusalem. There they were either burnt or left to be devoured by jackals and worms. Yet in the case of Jesus this did not take place, for His sacred Body was handed over to Joseph of Arimathaea, a secret disciple, a man of wealth and of high rank, who buried it in his own new tomb (Matt. xxvii. 57-61; Mark xv. 42-47; Luke xxiii. 50-56; John xix. 37-42). This all took place in exact accord with the prophecy in Isa. liii. 9, where it is said that, though His burial was appointed to be with wicked men, yet at His death He should be "with the rich".

As Christ had beforehand told His disciples that He would rise again from the dead on the third day (Matt. xvi. 21; xvii. 23; xx. 19; Luke ix. 22; xviii. 33; xxiv.

7, 46), so it came to pass (Matt. xxviii. 1-10; Mark xvi. 1-8; Luke xxiv. 1-43; John xx; I Cor. xv. 4). This also took place in accordance with David's prophecy (Ps. xvi. 9, 10). After His Resurrection He appeared several times to His disciples during the period of forty days (Acts i. 3), and taught them how completely what had happened to Him had fulfilled the prophecies contained in the Old Testament, and what the object of His Sufferings, Death, and Resurrection really was (Luke xxiv. 27, 44-49). He then gave them the commission to make all nations His disciples (Matt. xxviii. 18-20; Acts i. 8). After this He ascended before their eyes into the Heavens (Luke xxiv. 50, 51; Acts i. 9), leaving them the promise of His triumphal return to reign for ever and ever, as predicted by Daniel (Dan. vii. 13, 14, 27), and to fill the earth with the knowledge of God (Isa. xi. 1-9). See Matt. xxiv. 30, 31; xxv. 31-46; Mark xiii. 26; Luke xxi. 27; John xiv. 1-3; Acts i. 11; Rev. i. 7; xx. 11-xxi. 8.

Since all the promises which God had long beforehand given by the mouth of His prophets in the Old Testament with reference to the first Advent of the Promised Messiah and Saviour of the world, telling the time of His appearing, His work, and the Atonement which He was to make, have thus been fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is clear that He is in truth the Saviour to whom the Prophets bore witness and in whom Abraham believed (John viii. 56). Let it not be overlooked that the fulfilment of the prophecies concerning the Messiah is a most convincing proof of the inspiration of the Old Testament. For who, without Divine Inspiration (إلهام), could foretell the future in all these particulars many hundreds of years before these events happened? That these things were truly prophesied of is clear, because the prophecies are still found in the Hebrew Old Testament, which is in the hands of the Jews as well as of the Christians. The Jews have rejected Christ, yet they have never dared to erase or alter a single word of these prophecies,