IMAM MAHDI IN THE BIBLE
By: Reza Rezaie Khanghah
In this paper we have references from the Bible which can be the evidence of our claim about the reformer:
“For the wicked shall be cut off, but those Who wait for the Lord shall possess the land.” 1
“The righteous shall possess the land and dwell upon it forever.” 2
“In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, till the moon be no more; May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” 3
You can see in other parts of the Old Testament phrases as the following: “There shall come forth a shoot from the stumps of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and ‘night, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faith fullness the girdle of his Loins The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, the sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. 4
In the above good tidings you can expect a day when justice and security will cover the surface of the earth and human beings live happy and prosperous. In the latter phrases it has been mentioned that the reformer is a “‘Shoot from the stamp of Jesse” and it must be taken into consideration that the “Jesse” means “strong” and Jesse is the father of David, and we Muslims believe that our expected reformer “Imam Mahdi” is the son of Narjis whose great grandfather is David. When you read these characteristics about that day, you can precisely say that our world hasn’t seen such a day, hence you will believe and accept that man will witness these days in the future.
I/we refer to the New Testament. We will find some good tidings for better days. These are some of the references about this matter.
“When the Son of man comes in his glory. and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” 5
With a brief glance. the dear reader will find out that the “Son of the man” cannot be Jesus because all these good tidings speak about the future, so it is obvious that the 1’Son of the man” has to come in the future.
“He who conquers and who preserves my work until the end, I will give him power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken pieces, even as I myself have received power from my Father. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” 6
It must be actually heard what the spirit says to the churches. The reformer in the above words can’t b Jesus, because the verbs in this good tiding belong to the future, so we must expect better days for man in the future. We can see that various religions have tried to draw a very nice picture for their followers, and by this drawing, sow seeds of hope in their hearts and minds. 7
References:
- A psalm of David 37: 9
- A psalm of David 37: 29
- A psalm of David 32:7,8
- Isiah 11: 1-9
- Matthew 25, 31-33
- The revelation to John 2: 26-29
- IMAM MAHDI (A.S.) THE LAST REFUGE OF HUMAN BEINGS, Dr. H. Fereidouni
Source: https://whoisimammahdi.hcommons.org
