 One of Dr. Brown's main arguments is that the Messiah, according to the Jewish scriptures, the Messiah must put in an appearance before the destruction of the Second Temple. Now, I have dealt with his argument at length in my article, Contra Brown, and I encourage you to read what I wrote and come to your own conclusions, study it, go back to the Bible, go back to Dr. Brown, come to your own conclusions. In this presentation, I will focus on two of the prophecies that Dr. Brown uses to establish his position. He points to the book of Malachi, chapter 3, and he tells us that that prophecy tells us that the Messiah must put in an appearance before the destruction of the Second Temple. Well, what does Malachi actually say? Malachi describes this appearance, and this is what he tells us. He describes a messenger of God coming and refining the children of Levi, and then he says, he will refine them like gold and silver, and they will be for the Lord, presenters of offerings and righteousness. Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and in previous years. In other words, this messenger, whoever he may be and whenever he may come, his mission will be to take the Levitical Priesthood and purify it and restore it to its former glory. It doesn't say it's going to bring something better and more, something that we never had, but rather it's going to be like in days of old, to its former glory. We're talking about the Levitical Priesthood. Do you know what Dr. Brown tells us about the Levitical Priesthood? Dr. Brown tells us about the Levitical Priesthood, that it's weak and useless. In other words, the advent of Jesus according to Dr. Brown is something which shunted, which pushed the Levitical Priesthood aside to claim fulfillment of this prophecy and repudiate the Levitical Priesthood at the same time as making a mockery of God's Word. Another prophecy that Dr. Brown points to is the prophecy in Haggai chapter 2. Again, I encourage you to read the prophecy. It speaks about God filling the temple with glory and the glory of this house, the latter, will be greater than the former. It's speaking about the glory of the temple. Do you know what Dr. Brown tells us about the temple? Dr. Brown tells us about the temple is that the loss of the temple gave the disciples of Jesus strength rather than weakness. They came into a richer spiritual experience without the temple. In other words, the advent of Jesus is a repudiation of the temple. It's a repudiation of the temple and what the temple stands for. Again, how could you claim to be a fulfillment of this prophecy and repudiate and denigrate the temple at the same time? Again, a mockery of God's Word. Throughout his presentation of the Messianic prophecies, Dr. Brown minimizes the Messiah's association with temple. That's like trying to disassociate Michael Jordan from basketball or Wayne Gretzky from hockey. What do the prophets tell us about the Messiah? There are six prophecies in Scripture which liken the Messiah to King David. Just to give you the references, Jeremiah chapter 30 verse 9, Ezekiel chapter 34 verses 23 and 24, Ezekiel chapter 37 verses 24 and 35, and the yearning for the Messiah is described by Hosea in chapter 3 verse 5 as a yearning for King David. What do we know about King David? Did King David have anything to do with the building of the temple? Well, I suggest you look into 2 Samuel chapter 7 verse 13. We see the building of the temple and establishing of the Davidic kingdom are intertwined in the same verse. First King chapters 8 verse 16 and verse 66. We see again how the Davidic kingdom is intertwined with the choice of David. There's lengthy passages in the first book of Chronicles where David establishes the foundations and prepares, makes all the preparations for the temple. Psalm chapter 78 verses 68 and 69, again the choice of David and the choice of Zion and the temple are intertwined one and the same. Psalm 132, King David describes his yearning for the establishment of the temple. King David is a temple builder, that's what he is. To say that King David is a vicarious atonement and not a temple builder is again another mockery of God's word. But King David didn't only establish a physical temple. He established a spiritual temple and the physical temple and the spiritual temple are not two different things. They are one and the same. The main contribution that King David brought to the table, brought to the Jewish nation, was not the physical building of the temple. It was the book of Psalms. From all the people in the Bible, from all the characters in the Bible, David's heart is the most open. In his Psalms, he expresses his love and devotion to God and he draws all of Israel's love and devotion to God. We say, David, King of Israel is alive and exists. He is still our King now. He is our Messiah today. He still leads us in submission to God through his songs. The prophets taught us that humanity, the greatest success that humanity will ever achieve is when they recognize their complete and total poverty before God. And that is the joy of humanity. That's the utopian picture that the prophets have of the future, the glorious future of mankind. The real Messiah is someone who leads, he doesn't stand in front of mankind diverting attention to himself. He stands together with mankind facing God, leading mankind in submission to God. The real Messiah does not seek people's worship and devotion. Rather, the real Messiah teaches that people's hearts already belong completely and totally to God. The real Messiah will teach people about the all-powerful God and the all-encompassing power of God and he will not teach people that God cannot forgive your sins without his services. The real Messiah will speak the praises of God with joy, enthusiasm. He will sing the praises of God. He will overflow with praise of God. He will not speak about his own praises. The real Messiah will emphasize and highlight his own utter helplessness before God, his own poverty before God setting the example for all of humanity. He won't veil, obfuscate his own helplessness before God with claims to divinity. And the real Messiah will be pained when he sees a heart that's not devoted to God. He will not rage when people don't recognize the need for his personal services. The real Messiah is a servant of God in the true sense of the word. And if you want a picture of the real Messiah, open the book of Psalms, look at David's heart and that's what you'll see. And that's where you'll find the spiritual temple, which is one and the same. The physical temple is just an expression of that spiritual temple that David planted in the hearts of Israel. And when that plant will come to fruition, will merit David's descendant, the real Messiah, will just pick up the song where David's ancestor left off and we will see that physical temple that David yearns so strongly to see. We will see God's glory established in that physical temple. May it happen speedily in our days.