Feature
Ancient Crossroads
Intimations of Jesus Christ in the Greek Tragedies
Christians believe that the unique birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are not only historical events that occurred during the first century a.d. but also the miraculous fulfillment of the prophetic utterances of such Old Testament figures as Moses, David, Isaiah, and Ezekiel. Indeed, for those who have eyes to see, most of the key tenets of Christian doctrine can be found, in embryonic form, in the books of the Old Testament. As God sent John the Baptist to prepare the way for Christ, so also did he use the Law and the Prophets to prepare the hearts of his people for the coming of their long-awaited Messiah.
Is it not possible, however, that the Jews were not the only people whom God prepared? Might he not have spoken to the pagan nations as well? True, he did not give direct revelation to the Babylonians or Persians or Greeks or Romans, but might he not have whispered to their hearts in a different, less direct way? Though fallen, we were all made in God’s image. If it is true that God has set eternity in the hearts of men (Eccl. 3:11), then all men, Jew and Gentile alike, have the inborn desire and ability to yearn after the one true God. The supreme biblical example of this is the Magi, gentile pagans who followed their limited astrological wisdom and found, to their great joy, that God used that wisdom to lead them to the Christ child.
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Louis Markos , Professor in English and Scholar in Residence at Houston Baptist University, holds the Robert H. Ray Chair in Humanities. His 19 books include Lewis Agonistes; Restoring Beauty: The Good, the True, and the Beautiful in the Writings of C. S. Lewis; On the Shoulders of Hobbits: The Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis; and From A to Z to Narnia with C. S. Lewis.
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