Concept in Definition ABC

A messiah is someone sent from God to save us. From the perspective Christian, the messiah is Jesus Christ, but the Jews believe that the real messiah has not yet arrived and consider that Jesus Christ is a false messiah. These two conceptions are based on the messianic prophecies of the Bible.

Messianic Prophecies in Religious Context

The word prophecy comes from the Greek and means prediction. In the religious context, prophecies are events announced by God through the Old Testament prophets and also enunciated by Jesus Christ himself.

According to most theologians, messianic prophecies have a purpose multiple. First of all, they serve to highlight the character and dimension of God. On the other hand, they try to show that everything that exists depends on the will of God. Finally, messianic prophecies evidence God's role in the history of the humanity.

The messianic concept outside the religious context

The presence of biblical terms in the language Everyday life is very notorious and a good example of this are the words messiah, messianic or messianism.

When a group of people have a conflict and they don't find one solutionSome of them could say that they await the arrival of a messiah, that is, a person who provides a definitive solution to problems. In other words, a savior.

If a person becomes a Leader Political his messages may be considered by some in a derogatory sense and in this context it would be said that his messages are messianic. The label of "message messianic "is clearly pejorative, since it implies that something is promised that is foreseeably not going to be fulfilled.

The term messianism also has a negative meaning and is synonymous with populism. Equally equivalent to undemocratic attitudes.

Other Biblical Terms Incorporated into Everyday Language

There are many words and expressions that we use in a common way and whose origin is found in the Holy Scriptures. Thus, "going through a Calvary" means suffering a lot and with these words it refers to the ascent of Jesus Christ to Mount Calvary, "being a Judas" is equivalent to being a traitor (remember that Judas was the disciple of Jesus Christ who betrayed him) and "to make matters worse" refers to the inscription that Pontius Pilate had placed on the cross where Jesus Christ was crucified.

Photos: iStock - mementoil / Linda Steward