The most common objection to Jesus as Messiah is simple, and it deserves a straight answer: the Messiah was supposed to bring world peace, gather Israel, and reign — and that plainly has not happened. So how could Jesus, who was executed and left the world at war, be the one? The historic Christian answer is the two advents: the same prophets foretold a Messiah who suffers and dies and a Messiah who reigns in glory. Not two Messiahs — one Messiah, in two comings.
The tension is already in the prophets
Set the passages side by side and the puzzle is visible in the Hebrew Bible itself, long before any Christian claim:
| The suffering Messiah | The reigning Messiah |
|---|---|
| Isaiah 53 — despised, pierced, killed for others' sins | Isaiah 9:6-7 — the government upon his shoulder, of peace no end |
| Psalm 22 — pierced hands and feet, forsaken | Daniel 7:13-14 — given dominion over all peoples, forever |
| Zechariah 12:10 — “they shall look upon me whom they have pierced” | Zechariah 14:4 — his feet on the Mount of Olives, the LORD king over all |
| Daniel 9:26 — Messiah “cut off,” before AD 70 | Revelation 19:11-16 — returning in glory, King of kings |
The tension was felt within Judaism too
This is not only a Christian observation. Rabbinic tradition itself wrestled with the two portraits, at times speaking of “Messiah ben Joseph,” a Messiah who suffers and dies, alongside “Messiah ben David,” who reigns. The strain between a suffering and a triumphant Messiah was real inside the tradition — the two-advent reading is one honest way to hold both together.
One Messiah, two comings
The Christian reading resolves the objection without brushing it aside: the Messiah came first in humility — born, rejected, pierced, and raised — fulfilling the suffering prophecies; and he comes a second time in glory to reign, fulfilling the rest. The peace, the gathering, the kingdom — those belong to the return still awaited. The objection is answered not by denying it but by locating its fulfillment in the second advent.
The Apostolic (Oneness) reading
Apostolically, the wonder is that it is the one God Himself who comes — first veiled in flesh to save (“God was manifest in the flesh,” 1 Tim. 3:16), then unveiled in glory as King. “This same Jesus… shall so come in like manner” (Acts 1:11): the LORD of the prophets, the Savior of the cross, and the returning King are one.
The honest part
The two-advent framework is a Christian one; Jewish readers hold the Messiah’s work to be a single, still-future accomplishment, and that is a serious position honestly held. What is not merely a Christian invention is the tension itself: the suffering texts and the reigning texts sit together in the same Scriptures, and any Messianic hope has to reckon with both.