Today we enter the second week of Advent, a season set aside to dwell on Christ, the

king whom shepherds guard an angel sing.

As Christians we believe Jesus is the anointed Messiah, the Davidic King, the Christ.

But how do we arrive at such a massive claim?

Historically, this has proven to be no small debate.

If Christ is the long-awaited Messiah, why does the Old Testament have so few unambiguous

texts?

We can point to his proof.

In his detailed investigation of the origins of Messiah-nism, New Testament scholar Joseph

Fitzmire goes so far as to conclude that hopes of a messianic figure within Judaism intensify

only after the Old Testament canon is closed.

And even when the term Messiah is used in the Old Testament, it often has nothing to

do with a single messianic figure.

So how did the apostles and the earliest Christians arrive at such a clear link, claiming

with confidence that the Jesus born in Bethlehem was the anointed king?

To answer this question and to better understand what we celebrate in Advent, I turn it over

to Dr. Don Carson, co-founder and president of the Gospel Coalition.

He joins us over the phone to answer the Advent question.

What child is this?

I suppose that for many Christians in the West who have not been exposed to much Bible

reading yet, when they hear Jesus Christ, they're thinking Jesus is his first name and Christ

is his second name or his family name.

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