Barrie Wilson - Your Symphony of Selves: Discover and Understand More of Who We Are: Unlocking the Psalms of Solomon and Humanitys Quest for a Savior

SEARCHING FOR THE MESSIAH

Pegasus Books Ltd.

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New York, NY 10018

Copyright 2020 by Barrie A. Wilson

First Pegasus Books edition August 2020

Interior design by Maria Fernandez

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review in a newspaper, magazine, or electronic publication; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 978-1-64313-450-5

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-64313-451-2

Distributed by Simon & Schuster

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for Jacob, Noah, Eden, Bari, Dylan, Ryder, Beau, Cooper, Mackenzie, Thalia, and Jackson

The future is bright. Enjoy!

PREFACE

Lois, you say the world doesnt need a savior, but every day, I hear people crying for one.

(Superman in Superman Returns)

F or millennia, people around the world have embraced the search for a rescuer or messiah. Christians, Jews, and Muslims in particular have been caught up in this pursuit, either looking for a returning messiah or one yet to come. Religious scholars, megachurch pastors, and television evangelists pour over ancient manuscripts and prophecies looking for signs when the messiah will arrive to set things right.

Even Hollywood has become caught up in messianic fervor. People around the globe flock to blockbuster films whose superhero saviors rescue humanity and pack theaters, generating huge fortunes for their studios.

The search for a messiah has never been timelier, or more important, than right now. Currently many people dread the state of the world. Things are clearly a mess.

A deadly pandemic has swept the world, creating in its wake fear, anxiety, and economic uncertainty. Hit by medical and financial threats simultaneously, people are overwhelmed with major concerns: personal and family health, job security, income, investments, and social contact with others.

Politically, citizens in many countries are at loggerheads with each other. Holding little respect for different views, opposing camps viciously lambast each other with personal attacks. Angry people confront one another over politics, religion, lifestyles, and moral choices. Adding to the fray, traditional and social media have become increasingly polarized. Retreating to comfortable ideological niches, they create confusion and uncertainty concerning authentic versus fake information.

The past century has witnessed massive world wars, unimaginable horrors and atrocities, a Holocaust, famines, and genocides in many parts of the globe. The Middle East is constantly on fire and powerful new entitiesRussia, China, and Iran among themhave emerged to challenge American and Western might and leadership. Climate and economic refugees fleeing unsustainable environments face huge barriers, nations that have slammed the door shut with the attitude that none is too many. Countless millions live each day in fear for their lives and those of their children.

All-seeing drones, job-threatening artificial intelligence devices, and invasive cyber capabilitiesall these add to modern-day anxiety about the future.

Whats next?

Since people and governments have made such a mess of things, people search for a way out. Wheres messiah when we need him the most?

If the messiah were to appear, how would we recognize him? Do we even know what are we searching for?

Put simply, whats a messiah? Without the answer to that question, how can we identify a genuine one from a mere charlatan?

These seem like simple questions, but they arent.

A natural place to start our search is with the Bible. Surprisingly, it doesnt tell us what a messiah is. The Hebrew Bible, or the Old Testament, says very little about the criteria for being a real messiah. Theres not one book, not even one chapter, devoted to the idea of a messiah. Theres more in these scriptures on diagnosing and curing skin diseases than on the topic of the messiah.

And yet, Christians claim that Jesus is not just a messiah, but the messiah. How can we evaluate this claim without an idea of what being a messiah means? What did Jews of Jesuss time understand by the term messiah? Why did some say Jesus was the messiah and others say that he was not? The Christian Scriptures, or the New Testament, also caution us about being misled by false messiahs. How can we identify such unreliable individuals without a job description?

The search for a messiah is not just rooted in religious contexts. Some modern political leaders cultivate savior imagery, promising people better times ahead. Barack Obama, for instance, touted his Audacity of Hope promise, while Donald Trump pledged to Make America Great Again. Younger, more radical rivals have surfaced who challenge conventional ways of thinking about the climate, economy, healthcare, immigration reform, and international relations.

Add to these the many political leaders of the past century who have sung the messianic siren song. These include not only dictators such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Fidel Castro who held out hope for their people, but also visionaries such as Woodrow Wilson who was hailed as the Savior of Humanity for his work helping to end World War I. International bodiesthe League of Nations, the United Nationswere created with high expectations to save us from war, only to disappoint time and time again. Why do people so eagerly respond to these would-be saviors?

Increasingly, saviors are to be found in popular new cosmologies, fictitious though they may be. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, and many others saturate our popular culture as superheroic individuals with amazing powers. They fight evil forces to make the world a safer and better place. In so doing these rescuers have created new rival alternate universes, different conceptual frameworks for understanding the world in which we live.

Why has the superhero genre become so popular recently as the DC Extended Universe and the Marvel Cinematic Universe vie for cultural supremacy? What does this preoccupation with superhero saviors tell us about the world in which we live today?

Why is the search always for someone else to clean up the mess? Why is it always someone elses job?

Why do we look to religion, politics, and pop culture for a messiah, savior, or rescuer? Have we perhaps been looking in all the wrong places?

In this book, I aim to tackle these key questions by providing the most current historical scholarship and groundbreaking research on issues which have never been more timelyor more important. Along the way well discuss an important neglected ancient manuscript penned just a few decades before the birth of Jesus. It tells us definitively what Jews meant by messiah.

The book explores the hopes and dreams generated by messiahs, superheroes, and other saviors who promise better times, coming soon. It is meant for those who like to wrestle with complex issues.