I am familiar with the gospels. I know what they say about those who do not accept Christ, no matter how righteous we are...No one may come to the father unless through me, correct? The crux is that I do not accept that Jesus was the Messiah, since we are not living in a world where life has meaning, work has purpose, and evil is unheard of. Those are necessary conditions for the Messiah's being here and none of them are fulfilled. Lineage is nice, stories are nice, but proof is best.
Call me a doubting Thomas and offer me a side to put my hand in. In my faith, blind acceptance is not what we're going for. One may argue with God himself and still live.
Sashal: the end of the world is coming, but unless I missed something really big, number of the beast wasn't in there. Also, my Messiah's coming will be marked with peace, joy, and purpose...not tumult, death, and awfulness.
You said: "Also, my Messiah's coming will be marked with peace, joy, and purpose...not tumult, death, and awfulness."
While the Messiah will ultimately bring peace, nowhere in the Old Testament does it say that the conditions in the world regarding the Messiahs coming would be marked by "peace, joy and purpose". Don't take my word for it, just check out Ezekiel chapters 38 & 39.
The conditions within the world will continue to get worse until the coming false messiah; the antichrist. When he comes he is going to give the Jews and the world what it wants: "peace and safety". He will be coming on a figurative "white horse" to "save the world," clean up the money mess and bring "peace" to the Middle East by making (according to Daniel 9:27) a peace treaty with Israel for 7 years, which he will break half way through it.
Isaiah 66
22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.
23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.
In the verse above we can see that ALL flesh are to worship before God, on the sabbath and will be keeping the feasts, too. So, maybe the peace, joy and purpose come then.
SOT, since you are familiar with the Gospels, please read this scripture Isaiah 53 - please search it and find where Jesus does not fit this prophetic description of the Messiah:
Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
Isa 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, [there is] no beauty that we should desire him.
Isa 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were [our] faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isa 53:4 ¶ Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
Isa 53:5 But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Isa 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isa 53:7 ¶ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
Isa 53:8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
Isa 53:9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither [was any] deceit in his mouth.
Isa 53:10 ¶ Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put [him] to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see [his] seed, he shall prolong [his] days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Isa 53:11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, [and] shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
Isa 53:12 Therefore will I divide him [a portion] with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors
2 Maccabees 7
The Martyrdom of Seven Brothers
1 It happened also that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the king, under torture with whips and thongs, to partake of unlawful swine's flesh.
2 One of them, acting as their spokesman, said, "What do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors."
3 The king fell into a rage, and gave orders to have pans and caldrons heated.
4 These were heated immediately, and he commanded that the tongue of their spokesman be cut out and that they scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of the brothers and the mother looked on.
5 When he was utterly helpless, the king ordered them to take him to the fire, still breathing, and to fry him in a pan. The smoke from the pan spread widely, but the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly, saying,
6 "The Lord God is watching over us and in truth has compassion on us, as Moses declared in his song that bore witness against the people to their faces, when he said, 'And he will have compassion on his servants.' "
7 After the first brother had died in this way, they brought forward the second for their sport. They tore off the skin of his head with the hair, and asked him, "Will you eat rather than have your body punished limb by limb?"
8 He replied in the language of his ancestors and said to them, "No." Therefore he in turn underwent tortures as the first brother had done.
9 And when he was at his last breath, he said, "You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws."
10 After him, the third was the victim of their sport. When it was demanded, he quickly put out his tongue and courageously stretched forth his hands,
11 and said nobly, "I got these from Heaven, and because of his laws I disdain them, and from him I hope to get them back again."
12 As a result the king himself and those with him were astonished at the young man's spirit, for he regarded his sufferings as nothing.
13 After he too had died, they maltreated and tortured the fourth in the same way.
14 When he was near death, he said, "One cannot but choose to die at the hands of mortals and to cherish the hope God gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life!"