The Road to Emmaus: Discovering an Eternal Jesus

By Larissa Payton

From Creation to the Coming of His Kingdom, Jesus has and always will be the heart of humanity. Jesus was present and active on earth long before His birth in Bethlehem. Many Christians believe that Jesus originated in the New Testament, but that is far from the entire Biblical History. The Road to Emmaus is a journey through the Bible to find an Eternal Jesus.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664275416

Larissa Payton

Larissa Payton is an author, a poet, and a lover of the Word of God. She has been married to Gehrig Payton since 2005 and has a combined family of five kids and eight grandchildren. She received a business degree from Indiana Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in Christian ministry from Oral Roberts University.

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ISBN: 978-1-6642-7540-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-7542-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-7541-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022915133

WestBow Press rev. date: 9/26/2022

To my

husband, Gehrig Payton, my best friend, and honest

critic; my children, who are always proud of me; and a host of

friends, relatives, and associates who have taken this journey

with me and inspired me along the way. I love you all.

CONTENTS

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Introduction

Part 1: Walking the Road to Emmaus

Chapter 1: Prophesy on the Road to Emmaus

Part 2: Discovering the Eternal Jesus: From Creation to the Coming Kingdom

Chapter 2: Angel of the Lord

Chapter 3: The Glory of God

Chapter 4: The Lamb of God

Chapter 5: By Any Other Name

Chapter 6: Immanuel

Chapter 7: The Eternal Jesus

Conclusion

The Author’s Epilogue

Bibliography

About the Author

Notes

INTRODUCTION

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The purpose of this book is to show others that Jesus has always existed. We say that Jesus is eternal, and he is God. But have we searched for him in the Old Testament?

From creation to the coming of his kingdom, he has been and always will be the heart of humanity. Our purpose as Christians is to know and understand his divine existence and to foster a relationship with him.

I want to remove the limits from Jesus as being only in the New Testament and open the Bible to Jesus’s existence from Genesis to Revelation. Jesus was present and active on earth long before his birth in Bethlehem.¹ From Genesis to Malachi, the Old Testament reveals Jesus in prophecies and appearance to God’s chosen people. This book will open your understanding of an eternal Jesus who existed long before the world began, visualize him in creation, and follow him through the books of the Bible into the New Testament. It should enlighten the Old Testament images and prophecies and clarify New Testament writings about Jesus when we see him throughout the Bible.

The Old Testament affirms that the Almighty God, or Yahweh, alone is the universal Creator, ruler, judge, and Savior. According to the New Testament, Jesus is also the Creator, ruler, judge, and Savior. I say that to confirm that Jesus is Lord.² I reflect on the Old and New Testaments, sometimes referring to the familiarity of the New Testament and confirming it with Old Testament scriptures. John 1:10 says, He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. I want the world to get to know the eternal Jesus.

What was the eternal Jesus doing throughout Old Testament history? Was he waiting around for his incarnation? Was he vexing his heart as he watched the best of sinners destroy themselves through ill-fated attempts to please God with law-keeping and the offerings of sacrifice? Maybe he just watched from the sidelines as the Father worked away on His own? None of these situations made sense to me.³

It does make sense to me that the Son of God was busy in heaven and frequently visited earth, appearing to people in different forms, primarily the Angel of the Lord and the glory of the Lord. My curiosity prompted me to seek and find the truth about Jesus in the Old Testament and help other believers to do the same.

All believers have some biblical knowledge of who Jesus is. However, they must understand that the New Testament does not define the origin of Jesus. It does describe Jesus as a human man on earth and exemplifies a sinless, perfect human who sacrificed himself for our liberties. Understanding the role of Jesus in the context of our historical and current beliefs is crucial to recognizing him as Lord and Savior. It shows that he has consistently implemented God’s plan and will continue to do so for all eternity.

Jesus is the cornerstone of our spiritual salvation. I want to show and prove that Jesus is more than just a figure in prophecy. I want to prove that Jesus appeared to humankind throughout history at the Father’s prompting, intervening in humanity’s affairs. I want to show that Christ’s redemption was part of God’s plan from the beginning.⁴ The process and purpose are and always will be to redeem humanity back to God. Jesus is God in the flesh. The appearances in the Old Testament were not in the flesh per se, but his appearance was real, nonetheless. In total, the Old Testament begins the story that Jesus completes in the New Testament.

Part One

WALKING THE ROAD

TO EMMAUS

I must start this section by talking about the why. Why did I start walking on the road to Emmaus? In October 2019, I was driving along in my car when I had an open vision of Jesus. In this vision, he said, I love you, four times to me. I could clearly see his face, hair, and eyes. I felt such love as I had never felt before or since. I knew I needed to know more about him. After this encounter, my love affair with Jesus began. I knew that I wanted to learn about him not just in the New Testament but also in the Old Testament.

I wanted to share my love for Jesus with everyone, so I knew I had to be trained. That same month I signed up for Oral Roberts University. My path was to be an author of both Christian fiction and nonfiction books. My first book was to be Jesus in the Old Testament. I had the concept and started the research but was not able to pull it together. When I took the theology