A Jewish rabbi who has passed away. What he wrote while he was alive and what he thought might happen later.
Not exactly the makings of a hit, you say?
But it might just be. Thousands of Americans have connected with Pastor Carl Gallups' "Rabbi Who Found Messiah."
It's the top-selling book in Amazon.com's Judaism category and among all books on the nearly endless website it ranks No. 1,264.
Its companion documentary has also matched this success and is currently the 38th best selling documentary on Amazon and the 5th best selling film in the Faith & Spirituality category.
Published by WND Books, "The Rabbi Who Found Messiah" documents one of the great mysteries of our time.
Released last November, "Rabbi" has seen strong sales in the past two months due to the development of a part of the prophecy – the death of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
When Sharon was still in office, vibrant and in command of his faculties, a venerated rabbi, who claimed he had met the Messiah, predicted the Messiah would not come until after Sharon's death.
Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri died shortly after Sharon suffered a stroke that left him comatose in 2006. But before the beloved Kaduri died, he wrote a cryptic note in which he named the Messiah with whom he claimed to have had a mystical encounter. On the 108-year-old rabbi's instructions, the note was to be released a year after his death.
When the sealed note was opened a year later, it was posted on Kaduri's website. Kaduri had revealed the Messiah's name as Yehoshua, or the formal Hebrew pronunciation of Yeshua or Jesus.
Read the "Rabbi Who Found Messiah" right away!
As a result of the unusual prophetic twist and the recent release of a book and movie about the life and death of Kaduri, the death of Sharon has renewed interest among Christian prophecy circles around the world.
Sharon, 85, served as Israel's prime minister from 2001 to 2006, when he became incapacitated. During his tenure, he initiated a disengagement plan in which thousands of Jews were deported from Gaza and northern Samaria, turning the once-fertile region over to Hamas control.
A "death curse" by a group of rabbis in Israel was issued against Sharon for the action.
Sharon suffered a serious stroke Jan. 4, 2006, and was comatose until his death.
"The only prophetic utterance of Kaduri concerning Ariel Sharon was that Messiah would not appear until Ariel Sharon had died," said Gallups. "Within a little over two months after speaking these prophetic words Sharon was in a coma and Kaduri himself died."
Chuck Missler, founder of Koinonia House ministry, says that in the book, Gallups "explodes one of the biggest bombshells of our lifetime."
"The implications of these astonishing declarations from the most venerated ultra-orthodox rabbi in Israel impacts every one of us – not just those of the traditional Jewish faith," Missler said. "This is a must-read for anyone who takes God seriously."
Both the book and the movie look at Kaduri's many prophecies objectively – neither affirming nor denying their accuracy or authenticity. The book and the movie simply examine the remarkable story about the popular rabbi and his shocking messianic prophecy from a journalistic and biblical point of view.
Media requests for interviews with author Carl Gallups can be made by emailing [email protected].