In religious assumptions, waiting situation is considered as intrinsic, which exists in itself. In religious reading, waiting gives meaning to those who are waiting, and the problem of those who are waiting is not taken into consideration; the problem for which they waited. Not only is the formation of the waiting situation overlooked, but also how those who wait remain in waiting is disregarded. In a word, the role of those waiting is ignored. For this reason, in most researches, the influence of the waiting situation on the changes is investigated. Or the waiting situation is valued. Or the promised savior in different religions is compared. But in this research, the focus is on those who are waiting, not Messiah. The scheme of this research is; validity and the issue of waiting is for those who wait. This research with a descriptive-analytical approach seeks to answer this question; what is the problem of waiting for the Messiah?
We know the situations of defeat and waiting, despair and hope, failure and promise from the perception of those who faced these situations. When we talk about the "historical situation of waiting for the Messiah", we are actually talking about the type of view and mentality of the believers who understood it. On this basis, knowing the "historical situation of waiting for the Messiah" requires knowing the face of those who are waiting, it requires knowing the type of view and mentality of the believers who have understood the waiting. As Simmel says about the Theory of historical knowledge, the objects of its inquiries are also the conceptions, intentions, desires, and feelings of personalities. In other words, persons are its subject matter (Simmel, 1977: 39), we must say that in order to know the historical situation of waiting for the Messiah, we should know those who are waiting for the Messiah in history. Because the history of waiting is the history of those waiting.
Anyway, the waiting people want a different situation according to their mentality and way of looking. Waiting is not their problem, their problem is the realization of another situation. But sometimes the waiting for another situation becomes so long that the waiting itself becomes a problem for some of the waiting people. Another waiting arises from the initial waiting. And it becomes waiting for waiting. And the problem of realizing another situation is forgotten. There is a form of waiting for the Messiah that does not wait for the Messiah himself. The problem of this waiting is the prolongation of the Messiah's non-arrival. Those who are waiting are waiting to wait for the Messiah. They want to get out of this waiting situation. Consider the beliefs millennialism. Determining the time of the appearance of the Messiah becomes the expectation for the time of the appearance itself. It means another waiting that passed the problem of initial waiting. The problem of this waiting is to get out of the waiting itself. And, consider most of those who claimed to be the promised savior throughout history. They answered the problem of getting out of the waiting situation. They did not know the answer to the problem of initial waiting. But what is the problem of initial waiting?
At first, a group perceived a situation as unfavorable based on their way of looking at the world. They entered a waiting situation. In the waiting situation, they wanted to get out of the unfavorable situation and enter the favorable situation from their type of view. They waited for an agency to realize the favorable situation. Religions responded to this agency with the promised savior. By accepting the answers of the religions by those who were waiting, the waiting situation was upgraded to the waiting situation for the Messiah. Therefore, waiting situation for the Messiah did not have a pre-religious essence. It acquired the essence of religion in the type of look of believers waiting for the Messiah. In the way non-believers look at the Messiah, it is not a waiting situation, nor does it have a religious nature. Likewise, the appearance of the Messiah is not a problem of waiting for the Messiah. The Messiah is the agency that has given the answer to those who are waiting; The answer to the realization of another situation.
Consider the promised savior in Judaism. The historical waiting situation of the Jews was formed in relation to the temple destruction situation and the exile situation. According to Bible verses and Jewish traditions, the Holy Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed twice by its enemies; Once around 587 BC by Nebuchadnezzar II, and once around 70 AD by Titus. And the Jews were sent into exile, especially after the first destruction. They entered the waiting situation to get out of the state of destruction and exile. They were waiting for an agency to bring them into the state of rebuilding the temple and bring them back together. The promised savior of the Old Testament is Judaism's answer to the long-standing problem of the Jews. Judaism did not put Jews in a state of waiting in advance. The problem of the Jews is not the appearance of the promised savior of the Old Testament. Their issue is gathering again in the promised land, and the glory of the temple again. Or, the historical waiting situation of the Shiites was formed in relation to the state of the usurpation of the caliphate and the Karbala incident. The issue of the Shiites was the return of the caliphate to the children of Imam Ali and revenge against the perpetrators of the Karbala incident. Shia did not put Shiites in waiting situation in advance. In the beginning, the problem of the Shiites was not a religious problem. The promised savior in Shia is the answer to the problem of Shiites.
Therefore, the moment of the promise of religions is the moment of connecting the waiting for the promised with its previous waiting. The people who were waiting saw themselves facing another problem by keeping the initial problem. However, they consider the promised savior to be the answer to both of their problems.