Saturday 4 February 2017

Focus

What difference might the following pointers make, to your understanding of Old Testament Prophecy?

1. Jesus of Nazareth is the prophesied Lord and Messiah

2. Messiah was to come twice - even if the Prophets didn't fully understand that, even if they sometimes dealt with His two comings almost as if they were a unit. There has come Messiah's first coming - He is yet to come the second time. Kingdom now/not yet. Inauguration/consummation.

3. The prophets dealt with things relevant to their own time, and they dealt with Christ's comings - first and second - sometimes in the same prophetic passage. Without necessarily fully understanding how it would all transpire in fulfilment.

4. Israel's promised-salvation was fulfilled - the promise didn't fail, nor was it delayed. It was experienced by the true Israel within Israel, the true Jews among Jews, those who believed. That's the Gospel.

5. Gentiles were grafted into the same salvation-scheme - not into some separate stream

6. Levitical-style worship was a shadow, and it's past - there's to be no return to the shadow. (That would include details like the altar, priests, Levites, temple, sacrifices, incense, mount Zion as the required place of worship, and pilgrimages to Jerusalem to keep the feasts.) It's in the past.

Those are truth-points of the Gospel, aren't they. So re-read Old Testament Prophecy in light of those truths, and see what comes into focus for you.
 

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