1st Coming - Understand Prophecy by -Yamartino- 6 Para
Chapter of  60

Which Verses Constitute Prophecies? (11:1)

Several years ago, I purchased a reference Bible and found the following note in the first few pages: (11:2)

"A star immediately following a verse in the Old Testament indicates that in the concurrent opinion of many scholars and theologians, the verse embodies a prophetic reference to Christ." (11:3)

In this particular Bible, almost two hundred verses were thus identified by these stars. Other Bibles, and other references cite more than this. There are arguably many hundreds, some say thousands, of verses in the Old Testament which refer in some way or another to Christ. After all, the Old Testament contains more than twenty three thousand verses, and it may seem rather doubtful, given the station of Christ, that only a few hundred verses would refer to Him. When we consider the role that God's Son has played and will play in the redemption of mankind, we could assert that the Old Testament in its entirety was written as a prelude to and prediction of the Coming of Christ (11:4)

We could, therefore, make a study of the Old Testament as a whole to demonstrate the purpose of prophecy. However, of these thousands of verses, certain ones stand out as having been especially inspired to announce, describe, and praise the Christ. Since these prophecies identified by scholars and theologians include what must be considered the most outstanding references to the Coming Christ, we will choose these as our basis of investigation. Although our compilation of prophetic references will not be exhaustive, it will demonstrate the principles stated above (11:5)

Certainly, people may disagree on some of the verses chosen to receive stars - on the one hand considering some verses as not referring to Christ, and on the other, questioning why certain other verses were not included. My purpose, however, is not to justify why these verses are considered prophetic references to Christ. The fact that many scholars and theologians, and, I believe, Christians in general feel that they are prophetic references, is sufficient for me. My purpose is rather to demonstrate that within the generally accepted body of prophecy and the record of its fulfillment, there are implied principles that until now have been overlooked (11:6)

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