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The Backwards Principle (2:1) But, isn't that backwards? It must first be fulfilled? Certainly it seems backwards, but this is only because we have assumed that the reverse is true: that prophecies should be fulfilled according to our understanding of them. In other words, in thinking that we know how a prophecy is going to be fulfilled, we are essentially saying that God cannot fulfill it in a different way. This is presumptuous, to say the least (2:2) As surprising as this aspect of prophecy may be, the surprises do not stop here (2:3) Fulfillment is not the only condition necessary for a prophecy to be understood. There is another: namely, that the One fulfilling the prophecy must be recognized and accepted by the individual trying to understand the prophecy. That is, one must first recognize and accept Christ as the divine Son of God in order to understand the prophecies that He has fulfilled (2:4) And there is more: These two conditions - fulfillment and recognition - present us with a facet of prophecy that seems to go against yet another commonly held assumption: that prophecy is given to lead one to Christ. This is simply not the case (2:5) As difficult as this may be to accept, the story of the New Testament leaves us no alternative: for there is no mention of anyone accepting Christ because they understood prophecies given them in sacred scripture. Though we may at first object to this statement - it certainly does go against much of what many of us have been taught, either directly or through implication - eventually though, after thoughtful investigation, we see much to our surprise that it is true
(2:6)
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