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Having the Benefit of Living After Christ (12:7) Having the benefit of living after Christ and believing in Him, we can now go back and see what verses refer to Him. Now we can see that Christ's suffering and crucifixion were destined to be, and that His great sacrifice was the symbol of His glory. But before Christ, the scripture contained no stars, and the people were "on their own" (12:8) Prophetic references from the Old Testament clearly demonstrate that God has revealed many prophecies which not only cannot be understood until after fulfillment, but which cannot even be recognized as being prophecies until after they have been fulfilled (12:9) This is no small thing, for it then follows, that there may be verses in the Bible which refer to Christ's Second Coming, which have not yet been recognized as prophecies. And, as in the case of His First Coming, is it not possible, that these prophecies describe aspects of His Coming that are as yet unsuspected? And again, as in the case of His First Coming, could not the verses which have been recognized as prophecies give a picture to people that they might cling to so stubbornly that it would prove a barrier to their recognizing Christ at His Second Coming? (12:10) In other words, the same mistakes that were made in failing to recognize Christ at His First Coming may easily be made at His Second Coming. Indeed, unless we learn from the errors in judgment, the presumption, and claims to omniscience that prevented people from recognizing Jesus as the Christ, won't we surely fail to recognize Him at His Second Coming, and for similar reasons? (12:11) In order to prevent the consequences of such a terrible misjudgment, we should reflect, deeply reflect, on that which separated those who believed, from those who did not believe, that Jesus was the Christ (12:12) Remember, people in the first century had no stars in their scriptures to designate the prophetic references, nor any sure guide by which to interpret them. Why did some believe and others reject the Christ? This we will need to understand and ponder
(12:13)
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