1st Coming - Understand Prophecy - Yamartino
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Chapter 49 of  60

Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? (49:4)

But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? (49:5)

In that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me (49:6)

But all this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him and fled. (mat 26:52-56) (49:7) see

Here, again, Christ Himself confirms that the events associated with His ministry have been foretold in the sacred scriptures. He also indicates that having been foretold by the word of God, these events are irrevocable, and not subject to the will of man. Thus He assured His followers that no matter what was to happen, and whether or not they understood the significance of the coming events or not, they should have faith that the Father was the mover of events in this world (49:8)

Christ's words here seem to be an extension and reiteration of His earlier statement in Matthew 26:24, that the prophets of old have testified of Him. Once again Christ gives no specific reference to help us discern to which verses of the Old Testament He is referring. As with Matthew 26:21-24 commented above, given the many verses that Christ may have intended, commentary on them would be lengthy, and I do not feel this is necessary. And once again, the reader is referred to chapter five or, of course, the Old Testament, to determine the meaning of the Lord's words given here. (49:9) see

Although these occurrences in Matthew of the fulfillment of prophecy offer no specific references to those prophecies for us to consider, they do offer us something of considerable significance: By not focusing on particular words of the Old Testament, while at the same time indicating that events were unfolding according to the plan of God revealed to His chosen people, Christ has opened the door for His believers to search the scriptures for all that was written of Him. By this statement, we are freed from a narrow view that only verses specifically referred to by Christ or His disciples are prophecies (49:10)

The search for these prophetic references to Christ, which has continued up to this day, has been undertaken in the following manner: Using the words Christ spoke, and the events of His life as a searchlight, people looked back at the scriptures revealed before His Coming, and discovered verses whose meanings were previously unknown but which refer to Him. The vast majority of prophetic references to Christ have been found in this way - an indication of the validity of the necessity of fulfillment and acceptance of Christ to an understanding of the meaning of these prophetic references (49:11)

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