Yes, those who rejected Christ may have been stubborn, spiritually blind, and unduly attached to false interpretations, but their ultimate failure was that they did not open their hearts and minds to Him. If they had accepted Him, their previous erroneous understanding of the prophecies would have become irrelevant, being simply replaced by the correct interpretation, whatever God had willed it to be. At His Coming, everyone's previous understanding was erroneous, but Christ forgave this. No one was bound, by their past, to failure (85:2)

How could it be otherwise? The prophecies are open for all to see. Their puzzling nature is manifestly obvious. It was Jesus' Being, His Teachings, His Love, His power that shed the light of salvation, not the words of the prophets (85:3)

UNSETTLING ALTERNATIVE-
If it is unsettling to consider the possibility that the purpose of prophecy is not to show us plainly how the Christ is to return, and that we can therefore not be sure that our interpretation of it is correct; it is equally unsettling to consider the alternative (85:4)

You are wondering, of course, what I mean by the above statement. Consider: (85:5)

Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that the Christian view is correct, that God does intend Christians to use prophecy to enable them to recognize Christ at His Return. This view holds that the prophecies are stated in such a way that they fit together in an understandable and sometimes obvious manner, that the events that they foretell are therefore known with a degree of certainty, and that the sequence of these events can be discerned. It assumes that one can figure out what words of the prophecies are to be fulfilled literally, and what words fulfilled figuratively (85:6)

This view of the purpose of prophecy implies that God, wanting to provide His chosen children with a vision of Christ's return so that they will recognize and accept Him, has given clear descriptions of what is to come (85:7)

If, for the sake of argument we assume that this view is correct, we soon find that a problem emerges which raises a number of questions, and these questions prove difficult to answer. The problem is this: Christians themselves do not agree on the meaning of prophecy! (85:8)

What? How can that be? After all that guidance, and all those clear descriptions, they still don't agree? How can they not agree? Didn't God make His description of the Second Coming clear enough? No, surely we cannot blame God. Then is it that people are not smart enough? Do only some people understand? But, couldn't God have made all the Christians understand? Wasn't that the whole point in the first place? (85:9)

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