CHAPTER 5:
Some PROPHETIC REFERENCES to CHRIST
This chapter is simply a compilation of some of the prophetic references to Christ found in the Old Testament. In the interest of brevity, I have not set the prophecies in their scriptural context, nor have I explained what the context is. Neither have I given notes or cross references to these verses. Some of the related references we will investigate in the following chapters and comment on their implications, and of course, you are encouraged to further investigate these and other aspects of these verses on your own. But our investigation will begin with reading these verses as they appear in the Old Testament. Therefore the verses from the Old Testament are presented without cross references to verses of the New Testament, without footnotes, without commentary (20:1)

The approach to our investigation will be straightforward. I ask you simply to put yourself in the position of someone living at the time of Christ. All that's required is to read and think about these prophetic references. Each reference to Christ illustrates aspects of God's purpose in revealing prophecy that, if you spend time considering it, may become clear. Of course, your insights will not be the same as mine. You will find things that I have overlooked, and may disagree with some of the things I put forward. This is the fruit of the human intellect. On the whole, however, I have complete confidence, that the evidence given in the Bible is so overwhelmingly in favor of the need for a new way to look at prophecy, and that fulfillment and acceptance are required to understanding prophecy, that our disagreements will give way to our consensus (20:2)

In many cases our experience with these precious words has been within the context of the great meaning of their fulfillment. Thus, for many of them, we have seen them only surrounded with the correct details with which they would eventually be associated. By this historic association, these details have crept into our understanding of the prophecies themselves and have become an integral part of them, and rightly so. But stripped of these future details, they reveal quite a different picture - a much more mysterious, subtle, and in some cases, deceptive picture, than the one with which we are familiar. It is for this reason, to allow us to see through the eyes of seeker at the time of Christ, that they have been compiled without commentary (20:3)

I realize that the many prophecies presented below may prove uninteresting or even difficult when they are read at one sitting. If you prefer not to read them through at this time, I suggest that you at least read some of them to get a sense of what is being presented in this chapter. Feel free, however, if you desire, to skip directly to the following chapter, where further study of the nature and purpose of prophecy will be undertaken through the direct examination of some specific prophecies and their fulfillment. The prophecies compiled here can then be visited later if you wish (20:4)

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