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Richard_Kastner
Guest
This is just wrong.In Jesus time, the only one who confessed Him as the Messiah, the Son of God was Peter in Matthew 16. Prior to Pentecost no one believed this to be so. And Jesus said that the only reason Peter was able to acclaim Him as the Messiah was because the Father revealed that to Peter.
Matt.1:20But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
21And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
22Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
23Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
Luke 1:30And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
31And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.
32He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
33And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Luke1: 67And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,
68Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,
69And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;
70As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:
Here are just three of them that believed in Jesus before Peter. There are others. But your statement brings up a good question. What is the old testament about? Is it just an account of the Jews and if so why do we have it? I mean what’s the point?
I think Zacharias above gives us a clue. It says:“Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied” and Matt 5:17Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. and Matt. 20: 37Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
What was Zacharias talking about when he prophecised. What was Jesus talking about when He talked about the law and the prophets.
Rev19:9And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
10And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
When an angel of God appears to John to tell him of the marraige feast of the Lamb (uniting of Christ with His church throughout eternity) John falls down to worship him, but the angel says, don’t do that because I am not God but a brother prophet, **“for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” ** So, what Zacharias did was talk about Jesus. What John and the angel talked about was Jesus, what all the prophets talked about was Jesus. So, when Jesus says:40On these two commandments hang all the **law and the prophets. ** He is talking about the law (ten commandments) that show us we are sinners and the prophets (testimony of Jesus Christ) which show us the solution to the sin problem. This leads us to your second point.
As I have shown above. Rev 19:10b for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.Well I can’t make that assumption because it defies reason. How can there always be Christians before Christ?
The first prophecy in the bible is Gen 3:15 15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Which is Jesus telling Satan that there would always be bad feelings (enmity) between him and God’s church (woman). Here is where Jesus starts His church. The bible is about the controversy between God and Satan and about the ultimate victory of Christ and His church. You seem to think that the people of the old testament were saved some other way. But doesn’t Jesus tell us. Jn.14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. What he means by this is exactly what he says, “no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” This includes the patriarchs of the old testament.Christianity is a belief that God became Incarnate, became human and dwelt amongst us in Jesus Christ. How can there have been Christians ( those who believed that Christ is God, the person of Jesus is God) before the Second Person of the Trinity was ever incarnate.It would be a different proposition altogether if you were to say that there were people who believed in the coming Messiah before Christ. The problem is, when Jesus appeared, most of those who were waiting for the Messiah did not believe that Jesus is the Messiah, much less that He is God.