Chapter XLII.—Prophecy using the past
tense.
But when the Spirit of prophecy speaks of
things that are about to come to pass as if they had already taken place,
—as may be observed even in the passages already cited by me,
—that
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this circumstance may afford no excuse to
readers [for misinterpreting them], we will make even this also quite
plain. The things which He absolutely knows will take place, He predicts
as if already they had taken place. And that the utterances must be thus
received, you will perceive, if you give your attention to them. The
words cited above, David uttered 150018541854 years before Christ became a
man and was crucified; and no one of those who lived before Him, nor yet
of His contemporaries, afforded joy to the Gentiles by being crucified.
But our Jesus Christ, being crucified and
dead, rose again, and having ascended to heaven, reigned; and by those
things which were published in His name among all nations by the
apostles, there is joy afforded to those who expect the immortality
promised by Him.
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