Review
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Title: Old Testament Prophecies of Jesus Christ
Author: Earl C. Tingey
Publisher: Deseret Book Company
Genre: Scripture Studies
Year Published: 2012
Binding: Paper:
Number of pages: 164
ISBN-10:
ISBN-13: 978-1-60908-894-1
Price: $19.99

Reviewed by Matthew R. Lee for the Association for Mormon Letters

During his service as president of the Washington DC Temple Earl C. Tingey, an Emeritus member of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, received a "gentle prompting” to organize messianic prophesies contained in the Old Testament into a book format. Through Deseret Book, the results of following that gentle prompting are available to interested readers (viii).

This is a book written by a believer for believers. Specifically, for a Latter-day Saint audience. There is no attempt by the author to convince or persuade readers to accept the divinity of Jesus Christ. Readers must cross that bridge of belief before digesting Elder Tingey’s work. Likewise, he does not explain the unique Latter-day Saint view that Jehovah is the pre-mortal Jesus Christ but not God the Father, or in Mormon distinction, Elohim. Tingey’s views are not of a post-apostolic Trinity, but one in harmony with a literal reading of the New Testament account of the disciple Stephen’s vision, who “being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God” (Acts 7:22). Three separate beings, a literal Father and Son, and a Holy Ghost.

The distinction between Jehovah and Elohim results in Jehovah being the God of the Old Testament. It is Jehovah who appears to Moses and calls Samuel. Thus for Mormons the title "Lord" in the Old Testament, in nearly every case, is synonymous with Jehovah and Jehovah with Jesus Christ. So much so that the entry for "Lord" in the LDS Bible Dictionary simply says, “Lord. See Christ; Christ, names of; Jehovah.” During His mortal ministry Jesus Christ taught His disciples to pray to His literal father, and their spiritual father, Elohim.

It is the claims of Jesus Christ Himself, and His disciples, that first draw attention to the writings of the prophets who predicted the coming of a mortal messiah. Ultimately, it is His claim that the prophets spoke of Him that led to His death sentence. Not only that He was the messiah but that He was literally Jehovah, the God of their fathers. This is where Elder Tingey’s book begins.

Elder Tingey looks to the accounts of Old Testament prophesies Jesus, and later His disciples, declared were fulfilled in Him. He revels in the intensity that may have been felt as Jesus turned to His disciples in Judea and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them “(Luke 10:23-24).

Tingey quotes from four of the twelve minor prophets, all the major prophets except Daniel, all the books of Moses except Leviticus, and from 2 Samuel, Job, and Psalms. He is silent on twenty-five of the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament. Nearly two-thirds or more of every page is composed of direct quotations from Scripture. The New Testament quotations appear with almost the same regularity as those from the Old Testament.

In some cases, Elder Tingey interprets scriptures as messianic that have no clear connection to his point. He says, “The concept of Christ as the Good Shepherd and His followers as sheep is founded in the history of the Israelites under the prophetic leadership of Moses" (p. 4. He then recounts the Passover as an example of Christ as the Good Shepherd. While the Passover as recorded in Exodus is central to Christianity as a foreshadowing of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ as the first born, as Elder Tingey reviews later in the book, there is no direct or indirect reference to a messiah or to Jehovah shepherding the children of Israel. Yet he says, “These verses [Exodus 12: 3 -29] establish a pattern of Christ, the Good Shepherd, and sheep, which is universally known” (p. 51). Other verses in the Old Testament clearly refer to the Lord as the good shepherd and the description and pattern continue in the New Testament in relation to Jesus Christ, yet as of today, I am unable to see a direct shepherding pattern in the Passover. God requiring specific obedience and sacrifice to obtain protection from imminent destruction, I see. A good shepherd slaying the firstborn of every man and beast in the land of Egypt that did not comply with Moses' command? No. Nevertheless, we read to expose ourselves to new ideas and this idea is certainly new to me.

In some places Elder Tingey’s service as a temple president shines through independent of any prophecy of Jesus Christ. For example, several pages on marriage quote heavily from the Doctrine and Covenants but make no mention of the Old Testament (p. 98 -101). These diversions are noticeable but they do not distract from the message. What is the message? For Elder Tingey, it is to "testify and bear witness that the prophets who preceded Jesus Christ in birth" knew Christ would come, and that they knew it with the same clarity as the prophets during Christ's mortal ministry and of those of the past two hundred years.

In some places the prophecies are so clear to Elder Tingey that he can hardly contain himself: "Who can fail to believe that Old Testament prophets prophesied of Jesus Christ! It is clear. It is truthful. It is the word of God." (p. 24). This should not be surprising. As an ordained special, or “especial”, witness of the name of Christ Elder Tingey spent years focusing on his responsibility as a disciple of Christ (D&C 107:25), including seven years at the senior member of the Presidency of the Seventy. It is difficult to envision that level of commitment to the Church by someone without similar conviction. Yet, in his words, “serving each day in the temple helped me to become more aware of the presence and power of Jesus Christ and the importance of His mission and ministry". Not every Latter-day Saint will serve as an ordained seventy but nearly all can serve in the temple and, over time, gain a greater awareness of the reality of Jesus Christ and even an awareness of His “presence and power” (viii).

Without question, this is a devotional work. There is no hint of apologetics in Elder Tingey’s words, no case to be tried, and no room for doubt. He "anticipate[s] that the reader of this book will obtain a stronger and more abiding testimony that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” The words ‘strongER and MORE abiding’ are important. As mentioned before, readers will already need a strong and abiding spiritual witness of Jesus Christ. Otherwise, there may not be much to enjoy in this book.