Messianic prophecies- testimonies and testaments of the Redeemer delivered by inspired men and women before the meridian of time- focused the attention and heightened the expectations of the people of God upon the central act in all eternity- the atonement of Jesus Christ. For the faithful, for those who accepted the Messianic message and conformed their lives to the teachings of Jehovah and his prophets- for such persons it was as though the act of atonement, the events in Gethsemane and on Calvary, were moments of the past.
As the effects of the Atonement reach to eternity future, so do they reach endlessly to, the past: from the days of Adam every gospel ordinance that was performed and every ounce of faith exercised centered in the efficacy and virtue of an atonement, an act of infinite grace that would not come for up to four thousand years.
For the obedient, prophecy was as history. (Commentary 2:109.) God loves all men and women of all ages. His greatest act of love- the gift of his Only Begotten Son- was not a gift limited to those select persons who lived at the time of and subsequent to the mortal ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. Rather, the great and last sacrifice, though limited in time to a specific moment in earth’s history, stretches in its effects from before the world was through the millennial era.