The Promise to Abraham

“Know you therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.”

God made a promise to Abraham: “In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen.12:3). Later he repeated the promise, “because you have obeyed my voice” (Gen. 22:18).

What of this promise? Was it fulfilled? Or is it yet to be realized in some material sense? Gross confusion prevails. The tragic result is that Christians look for a fulfillment which will not come, because they look for the wrong kind of promise. People keep getting this original promise to Abraham mixed up with the Law given to Moses and with the land of Canaan in which the Israelites established a nation.

But the promise to Abraham had nothing to do with the law nor with national Israel. Paul explained, “For not through the law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed that he should be heir of the world, but through the righteousness of Faith” (Rom. 4:13). Three things are revealed here: 1) That the promise has nothing to do with the law; 2) That it does have to do with inheriting the world, and not a mere fraction of it, and 3) That it is through faith, and not through racial descent.

Jesus said that Abraham “rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56, cf. 8:44). Obviously Abraham understood that the promise that he was to be the father of many nations and that all families should be blessed through him was a promise concerning Christ and the salvation he would purchase for believers. God was severe in teaching him the lesson, “in Isaac shall thy seed be called” (Gen. 21:12) because Isaac was the son of “promise”, the son born by a miracle of God in response to Abraham’s faith. Thus “it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed” (Rom. 9:8). Paul again explains, “know you therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham” (Gal. 3:7). It is plain that the promise is to Christians, and not to the fleshly descendants, the Ismaelites, and the many tribes and nations that descended from Abraham and rebelled against God. Nor does the promise have anything to do with modern Israel, a nation that is officially and thoroughly anti-christ. Paul declares, “Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He said not, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ” (Gal. 3:16). The promise God made to Abraham had to do with Jesus Christ and the redemption He made for believers, so that all who believe on Him are blessed.

“And if you are Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29). The promise is a spiritual one, as demonstrated in Abraham himself. Scripture says of him: “he looked for the city which has the foundation, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:10). Of Abraham and the other patriarchs, the Bible says, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own. And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better country, that is a heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for He has prepared for them a city” (Heb. 11:13–16).

The promise which Abraham has not yet received is that promise that he “should be heir of the world” (Rom. 4:13). This world is to be destroyed, as described by the apostle Peter, revealing that this earth is “stored up for fire, being reserved against the Day of Judgment and destruction of ungodly men” (II Pet. 3:7). Then Peter adds, “But according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness” (II Pet. 3:13).

This is Abraham’s inheritance, the city with foundations laid, not by men’s hands, but by God, a heavenly city, the New Jerusalem. Christ is the “seed” of Abraham, and through Him all Christians are the children and seed of Abraham, and thus joint-heirs of the new creation. Thus the promise, yet to be realized by Abraham and all God’s children, is an eternal home for saints resurrected and made immortal, not the land of Palestine occupied by a certain few in the 20th century.

This has always been the hope of the true Israel, the children of God by faith. The apostle Paul preached the resurrection of the dead everywhere he went. He claimed to glory in only one thing, the gospel of Christ, which is the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection. For preaching this gospel he was persecuted by the Jews and finally imprisoned and sent in chains to Rome, where he declared, “because of the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain” (Acts 28:20). Paul is the inspired apostle who wrote emphatically that there is “one hope” (Eph. 4:4). This hope, held by Abraham and all believers of all time, is the hope of immortality in the new creation, after the present world has passed away.

Indeed, there was a promise to Abraham concerning the land where he sojourned. “In that day (not the same day God made the original promise) Jehovah made a covenant with Abraham, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the Euphrates” (Gen 15:18). This promise was completely fulfilled after the Israelites returned from Egypt. The book of Joshua describes the conquest of the land, and declares, “So Jehovah gave unto Israel all the land which he swore to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein…There failed nothing of any good thing which Jehovah had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass” (Joshua 21:43, 45). Under King David, the kingdom was expanded all the way to the river Euphrates (II Sam. 8:3). This is further verified in I Kings 4:23, 24.

The kingdom also embraced laws, generally known as the Mosaic Law, initiated in the ritual of circumcision. This law, called the Old Covenant, began at Mt. Sinai, and was finished at the cross, some 1400 years later. It included circumcision, the observation of certain days, feasts and ceremonial sacrifices, involving the slaying of animals for atonement of sins. All of this is done away in Christ, for He is the “end of the law.” In His death he became the final and complete sacrifice, paying the penalty for sin once and for all in his own death (Heb. 10:10, 14). Furthermore, the Old Covenant being fulfilled, there is now no racial barrier to the Kingdom of God. Ancestry or genealogy has nothing to do with redemption in Christ. By his death for sin Christ has brought all believers into the commonwealth, into His Kingdom (Eph. 2:12–19). “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for you are all one man in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s then are you Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:27–29).

The earthly kingdom which was the glory of David and Solomon, and which their fleshly descendants have endeavored to restore to this day, was part of the national covenant made with Moses. They so trampled underfoot the laws of God that He sent their enemies to take them captive into Assyria and Babylon. Prophets foretold a return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the temple. All of this was fulfilled. A remnant of all the tribes returned to their homeland, and a great temple was built. But again they refused to walk in the faith exemplified by Abraham. “Jesus said unto them, if you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham” (John 8:39, cf., 40-56).

Instead of believing on Christ, as Abraham and Moses did, even before He appeared in the flesh, they rejected Him. Jesus then said, “The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matt. 21:43). Peter identifies the church as this nation: “you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (I Pet. 2:9)

To the fleshly nation of Israel, Jesus said, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate” (Matt. 24:1–2), and in a few years his prophecy was fulfilled to the letter when the Roman armies demolished Jerusalem in 70 AD.

As Christians our hope is not hinged on a piece of temporal land nor a fickle and rebellious ethnic group. Our hope is not in this earth, which is to perish, nor in worldly governments — no, not in our own government nor some super government. Our hope is in the coming of Christ to judge the world, to deliver Christians out of it, to change our bodies to glorious ones like His own and plant us in the “new heavens and new earth wherein dwells righteousness.”

“Know you therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.”

Here is your 1000 years.

20:1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 00343 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 00344 20:3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. 00345 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 00346 20:5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

But the promise to Abraham had nothing to do with the law nor with national Israel. Paul explained ...

Thanks again for the Sunday School material ... this weeks lesson is on Replacement Theology and the theological errors that are possible when one interprets the OT, not on the basis of what the OT text says, but based on a NT understanding of the OT testament text.

Let me quote Curtis: "The popular doctrine of a “future millennial reign” over the present world affords endless opportunities to take daily events and label them as signs of millennial fulfillment.

This Curtis fellow does not understand dispensational premillenialism at all, he is arguing against a non-existance position ... and so are you.

We view daily events that happen today as "the beginning of birth pangs" ... nothing more, not fulfillment of prophecy. Will those prophetic fulfillments come in the future? Yes they will ... we just see the stage being set for their fulfillment. Could be hundreds of years from now ... could be tomorrow.

Rev. 20:1-3 is great. And I believe it. Christ Jesus bound Satan, per His statements in the Gospels. The "Beast" is not Satan. What I dread is when Satan is loosed for a little season - which could be quite a while in our way of thinking of time (whatever the time may be). This will be around the end of the thousands of years of Rev. 20.

Rev. 20:4-6 is also great. And I believe it. However, John wrote in symbols and OT imagery. While I don't believe anyone can actually say exactly what this part of the passage has to say, we can say that we do know what constitutes the first resurrection (see my post #24 on the thread "The Millennial Syndrome"). The "rest of the dead", along with the dead saints of the thousands of years, will be raised from the dead, the living translated and caught up with Christ, the unbelievers raised for judgment - the second death.

This Curtis fellow does not understand dispensational premillenialism at all, he is arguing against a non-existance position ... and so are you.

Hmm...I was introduced into dispensationalism (Bible Baptist Churches) back in 1973. But after all the lessons they gave me in "Sunday and Wednesday" classes, telling me to examine the Bible to see if it was so, my examination led me out of that faulty school of thought. Later examination of the origins of dispensationalism intensified my conclusions that it was really wrong theology. It was sensationalism magnified, not Biblical. Signs were its main proof...has that been changed?

We view daily events that happen today as "the beginning of birth pangs" ... nothing more, not fulfillment of prophecy.

I see...the name has just been changed, not the idea.

The temple measurement do not match Herod's temple.

That's right! As Josephus tells in his History of the Jews, Herod doubled the size of the temple. I don't know how Josephus knew the size it was to be other than to look at the OT directions. The population when Herod built the temple of Jesus' time was greatly increased from the time of Ezekiel. Maybe that's why Herod increased the size of the temple? Who knows...

You have not answered my question about why Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc said the house of Israel and Judah would return to the land. After their dispersal 721BC, when did the house of Israel return to the land of the promise? I want to know the Biblical verses, the year or there abouts. Any names or towns, anything to prove to this forum that their return is now history.

Blessings in your search for TRUTH

Well, honestly ... you don't really demonstrate a solid understanding of dispensationalism. Perhaps like many in the 1970s you think you learned it from reading The Late Great Planet Earth. Anyway, it is certainly possible that the Baptist church you "learned" it from was not all that solid.

Later examination of the origins of dispensationalism intensified my conclusions that it was really wrong theology.

And what origins would that be?

It was sensationalism magnified, not Biblical. Signs were its main proof...has that been changed?

This is where I am confident your understand of dispensationalism is so lacking that your article posting refuting it is impotent. Perhaps you believe Jack VanImpe is the model dispensationalist. I think he is a nut job and there are many others; VanImpe and Hal Lindsey are not the theologians who are doing serious work in dispensationalism.

This Curtis fellow you keep posting has an impressive array of articles, but if they mis-represent positions and are full of shotty exegesis (which they are) then its a pile of bits at a link. Replacement theology is not true theology, it ignores the priority of the OT text in OT interpretation.

Dispensationalism is the natural result of the application of the historical-grammatical approach to Biblical interpretation coupled with proper theological method.

When Jesus said that the Kingdom would be taken away from them and given to another nation, that other nation is the "ekklesia" - i.e, what one calls the church: which is not "national" but worldwide.

Wrong. The church is not a nation. It is made up of many nations not just one, as the scripture says over and over again.

Jesus never said that the nation of Israel would be restored as a "kingdom" on this earth in a future age.

Then just how do you come to grips with the disciples' question after 40 days of Jesus's teaching on the Kingdom of God, and his answer to their question. They clearly asked if the Kingdom of Israel would be RESTORED AGAIN to Israel. Their question was direct and clear. And Jesus' answer was quite clear -- NOT YET. Did Jesus not understand the question??? Was He lying or being deceptive in his last words to them??? The question was asked and the question was answered and it is there for all to see and read and take to heart.

The "New Jerusalem" is the whole body of Christians which are the "bride of Christ" mentioned in the book of Revelation:

Yeh -- that consists of many nations:

"And the nations of them who are saved shall walk in the light of it ... and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it" [Rev 21:24,26]

So then which of those "nations" will be given the Kingdom of Israel??? France??? India??? Germany??? or a future nation of Israel [Isaiah 66:8] that has been gathered after a 1900 year hiatus from amongst the nations to which they have been driven in fulfillment of the prophecies of all the prophets, who Peter admonished the Church in his last letter to keep in mind.

My next thread to be posted this evening, titled "Daniel's Prophecy", should be a big help in explaining why the things in the first two threads I posted say what they say. Consider it carefully, opening the Bible and checking to see if what is said is worthy of thought - at the least.

Wrong. The church is not a nation. It is made up of many nations not just one, as the scripture says over and over again.

Hmmm...It would take a rather large post to bring out everything the Scriptures have to say about this, but here is just one of many you might consider in this light: 1 Peter 2:4-10.

Verse 9: "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, ..."

Was Peter lying, or exagerating? Was he not taught by Jesus while with Him for 3 years or so, and then later for 40 days after the resurrection? And also led by the Holy Spirit to recall all that Jesus had taught him after Pentecost? What about the words of the other writers of the NT? How does one understand them without consideration of of the whole?

I said: The "New Jerusalem" is the whole body of Christians which are the "bride of Christ" mentioned in the book of Revelation: Yeh -- that consists of many nations:

Actually, NO! It consists of God's people found in all nations

And where do you find "future nation of Israel" that you say Peter revealed?

Later - have to keep an appointment. Back later on.

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