>>>I vote with what the text of Genesis actually says ...<<<
I agree with you: I also vote with what the text of Genesis actually says. In the verse you quoted (above) it simply states that God WILL give Abraham the land. What does that mean? Maybe one of these verses will explain (one from a chapter before your passage, and one after):
"And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him." (Gen 12:7 KJV)
"And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years. . . In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites." (Gen 15:13, 18-21 KJV)
It is almost as if the Lord was trying to tell us that the land promise was intended for Abraham's seed. I wonder how Abraham understood the covenant?
>>>No mindless replacement theological contortions can transform the plain promise here, spoken by God Himself, to Abraham ... into something that Abraham himself would not have understood to be fulfilled literally.<<<
You think so? LOL! In the following passage, Abraham seems to have forgotten that God promised him the land. All he seems to recall is that God promised the land to his seed:
"And Abraham said unto him, Beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again. The Lord God of heaven, which took me from my father's house, and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and that sware unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land; he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence." (Gen 24:6-7 KJV)
Is it possible that Abraham understood something about the promise that dispensationalists do not? LOL! Maybe the answer can be found in the new covenant book of the Hebrews:
"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." (Heb 11:8-10 KJV)
"Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city." (Heb 11:12-16 KJV)
So, God promised Abraham a heavenly city: one with foundations. Maybe that is why Christ made this statement:
"Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad." (Jn 8:56 KJV)
Note the irony. The Jews, who thought the land belonged to them, were not one bit happy about the Lord's visitation. Abraham, on the other hand, rejoiced: and he was the one who actually received the land promise! Shouldn't that be the other way around? LOL!
But what about the promise to his seed? Shouldn't his seed receive the land forever? Yes, and this is Abraham's seed (you asked for it!)
"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." (Gal 3:16 KJV)
Let me parse that:
"to Abraham and his seed were the promises made: not [to] many; but [to] one seed Christ." (Gal 3:16 KJV)
Yes, Christ was Abraham's seed: the seed that received all the promises. That means Christ received all the land, as well. Christ then extended the promises to his children: to those who believe in him:
"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Gal 3:26-29 KJV)
Therefore, the promised land belongs to Christ, and by inheritance, to me and my fellow Christians. Thank you, Lord, for your loving kindness and many blessings!
>>>You are in the unique position of having to argue against God here. <<<
I have read about, and actually met, dispensationalists who think they are God. But all of you cannot be God, can you? I suspect some of you are not being honest.
Philip
You go to Joshua to show the land promise was literally fulfilled.
Then when you are confronted by the reality of the unfulfilled promises in the OT text concerning Abraham himself ... you run to the NT and read back into the Old to claim that the fulfillment of that promise is spiritual through Christ and the church.
I could not have asked for a better illustration of the theological method fallacies of replacementism ...
See you on the next thread Philip ... nothing more can be said here.