The Land Promise to Abraham and His Descendants — the Key to the Whole Bible Plot

Underlying the entire Bible story, running like a golden thread through Scripture, is the promise made to Abraham that he would receive, as a reward for his obedience to God’s call to leave Ur of the Chaldees, prosperity, progeny, and property. This amazing, divinely promised guarantee of success, which Christians are invited to share as spiritual children of Abraham, is summed up in the compact phrase “Blessing of Abraham.” This beautiful and memorable phrase is found only twice in Scripture, in Gal. 3:14 and Gen. 28:4. This provides the essential link between the two Testaments. That blessing of prosperity, progeny and property (land for ever) is defined by Paul in Rom. 4:13 as “the promise to Abraham and to his descendants that he would be heir of the world (earth, BBE, Basic Bible in  English).”

This is exactly the promise of Jesus to his followers in Matt. 5:5. “The meek are to inherit the earth/land,” citing the amazing Ps. 37 which no less than five times defines the goal and destiny of the faithful. This has not a word to say about “going to heaven as a disembodied soul at death.” To confirm this point, note the fearless words of Dr. JAT Robinson at Cambridge: “’Heaven’ is in fact never used in the Bible for destination of the dying” (In the End God, p. 104).

You get a very different impression at funerals and in commonly heard sermons! The only recognizable goal of the believer is “heaven.”  But not according to Scripture.

The biblical drama hangs on this remarkable tension: Abraham and his seed have never yet inherited the land/earth. In fact Stephen in the sermon which cost him his life (Acts 7, the longest chapter in that book) explicitly says that “Abraham did not inherit as much as a square foot of the promised land”!  But “God promised it to him and his seed for ever” (Acts 7:5). That marvelous promise is rooted of course in Gen. 12, 13, 15 and constantly throughout the Hebrew Bible.        How is that staggering promise to find fulfillment, since Abraham is long dead?  God will indeed as always be vindicated.

The obvious and only solution is that Abraham will have to be resurrected when Jesus comes back in order to take up his allotted place in the Kingdom/land of the new order to be introduced by Jesus. Heb. 11:8 clearly  recalls that Abraham once lived in the promised land, as did his children, but in verses 11 and 39 “these [heroes of the OT] all died not having received the promises”  There it is!  Everything hinges on the faithful attaining to the inheritance of the earth/land as promised to the meek by Jesus in Matt. 5:5 and unpacked in more detail in Rev. 5:10 (cp. Rev. 2:26, 27 and 3:21; 20:1-6; Jer. 27:5). Not only do they gain the earth, they rule and reign with Jesus in it. 

Add to this the astonishing promise of Jesus to Peter, who enquired as to what reward the apostles might expect (Matt. 19:27, 28), after all the exhausting trouble and maltreatment they had received from the established “church.”  Jesus’ answer was transparent. In that new born world when the Son of Man returns to the earth and takes up his position on his throne of glory, the apostles will also occupy 12 thrones and set about the task of governing the tribes regathered at that time in the land (see Matt. 19:28, and put this verse up on your refrigerator!)  The reference of course is to the new order of society foreseen in all the prophets and specially in Isa 65:17ff. and 66:22.

There is coming a new world order on earth, to be inaugurated at the return of Jesus, and we are urged by the Gospel to prepare with all urgency for that coming event.

This is the substance of Christian hope and hope is the basis, Paul said, for the companion virtues of love and faith (Col. 1:4). Without a proper grasp of hope, faith and love are diminished and thwarted. It mattes very much what you believe. And believing and having a passion for truth is of paramount importance (II Thess. 2:10).

The Christian faith is called “the faith of Abraham” (Rom. 4:16), and Abraham is the spiritual father of the faithful (Rom. 4:11). No wonder then that the Gospel was preached in advance to Abraham (Gal. 3:8). This in short is the Gospel of the Land/Kingdom, the Gospel as preached by Jesus and Paul (Mark 1:14, 15; Luke 4:43; Acts 19:8, 20:24, 25, 28:23, 31) which is conspicuous by its absence in churches and preaching!  (For further detail please read my “The Coming Kingdom of the Messiah: A Solution to the Riddle of the New Testament (free at our site). Also my Our Fathers who Aren’t Heaven: the Forgotten Christianity of Jesus the Jew. For a short summary see our ten-minute you-tube video “Jesus is Still a Jew.”

Here then is the easy story of the whole Bible, to be taught to the old and the young alike.  God is working to restore peace to our tortured earth, using His agent the Messiah and Son of God. Luke 1:35 explains with lucid simplicity the basis for Jesus being the Son of God (do not read KJV on this verse. It misleads you into thinking there is more than one reason for Jesus’ sonship!).

Jesus, the lord Messiah (Luke 2:11) was fathered in the womb of Mary by miracle. He certainly did not arrive from a pre-human life elsewhere!  He announced the Kingdom of God, which is to bring about the reversal of the calamity which came to the human race in Adam and Eve. Mark 1:14, 15 commands us to stop not believing in the destiny of man, which is to rule in the Kingdom, the very task at which Adam failed.

Jesus, the perfect and sinless human person, the Second Adam, modeled the perfect Christian life, devoted to the will of his Father, who is the one and only God of true monotheism (John 17:3)  Jesus affirmed belief in the unitary monotheistic God of his biblical heritage (Deut. 6:4; Mark 12:29).

Jesus also confirmed the promises made to the fathers of the Hebrew Bible (Rom. 15:8). Thus the Christian Gospel was preached in advance to Abraham (Gal. 3:8). The promise was that the faithful believers should receive the whole world as their inheritance (Jer. 27:5). The promise to Abraham was specified as the guarantee that he would be “heir of the world” (Rom. 4:13). Thus the land promise to Abraham is exactly the Kingdom of God promise of the New Covenant, and Jesus stated this by promising possession of the earth/land to the meek (Matt. 5:5).

The fascinating fact is that Abraham has until this day not received a square foot of his inheritance. Acts 7:5 is a marvelous “John 3:16” verse!  The point to be gained is that Abraham and all the faithful who are now dead, sleeping the sleep of death (Ps. 13:3), must at the return of Jesus  rise from death (I Cor. 15:23) to receive their promised inheritance.  (So also Daniel in Dan. 12:13)

The ideal conditions on earth will then be introduced and such scenes as Isa. 65:17ff. and 66:22, where mortals (not the saints who will by then have gained immortality) will be considered unfortunate and under judgment if they die at the age of 100!

Jesus and his disciples loved and looked forward to the great “restoration of all things.”  There is to be a rebirth (palingennesia) of the world, when the Messiah will be sitting on the throne of his glory. At that time the apostles will be co-rulers with Jesus, and they will be administering the 12 tribes regathered in the land (see Matt. 19:28 and Luke 22:28-30. 

This coming new world order on earth is also called the APOKATASTASIS—“putting everything back in order.”  Heaven, where Jesus is currently, must retain him there “until the APOKATASIS of all things, about which the prophets spoke” (Acts 3:21, cp. Acts 1:6).

None of this is remotely connected to the misleading popular idea about “going to heaven” when we die! Mary, even, is currently dead, sleeping the sleep of death, certainly not functioning as an intercessor.  She will awake when Jesus comes back and be part of the great Kingdom of God to be set up on a renewed earth (Dan. 2:44; 7:18, 22, 27, etc.).

The Third Option: Creative Alternatives to Violence or Cowardliness

by Sean Finnegan

Christians are people of faith–the ones who trust in God and walk by the spirit not only in times of ease and comfort but also in times when there seems to be no way out. As followers of Jesus of Nazareth, we look to him for guidance–not only his words but also how he handled himself in the situations of his day. In fact, Jesus was often caught in situations where there seemed to be only two options and both of them would be deleterious. When our Lord found himself in these situations he depended on God and somehow discovered “the third option” in situations where there seemed to be only two.

For example, when he was asked if taxes should be paid to Caesar, only two options seemed to be available: (1) say “yes,” (2) or say “no.” However, if he replied in the affirmative he would have lost his credibility with the people and came out as a supporter of Roman oppression, something a faithful Jew could never do. If he said “no,” he would have been immediately reported to the authorities as an insurrectionist. So what did Jesus do? He listened to the voice of God in his moment of need and brilliantly neutralized the situation by saying “Render under Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.” This is but one example of several we could point to in order to demonstrate how Jesus navigated through intense difficult and sometimes scary situations by depending on God for wisdom and choosing the third option.

Easily, the hardest question posed to Christians who believe in loving their enemies is, “What would you do if an intruder came into your house intent on doing harm to your children?” Typically the options presented are either to use violence or stand by and do nothing. However, two assumptions lie obscured just beneath the surface in this hypothetical. Assumption #1 is that there is no God. Assumption #2 is that there are only two options: (1) use violence or (2) do nothing. Obviously, Assumption #1 is bogus, there is a God, and if we glance through the pages of Scripture we see that God not only exists but delights in delivering his people from impossible situations when they resolve to trust in him not matter what the consequences. Assumption #2–that there are only two options is related to Assumption #1, but when we look at Jesus’ life and consider a few of the “impossible” circumstances he lived through we can see that he regularly walked by the Spirit to follow the third option–God’s wisdom in the situation. The third option is the one God sees from his vantage point but we would never think of on our own.

Here is another example of Jesus finding the third option in an extremely volatile situation. The night he was arrested, as he was being taken into custody Peter the impetuous apostle in a moment of boldness unsheathed his sword and swung at the nearest person. We should note that Peter was a fishermen not a soldier and this fact is embarrassingly confirmed by his aim. He cut the man’s ear off. No one actually tries to cut someones ear off in battle. Peter must have been going for the neck. Even so, if we pause the situation right here, what are Jesus’ options? Choice A: do nothing and allow Peter and possibly others to be killed or arrested. Choice B: let out the Braveheart war cry and start fighting. What does Jesus do? He chooses the third option: he picks up the man’s ear, and like Mr. Potato head, sticks it back on. That little action neutralized the whole incident and allowed the disciples to get away safely. Now who among us would have suggested that course of action? But, that’s just it, God’s wisdom is often paradoxical and abnormal. Do we have faith to trust in him like Jesus did?

We need to break our faith commitment to violence on the one side and cowardliness on the other.

Once we resolve to neither take revenge ourselves nor run away we are at once free. We suddenly find ourselves open to hear God in the time of need. Perhaps God will lead us to say a word, sing a song, engage the person physically, call the police, restrain the intruder while our family escapes, or a million other possibilities…but we will never know so long as we limit ourselves and short-circuit God by keeping a gun under the pillow.

Should it look different when an intruder attacks a pagan’s house than when he attacks the house of a follower of Jesus?

The Jewish Roots of Christianity

By Anthony F. Buzzard

Some today suppose that there is a special virtue attached to being Jewish in their approach to the Christian faith. There is a danger here. There is a biblical Jewishness which the New Testament demands of all believers. That Jewishness means recognizing that Jesus is the Messiah — a Jewish Old Testament word for the expected King of Israel promised in the covenants made with Abraham and David. Biblical concern for Jewish roots means also recognizing that the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, contains the basis of New Testament faith. Paul said that the Gospel had been preached to Abraham (Gal. 3:8). He found the Gospel of God in the writings of the prophets of Israel (Rom. 1:1, 2). Paul knew that Jesus had come to reaffirm the promises made to the Old Testament fathers (Rom 15:8): "Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the Truth of God [the Gospel] to confirm the promises made to the fathers." All these concerns fully justify a "Jewish" approach to the New Testament. Christians should be following the Jew Jesus. 

However, a warning is in order. It is all too easy to be carried away with the concept of "Jewish roots" and lose sight of the fact that Paul, as the agent of Jesus, taught a freedom from the Law of Moses. Christianity is not just a "repeat" of Judaism. Paul, for example, considers circumcision in the flesh to have no value for the Christian. In Romans 14:14, 20 Paul states categorically that "there is nothing unclean in itself," and "all things indeed are clean." He uses here the exact words found in the Old Testament passages which demand a careful distinction between "clean" and "unclean" foods. 

Mark 7:19 notes that Jesus revised the code forbidding certain foods under the Law. Jesus taught in Matthew 19:8 that Moses had allowed certain divorce practices in Israel which were not God’s absolute ideal, but which He had allowed because of their hardness of heart. Jesus then went on to revise the Law of Moses in this matter of divorce. He appealed to an earlier and more absolute standard for marriage — a standard which God had instituted in Genesis at the beginning (Matt. 19:8, 9). Jesus allowed only one exception in the right to divorce and remarriage: fornication, i.e. unrepented breaking of the marriage bond by sexual infidelity. 

Christianity therefore is not just a continuation of Judaism with the Messiah as its leader. The Gospel is rooted in the Old Testament, certainly. But the practice of the faith is revised under the terms of the New Covenant. Circumcision in the flesh falls away. The Ten Commandments and thus the covenant made with Moses and Israel are actually (and this point is seldom realized by Christians today) compared to bondage and likened to the offspring of Hagar. Hagar was the slave-girl. Sarah is the model of freedom and her children are the true Christians who are products not of the Sinai covenant but born of the spirit of the Promise. A careful reading of Galatians 4:21-31 is essential for a good grasp of this newness of the New Covenant. It is a dramatic and eye-opening revelation of what it means to be free in Christ. 

Note now the practical effects of this teaching. God spoke to the New Testament Christians in a variety of languages at Pentecost. There is absolutely no religious value in using only a Hebrew name for Jesus (Jeshua). If you are amongst Hebrew speakers Jeshua is perfectly reasonable but the Hebrew name carries no "magic" quality or sanctity. The inspired Apostles wrote in Greek, and they used the Greek word for the Lord (kurios) and the Greek form of the name Jesus. It is pointless and divisive to insist (sometimes as a matter of salvation!) on a special pronunciation of the Divine Name YHVH. The New Testament writers refer to God as "Lord" (again, kurios). It is bizarre to write G-d rather than "God" for fear of contamination. The sound of the word is unimportant. Christians should be most careful not to clothe the faith in strange practices which invite ridicule and obscure the real truth of Christianity. 

There is a grave danger of putting up a barrier between yourself and the world you hope to win for Jesus by insisting on certain Jewish, Old Testament practices which were shadows of the New Covenant. I have in mind obligatory Sabbath and Holy Day observance or keeping the New Moons. These collectively are "a shadow of things to come" (Col. 2:17). Christ has replaced them. The New Testament Christians did not keep the Passover once a year. The old Passover became an ongoing (whenever the church met) celebration of the Lord’s Supper (see I Cor. 11:17ff.). John’s Gospel refers to the Old Testament festivals as "feasts of the Jews." How very improbable, then, that John thought of the very same festivals as Christian celebrations. "Let us therefore keep the feast" (I Cor. 5:8) means "Let us be permanently celebrating the Feast," with the unleavened bread of sincerity and Truth. A good commentary will point to the meaning of the continuous sense of the present tense Greek verb, "Let us be celebrating." 

The shadow of the Law has passed away and the substance found in Christ has taken its place. Thus no animal sacrifices, the heart of Jewish ritual, are necessary for the Christian. 

So the Jewish roots of our faith are fine as long as we do not fall back under the Law of Moses. This is a serious issue. Those who are trying to keep the Law of Moses as Christians risk being cut off entirely from the Messiah (Gal. 4:30; 5:4). The covenants cannot be mixed. Biblical Christianity is a new faith, though it is rooted in the promises made to Abraham which pre-dated the arrangements made with Moses (see the whole Book of Galatians and request our booklet "The Law, the Sabbath and New Testament Christianity").

Replacement Theology

 By Anthony F. Buzzard

So-called “Replacement Theology” is not wrong provided that one takes into account God’s own exceedingly important proviso as detailed by Paul in Romans 11. Paul tells us there that God sees a future for a collectively converted remnant of all Israel (meaning in this case Israelites, whom today we call Jews).

But Jesus expressly said that unbelieving Jews, those who rejected him as Messiah and continue to do so today, would have the Kingdom of God removed from them and that the Kingdom would be given to a nation bringing forth the fruit of the Kingdom. That is indeed a replacement of one group by another. In that sense replacement is biblical, as based on the words of Jesus (Matt. 21). But if any form of “replacement theology” sees no further place for the present physical and national Israel at all, ever (as Paul very clearly does in Rom. 11), then replacement theology is in error. Nevertheless, we must not throw away the obvious biblical teaching that true New Covenant Christians now become spiritual Jews and the Old Testament focus on Israel turns into a New Covenant focus on the international spiritual Israel — the international Church (“the Israel of God,” Gal. 6:16: those who belong to the commonwealth of Israel in Eph.      2:12-20). In the Church there is no national Jew or Gentile, but all are one in Christ. “If you are Christians, then you are Abraham’s seed” (Gal. 3:29: a group which in Old Covenant times meant only the physical descendants of Abraham). The national, now largely unbelieving Israel of the Old Covenant has been replaced by the international Israel of God under the New Covenant, in which ethnic identity in the natural sense does not count.

Again, “If you are Christians, then you are the seed of Abraham” is the core truth of the New Covenant Church. This means that it is quite unbiblical to apply the blessing/cursing passage in Genesis 12:1-3 to unconverted Jews today! The point is a simple one: “He who blesses you will be blessed and he who curses you will be cursed” applies now, in view of Galatians 3:29 just cited, to the international Church! A gigantic misunderstanding has been built on a false premise here. Genesis 12 has been taken to refer today to the issue of approving and assisting Jews in the Middle East. We all hope for the best for all Middle Eastern nations and indeed every nation on earth. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem. But to use Genesis 12:1-3 as a justification for present political policy to Israel is quite wrong. Paul has defined the seed of Abraham in Galatians 3:29. He does not mean Jews who have not accepted Jesus as Messiah.

Of course, Jews, as well as anyone else, are free to accept the true Jesus Messiah at any time. Paul went out to save as many as he could in his day. Yet he described Israel as a group as currently “enemies of the Gospel” (Rom. 11:28). They had killed their Messiah, not accepted him. But Paul clearly affirmed the vast quantity of prophecy which promises a collective conversion of the nation of Israel at the second coming, when as a group, at least a remnant (Mic. 2:12) will welcome Jesus, the Messiah who “comes in the name of the Lord God” (Matt. 23:39).

Change — but How?

By Pastor Chuck Jones

I believe that the only weapon we have is the Word of God. There is power there. The word is the Gospel. But it’s not meant to beat people into submission. I advocate what Paul said in Romans 14:4-5: “Who are you who judge the servant of another? To his own lord he stands or falls. Yes, he will be made to stand, for God has power to make him stand. One man esteems one day above another. Another esteems every day alike. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind.” We are all answerable in the end to Jesus as head of the Church. Yet unity is something to be sought and treasured.

So with that said, here’s my point of view. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world; if it were, my subjects would fight.” Fighting as the world fights, boycotts, petitions, lobbying and so on, isn’t in Jesus’ arsenal of weapons. Nor Christians killing Christians in war. If we learn to fight with the world’s tactics, then who are we learning from (or disciples of)? That’s one of the dangers I see.

It’s been said by some, “The early church, rather than being on the outside, did all they could to get into it, effect change and improve the system.” This brings up some questions. One is this: when the Apostle James was killed by Herod, where do we read about “improving the system”? Were there protests or riots? God’s justice was that “Herod was eaten by worms.” Acts 12 gives a good example of prayer rather than protest. Protest would not have been tolerated at all, but prayer can’t be stopped. Indeed the disciples were driven out of Jerusalem because of persecution. Peter wrote about how to handle this in his first epistle. He didn’t talk about getting involved with the government. Can your child not pray silently in school?

I hold the view that the weapons we are to use are not according to the world’s way. That is to say we don’t need to pick up this world’s weapons in order to bring about change. “For though we walk in the flesh, we don’t wage war according to the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds, throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:3-5). I don’t think that political action is preaching the Gospel. Did Jesus overthrow Rome or try to?

I will admit that I could be wrong, but I’m convinced of this: This nation isn’t the Kingdom of God. Preaching the Gospel is our only tool to make any change, and it is one person (of 6 billion) at a time. This is the only way people are brought to repentance and born again to a living hope (Mark 1:14-15).

I am gaining an aversion to “pressuring people” to do anything I think they should. Part of it is in the first paragraph; another point is in 1 Corinthians 6:10. I’ll only highlight one group, the extortioners. These are those who use undue force or legal power or ingenuity to force people to do what they don’t want to. Those who practice extortion will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

There was an incident in Grand Rapids, Michigan a couple of decades ago concerning an adult XXX theater. Some believers decided to picket the place with the desire to shut it down. I learned something from the owner. In an interview he said he was glad for the publicity. If he had no customers he couldn’t stay open.

The lesson is: it’s the individual heart that needs to be changed. That change turns this man’s customers into non-customers, and he’s out of business. This is what Paul the Apostle ran into in Acts 16. I do not read about protests, letters, lobbying or any pressure put on the government to “change.” But I do read about deliverance through Yahweh’s intervention. I would also assert that in Acts 17 Paul again ran into trouble because he was preaching the Gospel against man’s idea of what is right. It is silly to conclude that the Gospel won’t have any effect but man’s methods will!

Who is the Blessed Seed of Abraham?

By Anthony F. Buzzard

I am challenged by the repeated and persistent mail I receive from a Michael Evans who wants me to contribute dollars (different amounts will bring various rewards, like a lapel pin, or a DVD or beautiful pewter plate). His point is that we all ought to be helping Jews return to the land. What I think he overlooks is the golden key verse in Galatians 3:29 that “if we are biblical Christians, we are reckoned as Abraham’s children (seed) and are thus heirs to the promises.” This verse is a backbone to NT theology and when neglected or rejected leads to the collapse of much of NT theology. Without this text firmly in place all sorts of chaos results. Some lost track of Galatians 3:29 when they misapplied “I will bless those who bless you” to the physical descendants of Abraham. But that is to misunderstand Galatians 3. The Christian concern is not with the politics of this age. Galatians 3:29 defines who for the moment are the true seed of Abraham. Jesus spent a lot of his time trying to persuade hostile Jews that unless they accepted him as Messiah they no longer counted as the true people of God. The time is coming, Hosea says, that Israel, now reckoned as “not My people” (Hos. 1: 9-10) will one day repent and be restored. But that has not happened yet.

I personally find verses like Matthew 19:28 and Galatians 3:29 absolutely thrilling as well as humbling. Imagine that! We, whoever we are in terms of national background, are now honored by the great God with the status of Abraham’s sons and daughters, because we have believed and obeyed the unique and final agent of God, the Lord Messiah Jesus (Luke 2:11). And if we are now constituted the children of Abraham then we are going to inherit the very promises made to Abraham and to Jesus. “The promise to Abraham,” we remember, was that “he would inherit the world” (Rom. 4:13). Sounds awfully like the almost entirely ignored saying of Jesus that the meek are going to inherit the earth (quoting about 6 passages in Ps. 37). And Matthew 19:28 spells out in the plainest terms the role of the Apostles in the future Kingdom on earth, when Jesus comes.

Dispensationalism which underlies most American “fundamentalist” churches has given away the promise of Matthew 5:5 to unconverted Jews and thus robbed true Christians of their inheritance and Abraham’s. The meek will inherit the land — not “go to heaven.” Unconverted Jews must accept the Messiah who has come, in order to inherit the land and be true children of Abraham.