Christ IS the Fulfillment of the Promises to Abraham!
This is the final summary we're going
to make of our position regarding the promises to Abraham and his
seed. We believe we've made the case from the Bible alone,
while those who attempt to say God has not fulfilled His promises to
Abraham or his physical seed, need to go outside the Bible to try to
prove theirs. One scripture says it all, once again:
Gal
3:16
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.
Promises, plural, more than one, not
just salvation, and seed as in one, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Many like to say that some, or all of
the promises were unconditional, but that is easily refuted. God
called Abram out of his homeland and made promises to him, if Abram
had refused to leave per God's instruction, would he have been
blessed? Of course not! Abraham believed God and obeyed Him. Isaac
and Jacob also obeyed God and trusted in His promises, these are the
natural branches of the Olive tree referred to by Paul in Romans 11,
which represents the Israel of God. Read Hebrews 11 and see the
others who trusted and obeyed before Christ's coming, these also are
the natural branches. There are a few mentioned, but most of
Abraham's physical seed fell away from God, didn't trust Him, didn't
obey Him, and that is why they are no longer eligible for any
promises made to their forefathers, they all died in their sins.
That's why a new Covenant had to be made, as promised by God:
Jer
31:33
But this shall
be
the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those
days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and
write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my
people.
Jer
31:34
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man
his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from
the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I
will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Heb
8:1
Now of the things which we have spoken this
is
the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of
the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
Heb
8:2
A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the
Lord pitched, and not man.
Heb
8:3
For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices:
wherefore it
is
of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.
Heb
8:4
For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that
there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:
Heb
8:5
Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses
was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for,
See, saith he, that
thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the
mount.
Heb
8:6
But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also
he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon
better promises.
Heb
8:7
For if that first covenant
had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the
second.
Heb
8:8
For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah:
Heb
8:9
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the
day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of
Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them
not, saith the Lord.
Heb
8:10
For this is
the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write
them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be
to me a people:
Heb
8:11
And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his
brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least
to the greatest.
Heb
8:12
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and
their iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb
8:13
In that he saith, A new covenant,
he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is
ready to vanish away.
Heb
12:22
But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living
God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
Heb
12:23
To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are
written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of
just men made perfect,
Heb
12:24
And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of
sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that
of
Abel.
Heb
12:25
See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not
who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall
not
we escape,
if we turn away from him that speaketh
from heaven:
Heb
12:26
Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying,
Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
Heb
12:27
And this word,
Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are
shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be
shaken may remain.
Heb
12:28
Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have
grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly
fear:
Heb
12:29
For our God is
a consuming fire.
Because most of Abraham's physical seed
had failed to trust and obey God, and lost their inheritance, a new
way was made to bring the natural branches back in, and at the same
time to fulfill the promise to Abraham that all the people's of the
earth would be blessed also:
Gen
12:2
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and
make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
Gen
12:3
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth
thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
God
through Jesus Christ, as the seed of Abraham, as the mediator of the
new and better Covenant, has and will continue to fulfill His
promises to Abraham, through His only begotten Son, not through the
physical descendants of Abraham:
Heb
12:24
And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of
sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that
of
Abel.
Heb
12:25
See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not
who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall
not
we escape,
if we turn away from him that speaketh
from heaven:
In
other words those that didn't obey and trust God, didn't follow the
law, those that “refused him that spake on earth“, died in their
sins, and can no longer be partakers of the promises to Abraham. And
the same fate awaits those that refuse to listen to and obey Jesus
Christ:
Deu
18:15
The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of
thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
Act
3:22
For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your
God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye
hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
Act
3:23
And it shall come to pass, that
every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from
among the people.
Act
3:24
Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after,
as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
Act
3:25
Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God
made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all
the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
Act
3:26
Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to
bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
As
the scripture says if they reject Christ, they die in their sins,
unable to participate in the promises:
Act
3:23
And it shall come to pass, that
every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from
among the people.
Joh
8:24
I
said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye
believe not that I am
he,
ye
shall die in your sins.
The scriptures say all the prophets
foretold this from Samuel to the greatest prophet born of women:
Mat
11:11
Verily
I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not
risen a greater than John the Baptist …
And
what did that great prophet say to his fellow kinsmen of the flesh?
Don't worry, you are saved by race? Fear not, you're God's chosen
people? It doesn't matter how you behave, don't worry about the law
or God's commandments, trust in your race, your flesh, not God? No,
of course not! He said:
Luk
3:7
Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him,
O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to
come?
Luk
3:8
Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to
say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our
father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise
up children unto Abraham.
Luk
3:9
And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree
therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast
into the fire.
So
much for the salvation by race theology, and to die without salvation
is to die in your sins, and that means without inheritance to any of
the promises to Abraham.
How
then can the promises be fulfilled, who can be an heir? Both the
natural and spiritual heirs of Abraham, through faith and obedience,
through the seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ! The natural branches torn
out of the Israel of God because of unbelief, can be grafted back in
if they come to believe, and the gentiles become branches also,
through faith in Christ.
All things were
made through Him, by Him, and some claim He can't fulfill all the
promises made to Abraham? He is the Word made flesh, the lamb of God
sent to redeem the earth. To fulfill the promises to Abraham, and to
David. He, in the flesh, was a descendant from Adam through Abraham
through David to his birth of the virgin Mary. Christ reigns in the
hearts of believers now and in the future, as the Lion of the Tribe
of Judah, He'll return to rule and reign over all with His saints
forever! All promises have and will be fulfilled through Him, and
Him alone.
Remember,
the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the Word and was there from the
beginning:
Joh
1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God.
Joh
1:2
The same was in the beginning with God.
Joh
1:3
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made
that was made.
A
final point of contention is why the mention of the 12 Tribes in the
7th
chapter of the Book of Revelation? God's prophet Elijah said:
1Ki
19:9
And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the
word of the LORD came
to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?
1Ki
19:10
And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for
the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine
altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even
I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away …
1Ki
19:18
Yet I have left me
seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto
Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
And
Paul speaking of this exchange says:
Rom
11:1
I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am
an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of
the tribe of Benjamin.
Rom
11:2
God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what
the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God
against Israel, saying,
Rom
11:3
Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars;
and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
Rom
11:4
But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself
seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the
image of
Baal.
Paul
was Saul, an unbeliever of the tribe of Benjamin, torn out of the
Olive tree, which represents the Israel of God, and then grafted back
in by faith and obedience to Christ. The disobedient and unbelieving
physical seed of Abraham were indeed torn out of the Israel of God,
but they aren't cast away permanently, unless they remain in
unbelief.
Read
again what God says about the 7,000:
I
have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the
knee to the
image of
Baal.
Bowing
a knee to an image is idolatry, or more specifically a form of
spiritual fornication. Now read what is said about the 144,000, or 12
Tribes of 12,000 each:
Rev
14:1
And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him
an hundred forty and
four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.
Rev
14:2
And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as
the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers
harping with their harps:
Rev
14:3
And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before
the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but
the hundred and
forty and
four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
Rev
14:4
These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are
virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.
These were redeemed from among men, being
the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
Rev
14:5
And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault
before the throne of God.
The
key here is “These are they which were not defiled with women; for
they are virgins. “ In Revelation's symbolic or spiritual language,
not defiled from women is another way of saying that they have not
spiritually fornicated or committed idolatry with the whore, the end
times fallen “church”, always referred to as a woman. They have
heard and obeyed God calling them out of the great Harlot.
Now
let's put the two together: The point is they are free from the
idolatry that caused so many of Abraham's physical seed to perish.
After Christ paid the price for sinful man to be reconciled to God,
both the natural branches, like Paul, and the gentiles, who believed
on Christ became branches in the Olive tree representing the Israel
of God, along with the natural branches never torn out. Somehow the
gentiles are translated into the 12 Tribes, they must be if they are
also the seed of Abraham through Christ. The number 144,000 is used
in the book of Revelation, but this could be just symbolic, and many
more hopefully will be sealed and protected before the Lord's wrath.
In any case, the use of the 12 tribes of Israel in no way infers the
necessity of a physical continuance of the seed of Abraham for any
promise to be fulfilled. The genealogies in Matthew chapter 1 and
Luke chapter 3 are only there to show that Jesus Christ, in the
flesh, is definitely a direct descendant of Abraham, through David,
thus as the seed of Abraham, He and He alone is the fulfillment of
God's promises to His called out servant Abraham. And we, as His
called out of the conformed to the world “church” are Abraham's
spiritual descendants, and we live by faith also.
There
are many theories about a continuance of Abraham's physical seed to
this day, being blessed and still considered His (God's) chosen
people. I think we've disproven these in a satisfactory manor. To
say these theories are dangerous is an understatement, look at what
many so-called “christians” believe is Israel today: A nation of
unbelievers that came to being by slaughtering the rightful
inhabitants of the land, and continuing an ethnic cleansing of the
land to this very day. Some believe a royal line of descendants
continues to this day, and that they have to have a person
“physically” on the “throne of David” until Shiloh comes.
Shiloh has come, and He is Jesus Christ! How much more royal can you
get than the King of Kings?? All of these theories are myths created
to at the very least diminish the divinity of Jesus Christ, and the
finished work of the cross. They all say yes, Jesus, plus something
else to fulfill God's promises. To that we say a rousing No! Jesus
Christ is all in all!
Eph
1:21
Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and
every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that
which is to come:
Eph
1:22
And hath put all things
under his feet, and gave him to
be
the head over all things
to the church,
Eph
1:23
Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
And
we give warning right from the Bible to those who continue on in
their myths and fables, and continuing on past Christ in the genealogies, there is no need for it and that is why they stop at Jesus in the Bible:
1Ti_1:4
Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister
questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so
do.
1Ti_4:7
But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself
rather
unto godliness.
2Ti_4:4
And they shall turn away their
ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Tit_1:14
Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn
from the truth.
Tit_3:9
But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and
strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.
2Pe_1:16
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made
known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but
were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
And
finally, we close where we started, with the verses proceeding Paul's
proclamation that Christ IS the seed of Abraham, may the Holy Spirit
guide you into all truth.
Gal
3:1
O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey
the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set
forth, crucified among you?
Gal
3:2
This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works
of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Gal
3:3
Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made
perfect by the flesh?
Gal
3:4
Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it
be
yet in vain.
Gal
3:5
He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh
miracles among you, doeth
he it
by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Gal
3:6
Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness.
Gal
3:7
Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the
children of Abraham.
Gal
3:8
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying,
In thee shall all nations be blessed.
Gal
3:9
So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
Gal
3:10
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for
it is written, Cursed is
every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the
book of the law to do them.
Gal
3:11
But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it
is
evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
Gal
3:12
And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live
in them.
Gal
3:13
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a
curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is
every one that hangeth on a tree:
Gal
3:14
That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith.
Gal
3:15
Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it
be
but a man's covenant, yet if
it be
confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.
Gal
3:16
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
3:17
And this I say, that
the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law,
which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that
it should make the promise of none effect.
Gal
3:18
For if the inheritance be
of the law, it
is
no more of promise: but God gave it
to Abraham by promise.
D
Mark
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