The Promised Land:
Would You Like to Live in It and Administer the World with Jesus?
Hebrews 11:1: “Faith
is being sure of what you
hope for. It is being
convinced about the reality of what you do not see.”
The point of this
article is to make clear to you the
content of Christian
hope and your part in the future
history of the world.
The future is often described foggily, vaguely and nebulously as the “consummation”!
Or “the afterlife.” Or worse, it is portrayed as having disembodied life “in
heaven” when you die. This is not the Christian hope, and conveys almost no
Bible information about your future and the future of the world.
Thus faith is
undermined. Notice that Paul said that faith and love are based on, rooted in
hope (Col. 1:4-5).
Christians are to be
certain and clear about “the reward of the inheritance” (Col. 3:24).
I believe that many
Bible readers cannot define the
content of hope. The
energy of the spirit in their lives is correspondingly diminished, since the
mind of God and Jesus in regard to the destiny of the believer is thwarted.
Jesus speaks of the
reward of the faithful as receiving “authority to rule the nations” (Rev.
2:26-28), and receiving “the morning star,” which perhaps refers to the
glorified appearance of the resurrected faithful whose “faces will shine like
the sun in its strength in their Father’s Kingdom,” as Jesus promised in Matthew
13:43, echoing the promise of resurrection life.
in Daniel 12:3, where
the resurrected faithful will “shine like the stars and the brightness of the firmament.”
Here is a major Bible
teaching. These promises are
based on the
Abrahamic land promise (Genesis 12, 13, 15, 17, 28:4, etc.), which Abraham and
all the faithful will receive and implement when they are raised from the dead at
the return of Jesus (Luke 13:28; Matt. 8:11-12).
The history of the
Jewish people, as is well known,
begins with Abraham
in Genesis 12. God made a new
start (after 11
chapters of human disaster and sin) when he selected Abraham and his wife
Sarah.
Abraham is also of
the greatest possible significance to Christian believers in Jesus as the
Messiah. Paul loved the story of Abraham, and he saw it as the great key to understanding
the Gospel-message of faith in Jesus, in the Gospel as Jesus preached it —
about the Kingdom of God (Luke 4:43; Mark 1:14-15). So Abraham and his story
and his faith-walk with the One God are the basis of the true Christian faith.
Paul in his impassioned appeal to the Galatians declared, “the Gospel was
preached ahead of time to Abraham” (Gal. 3:8). Christians have Abraham as their
spiritual father and they are to “walk in the steps of our father Abraham,”
“the believer” (Romans 4:12 ; Gal. 3:9). But are you hearing that Gospel as defined by
what Abraham was invited to believe and do? (the “obedience of faith,” Romans
1:5; 16:26 ).
Is the fact that the
Gospel was known to Abraham
clear to you from the
sermons you are exposed to?
We should be
constantly vigilant to ensure that we are being properly nourished, fed
spiritually on the true Gospel.
Counterfeits are
prevalent, and only an “analytical”
approach to what we
hear will prevent our being taken in by a partial gospel, deprived of its vital
energy (1 Thessalonians 2:13: “The Gospel-word is at work with energy in you”).
A depleted or “washed
out” Gospel, emptied of vital
nutrients, is doing
you harm. False ideas and teachings are poison to our spiritual life.
Paul calls Abraham
the spiritual “father of the faithful” (Romans 4:16 ), the international true church, the “Israel of God” (Galatians
6:16 ; Philipians 3:3). That means that Abraham’s faith is the
Christian faith in advance. “We are to be of “the faith of Abraham” (Romans 4:16 ). Paul puts this significant insight in these words: “The
Gospel was preached ahead of time to Abraham” (Galatians 3:8). It follows
logically that all who are seeking genuine faith in Jesus and his saving Gospel
will be intent on understanding the Gospel as preached to Abraham.
You can remember the
substance of the Gospel as
preached to Abraham
like this (teach your children an
easy summary):
Abraham was invited to give up his
natural and national
ties, pull up stakes, obey God
unconditionally, and
go in simple faith (Genesis 12:1-4). The results of his faith in the One God,
his blessings, would be progeny, prosperity, and property — three “P’s.”
By progeny we mean a
child to be born despite
indications to the
contrary (Sarah was old), and
multitudes of
spiritual children, descendants, drawn from all nations. The progeny would
culminate in the one “promised” seed-descendant, who is Jesus Messiah (Galatians
3:16 ).
By prosperity we mean
blessing not necessarily in
terms of finance (it
may include this), but a successful,
obedient walk guided
by God (“the obedience of faith,” Romans 1:5; 16:26 ). By property we mean the all important promise of
Land/Earth. The land promise
refers to this planet
earth, which will, at the return of
Jesus, be renewed and
restored under the perfect
government of the
Messiah Jesus (see Acts 1:6; 3:21 ;
Matthew 19:28 ; Luke 22:28 -30, Revelations 5:10 ; Revelations 20, etc). All the prophets spoke of this
amazing future for the world when Jesus and the saints are in charge (Daniel 7:14 , 18, 22, 27).
It is the land
promise which has, amazingly,
disappeared from
contemporary presentations of the
Gospel! The land
promise is a fundamental element in
the content of
Christian hope. It was a basic proposition in the promises offered to Abraham —
the Gospel (Galatians 3:8). Abraham’s willingness to believe the content of God’s
promises to him won him the highly desirable approval of God. He was reckoned
by God as being in right standing with God. This is sometimes called being “justified
by faith” (Romans 4:3). What that means is that Abraham gained the approval of
God, was reckoned by God to be right rather than wrong, pleasing to God, no
longer an enemy of
God, no longer under the wrath of
God (see John 3:36 ). Believing in the biblical hope based on the land promise
is crucial to your spiritual outlook.
Jesus said this:
“Blessed are the meek; they are going to have the earth (or land) as their
inheritance” (Matthew 5:5).
This is the property
promise made to Abraham. Jesus was also the recipient of that promise (Galatians
3:16 ). Paul declared, “the promise to Abraham was that he would
be heir of the world” (Romans 4:13 ). Heir of the world? Do you understand what this means for
you as a follower of Jesus and of the faith of Abraham?
By a longstanding
miracle of misunderstanding, the
word “earth” or
“land” (Matthew 5:5) has been stolen from believers and replaced by a vague
“heaven” when you die. The biblical goal is not “heaven when you die,” but the
inheritance of the earth/land when you are resurrected from death at the future
arrival of Jesus (the Parousia). If you survive until that time of Jesus’ arrival,
then you will receive the gift of the land in that future (the “age to come”)
which will begin when Jesus comes back. We repeat: Paul defined the promise to
Abraham as: “The promise to Abraham that he would be heir of the world” (Romans
4:13 ).
Jesus (following Daniel
12:2) referred to this future
time as the age to
come. It is the new age of world
history which will
begin at the future return of Jesus (the Parousia). This will definitely not be
“the end of time” or “the end of history.” It will be the new age of Jesus’ personal
government with the saints on a renewed earth (Isaiah 65:17ff; 66:22; Daniel 7:18 , 22, 27). It will be the era of world affairs in which the
present chaos of war and international conflict and the mass of troubles which
now afflict society will come to an end. The life to be gained at that time
will be immortality, living forever, becoming indestructible. It is called in
Scripture “the life of the age to come.” It is so defined in Daniel 12:2, a
passage in which all believers should take delight: “Many of those who are
currently sleeping in dust-land [that tells you what all the dead are currently
doing, and where they are doing it] will awake to the life of the age to come.”
Some forty times this
precious information comes into the NT as “eternal life,” properly translated
as “the life of the age to come.” “Eternal life” is too vague and imprecise. “The
life of the age to come,” i.e., life in the future Kingdom of God
If you want to sound
like Jesus and Paul and the
Bible, then drop the
“heaven” language and speak with Jesus of “the life of the age to come,” or
“the coming Kingdom of God 22:15 -18; 28:4, and many other passages. Paul phrased it like
this: “the promise to Abraham that he would inherit the world” (Romans 4:13 ).
You might ask: How do
we move from the promise of
the land in Genesis
to the promise of the world? The
answer is easy. Psalm
2 and other passages had given assurance to the faithful that the Messiah would
inherit not only the land but nothing less than a worldwide possession: “I will
give you the nations to the uttermost parts of the earth” (Psalm 2:8). Psalm 2
is a brilliant summary of the whole Messianic plan for the world to come into
submission to Jesus, the Messiah, and
God, the Father, who is the One God of Israel and of Jesus. He is the One God
of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (certainly not a triune God!).
Christians are
co-heirs of the future Kingdom with
the Messiah (Romans 8:17 ), and they will inherit the same promises as does Jesus,
based on the oath-bound covenants made with Abraham (Genesis 12, 13, 15, 17; 22:15 -18; 28:4, etc) and David (2 Samuel 7; Ps. 72; 89).
Christian faith is
also the faith of Abraham and response to the same promises as God made to him.
This is simply to say
that if one claims, as Jesus did,
to be the promised
Messiah (Matthew 16:16 -18), you are claiming to be God’s unique human agent to succeed
where Adam failed, and as the second Adam to rule the world from the throne of
David in Israel
The whole plan of
salvation for us and the world is based on the bedrock promises to Abraham, as
well as the later promises made to David (2 Samuel 7; 1 Chronicles 17). If we
do not understand this, we fail to grasp the biblical plot and plan from start
to finish. In popular thinking the false prospect of “heaven at death” has
dramatically diverted Bible readers from the heart of the biblical story. Faith
has been weakened and obscured. God’s and Jesus’ vision for the world and the
earth is for international peace and
disarmament and the
cessation of all war (Isaiah 2:2-4).
The Bible is an
essentially simple document, to be
read in the light of
the fact that language is meant to be understood and not explained away! The
Hebraic
concepts (Jesus was a
Jew!) are “concrete” and real,”
not vague and
philosophical. But churches began soon after NT times to “vaporize” that clear
language,
dissolving easy
concepts like “Kingdom” and “throne.”
Instead of a
territorial meaning for “earth” and “land,” a so-called “spiritual” meaning (it
sounded appealing!) was attached to them. The word “spiritual” can be most misleading
if it results in losing the plain meaning of words. When Jesus promised (as had
been promised to Abraham) that the earth/land was to be the reward of the faithful
(Matthew 5:5, quoting Psalm 37), he really meant it! It is for us to believe
Jesus as Gospel!
Much Bible study and
preaching constantly leaves
out those sayings of
Jesus which add a realistic, clear
meaning to the
future. Matthew 19:28 would be a classic example. Have a look at the text index
of many books on the Bible, and you will be surprised to see no comment on Matthew
19:28. In that passage,
a fascinating
question was put by Peter to Jesus.
Peter’s question was
very genuine, reasonable and clear: “What are we going to get as a result of
our wholehearted following of you and your Messianic mission?” “What can we
expect as our reward?”
The answer was as
direct and clear as the question:
“Let me tell you, on
the highest authority,” Jesus said, “in the future rebirth of the world, you
who have followed me will be sitting on twelve thrones to govern the twelve tribes
of Israel
Another much under publicized
passage is Acts 1:6-7.
We learn first that
Jesus had spent nearly 6 weeks
instructing and
lecturing his students (disciples) on the Kingdom of God Israel
Some commentary, not
understanding the Christian
Gospel, nor the
teaching of Jesus, has disparaged the
disciples’ question
as ill-informed and too “political”!
This however
disparages the teacher, Jesus, as well as his students. Jesus did not rebuke them
for any
misunderstanding! He
did not doubt that the future will
see the restoration
of national Israel Israel
Messiah). Jesus
merely said that the time periods which had to elapse before that grand event
were not known.
Indeed, we still do
not know the chronological periods
involved. In Matthew
24, Mark 13 and Luke 21 (based
on Daniel) Jesus did
however lay out a clear sequence of events: Abomination of Desolation, Great
Tribulation, cosmic signs, which will precede his single future arrival (Parousia).
There is no pre-tribulation coming of Jesus.
Jesus will come back
once, after the time of the future
Great Tribulation
(Matthew 24:21-29; Daniel 12:1).
John Calvin was so
upset by Jesus’ disciples’ question in Acts 1:6 that he protested that there
are more errors than words in that verse! The error was of
course Calvin’s who
did not understand the nature of the land/earth promises made to Abraham and to
Jesus! To expect a renewed earth and a renewed political arrangement with Jesus
and the resurrected apostles in charge was precisely what the Christian Gospel
had foreseen, following the prophets of the OT and Jesus’ confirmation of the
promises made to the patriarchs.
Romans 15:8 declares explicitly
that Jesus came to
confirm the promises
made to Abraham! Land, prosperity and many spiritual descendants, culminating
in the Messiah.
“Heaven” at death was
never promised to believers,
but to listen to
popular Christian language or a funeral
sermon, one is
impressed with the constantly repeated reference to “heaven” as the Christian
reward. Matthew 19:28 and Luke 22:28 -30, which promise a new government on earth with Jesus as
President and King — the covenanted outcome of the Christian hope — get no mention!
Luther in his
commentary on Romans simply leaves
out the words in
Romans 4:13 which state that Abraham “would be heir of the world”! This meant
losing the central and precious truth that the land, earth and world are the
inheritance promised as the destiny of believers! It meant leaving out the land/Kingdom
promise which is the basis of the Gospel. Yes, the sacrificial death of Jesus was
maintained, but that is not the whole Gospel!
What was lost was the
momentous statement of
Jeremiah 27:5: “With
my great power and outstretched arm I made the earth and its people and the
animals that are on it, and I give it to anyone I please.” Indeed as Psalm
115:16 states, “God has given the earth to man.”
This is the basis of
Christian destiny and hope. So much for the confusing and diverting language
about “heaven,” and as Billy Graham wrote, “polishing rainbows and preparing
heavenly dishes.”
From one of the
giants of OT commentary, Delitzsch:
“The land throughout
Psalm 37 is the promised
possession, the land
of Yahweh’s presence, which has not merely a glorious past, but also a future
rich in promises; and will finally more perfectly than under
Joshua become the
inheritance of the true Israel
Meekness, which is
content with God and renounces all earthly stays, will at length become the
inheritor of the land, yes, of the earth.”1 Paul makes a staggeringly
significant statement in Romans 4:13. He speaks of “the promise to Abraham that
he would be heir of the world.” This is the Gospel hope on which the NT is
based. Jews at the time of Jesus knew well that the promise to Abraham and his
seed involved inheriting the whole world! The book of Wisdom (44:21),
reflecting the Bible, has this to say: “God
assured Abraham by an
oath that He would cause them to inherit from sea to sea.” Jewish commentary on
Exodus 14:31 notes that “you find that our father Abraham became heir of this
and the coming world simply by merit of the faith by which he believed the
LORD, as it is written: ‘He believed the LORD and He counted it to him for
righteousness’” (Mekilta, 40b).
Paul agreed, and as a
Christian preacher of the Gospel makes the land/world promise to Abraham (Romans
4:13 ) the center of Christian hope, just as Jesus had with his
celebrated citation of Psalm 37:11: “Blessed are the meek; they will have the
land/earth as their inheritance.”
Psalm 2:8-9 records
the promise of God to the Messiah: “Ask of me. I will make the nations your
inheritance and the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with
an iron scepter.” The same promise is applied by Jesus in Revelation 2:26-27 to
the saints — a very far cry from harp-strumming activity in heaven!
The Abrahamic,
Messianic promise of the land of
Canaan was thus
extended to the whole world. Micah 5:2 announced the coming of the Messiah as
“ruler over Israel Kingdom of God
Jesus promises this reward
to the saints at Thyatira, provided that they hold fast “until I come”: “I will
give you authority over the nations, and you will shepherd them with a rod of
iron, as vessels of clay are broken in pieces, the same authority which I
received from God” (Revelation 2:25-27). Here Jesus and the saints are co-heirs
of the land/Kingdom/world as promised also to Abraham (Romans 4:13 ).
Abraham is listed
among all the other heroes of faith
in Hebrews 11. That
chapter lists the property promise of inheritance of “the land of the promise”
and then the promise of a seed, Christ, and the promise of the resurrection of
Jesus as typified in the “resurrection” (figuratively) of Isaac from death
(Heb. 11:17 -19).
Hebrews 11:8-10
informs us that Abraham lived in the
land of the promise
(the promised land) as an alien and along with all the other faithful never
received the
promises but died,
“not having received them” (Hebrews 11:13 , 39). This means of course that only by future resurrection
will the heroes of the faith inherit the amazing promises which God had made to
them.
As one commentator
notes: “Abraham’s trust in the
promise of Genesis.
15 called down the divine blessing on Abraham, that he would have a son and
descendants as innumerable as the stars. The words have for Paul in Romans 4:13 Messianic overtones; the promise was that through one of
these descendants, the whole earth would be blessed, and through him Abraham’s
true seed [note that true Christians are now the seed of Abraham (Galatians
inheritance of the
Kingdom promised in the NT].”2
The key to our
subject is that “if you are a Christian,
you are Abraham’s
seed and heir to the promise made to Abraham that he would inherit the world”
(combining Galatians 3:29 and Romans 4:13 ). But how much of this is put to potential converts today?
Hasn’t the Gospel
been shrunk to a message only about personal forgiveness?
The story of Abraham
began when the God of Israel
told him to leave his
homeland, promising Abraham and his descendants a new home in the land of Canaan Israel 13:15 ; 15:18 ; 17:8) to give the land to the descendants (“seed”) of
Abraham and to Abraham himself. Acts 7:5: “God did not give Abraham a square foot
of the land, but He promised to give it to Abraham and to his seed after him.”
The essence of the
Christian faith is encapsulated in
this verse: “Abram
believed the LORD, and the LORD
counted him as
righteous because of his faith” (Genesis15:6, NLT). Do you have that faith?
What if the promises made to Abraham are not put before the potential convert?
Would he/she then not be invited into the faith with inadequate information?
Would this not amount to a form of deception, if belief in one of the promises
to Abraham — progeny, property and prosperity — was omitted from invitations to
salvation by faith?
Dr. Rice, a learned
American writer who had been
trained in a
postmillennial view but gave it up for
pre-millennialism,
was aware of the veil which much
preaching draws over
the central truth of the coming
wrong! The Bible says
what it means and means what it says. God has an eternal plan connected with
the city of Jerusalem Palestine
The fundamental truth
about Christian hope and
destiny is well
described by James Dunn’s comments on Romans 4:13: “Paul understands all who
believe to be the seed of Abraham…The idea of inheritance was a fundamental
part of Jewish [now Christian!] understanding of their covenant relationship
with God,
above all, indeed
almost exclusively, in connection with the land — the land of Canaan
inheritance as
promised to Abraham…Already before
Paul the concept of
land had been broadened out from Canaan to embrace the whole earth (Sir. 44:21; Jubilees 17:3;
22:14; 32:19; I Enoch 5:7; Ezra 6:59: ‘the world to come’; II Apoc. Baruch
14:13; 51:3). Romans 4:13 is a good example of the extent to which Paul’s own
thinking reflects ideas which were widespread in other strands of Jewish
theology [which are also Christian theology, or ought to be!], cp. Matthew 5:5;
Hebrews 1:2. Paul takes up the enlarged form of the promise…The blessing
promised to Abraham and his seed (including the nations) is the
restoration of God’s
created order, of Man to his Adamic status as steward of the rest of God’s creation…Not
least of importance in the concept of son-ship is that it links into the theme
of inheritance…The importance of the inheritance
theme is twofold. As will quickly become clear, it carries a clear implication
of the ‘not yet.’
Believers are now
heirs who have not yet entered into
their full
inheritance…Central to Jewish self understanding was the conviction that Israel
Lord’s inheritance,
the people chosen out of all the
nations of the earth
to be His own (Deuteronomy 32:9).
“Integral to that
national faith was the conviction that
God had given Israel Palestine
promised land. It is
this axiom which Paul evokes and
applies to the new
Christian movement as a whole,
Gentiles as well as
Jews. They are the heirs of God;
and fulfillment of
God’s promises to Abraham.”4
“Abraham’s faith was
the same as the justifying faith of Christians.”5
Christians therefore are heirs to the land, the
earth or the world! Inheritance of “heaven” is nowhere promised to believers!
World history
culminates in a world government to
be in the hands of
Jesus and the saints on a renewed
earth! Daniel 7:14,
18, 22, 27 and a mass of verses
describe this happy
future offered by the Christian
Gospel. A gigantic
diversion and obscuring of hope
occurred when
churches began to speak of “heaven” and harp-playing in a location far from the
earth. This foggy concept took over the thinking of church members. They became
unsympathetic through mis-education to the passionate and engaging hope offered
by the Bible.
Do reread and ponder
Paul’s amazing description of
salvation through
“the faith of Abraham” in Romans 4
and Galatians 3. You
will find there the key to intelligent Bible study. Abraham is not some distant
Jewish figure unrelated to Christian faith. For 100 years (Abraham was called
at 75 and died at 175) God worked with Abraham and his family. He models for us
a lifetime of faithful obedience to God’s promises, and Jesus is the one to whom
and of whom the promises were given. Without this basis in “Abrahamic faith”
the NT is detached from its roots in the Hebrew Bible. The promise given to Abraham
“that he would be heir of the world” (Romans
In Scripture the
promise of Jesus (Matthew 5:5) that the faithful will inherit the earth was
plain and clear!
Today the word
“earth/land” has ceased to have its real meaning in the minds of many. Today no
one misunderstands that the winner of the race at the Olympics gets the gold medal;
he does not get a free trip to Disneyland !
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