THE PROMISED LAND

Would You Like to live in the promised land and administer the World with the lord Messiah 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 (Colossians 1:4-5). Christians are to be certain and clear about “the reward, which is the inheritance” (Colossians 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 regarding the destiny of the believer is thwarted.

Jesus speaks of the reward of the faithful as receiving “authority to rule the nations” and receiving “the morning star” (Revelation 2:26-28), 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.”

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; Matthew 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 our spiritual father, and we are to “walk in the steps of our father Abraham,” “the believer” (Romans 4:12; Galatians 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” (Rom. 4:16), the international true church, the “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16; Philippians 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). 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; cp. Genesis 3:15).

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; Hebrews 5:9). 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, Revelation 5:10; Revelation 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). Daniel 7:27 says that all nations will obey the saints, “obey them.”

The Land Promise

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 inherit the world” (Romans 4:13). Inherit the world? Do you understand what this means for you as a follower of Jesus and of the faith of Abraham?

“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…This promise also runs in the mouth of the Preacher on the Mount (Matt. 5:5), following exactly Ps. 37:11. Meekness, which is content with God and renounces all earthly stays, will at length become the inheritor of the land, yes, of the earth.”

 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.

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 5Commentary on Psalms, pp. 11, 13. 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, and 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 on earth, is the proper meaning of the original.

If you want to sound like Jesus and Paul and the Bible, then drop the “heaven” language altogether and speak with Jesus of “the life of the age to come,” or “the coming Kingdom of God.” True believers in Scripture “inherit the Kingdom” or, in equivalent words, “inherit the land/earth” (Matthew 5:5, Jesus quoting Psalm 37, where inheriting the land is repeated 6 times!). This takes us directly back to the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 12, 13, 15, and 17; 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).

From the Land to the Whole World

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!).

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,” and “his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth” (Micah 5:4). This information is repeated in the Gospel of the Kingdom, so that the land promise to Abraham becomes the Kingdom of God promise in Christianity and the Christian Gospel. Jesus promises this reward to the saints at Thyatira, provided that they 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).

Christians are co-heirs of the future Kingdom with the Messiah (Rom. 8:17), and they will inherit the same promises as does Jesus, based on the oath-bound covenants made with Abraham and David (2 Samuel 7; 1 Chronicles 17; Psalm 72; 89). Christian faith is also the faith of Abraham and a 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. 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.

Matthew 19:28

 Much Bible study and preaching constantly leaves out those sayings of Jesus that 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?” (Matthew 19:27).

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.” Matthew 25:31 clarifies the easy fact that the future age would be inaugurated by the future arrival of Jesus in glory and power. This is exactly the meaning of our request in the Lord’s prayer that “Your Kingdom come; your will be done on earth.”

Acts 1:6-7

Another much underpublicized passage is Acts 1:6. We learn first that Jesus had spent nearly 6 weeks instructing and lecturing his students (disciples) on the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). This information prompted the most reasonable and informed question: “Lord,” they asked, “is it now time for you to restore the Kingdom to 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 and their return, in faith (not now, when Israel has not accepted their 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 will be no pre-tribulation coming of Jesus. Jesus will come back once, after the time of the future Great Tribulation (Matt. 24:21-29; Dan. 12:1).

John Calvin was so upset by Jesus’ disciples’ question in Acts 1:6 that he protested that there are as many errors as 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.

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 6 Focus on the Kingdom are on it, and I give it to anyone I please.” Indeed, as Psalm 115:16 states, “God has given the earth to mankind.” He is indeed a generous God! This is the basis of Christian destiny and hope.

Romans 4:13

Paul makes a staggeringly significant statement in Romans 4:13. He speaks of “the promise to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit 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 as righteousness’” (Mekhilta, tractate 2, chapter 7).

 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 Gal. 3:29 and Rom. 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 fundamental truth about Christian hope and destiny is well described by James Dunn’s comments on Romans 4:13:

 “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, theirs by right of inheritance as promised to Abraham…Already before Paul the concept had been broadened out from Canaan to embrace the whole earth (Sirach 44:21; Jubilees 17:3; 22:14; 32:19; 1 Enoch 5:7; the world to come). Our passage, therefore, is a good example of the extent to which Paul’s own thinking reflects ideas which were widespread in other strands of Jewish theology at that time [which are also Christian theology, or ought to be!], cf. also Matthew 5:5; Heb. 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…

 “Integral to that national faith was the conviction that God had given Israel the inheritance of Palestine, 6Word Biblical Commentary, Romans 1-8, p. 213, 463, 234. the promised land. It is this axiom that Paul evokes and refers to the new Christian movement as a whole, Gentiles as well as Jews. They are the heirs of God; Israel’s special relationship with God has been extended to all in Christ. And the promise of the land has been transformed into the promise of the kingdom; the thought of Christian inheritance as inheritance of the kingdom was evidently well enough established in the churches known to Paul [it was the Gospel!], so that he does not need to be more explicit…That inheritance of the kingdom…is something still awaited by believers…

“Paul did not doubt that the gospel he proclaimed was a continuation and fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham. But he was equally clear that the heirs of Abraham’s promise were no longer to be identified in terms of the law [of Moses].”

The Faith of Abraham

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, the Messiah. The promise of the resurrection of Jesus is 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.

 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 (Genesis 12). This is the land now known as Israel, named after Abraham’s grandson, whose natural descendants are the Jewish people. The land is often referred to as the promised land because of God’s repeated promise to give the land to the descendants (“seed”) of Abraham and to Abraham himself. Yet Acts 7:5 says, “God did not give Abraham a square foot of the land, but He promised to give it to Abraham and to his descendants after him.”

The essence of the Christian faith is encapsulated in this verse: “Abram believed Yehovah, and Yehovah counted him as righteous because of his faith” (Genesis 15:6, 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 he promises to Abraham - progeny, property, and prosperity - was omitted from invitations to salvation by faith?

 “Abraham’s faith was the same as the justifying faith of Christians.” Christians, therefore, are heirs to the land, the earth, or the world! Inheritance of “heaven” is nowhere promised to believers!

Dr. Rice, a learned American writer who had been trained in a postmillennial view but gave it up for premillennialism, was aware of the veil that much preaching draws over the central truth of the coming Kingdom of God on earth:

“Preachers and Bible teachers have fallen into an evil way of spiritualizing the Word of God, explaining away the promises and making the Bible mean what it does not say…Men have defiled the Word of God with their opinions, which explain away the literal meaning of the inspired Book…When God prophesies good to Jerusalem…or prophesies about the future of Mount Zion, such learned teachers and preachers often say that God did not mean what He said at all, but referred to ‘Heaven.’ They are wrong [and here he comes on strong!], utterly, foolishly, presumptuously, wickedly wrong! The Bible says what it means and means what it says. God has an eternal plan connected with the literal city of Jerusalem …which is so plainly foretold that honest Bible students must accept it. Mount Zion is the southwest hill of Jerusalem, the older and higher part of the city; it is often called the city of David. The term ‘Mount Zion’ is often used for the whole city of Jerusalem.”

World history culminates in a world government 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 miseducation 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.

Pulpit Commentary on Romans, p. 110. 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 4:13) was repeated by Jesus when he offered the meek the land (Matthew 5:5). The time is coming when “the saints take over the Kingdom” (Dan. 7:22) and with Jesus bring about the peaceful conditions for which we all long!

Written by Anthony Buzzard, and edited by Bruce Lyon