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41 results for “Abraham”
Clear searchChrist the promised Seed, Gentile inheritance, and Paul's final blessing
Are Abraham's Seed and the Israel of God the Church? Christ the promised Seed, Gentile inheritance, and Paul's final blessing Galatians contains two of the strongest arguments for identifying th…
Read article →The covenant son and the sacrifice that points to Christ
…t heir before he was born. He repeated that choice after his birth. He identified the son Abraham was commanded to offer. The rest of Scripture traces the promise through Jacob, Israel, Judah and David until it reaches Jesus Christ. Islam presents a different Abrahamic framework.…
Read article →Abraham, Lot, divine wrath, and a pattern that must be used carefully
Does God Remove the Righteous before He Judges? Abraham, Lot, divine wrath, and a pattern that must be used carefully When Abraham learns that judgement is approaching Sodom, he asks one of Scripture's great questions: "Shall not the Judg…
Read article →Unity in Christ and distinction in God's purpose
…s made to Israel?" Israel existed before the Church Israel's national history begins with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, develops through the exodus and Sinai, receives a kingdom under David, and continues through exile and return. Its identity includes genealogy, land, tribes, coven…
Read article →Conditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ
…de Israel's enjoyment of blessing in the land conditional upon obedience. The promises to Abraham and David, however, were grounded in God's oath and carried forwards even through national judgement. The new covenant finally provides the cleansing and transformed heart which Isra…
Read article →The olive tree, the natural branches, and the limits of the metaphor
…icipation is genuine: the Gentiles receive salvation, the Spirit, righteousness by faith, Abrahamic blessing, and membership in God's household. But a participant is not thereby the original owner or source of what is shared. Paul's grammar resists both exclusion and appropriatio…
Read article →What 'yea and Amen' in Christ means for Israel and the covenants
…nt in a different corporate recipient. The argument contains substantial truth. Christ is Abraham's Seed, David's Son, Israel's Messiah, and mediator of the new covenant. The Church possesses a genuine inheritance in Him. Gentile believers are not spectators looking through the w…
Read article →The LORD, Zion, and the meaning of Beulah in Isaiah 62:4–5
…ediate blessing to the nations. Israel belongs in the land because God joined the seed of Abraham to that land in covenant promise. “Thy Sons Shall Marry Thee” Isaiah intensifies the image in the next verse: “For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee.” Th…
Read article →A response to Michael Horton on the land promise, Amos 9, and the people of God
…ntral question is not whether Israel deserved the land, nor whether Gentiles now share in Abrahamic blessing. It is whether Israel's disobedience annulled promises whose ultimate fulfilment rests upon God's faithfulness. Interrupted enjoyment is not cancellation The Mosaic covena…
Read article →Election within Abraham's family, the believing remnant, and the future of the nation
What Does "They Are Not All Israel, Which Are of Israel" Mean? Election within Abraham's family, the believing remnant, and the future of the nation Romans 9:6 is often used as a definition of spiritual Israel: "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel." —Roman…
Read article →Isaiah, John, and the Divine Identity of Jesus Christ
…opening citations prepare the reader to recognise more than an ordinary prophet. “Before Abraham was, I am” John 8:58 gives a further contribution. Abraham’s coming into being—genesthai—is contrasted with Jesus’ egō eimi, “I am”. At minimum the saying places Jesus’ existence bef…
Read article →Near-death experiences, neuroscience, and the authority of Christ
…t of the rich man and Lazarus, the dead man wants someone sent back to warn his brothers. Abraham answers: "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." —Luke 16:31 The line is devastating to our appetite for extraordina…
Read article →The incarnation, the limits of created perspective and the love philosophy could not imagine
…eirs: “For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.” — Hebrews 2:16 The wonder of the incarnation does not lie in its difficulty for God, as though becoming man strained His power. It lies in the distance His love was willing to stoo…
Read article →How the Law reaches its goal and appointed end in Christ
…the curse and fulfilled the righteousness which sinners could not produce for themselves. Abraham was justified before the Law Romans 4 prevents us from imagining that salvation by faith was an emergency introduced after the Law failed. Abraham was counted righteous before Moses,…
Read article →Responding to five common criticisms without defending what Scripture does not require
…justice. A biblical posture can therefore hold several truths together: God's promises to Abraham, David, and Israel are not dissolved by human failure. Jewish and Gentile sinners are saved only through Jesus Christ. The present State of Israel is a human government and can be ju…
Read article →El, the Exodus, and the God Who Came from Sinai
…on attributes to Him. Genesis supplies an unusually explicit example. Melchizedek blesses Abraham in the name of El Elyon, “the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth” (Genesis 14:18–20). Abraham then replies: “I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the…
Read article →Origen, Arius and the line between Creator and creation
…lehem was not the beginning of His personal existence. Before He was born of Mary, before Abraham, before the world itself, He was. But that raises a further question. Does eternal existence necessarily equal divinity? Could someone confess that Jesus is eternal and uncreated whi…
Read article →Circumcision of the heart and the identity of Paul's inward Jew
…ical contrast therefore existed within Israel long before the Church. A person could bear Abraham's physical sign and remain inwardly rebellious. The answer was not to deny that he was ethnically Jewish, but to expose the absence of the inward faithfulness which the sign demanded…
Read article →Fulfilment in Christ, the inclusion of the Gentiles, and Israel's future mercy
…always intended to be fulfilled. The argument runs like this: Christ is the true Seed of Abraham and the fulfilment of Israel's story. Those who belong to Christ are Abraham's seed. The Church receives Israel's covenant titles, the kingdom is taken from unbelieving Israel and gi…
Read article →Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail
…d David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them." —Jeremiah 33:25-26 These comparisons are designed to remove the promise from the realm of huma…
Read article →A history of interpretation, polemic, and forgotten tension
…hs Christians must retain. Jesus is the promised Messiah. Gentiles have been brought into Abrahamic blessing. Physical circumcision cannot save, and the prophets anticipated a people transformed in heart. The decisive move is the transfer of Israel's corporate identity. The belie…
Read article →Faith, assurance, and the unseen reality of God
…rews 11:1, translation comparison Noah acts on a warning about something he has not seen. Abraham goes where God calls him without knowing his destination. Moses makes costly choices because he looks towards a reward beyond Egypt’s riches. God’s unseen promise has become decisive…
Read article →Divine judgement, the character of God, and the promise of escape
…natural than preservation within the very hour from which Christ says He will keep them. Abraham's appeal to God's character Abraham's intercession for Sodom supplies a moral principle: "That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked... Shal…
Read article →Testing Islam's evidence for divine revelation
…e Gospel Islam does not arrive in an empty religious landscape. It claims continuity with Abraham, Moses, the prophets and Jesus. It calls the Torah and Gospel revelations from God and presents itself as confirming what came before. That creates a test more objective than literar…
Read article →The question reaches beyond prophecy to the faithfulness of God
…nd peaceful dwelling under Messiah. Christ is not an alternative to those promises. He is Abraham's promised Seed and David's promised Son. Through Him the blessing reaches the nations. The dispute concerns what fulfilment in Christ does to the other things God said. Does a promi…
Read article →What God's faithfulness to Israel means for everyone who trusts His promises
…lways pointed beyond their immediate national forms to Christ. Christ is the true Seed of Abraham, the faithful Israelite, David's greater Son, the true temple, and mediator of the new covenant. The Church is united to Him. Jewish and Gentile believers therefore become one people…
Read article →The divine identity of Jesus across the Gospels
…No faithful prophet instructs the world to honour him in the same manner as God. "Before Abraham was, I am" Jesus' statement in John 8 is important, but it should be handled carefully: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58). The argument should no…
Read article →An unrequited love for the historic Church
…newed by God. He connected the kingdom with the resurrection of the just, the promises to Abraham and the liberation of creation from corruption. This was not an embarrassing remnant of crude literalism sitting awkwardly beside his anti-Gnostic theology. It arose from it. The Cre…
Read article →Not escape from the body, but its redemption
…ss or emptied of everything which makes personal fellowship possible. Scripture speaks of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom, of recognition, communion, service and shared joy. Redemption perfects personal life; it does not erase it. That does not mean every feature of falle…
Read article →Israel's Messiah, Israel's Scriptures, and a gospel for the world
…brew of the Hebrews." —Philippians 3:5 He called himself an Israelite and a descendant of Abraham (Romans 11:1). He described the Israelites as his kinsmen according to the flesh and grieved over their unbelief (Romans 9:1-5). Acts records him worshipping in Jerusalem, participat…
Read article →Regathering, national rebirth, and the spiritual renewal still to come
…of Independence United Nations, admission of Israel to UN membership Gil Atzmon et al., "Abraham's Children in the Genome Era" Doron M. Behar et al., "The Genome-Wide Structure of the Jewish People"
Read article →Two accounts of judgement, mercy, and the sinner's hope before God
…ilt, adding later achievements cannot rewrite the past. This is why Paul does not ask how Abraham accumulated enough merit. He says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Romans 4:3). David describes the blessedness of the person to whom God imput…
Read article →Christianity, Islam and the verdict of the evidence
…s of heaven. He claims to possess glory with the Father before creation. He says: “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). He does not merely deliver information from God. He places the eternal destiny of human beings in relation to Himself: “That all men should honour the Son, ev…
Read article →One Messiah, one gospel, and God's continuing purpose for Israel
…nnot inherit saving blessing apart from Jesus Christ. Yet God has not revoked His oath to Abraham, abandoned His covenant with David, emptied the new covenant of its named recipients, or converted Israel into a title which now excludes the people descended from Jacob. The Church'…
Read article →The glory philosophy could not contain
…r, who gives life, forgives sin, receives honour, commands the dead and declares, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). His glory is veiled by the form of a servant, but His deity is not extinguished. Indeed, John says the disciples beheld His glory precisely in the Word made f…
Read article →Born, begotten and firstborn in the eternal identity and saving work of the Son
…ts, a mother bears, or a child is born. Matthew repeatedly uses it in Christ’s genealogy—“Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob” (Matthew 1:2). It can also be used figuratively. Paul tells the Corinthians, “in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel” (1 Corinthia…
Read article →Four popular claims tested in context
…, "their brethren" is said to include the Ishmaelites, who were related to Israel through Abraham. The promised prophet may therefore arise from Israel's brother nation rather than from Israel itself. Presented that way, the claim has more substance than a bare assertion. But it…
Read article →The wicked husbandmen, the fruit-bearing nation, and what Jesus said afterwards
…p, and present participation is not exhaustive fulfilment. The text does not say that the Abrahamic covenant is revoked, David's throne has lost its national setting, the new covenant will never be made with the houses named by Jeremiah, or Israel will never be restored. Those pr…
Read article →Defining the position before testing it
…of God's purpose. No covenant promise can be fulfilled apart from Him. He is the Seed of Abraham, the Son of David, the mediator of the new covenant, and the One in whom all God's promises are yea and amen (Galatians 3:16; Luke 1:32-33; Hebrews 9:15; 2 Corinthians 1:20). The Chu…
Read article →A sign of Israel's renewal, not Israel's disappearance
…ind. It can be read more naturally as the expansion promised from the beginning. God told Abraham that all families of the earth would be blessed through him (Genesis 12:3). Isaiah described the Servant's mission as too great to end with the restoration of Jacob alone: "I will al…
Read article →The positive argument of the whole series, brought together
…fore fire falls. Isaiah calls God's people into hidden chambers until indignation passes. Abraham's appeal remains morally significant: "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25). These patterns do not establish the timing alone. They make the promised deliv…
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