The Seed of Abraham

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From: "Timothy Litteral" <brotim@gte.net>
To: <higher-fire@prairienet.org>
Subject: Re: Jacob's Trouble aka The Tribulation

Very, very good, Bro. Copes!  I would like to add a thing or two (three
maybe) ;-) 

 WC> The Gentile believers of the present day, while reckoned as A
 WC> seed to Abraham, are not THE seed in which national promises are
 WC> to be fulfilled.

 TL> The promises to Abraham's "Seed" are to Jesus.  Jesus is Abra-
 TL> ham's Seed and the "promises" are Ye and Amen in HIM. (Listening
 TL> Dave?) 

     The Abrahamic covenant is an unconditional covenant made with Israel,
and therefore cannot be either abrogated or fulfilled by people other than
the nation of Israel, it is seen that Israel has promises regarding the land
and a SEED, which determine the future program of God. These words LAND and
SEED, together with the word BLESSING, summarize the essential features of
the eschatological portion of the covenant. An examination of the promises
of God to Abraham will show this twofold emphasis in the promise.

     ...Unto thy SEED will I give this LAND (Genesis 12:7).

     For all the LAND which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy
SEED for ever. And I will make thy SEED as the dust of the earth: so that if
a man can number the dust of the earth, [then] shall thy SEED also be
numbered (Genesis 13:15-16).

     In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy
SEED have I given this LAND (Genesis 15:18).

     And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy SEED after
thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto
thee, and to thy SEED after thee.  And I will give unto thee, and to thy
SEED after thee, the LAND wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of
Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God (Genesis 17:7-8).

     It is impossible to escape the conclusion that the promise included
features related to the physical seed of Abraham and features related to the
land given that seed. It is necessary, then, to examine the areas of the
SEED and the LAND to determine their effect on future events.

     The plain teaching of Scripture that the seed of Abraham, of necessity,
is the term applied to the physical descendants of Abraham. Walvoord writes:

     An examination of the whole context of the Abrahamic Covenant shows
that the first of all it was vitally  connected with Abraham's physical
seed, Isaac. God said of Isaac before he was born, "I will establish my
covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, [and] with his seed after him
(Genesis 17:19). How did Abraham understand the term SEED here? Obviously,
it had reference to the physical seed, Isaac, and his physical descendants.
God did not say that no spiritual blessing would come to those outside the
physical seed, but the physical line of Isaac would inherit the promises
given to the "seed of Abraham."

     Nothing should be plainer than that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
understood the term SEED as referring to their physical lineage [John F.
Walvoord, "Millennial Series," BIBLIOTHECA SACRA, 109:137-38, October, 1951.]

     It is important to observe that one must distinguish between the
personal promises to Abraham himself, the national promises to Abraham's
seed, and the universal promises to "all families of the earth." It is not
denied that the Abrahamic covenant offers universal blessings to those who
are not the physical seed of Abraham, but it is affirmed that the national
promises can only be fulfilled by the nation itself. Thus, the word Israel
is taken in its usual, literal, sense to mean the physical descendants of
Abraham.

     There are three different senses in which one can be a child of
Abraham. First, there is the natural lineage, or natural seed. This is
limited largely to the descendants of Jacob in the twelve tribes. To them
God promises to be their God. To them was given the law. To them was given
the land of Israel in the Old Testament. With them God dealt in a special
way. Second, there is the spiritual lineage within the natural. These are
the Israelites who believed in God, Who kept the law, and who met the
conditions for present enjoyment of the blessings of the covenant. Those who
ultimately possess the land in the future millennium will also be of
spiritual Israel. Third, there is the spiritual seed of Abraham who are not
natural Israelites. Here is where the promise to "all the families of the
earth" comes in. This is the express application of this phrase in Galatians
3:6-9....in other words, the children of Abraham (spiritually) who come from
the heathen or Gentiles fulfill that aspect of the Abrahamic covenant which
dealt with Gentiles in the first place, not the promises pertaining to
Israel. The only sense in which Gentiles can be Abraham's seed in the
Galatians context is to be "in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). It follows:
"And if ye [be] Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to
the promise" (Galatians 3:29). They are Abraham's seed in the spiritual
sense only and heirs of the promise given "to all the families of the earth." 

While premillenarians can agree with the amillenarians concerning the fact
of a spiritual seed for Abraham which includes Gentiles, they deny that this
fulfills the promise given to the natural seed or that the promises to the
"seed of Abraham" are fulfilled by Gentile believers. To make the blessings
promised all the nations the same as the blessings promised the seed of
Abraham is an unwarranted conclusion [John F. Walvoord, "Millennial Series,"
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA, 109:38-40, October, 1951, 109:137.]

This distinction will explain how the church may be related to the promises
of the covenant without being the covenant people in whom the national
promises will be fulfilled. Because we are the seed of Abraham spiritually
by the new birth, it does not mean we are the physical seed of the patriarch.

 TL> When has Jesus ever ruled in Jerusalem? This means the real place
 TL> BTW, not the New Jerusalem either.

     I certainly agree here. The church is not made earthly promises. The
promises to the chruch are spiritual and heavenly. For instance, all one
need do to prove that the church is heir to all the promises of Israel need
only go to Iraq and take over all the land west of the Euphrates river. If
the church is truly to inherit the land as promised to Abraham then we
should certainly be able to make the claim stick with no serious problem. On
the other hand, I am not interested in possessing the land promised to
Israel. I have a heavenly promise of a mansion in a place where the streets
are paved with gold.

 WC> No, the entire 7 year period is the time of God's wrath. The
 WC> events of Revelation from the beginning of Jacob's Trouble to the
 WC> Second Advent of Christ will occur within a period of 7 years.

 TL> Yep!  The Great Tribulation refered to up to chapter 8 is the
 TL> trying of the church in the years just prior to the rapture

     Why is the church being tried? What purpose is served by this test. Has
not the church been continually tested from the time it cam into being on
the Day of Pentecost? What type of testing will be done which the church has
not already gone through?

 TL> as is stated "these are they which have come OUT of (the) great
 TL tribulation."

     I do not believe that it is necessary for the church to suffer God's
wrath. The entire 7 year period is a time of God's wrath. Since Christ is
head of the church it would be the equivalent of Him suffering again wrath
of God. (He is the head and we are the body. When the body is hurt the head
suffers also.)

 TL> Add to this that the Great Man of Sin persecutes the 144,000 Jews
 TL> and you could certainly call this period "Jacob's Trouble."

     The time of Jacob's trouble is 7 years aka "The Tribulation" aka "The
Great Tribulation."

Walter Copes
The joy of the Lord is my strength
(wcopes@communique.net)
Walter L Copes