Sunday, November 9, 2008

Thesis 36: The Promised Land

A parcel of land was promised to Abraham as a place where “the seed of the woman”[1] could multiply and eventually produce a Messiah, the Savior of the World.[2] The land functioned as a kind of geographical incubator for the genetic line leading to Christ.[3] In the New Covenant, neither the land nor the raising of seed[4] has any prophetic or moral importance, the Seed having come.[5] Christians, as the true heirs of Abraham,[6] are promised the entire world.[7]

Notes
1. Genesis 3:15
2. Genesis 12:7; 13:15; 15:18; 17:8; 22:17-18; Hebrews 2:16
3. Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38
4. Genesis 3:15; 16:2; 19:32; 38:8ff.; Leviticus 12; 15:16-32
5. Galatians 3:16; 1 Timothy 3:2; Luke 20:35; Galatians 3:19
6. Galatians 3:7,9,14,28-29; Romans 4:13,16; 9:8; 1 Peter 1:23
7. Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; Psalm 2:8; #91

References
Roderick Campbell, "The New Inheritance," chap 18 in Israel and the New Covenant
Israel: Is the State God?
Who Owns the Holy Land?
God’s Conditional Gift of Land to Abraham [pdf]

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