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God and the blessings of God's
worship and rule, was started
with one man who rebelled
against God and rejected his rule,
so God's own ftesh-born nation,
from which is to be reborn the
kingdom of God, was started with
one man who obeyed God with–
out question, and accepted his
divine rule.
Did Abram stop to argue and
reason? Did he say: "Let's reason
this out a bit first; here 1 am in
Babylon, in the very center of all
this world's commerce, society
and gaiety. Why can't you justas
well give me this promise right
here, where everything is pleasant
and al luring? Why must 1 leave
all this and go over to that unciv–
ilized land ?"
Did Abram quibble, resist,
argue, rebel?
He certainly did not!
The inspired Scripture account
states simply: "So Abram de–
parted." There was no arguing
with God. There was no human
reasoning that God was all wrong.
There were no foolish questions:
"Why must lleave here?" "Can't
1 do as 1 please?" There was no
stopping to say, "Well , here's the
way 1 look at it."
"Abram departed." Just plain,
unquestioned obedience!
Here again we see the principie
of duality. Abram was in the very
center of this world's developing
civilization. Remember, it was a
world held captive-a world devel–
oping on Satan's pattern. God had
chosen Abram to become the
patriarch of his nation Israel, the
congregation or Church of the Old
Testament. The principie of duality
is interwoven all through the work–
ings of God in fu lfilling this great
purpose through humanity on
earth. Thc;re was the physical con–
gregation of Israel under the Old
Testament and the sp i ritual
Church of God under the New
Testament. The word
church
as
originally written in the Greek of
the New Testament was
ekk/esia,
which means (an assembly of)
called-out-ones.
As Israel of the Old Testament
was the physical forerunner and
type of the Church of the New
Testament so God now called out
the progenitor of the nation Israel
from Satan's world. Abraham later
regarded himself as a stranger, a
sojourne_r and a pilgrim in the
March 1986
earth. This was not his wor ld:
" These all died in faith, not having
received the promises, but having
seen them afar off, and were per–
suaded of them, and embraced
them, and confessed that they were
strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
For they that say such things
declare plainly that they seek a
country [a different civilization].
And truly, if they had been mind–
ful of that country from whence
they carne out, they might have had
opportunity to have returned. But
now they desire a better country,
that is, an heavenly: wherefore God
is not ashamed to be called their
God: for he hath prepared for them
a city" (Heb. 11:13-16). Seeking a
better country, a heavenly country,
which will be the kingdom of God
filling the earth.
And God established this man
[Abram), whose name he later
changed to Abraham, as the
father
of his nation,
Israel!
To
Abraham and his descendants
were all the promises of God
made. And we must become like
Abraham, and through Christ,
one of his children, if we are to
inherit the promise of eterna! life
in God's kingdom.
Of bis peculiar flesh-born
nation, Israel, the Eterna! said:
"This people have 1 formed for
myself;
they sha/1
shew forth my
praise." (lsa. 43:21 ). That prophe–
cy shall yet-and soon-be ful–
filled!
Dual Promlses to Abraham
Few have realized it, but a duality
runs all the way through the plan
of God in working out his pur–
pose here below.
There was the first Adam,
material and carnal; and there is
Christ, the second Adam, spiri–
tual and divine. There was the
Old Covenant, purely material
and temporal; and there is the
New Covenant, spiritual and
eterna!. God made man mortal,
physical, of the dust of the
ground and of the human king–
dom; but through Christ he may
be begotten of God to become
immortal , spiritual, and of the
kingdom of God.
And in like manner there were
two phases to the promises God
made to Abraham- the one pure–
ly material and national; the other
spiritual and individual. The spir–
itual promise of the Messiah, and
of salvation through him, is well
known by the most superficial
Bible students. They know that
God gave the spiritual promise to
Abraham of Christ to be born as
Abraham's descendant-and that
salvation comes to us through
Christ. But- and this will sound
unbelievable, yet it is true–
almost no one knows wbat that
salvation is; what are the prom–
ises of salvation we may receive
through Christ; how we may
receive them, or when- incredi–
ble t.hough that sounds! But that
truth belongs in another chapter.
What is essential to the theme
of this chapter is the fact that
God also made another entirely
different, most amazing national
and material promise to Abraham
which has been almost entirely
overlooked.
Notice now again how God
first called Abram, and the
two–
fold
nature of his promises:
"Now the Lord had said unto
Abram, Get thee out of thy coun–
try, and from thy kindred, and
from thy father's house, unto a
land that 1 will shew thee: and 1
wi/1 make of thee
A GREAT
NATION.... and in thee shall all
families of the earth be ble.ssed"
(Gen. 12:1-3).
Notice the two-fold promise:
1) "1 will make of thee
A
GREAT
NATION"-the national, material
promise that his ftesh-born chil–
dren should become a great
nation-a promise of RACE; 2)
" ... and in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed"-the
spiritual promise of GRACE. This
same promise is repeated in Gen–
esis 22:18: "And in
thy seed
shall
all the nations of the earth be
blessed ." This particular "one
seed" refers to Christ, as plainly
affirmed in Galatians 3:8, 16.
Right here is where those who
profe.ss to be "Christians"-and
their teachers- have fallen into
error and scriptural blindness.
They have failed to notice the
two-fold promise God made to
Abraham." They recognize the
messianic promise of spiritual sal–
vation through the "one seed"–
Christ. They si ng the hymn
"Standing on the Promises"–
falsely supposing the
promises
to
be going to heaven at death.
This is a pivota! point. This is
the point where professing
"Cbristians" and their teachers
jump the track of truth. This is
the point where tbey switch off
the track that would lead them to
the missing master key to the
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