On the Obligation of Blessing “Abraham’s Seed” with Steve Gregg, and Q&A

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That's equip.org. The following program was pre-recorded. And now, here's Hank Hanegraaff.

Thank you very much, Randy. When God promised Abraham, I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Such blessings and cursings pertain not simply to the faithful remnant, of ethnic Israel, but to true Israel, consisting of every person who through faith has been adopted into the family of God. The Bible does not view people from the perspective of race, but rather regards them as the seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise on the basis of relationship. Abraham was promised a royal seed through whom all peoples on earth would be blessed.

And Steve Gregg writes about this in a practical hermeneutics column in the Christian Research Journal, an article titled, On the Obligation of Blessing Abraham's Seed. It's an important message, a message that cannot be stressed enough, because this message has been misappropriated over and over again. And we need to understand clearly what is in view in this promise made to the seed of Abraham. Steve Gregg, host of the radio show The Narrow Path. He lives in Santa Cruz, California, and he joins me now on the Bible Answer Man broadcast.

As always, Steve, good to have you with us.

Hank, it's great to talk to you again.

One of the issues that you and I have discussed many times is this issue of the obligation of blessing Abraham's seed. It seems that this is a passage that is constantly being misappropriated on the basis of race rather than relationship.

That's right. And frankly, that is, I think, a problem that arose with dispensational theology. Not that I like to bash dispensationalists, since a lot of our brothers and sisters are persuaded of dispensational theology, but I do think that the idea that we are supposed to give special deference to the race of national Israel or the ethnic seed of Abraham, I believe that arises out of dispensational presuppositions, which, as you know, are relatively young theological ideas. They only arose in the last 200 years.

And I think the important thing, as you've mentioned many times, Steve, is that we have to look at this passage through the interpretive lens of the New Testament writers. They look at this passage and make very clear that what is in view here is not ethnic Israel. It's not about race. It's not about ethnicity. Ultimately, it's about true Israel.

Well, that's right. And the true Israel is Jesus himself, is Christ. And of course, the Apostle Paul sees Christ as as a corporate phenomenon, because Jesus is the head of a body, and we are of his flesh and bones. So the seed of Abraham, according to Paul, especially in Galatians 3.16, is Christ. He said the promises were made to Abraham and to his seed. And then Paul stresses, it does not say seeds, plural, but to your seed, singular, which is Christ. So Paul's teaching is, that certain promises were made to Abraham and his seed, but that seed is Christ. It's not a lot of separate seeds. It's one seed. Now, of course, when we say that Christians are the seed of Abraham, it sounds like we're talking

out of both sides of our mouth because there's many Christians. How could we all be the seed if Paul said there's only one? But you see, Paul goes on to say before the end of that chapter in Galatians 3 that we are all one in Christ. We're one body in Christ. So he said that, in verse 28, he says, if you are Christ's, and by that he means if you belong to Christ, to his body, then you are, he said, Abraham's seed, singular. You're in Christ, and Christ is that seed. So he says you are heirs, according.

To the promise.

So what Paul has said is that Abraham's seed really is comprised of Christ, which includes, of course, all who are in Christ.

And Jesus... left his disciples with instructions to exit Jerusalem, embrace the earth, never again entertain the thought of establishing an earthly Jerusalem. And, of course, the disciples then were no longer permitted to view Israel in exclusivistic parochial categories. Their sites instead had to be elevated on an inclusive Israel, and yet there are people today who constantly bring this up with respect to Jerusalem and the land They say Jerusalem only for the Jews, and if we don't stand lockstep with Israel, regardless of the policy, then we're touching God's anointing and we're violating this very promise made to Abraham.

Well, of course, the reason they say that is because of the way they understand certain Old Testament prophecies. And I think they understand them differently than the apostles understood them. You know, there are prophecies in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and some of the minor prophets that that talk about God drawing Israel back from the lands where they've been gathered and reestablishing Jerusalem and reestablishing them in their own land. But these prophecies were made while Israel was, well, before God actually brought them back from the Babylonian exile.

God drove them into many lands in 586 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and deported the Jews from their land. And he also brought them back. At least he brought a remnant of them back. And that was, I believe, in many ways, the fulfillment of those promises which many people are trying to apply to today. As if God was talking about the end times when he made those predictions.

But in my understanding, and I think this was the understanding of the apostles too, when God said he would draw his people back, there was kind of a dual thing that he was talking about. He was talking about physically bringing them back from Babylon, which he did, but also seeing the rescue of Israel from the Babylonian exile as a type and a shadow of salvation in Christ, just as the Exodus was a type and a shadow of salvation in Christ. Both were events in Israel's history where God had left Israel in captivity in a foreign land, in Egypt in the days before Moses, and in Babylon in the days after Jeremiah. And these were times when God, on two occasions, brought his people back to their land

from Egypt the first time, from Babylon the second time, and in the prophets, both of these things, the exodus from Egypt and the return of the exiles from Babylon, become shadows and types of what Christ would do in bringing people out of the bondage of sin and into salvation. So these prophecies in the Old Testament... They predict that God would bring Israel back from the lands where they've been driven. And he did. But they also sometimes look beyond that to the Messianic age. That is what the Messiah would do, which Christ has done and is doing and has been doing for the past 2,000 years.

So one of the things that you point out in the article, and you just reiterated the fact that Paul gives us a perspective on what's going on, with respect to Abraham's royal seed. That royal seed is Jesus Christ, the Dublin tundra, as you point out towards the end of Galatians chapter 3, is that if you are in Christ, then you are the seed of Abraham in an era according to the promise, whether you're Jew or Greek, whether you're male or female, whether you're slave or free. The question at this point then remains, what is the blessing specifically that's being enunciated here in the promise made to Abraham?

I think as we read the entirety of Galatians 3, especially the early part, the promise is that he made to Abraham justification by faith. Essentially, that Abraham was justified in the sight of God, and that that promise of justification by faith would extend to the whole world. All the families of the earth would be blessed with this same blessing that Abraham experienced. Paul talks about that also in Romans 4. He talks about how Abraham was justified by faith, not by works of the law. And he also, in Romans 4, Paul brings up David. And he says David also spoke of the blessedness of the man who is justified apart from the works of the law. And he quotes Psalm 32, 1 there. And the blessedness of

being justified by faith apart from the law is the blessing. And that blessing is in Christ. So this is actually the blessing that God has for the world, which is brought to the world through Abraham's seed, Jesus, and those of us who are in him. That's why when Jesus said, go and make disciples of all nations, we see this as his commission to go out and fulfill the Abrahamic covenant, which was that the blessing of justification by faith should come to all the families of the earth and they'll be blessed in Christ, who is the seed of Abraham.

We're talking to Steve Gregg. He's the author of The Obligation of Blessing Abraham's Seed in the Christian Research Journal. Appreciate your ministry. Appreciate your contribution to the broadcast today.

Thank you.

Thanks for having me.

You got it.

We'll be right back. in just a few moments with answers to your questions.

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Let's go to the phone lines. First up today is Ron Prescott, Arizona, listening on the web. Hi, Ron. Good evening, Hank. Good evening.

Have you ever done any study of Luke 13, 24, where the Lord says, seek to enter through the narrow gate, for many I say unto you will seek to enter, but will not be able.

Well, because they're trying to enter on their own terms. It's not because they love the master, it is because they love what is on the master's table. So they want to enter on their own terms, not on God's terms, and therein lies the problem. You have to contextualize this in light of the whole of biblical teaching. Scripture is clear that genuine seekers will never be excluded from the kingdom.

In fact, Christ made that abundantly clear when he was talking to Nicodemus. The problem is not that there's not enough light The problem is men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.

Right, yeah, okay. That's what I thought. I just wanted to see what you had to say on that.

I appreciate your call.

Okay, thank you much.

God bless you. I want to go back to the phone lines, talk to Bill in Norman, Oklahoma. Hi, Bill.

Hello, Hank. My question is on the second coming of Christ and the gathering of the church. My question is at what point do you think... As far as, like in Revelation, before the tribulation, at what point do you think that's going to happen, and some Scripture to back it up?

Well, we don't know when it's going to happen. That's the point. And certainly, Revelation doesn't give us any kind of a clue as to when that's going to happen. Remember, Revelation is begun with the words, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. When Jesus says a looming apocalypse will soon take place, or that the time is near, it is contrary to old decency and propriety to contend that his words are meant to convey an event that will happen in our time. In other words, in the far future.

So I think it's an unconscionable abuse of language to say that the word soon or near in the prologue of the book of Revelation means 2,000 years hence or a faraway epoch of time. These are seven letters written to churches in the epicenter of a Caesar cult who are going to experience a looming apocalypse on the horizons.

And so they're told to be faithful and fruitful. They'll suffer for a short time, but their vindication will be an eternal vindication. And then, as in other books of the Bible, we're shown what ultimately our eyes should be fixed on. And John makes that clear in the vision. It's a new heaven and a new earth coming down, prepared as a bride, beautifully adorned for her husband. It's the new Jerusalem that we long for, It's a time when God himself will live with us. So while Revelation points to the final future, it is not giving us any kind of time frame as to when Jesus Christ will appear a second time. All we know is that he promised to appear a second time. We can take him at his promise, but he doesn't give us any

inkling when that will be, and therefore to speculate, is simply fruitless. What we need to do is be fruitful and be faithful while there is yet time.

There's no scripture in the Bible that gives any indication of what point around the tribulation that that will happen before or during or after?

Well, again, the timing of the tribulation is a subject of much debate in the Church, but the tribulation that is spoken of in the book of Revelation is not a tribulation that has to do with the 21st century. It is a tribulation that they're going to experience in the near future.

Okay, well, I guess my question is, there's going to be a time of trouble in the end times where the church will go through a lot of persecution.

Where do you find that?

In Luke and Matthew 24, where Jesus is talking about there will be trouble like there never was up to this time.

Right, but that has nothing to do with the end times. That has to do with a question that Jesus Christ is being asked. He's being asked by his disciples, when will this happen? When will the temple be destroyed? When will the sign of your coming be revealed? And when will we know about the end of the age of sacrifice? Remember, all of that is contextualized with Jesus leaving the temple.

He's walking away. So his disciples come up to him. They call his attention to its buildings. And he says, do you see all these things? I tell you the truth. Not one stone here will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down. So the disciples are now asking him about what he just said. And Jesus makes clear when this is going to happen. He says, now learn this lesson from the fig tree. As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. So Jesus is talking about the generation that will see the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem. And when he talks about the tribulation there, that's what he has in view. Then there'll be great tribulation unequaled from the beginning of the world until now and never to be equaled again. He's talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and the very temple that gave them their spiritual and sociological significance. That's what's in view in Matthew 24.

not what's going to happen in the 21st century. So to take what Jesus is saying from the first century and replace it into the 21st century is simply wrong.

What about like in 2 Thessalonians 2, where it refers to that point, where it says Jesus says, don't be deceived because, you know, by people saying that.

The Lord has already come, Remember when I told.

You before that I won't, that I'm paraphrasing.

Because I don't have, I won't run me, but you know the scripture.

I refer to.

Yeah, you're referring to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our begathered to him. We ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy report or letter supposedly to have come from us saying that the day of Lord has already come. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. Again, this is something referring to their epoch of time. You have to remember this principle. The Bible was not written to us. The Bible was written for us.

So when Paul writes to the Romans, he's writing to the Roman believers in that epoch of time. When John writes the book of Revelations, He's writing to people in that epoch of time, seven churches in the epicenter of a Caesar cult. When Jesus in Matthew 24 is talking about tribulation, he's talking to the tribulation that these people will experience in their own generation. So again, we can't take that language and transfer it to the 21st century and then start speculating as to when Jesus Christ is going to return. And by the way, the words that Jesus Christ is using in Matthew 24, those words are prophetic hyperbole. Because you will recall that if you go to the Old Testament, you will find that the greatest tribulation,

according to the Old Testament, was the Babylonian exile. So if that was the greatest tribulation, how can Jesus be talking about a greater tribulation unless he's using prophetic hyperbole? So again, this all... gets down to the same basic point, and that is learning to read the Bible for all it's worth and not reading some sensationalistic 21st century prophetic speculation into the text. Otherwise, you end up like Harold Camping or Jack Van Impey or other people that are setting dates today. The Bible tells us nothing whatsoever about when Jesus Christ is going to return, only that he will return. And in the meantime, we are to do is not speculate, but be faithful in our commission, both with respect to the cultural mandate and the Great Commission.

Well, I can respectfully disagree. I believe it does. I believe it gives us warnings all through the Bible.

So when Jesus Christ says, this generation, you don't think he really means this generation?

I don't know what that's referring to. In Sunday school, somebody more familiar with it said it had to do with Another.

Point in time, Jacob's trouble, or something like that.

So if Jesus uses the words this generation, and he really means that generation, he's linguistically challenged in some way?

There were two questions.

The question was, when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming?

And I believe he was answering.

Both the questions.

But the coming is not about the second coming. It's about his coming in judgment on Jerusalem and the temple. In fact, as you're probably well aware of, the language that Jesus uses in the Olivet Discourse is familiar language. If we've read through the Bible even once, we've encountered it and we know about it. Which is to say, Jesus takes the language of the Old Testament prophets and he now employs it with the soon coming destruction of Jerusalem.

And when he talks about this generation, Jesus is not linguistically challenged The language this generation can only with great difficulty be transferred 2,000 years into the future and mean the 21st century. We're out of time for this edition of the Bible Answer Man broadcast. Look forward to seeing you right here next time with more of the show.

We appreciate you tuning in to the Bible Answer Man broadcast. Before we sign off today, here's our contact information. By phone, dial 888-7000-CRI, which translates to 888-7000-274. On the internet, go to equip.org. That's equip.org. You can also write CRI at Post Office Box 8500, Charlotte, North Carolina. The zip code is 28271. Our prayer is that today's broadcast has equipped you to better defend your faith and encouraged you to pursue sound doctrine and godly living. Thank you for listening.

The Bible Answer Man broadcast is supported by listeners like you. We're on the air because life and truth matter. Breaking the code of the book of Revelation has become an international obsession. The result has been rampant misreading of scripture, bad theology, and even bad politics and foreign policy. In the Apocalypse Code, find out what the Bible really says about the end times and why it matters today. Hank Hanegraaff argues that the key to understanding the last book of the Bible is the other 65 books of the Bible, not current events or recent history. The Apocalypse Code offers sane answers to some very controversial questions, such as what does it mean to take the book of Revelation literally?

Who are the Antichrist and the great whore of Babylon? And what is the real meaning of 666? Order The Apocalypse Code by Hank Hanegraaff today. Available in softcover, MP3 CD, or MP3 download from equip.org. Or call 888-7000-CRI.

On the Obligation of Blessing “Abraham’s Seed” with Steve Gregg, and Q&A

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