By John Foll, written between 8/11/2017 and 8/13/2017, 9/14/2018 - 9/25/2018.
© Copyright 2018 John Foll
List of Articles
If you have not read Part 1, we recommend that you read it first: Abraham's Promised Possession Could Only Come Through the Resurrection Part 1
What is the main point in what we are making here?
The children of Israel, after they came into the Promised Land of Canaan, after many of them lost their inheritance due to unfaithfulness to God, or all of them to death, cannot be the complete fulfillment of the promise that God made to Abraham, because it was to be an ‘everlasting possession!’ Therefore this implies that there must be a great change that would come over God’s people, which would enable them to live holy lives for Him, and not lose their everlasting possession due to death or sin. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23 KJV. But how would this great change come about? Now that is the gospel message! This is righteousness by faith! This is a topic for further articles!
But we will give you a hint here:
1) God needed to provide for the forgiveness of His people:
Jesus was to be born as a babe through Isaac, Abraham’s seed, so that all nations of the earth could be blessed. Then He worked for the revival of His people and trained His disciples to be evangelists of the Gospel, and then died on the cross for the sins of everyone in the world, including Abraham’s seed. This was how He would be a blessing to all nations of the earth and to Abraham’s seed. In order for anyone to be resurrected to receive their ‘everlasting possession’ they must be forgiven by God. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NASB. This is necessary ‘for there is no man that sinneth not’ 1 Kings 8:46 KJV. And in order for God to be able to do the second step below, His people must be forgiven of their sins.
2) God needed to circumcise the hearts of His people and give them the Holy Spirit:
Moses prophesied: “And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.” Deuteronomy 30:6 KJV. This concept is echoed in other parts of the Old Testament. Jeremiah prophesied: “"Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."” Jeremiah 31:31-34 NASB. This is nothing other than the New Covenant! This is the first recorded instance of the New Covenant in the Bible! There is also something similar prophesied by the prophet Ezekiel, one of Jeremiah’s contemporaries, where God said, “And I will give them [His people] one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” Ezekiel 11:19-20 KJV.
So God had a plan to save His people, Israel, and give them a new heart, which is the New Covenant promise! He had a plan to circumcise their heart, as Moses prophesied. This started to take place at Pentecost, 50 days after Jesus’ death on the cross, where the Jewish Christians were given the Holy Spirit, and a huge change took place in them instantly! God wrote His law in the hearts of His people at Pentecost with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He gave them a heart to love Him and serve Him with all the way, with great joy! (It must be remembered that there were no Gentile Christians at this time, so the New Covenant was originally only for the Jews, until the Gospel message was preached to the Gentiles, which started about 3 ½ years after Jesus death on the cross.) But the New Covenant promise fulfillment can only be fully met in Heaven, where all of them from the least of them to the greatest of them will know Me,’ as God declared through His prophet in Jeremiah 31:34. This New Covenant promise in Jeremiah, which started at Pentecost, was the means that God used to help save His people to help them obey Him, so that they could eventually receive their ‘everlasting possession’ that He had promised Abraham! Because God always keeps His promises! God truly provides for the needs of His people. Whatever He has asked them to do, He has provided the way to do it, if they will prepare themselves to receive it.
Why did God provide the Holy Spirit for His people to circumcise their hearts? To help save them! This would help keep them from falling away, so that they could please Him and be happy in His love, and help them through their trials and tribulations to be true to Him with patience. This is how you become born again! Was it just to help them become born again and to have a better life? There can be no doubt that this was part of it, but there is more to it than that! God provided the Holy Spirit to His people to keep His promise to Abraham, that through His seed, all nations of the earth would be blessed! Think about it: Not only was Jesus born as an Israelite of the tribe of Judah, but His disciples were all Jewish too! Jesus commanded His disciples to go and preach the gospel to every nation, kindred and tongue. Matthew 28:18-20. Which was also a fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham, that through his seed, all nations of the earth would be blessed. The gospel message was first preached to the world through Jewish evangelists, starting with Jesus’ disciples, then the seven deacons, and then later Paul and Barnabas, and many others who were all Jews! This was how the gospel message exploded and went to all corners of the earth! So not only was Jesus death on the cross and resurrection the fulfillment of the promise that through Abraham’s seed would all the nations of the earth be blessed, but also the Jewish Christians preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles was a fulfillment of this promise! And all those who love Jesus in our day will also do as He commanded them, and help Him to fill the marriage supper of the Lamb, by inviting others to come there too! Luke 14:21-24.
God jump-started Christianity with what took place at Pentecost and afterwards, through the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit. God's great power was shown by the rapid spread of Christianity throughout the world, converting Gentiles and Jewish people in various parts of the world, who would listen, where the Apostles and other evangelists went. God always keeps His promises! We are bringing out this point because some may argue:
Why did God not provide the Holy Spirit from day one to His people, especially after Abraham?
First: We believe that Adam and Eve had been given a measure of the Holy Spirit before they sinned. So it is not true that God didn’t provide the Holy Spirit from day one. But Adam and Eve lost Him after they lost faith in or doubted God, and sinned. Why? Because the book of Hebrews declares: “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 NASB. They lost the Holy Spirit due to a lack of faith in God! Adam and Eve would not have fallen prey to sin, if they had not doubted God, but kept trusting in Him. See how important Righteousness by Faith is?
Second: We believe that Abraham, and many, if not all of the patriarchs, prophets and some leaders and kings had the Holy Spirit. So it is not true that God didn’t provide the Holy Spirit after Abraham. Various people in the Old Testament were given a measure of the Holy Spirit who wanted to obey God, for what He wanted them to do. In the days of the Old Testament many people had the relationship and power with God that they wanted to have, same as today. Unfortunately like many today, many in the past did not have much power from God, if any, and were satisfied with just getting by. Some wanted more power from God and got it because they loved Him, like David, a man after God’s own heart. 1 Samuel 13:14; 16:7, 11-13. (Yes, David sinned, but having the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean that one cannot sin, because God doesn’t take away our power of choice, and sometimes humanity loses their hold on God.) This question is too big to answer here. But suffice it to say all could have had this blessing of the Holy Spirit, in the days of the Old Testament, who wanted it and were willing to comply with God's conditions. See Joel 2.
Third: God had a plan to save the world: And the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, together with Jesus’ death on the cross was how He did it. The special outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is the reason why the Gospel message spread so rapidly through the earth after Pentecost. This was how God kept His promise to Abraham, that through his seed all nations of the earth would be blessed! And this is how He blessed all of the nations of the earth, through the Gospel! God's plan was always for the Salvation of the world, for God had made a promise to Adam and Eve, which was more than *2000 years before Abraham was born! (Adam and Eve were not Jews or Israelites, but all the races of mankind came from them and Noah and his sons.) God always keeps his promises! Ever since Adam and Eve sinned and fell from God (Genesis 3:1-13), God was executing His plan to save humanity and bring them all back to His home! So there is much more to the story then just Abraham and the Israelite nation! Genesis 3:14. This is about salvation of the whole world! Abraham and his posterity had the wonderful privilege of playing a part in the wonderful plan of Salvation!
Fourth: God had a plan to save the Israelites and the lost tribes who had wandered from Him. God knew ahead of time what would happen to the Israelites, the seed of Abraham, like we have previously discussed in this article. And He provided for their Salvation, through the power of the Gospel Message that would be preached to them, not only at Pentecost and in the days of the New Testament, but in our day as well, until we get to the end of the world. And through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that took place then, and through what will take place yet again (and in fact is even beginning to happen now), God will help others from the tribes of Israel to give themselves to Him and be saved, through His gift of the Holy Spirit - to those who want Him.
All four of these reasons are why God provided the great power of the Holy Spirit to His people, starting at Pentecost: To help save as many people as possible from this world and to keep His promise to Abraham. This was why Pentecost took place, and Jesus’ death on the cross! God provided this power to His people so the gospel message could quickly go to the ends of the earth, and win people from their misery and slavery to sin! With the power and speed the gospel spread with the full power of the Holy Spirit, it is as if God had said, ‘I have waited long enough to tell the people the good news of Salvation! Enough is enough! Let them tell others quickly about My love, so that they can get the help they need fast!’ This happened very quickly after Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection! It started 50 days after it, and * experts say that by the time that Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD, that the Gospel had spread to all of the then known, civilized world! Which was a period of about 36 years! (It went as far away as India and China!) So that the Gentiles could also share the everlasting possession with Abraham.
Our heart right now is so moved with the wonder and love of God and His plan to save humanity! It is so perfect wonderful and true! It is much bigger then we can fully take in and understand. And as we discovered in the previous parts of this article, many of the children of Israel, including the lost tribes, really need this gospel message preached to them now! - That Jesus and his disciples preached, to bring them back to God, so that they could share in the promise that God made to Abraham. God knew ahead of time, before Isaac was even born, what the history of Abraham’s offspring would be, and how many of His children would apostatize and leave the truth, forsaking their covenant with Him. No one can come up with any kind of sin, mistake or wrinkle that God hasn’t already thought of and planned for! Nothing surprises God. Everything that will ever happen, is like a book that has already been written that God has already read before it happened, to use a human analogy. God doesn't leave Humanity to its own sins and mistakes; He has wonderfully provided for our great need, before we needed it! Thus God will keep his promise to Abraham, and Adam as well, and will bring as many of their children, and great great great great grandchildren, etc. back to Him, so that He can keep his promises to them! Oh how our heart is overpowered with the sense of God's love and kindness, and the wonder of His plan to save us in spite of our sins and mistakes! Oh how we love Him!
Blog Edited by John Foll.
List of Articles
From the Editor: “The Everlasting Covenant” has had a very great impact on my life! These articles, with its stories from the Bible, led me to fall in love with God, there is no other way of putting it. The thing I was needing the most in my life was given to me after I learned how much He loved me in “The Everlasting Covenant” by E. J. Waggoner.
It is my prayer, dear reader, that God will richly bless you, as you learn more and more about His great love for you as presented by E. J. Waggoner in “The Everlasting Covenant”, as we continue to present more articles from it.
May the grace of God, and the priceless, precious fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you, as you go down this journey of falling totally in love with God! Riches beyond measure await you, if you will just get to know Him and His great love for you!
Listen to these articles at: http://www.whiteraimentevangelism.com/recommended.
#Faith #Abraham #Israel #God #Everlasting #Possession #Canaan #Promised #Land #Holy #Spirit #New #Covenant #Pentecost #Jesus #Cross #Salvation #Law #Love #Heart
© Copyright 2018 John Foll
List of Articles
If you have not read Part 1, we recommend that you read it first: Abraham's Promised Possession Could Only Come Through the Resurrection Part 1
God Helps His People Receive Their Everlasting Possession:
What is the main point in what we are making here?
The children of Israel, after they came into the Promised Land of Canaan, after many of them lost their inheritance due to unfaithfulness to God, or all of them to death, cannot be the complete fulfillment of the promise that God made to Abraham, because it was to be an ‘everlasting possession!’ Therefore this implies that there must be a great change that would come over God’s people, which would enable them to live holy lives for Him, and not lose their everlasting possession due to death or sin. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23 KJV. But how would this great change come about? Now that is the gospel message! This is righteousness by faith! This is a topic for further articles!
But we will give you a hint here:
1) God needed to provide for the forgiveness of His people:
Jesus was to be born as a babe through Isaac, Abraham’s seed, so that all nations of the earth could be blessed. Then He worked for the revival of His people and trained His disciples to be evangelists of the Gospel, and then died on the cross for the sins of everyone in the world, including Abraham’s seed. This was how He would be a blessing to all nations of the earth and to Abraham’s seed. In order for anyone to be resurrected to receive their ‘everlasting possession’ they must be forgiven by God. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NASB. This is necessary ‘for there is no man that sinneth not’ 1 Kings 8:46 KJV. And in order for God to be able to do the second step below, His people must be forgiven of their sins.
2) God needed to circumcise the hearts of His people and give them the Holy Spirit:
Moses prophesied: “And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.” Deuteronomy 30:6 KJV. This concept is echoed in other parts of the Old Testament. Jeremiah prophesied: “"Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."” Jeremiah 31:31-34 NASB. This is nothing other than the New Covenant! This is the first recorded instance of the New Covenant in the Bible! There is also something similar prophesied by the prophet Ezekiel, one of Jeremiah’s contemporaries, where God said, “And I will give them [His people] one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” Ezekiel 11:19-20 KJV.
So God had a plan to save His people, Israel, and give them a new heart, which is the New Covenant promise! He had a plan to circumcise their heart, as Moses prophesied. This started to take place at Pentecost, 50 days after Jesus’ death on the cross, where the Jewish Christians were given the Holy Spirit, and a huge change took place in them instantly! God wrote His law in the hearts of His people at Pentecost with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He gave them a heart to love Him and serve Him with all the way, with great joy! (It must be remembered that there were no Gentile Christians at this time, so the New Covenant was originally only for the Jews, until the Gospel message was preached to the Gentiles, which started about 3 ½ years after Jesus death on the cross.) But the New Covenant promise fulfillment can only be fully met in Heaven, where all of them from the least of them to the greatest of them will know Me,’ as God declared through His prophet in Jeremiah 31:34. This New Covenant promise in Jeremiah, which started at Pentecost, was the means that God used to help save His people to help them obey Him, so that they could eventually receive their ‘everlasting possession’ that He had promised Abraham! Because God always keeps His promises! God truly provides for the needs of His people. Whatever He has asked them to do, He has provided the way to do it, if they will prepare themselves to receive it.
Why did God provide the Holy Spirit for His people to circumcise their hearts? To help save them! This would help keep them from falling away, so that they could please Him and be happy in His love, and help them through their trials and tribulations to be true to Him with patience. This is how you become born again! Was it just to help them become born again and to have a better life? There can be no doubt that this was part of it, but there is more to it than that! God provided the Holy Spirit to His people to keep His promise to Abraham, that through His seed, all nations of the earth would be blessed! Think about it: Not only was Jesus born as an Israelite of the tribe of Judah, but His disciples were all Jewish too! Jesus commanded His disciples to go and preach the gospel to every nation, kindred and tongue. Matthew 28:18-20. Which was also a fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham, that through his seed, all nations of the earth would be blessed. The gospel message was first preached to the world through Jewish evangelists, starting with Jesus’ disciples, then the seven deacons, and then later Paul and Barnabas, and many others who were all Jews! This was how the gospel message exploded and went to all corners of the earth! So not only was Jesus death on the cross and resurrection the fulfillment of the promise that through Abraham’s seed would all the nations of the earth be blessed, but also the Jewish Christians preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles was a fulfillment of this promise! And all those who love Jesus in our day will also do as He commanded them, and help Him to fill the marriage supper of the Lamb, by inviting others to come there too! Luke 14:21-24.
God jump-started Christianity with what took place at Pentecost and afterwards, through the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit. God's great power was shown by the rapid spread of Christianity throughout the world, converting Gentiles and Jewish people in various parts of the world, who would listen, where the Apostles and other evangelists went. God always keeps His promises! We are bringing out this point because some may argue:
Why did God not provide the Holy Spirit from day one to His people, especially after Abraham?
First: We believe that Adam and Eve had been given a measure of the Holy Spirit before they sinned. So it is not true that God didn’t provide the Holy Spirit from day one. But Adam and Eve lost Him after they lost faith in or doubted God, and sinned. Why? Because the book of Hebrews declares: “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 NASB. They lost the Holy Spirit due to a lack of faith in God! Adam and Eve would not have fallen prey to sin, if they had not doubted God, but kept trusting in Him. See how important Righteousness by Faith is?
For more on this read our upcoming article: “Adam and Eve’s Test of Faith”.
Second: We believe that Abraham, and many, if not all of the patriarchs, prophets and some leaders and kings had the Holy Spirit. So it is not true that God didn’t provide the Holy Spirit after Abraham. Various people in the Old Testament were given a measure of the Holy Spirit who wanted to obey God, for what He wanted them to do. In the days of the Old Testament many people had the relationship and power with God that they wanted to have, same as today. Unfortunately like many today, many in the past did not have much power from God, if any, and were satisfied with just getting by. Some wanted more power from God and got it because they loved Him, like David, a man after God’s own heart. 1 Samuel 13:14; 16:7, 11-13. (Yes, David sinned, but having the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean that one cannot sin, because God doesn’t take away our power of choice, and sometimes humanity loses their hold on God.) This question is too big to answer here. But suffice it to say all could have had this blessing of the Holy Spirit, in the days of the Old Testament, who wanted it and were willing to comply with God's conditions. See Joel 2.
Third: God had a plan to save the world: And the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, together with Jesus’ death on the cross was how He did it. The special outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is the reason why the Gospel message spread so rapidly through the earth after Pentecost. This was how God kept His promise to Abraham, that through his seed all nations of the earth would be blessed! And this is how He blessed all of the nations of the earth, through the Gospel! God's plan was always for the Salvation of the world, for God had made a promise to Adam and Eve, which was more than *2000 years before Abraham was born! (Adam and Eve were not Jews or Israelites, but all the races of mankind came from them and Noah and his sons.) God always keeps his promises! Ever since Adam and Eve sinned and fell from God (Genesis 3:1-13), God was executing His plan to save humanity and bring them all back to His home! So there is much more to the story then just Abraham and the Israelite nation! Genesis 3:14. This is about salvation of the whole world! Abraham and his posterity had the wonderful privilege of playing a part in the wonderful plan of Salvation!
* https://answersingenesis.org/bible-timeline/
Fourth: God had a plan to save the Israelites and the lost tribes who had wandered from Him. God knew ahead of time what would happen to the Israelites, the seed of Abraham, like we have previously discussed in this article. And He provided for their Salvation, through the power of the Gospel Message that would be preached to them, not only at Pentecost and in the days of the New Testament, but in our day as well, until we get to the end of the world. And through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that took place then, and through what will take place yet again (and in fact is even beginning to happen now), God will help others from the tribes of Israel to give themselves to Him and be saved, through His gift of the Holy Spirit - to those who want Him.
All four of these reasons are why God provided the great power of the Holy Spirit to His people, starting at Pentecost: To help save as many people as possible from this world and to keep His promise to Abraham. This was why Pentecost took place, and Jesus’ death on the cross! God provided this power to His people so the gospel message could quickly go to the ends of the earth, and win people from their misery and slavery to sin! With the power and speed the gospel spread with the full power of the Holy Spirit, it is as if God had said, ‘I have waited long enough to tell the people the good news of Salvation! Enough is enough! Let them tell others quickly about My love, so that they can get the help they need fast!’ This happened very quickly after Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection! It started 50 days after it, and * experts say that by the time that Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD, that the Gospel had spread to all of the then known, civilized world! Which was a period of about 36 years! (It went as far away as India and China!) So that the Gentiles could also share the everlasting possession with Abraham.
* You can Google this to see that what we are saying is so. We don’t necessarily subscribe to the views that some of the people who are saying this believe, so we will not provide the links for them at this time, unless we can eventually find one that is unbiased or one that we can support all the way.
Our heart right now is so moved with the wonder and love of God and His plan to save humanity! It is so perfect wonderful and true! It is much bigger then we can fully take in and understand. And as we discovered in the previous parts of this article, many of the children of Israel, including the lost tribes, really need this gospel message preached to them now! - That Jesus and his disciples preached, to bring them back to God, so that they could share in the promise that God made to Abraham. God knew ahead of time, before Isaac was even born, what the history of Abraham’s offspring would be, and how many of His children would apostatize and leave the truth, forsaking their covenant with Him. No one can come up with any kind of sin, mistake or wrinkle that God hasn’t already thought of and planned for! Nothing surprises God. Everything that will ever happen, is like a book that has already been written that God has already read before it happened, to use a human analogy. God doesn't leave Humanity to its own sins and mistakes; He has wonderfully provided for our great need, before we needed it! Thus God will keep his promise to Abraham, and Adam as well, and will bring as many of their children, and great great great great grandchildren, etc. back to Him, so that He can keep his promises to them! Oh how our heart is overpowered with the sense of God's love and kindness, and the wonder of His plan to save us in spite of our sins and mistakes! Oh how we love Him!
To Be Continued…
Blog Edited by John Foll.
List of Articles
From the Editor: “The Everlasting Covenant” has had a very great impact on my life! These articles, with its stories from the Bible, led me to fall in love with God, there is no other way of putting it. The thing I was needing the most in my life was given to me after I learned how much He loved me in “The Everlasting Covenant” by E. J. Waggoner.
It is my prayer, dear reader, that God will richly bless you, as you learn more and more about His great love for you as presented by E. J. Waggoner in “The Everlasting Covenant”, as we continue to present more articles from it.
May the grace of God, and the priceless, precious fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you, as you go down this journey of falling totally in love with God! Riches beyond measure await you, if you will just get to know Him and His great love for you!
Listen to these articles at: http://www.whiteraimentevangelism.com/recommended.
Watchword:
“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.'” John 14:23 NASB.
White Raiment Evangelism Revelation 3:18:
In Revelation 3:18 Jesus said, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, and white raiment, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest be clothed, that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and that thou mayest see." (Paraphrase of the KJV.)#Faith #Abraham #Israel #God #Everlasting #Possession #Canaan #Promised #Land #Holy #Spirit #New #Covenant #Pentecost #Jesus #Cross #Salvation #Law #Love #Heart
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