possession.
For God to give His Word in a promise is enough to make it unbreakable. But God swore an oath by Himself that He would fulfill this promise concerning the land. Thus by two immutablethings, His Word and His oath, it is made certain beyond all things.
So let all who contest Israelâs right to that land today beware
.
WHY THE CANAANITES WOULD BE DESTROYED
A prophecy was also given to Abraham as to when his descendents would first take possession of the land. It would be after they spent four hundred years in the land of Egypt. The reason for the delay was two-fold. First, it was because Abrahamâs descendents had to grow in sufficient numbers to be able to take over the land.
And second, because the sin of the present inhabitants had not yet reached the full measure of iniquity worthy of their destruction. God graciously gave them four hundred more years to repent, which they never did. They only got worse, burning their own children alive as a sacrifice to demon idols. When God later brought the Israelites back from Egypt, the minds of all the residents of Canaan had become utterly perverted beyond reformation. They were like a cancer that had to be exorcised before their perversion infected the rest of society.
ABRAHAMâS UNDERSTANDING OF THE COVENANT
How Abraham understood this covenant is revealed in a later statement he made to his steward upon sending him to find a wife for Abrahamâs son Isaac:
The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my fatherâs household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, âTo your offspring
I will
give this landââhe will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there. 15
In the light of the previous Scripture, to say, as some teachers within Christendom do, that there was no unconditional covenant made with Abrahamâs descendents is to accuse God of willfully deceiving Abraham. And it would be even more ludicrous to suppose that the LORD would record Abrahamâs wrong understanding of this covenant if in fact it was wrong. God warned that He would discipline the Israelites, but never disown them. [Note: Translators use all caps âLORDâ to indicate that the original is âYahweh,â Godâs most solemn name which means âI AM.â]
HOW ANTI-SEMITISM BEGAN
There are false teachers within the church today who would deny that the Israelites have a right to the land of their forefathers. They are known by such titles as âDominionists,â âPreterists,â âAmillennialists,â or âPostmillennialists.â
What is common to all of these theological systems is that they allegorize all unfulfilled Bible prophecies and covenantsâespecially those that apply to the future of the descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They say that the covenants were âconditional,â and therefore were canceled by Israelâs rejection of the Messiah, Jesus. They teach that Israel has no future in Godâs plan as a distinct people and nation. They teach that the church inherited all of these covenants and promises when Israel rejected their Messiah, Jesus.
In other words, they believe that the church has now become âIsraelâ in place of the literal physical descendents to whom the promises were exclusively made. This is called âReplacement Theology.â Augustine laid the groundwork for this teaching in the fifth century A.D. He taught that the church had become Israel and was now Godâs kingdom on earth. This became the rationale for the âconquistadorsâ to conquer and pillage the Americas in the name of the Roman Catholic Church. It also was the philosophy that set up the âHoly Roman Empireâ over Europe.
This resulted in such shameful atrocities as