The Real Truth about the Meaning of Genesis 12:3
(All Scripture references are taken from the NLT unless otherwise specified)
Genesis 12:3 says: "And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."
As we see in verse 1, the Lord is specifically speaking to Abraham, who is the father of all of the faithful on the earth.
This seems to present a serious problem to many today who seem to presume that Abraham is only related to the unbelieving modern nation of "Israel", and has little or nothing to do with the followers of Jesus Christ. Nothing could be further from the truth, and, if we would allow the sacred Scriptures to interpret themselves in the inspired, godly way over the way of those who insist on rebelling against God and His Christ, we would start to draw ourselves into the Scripture truths over the destructive lies and fantasies that have so taken us over the cliff and on into the trash heap of history. If we don't repent, and really start taking the Christian faith seriously, that is exactly where we are going to end up, and much sooner than later. My, how we love to dither while America burns down! What fun it is to go right along, and down the rabbit hole and its descent into total darkness.
If, perchance we would start to take the whole Bible seriously, and allow it to clarify truth and interpret itself, we would quickly discover how and why we have gone astray from the real Gospel truth, and have entered our modern dark age.
Certainly, God never intended for the Christians to support and align themselves against God's Christ and his truths with any unbelievers, no matter what the supposed or concocted pretext! By your inattentiveness to these important and critical matters, you blaspheme God. God's heavy hand of judgment awaits people who so wholeheartedly engage in such evil endeavors, and willfully thwart such important truth! Is this not what you are doing, and so misleading many others who look to you for far better things? Listen to the truth, and repent! Already, is not God's protective hand being removed from this now straying and unrepentant nation? Is there truly a real "Bible belt" in America, or is the phrase but a catch all for all of the modern apostate isms that now infest our once straight nation? It is time for a wake-up call for the church to start serving the one royal Master alone, our Lord Jesus Christ, and discontinue their subservience to all those who oppose Him still!
Abraham is certainly not the father of the unbelieving Jews and nation, and never was. But he is the father of all who are in Jesus Christ, and always were, as the Scriptures declare. Read all about it in the New Testament. Here are some samples from God's truth.
Galatians 3:6-9 tells us: "In the same way, 'Abraham believed God, so God declared him righteous because of his faith.' The real children of Abraham, then, are all those who put their faith in God.
What's more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would accept the Gentiles, too, on the basis of their faith. God promised this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, 'All nations will be blessed through you.' And so it is: All who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith."
Gal.3:25-29 -- "So you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have been made like him. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians—you are one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and now all the promises God gave to him belong to you." (see Rom. 10:4) (Note: There is no mention of unbelieving Israel here, but of believers only!)
Paul, in speaking to the brethren in Christ, says at Gal. 6:15-16: "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." (KJV) The New Living Translation further clarifies this "Israel of God" as "the new people of God." The full context clarifies believers here, not unbelievers!
Jesus, speaking with the Roman officer: (Mt. 8:10-12)
"When Jesus heard this (see Mt. 8) he was amazed. Turning to the crowd, he said, 'I tell you the truth, I haven't seen faith like this in all the land of Israel. And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven. But many Israelites—those for whom the Kingdom was prepared—will be cast into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Re. the faith of Abraham, see Rom. 4. See also Hebrews 2:16, 6:13, ch 7, 11:11-16 and all of ch. 11.
In Eph. 1:13 and 23 we read: "And now you also have heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God." (See Rom. 8:14 & 28-30)
Further confirmation that believers are the new people of God can be found at the following:
Luke 12:31-32 -- "'He will give you all you need from day to day if you make the Kingdom of God your primary concern. So don't be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom.'"
James 1:17-18 -- "Whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God above, who created all heaven's lights. Unlike them, he never changes or casts shifting shadows. In his goodness he chose to make us his own children by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his choice possession." (See also John 1:13)
Re. Christ's conversation with old Israel's religious leaders, which was prior to Jerusalem's destruction in 70 ad, we read:
Matt. 21:42-44: ""Then Jesus asked them, 'Didn't you ever read this in the Scriptures? "The stone rejected by the builders has now become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous to see."
What I mean is that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit. Anyone who stumbles over that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.""
It very much seems today that this is indeed the case. The ungodly and unbelieving nation of modern Israel gets all the preferences by the modern unbelieving church, that is badly stumbling at the truth, and it will indeed be crushed all to pieces, which is what it deserves, because it has forsaken God, his Word, and his truth, except it repents!
The modern, faithless and unbelieving church, apostate to the very core, installs those whom Luke calls "stubborn", "heathen at heart and deaf to the truth", "who resist the Holy Spirit" on a high pedestal and chief cornerstone throughout all of history! Luke goes on to say, "But your ancestors did, and so do you. Name one prophet your ancestors didn't persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous one—The Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered. You deliberately disobeyed God's law, though you received it from the hands of angels." (See all of Acts 7:51-53. Note also Acts 3:12-15 and Luke 11:50-54.)
I Pet. 2:4-10 -- "Come to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God's temple. He was rejected by the people, but he is precious to God who chose him.
And now God is building you, as living stones, into his spiritual temple. What's more, you are God's holy priests, who offer the spiritual sacrifices that please him because of Jesus Christ. As the Scriptures express it,
'I am placing a stone in Jerusalem, a chosen cornerstone, and anyone who believes in him will never be disappointed.' (Phil. 4:18)
Yes, he is very precious to you who believe. But for those who reject him, 'The stone that was rejected by the builders has now become the cornerstone.'
And the Scriptures also say, 'He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that will make them fall.'
They stumble because they do not listen to God's word or obey it, and so they meet the fate that has been planned for them.
But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God's holy nation, his very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
'Once you were not a people; now you are the people of God. Once you received none of God's mercy; now you have received his mercy.'
I Cor. 1:2 -- "We are writing to the church of God in Corinth, you who have been called by God to be his own holy people…"
Eph. 1:4-5 -- "Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure."
Nor was his plan of the ages left unfinished as you in the modern church now assume in your ignorance and blindness. The Scriptures affirm that Christ completed everything that God the Father sent Him here to do. It is far better and more blessed to take special note of the following:
John 4:34 -- In response to his disciples questions to Jesus (vv. 31-33) "Then Jesus explained: 'My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work."
John 17:4-5 -- "I brought glory to you here on earth by doing everything you told me to do. And now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began."
John 19:30 -- "When Jesus had tasted it, he said, 'It is finished!' Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit."
Dare any reasonable person among us continue to assume that Christ failed in any element of the work of our salvation, or left something vital undone out of it that the unbelieving Jews couldn't accept, along with the other heathen who decide against Him and the great work of salvation that He planned from the very beginning on our behalf? (See Mt. 25:34.)
From all of these Scriptures, and the great testimony of all of the remainder which backs them up, we should realize just how totally wrong it is to support the modern state of Israel in its rebellious unbelief. Furthermore, we should recognize just how totally wrong it is to team up with the faithless nation whose sole purpose and desire is to continue to reject Christ still, and to erect yet another earthly temple and animal sacrificial system in Christ's place. Such Scriptures as II Cor. 6:14-18, Eph. 5:11, Rom. 13:12, II Th. 2:3, I Tim.4:1-3, and II John 7-10 give us much better insights. Those who do obeisance and honor to such heretical and even blasphemous ideas do clearly demonstrate just how deficient they are in their understanding of God's complete and finished work of salvation, as the Holy Spirit bears witness with God's Word of revealed truth. And then, finally, with our spirits also, as the truth is confirmed to us in great peace and joy unspeakable and full of God's great glory from his majestic throne on high. (See also Luke 11:33-36.) For in these wonderful truths, there is no deficiency or matter left unattended to await any future fulfillment, but that glorious and majestic completion that is powerful to establish our course on God's higher plane to victory in Him who suffered and died in our place, that we might indeed glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
In conclusion, I would have to say that to just rely solely on Gen. 12:3 with today's flawed set of presumptions and superficial misconceptions, and to seek no further light and insight in the Scriptures is to engage in extremely seriously reckless and dangerous thinking. Indeed, to cling solely to just this one Scripture, and even then, to misconstrue its real meaning so that it supports and honors unbelievers, is absurd and ludicrous in every conceivable way. It is filled with the kind of human folly that is so altogether reminiscent of the Scripture warning of the blind leaders (Mt. 15:14) and their indifferent followers of this present world who fall into the ditch, and are so far gone as to never even realize it. To such people, who insist on clinging to such dark reasonings, it cannot be overemphasized that they desperately need to pray and to study all the more to show themselves approved unto God as more worthy workmen who need not to be ashamed and are happy and willing to rightly divide the Word of truth (II Tim. 2:15) even over the deluded errors of the day, if indeed, they are truly called and chosen of God. For the entire matter could not be more pressing and serious! For Genesis 12:3 supports God's real children, who are believers in Christ, the Messiah whom Abraham served. Those who bless them will be blessed of God. But those who bless unbelievers will be cursed. Are we not seeing that in our nation today?
(All Scripture references are taken from the NLT unless otherwise specified)
Genesis 12:3 says: "And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."
As we see in verse 1, the Lord is specifically speaking to Abraham, who is the father of all of the faithful on the earth.
This seems to present a serious problem to many today who seem to presume that Abraham is only related to the unbelieving modern nation of "Israel", and has little or nothing to do with the followers of Jesus Christ. Nothing could be further from the truth, and, if we would allow the sacred Scriptures to interpret themselves in the inspired, godly way over the way of those who insist on rebelling against God and His Christ, we would start to draw ourselves into the Scripture truths over the destructive lies and fantasies that have so taken us over the cliff and on into the trash heap of history. If we don't repent, and really start taking the Christian faith seriously, that is exactly where we are going to end up, and much sooner than later. My, how we love to dither while America burns down! What fun it is to go right along, and down the rabbit hole and its descent into total darkness.
If, perchance we would start to take the whole Bible seriously, and allow it to clarify truth and interpret itself, we would quickly discover how and why we have gone astray from the real Gospel truth, and have entered our modern dark age.
Certainly, God never intended for the Christians to support and align themselves against God's Christ and his truths with any unbelievers, no matter what the supposed or concocted pretext! By your inattentiveness to these important and critical matters, you blaspheme God. God's heavy hand of judgment awaits people who so wholeheartedly engage in such evil endeavors, and willfully thwart such important truth! Is this not what you are doing, and so misleading many others who look to you for far better things? Listen to the truth, and repent! Already, is not God's protective hand being removed from this now straying and unrepentant nation? Is there truly a real "Bible belt" in America, or is the phrase but a catch all for all of the modern apostate isms that now infest our once straight nation? It is time for a wake-up call for the church to start serving the one royal Master alone, our Lord Jesus Christ, and discontinue their subservience to all those who oppose Him still!
Abraham is certainly not the father of the unbelieving Jews and nation, and never was. But he is the father of all who are in Jesus Christ, and always were, as the Scriptures declare. Read all about it in the New Testament. Here are some samples from God's truth.
Galatians 3:6-9 tells us: "In the same way, 'Abraham believed God, so God declared him righteous because of his faith.' The real children of Abraham, then, are all those who put their faith in God.
What's more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would accept the Gentiles, too, on the basis of their faith. God promised this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, 'All nations will be blessed through you.' And so it is: All who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith."
Gal.3:25-29 -- "So you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have been made like him. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians—you are one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and now all the promises God gave to him belong to you." (see Rom. 10:4) (Note: There is no mention of unbelieving Israel here, but of believers only!)
Paul, in speaking to the brethren in Christ, says at Gal. 6:15-16: "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." (KJV) The New Living Translation further clarifies this "Israel of God" as "the new people of God." The full context clarifies believers here, not unbelievers!
Jesus, speaking with the Roman officer: (Mt. 8:10-12)
"When Jesus heard this (see Mt. 8) he was amazed. Turning to the crowd, he said, 'I tell you the truth, I haven't seen faith like this in all the land of Israel. And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven. But many Israelites—those for whom the Kingdom was prepared—will be cast into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Re. the faith of Abraham, see Rom. 4. See also Hebrews 2:16, 6:13, ch 7, 11:11-16 and all of ch. 11.
In Eph. 1:13 and 23 we read: "And now you also have heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God." (See Rom. 8:14 & 28-30)
Further confirmation that believers are the new people of God can be found at the following:
Luke 12:31-32 -- "'He will give you all you need from day to day if you make the Kingdom of God your primary concern. So don't be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom.'"
James 1:17-18 -- "Whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God above, who created all heaven's lights. Unlike them, he never changes or casts shifting shadows. In his goodness he chose to make us his own children by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his choice possession." (See also John 1:13)
Re. Christ's conversation with old Israel's religious leaders, which was prior to Jerusalem's destruction in 70 ad, we read:
Matt. 21:42-44: ""Then Jesus asked them, 'Didn't you ever read this in the Scriptures? "The stone rejected by the builders has now become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous to see."
What I mean is that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit. Anyone who stumbles over that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.""
It very much seems today that this is indeed the case. The ungodly and unbelieving nation of modern Israel gets all the preferences by the modern unbelieving church, that is badly stumbling at the truth, and it will indeed be crushed all to pieces, which is what it deserves, because it has forsaken God, his Word, and his truth, except it repents!
The modern, faithless and unbelieving church, apostate to the very core, installs those whom Luke calls "stubborn", "heathen at heart and deaf to the truth", "who resist the Holy Spirit" on a high pedestal and chief cornerstone throughout all of history! Luke goes on to say, "But your ancestors did, and so do you. Name one prophet your ancestors didn't persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous one—The Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered. You deliberately disobeyed God's law, though you received it from the hands of angels." (See all of Acts 7:51-53. Note also Acts 3:12-15 and Luke 11:50-54.)
I Pet. 2:4-10 -- "Come to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God's temple. He was rejected by the people, but he is precious to God who chose him.
And now God is building you, as living stones, into his spiritual temple. What's more, you are God's holy priests, who offer the spiritual sacrifices that please him because of Jesus Christ. As the Scriptures express it,
'I am placing a stone in Jerusalem, a chosen cornerstone, and anyone who believes in him will never be disappointed.' (Phil. 4:18)
Yes, he is very precious to you who believe. But for those who reject him, 'The stone that was rejected by the builders has now become the cornerstone.'
And the Scriptures also say, 'He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that will make them fall.'
They stumble because they do not listen to God's word or obey it, and so they meet the fate that has been planned for them.
But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God's holy nation, his very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
'Once you were not a people; now you are the people of God. Once you received none of God's mercy; now you have received his mercy.'
I Cor. 1:2 -- "We are writing to the church of God in Corinth, you who have been called by God to be his own holy people…"
Eph. 1:4-5 -- "Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure."
Nor was his plan of the ages left unfinished as you in the modern church now assume in your ignorance and blindness. The Scriptures affirm that Christ completed everything that God the Father sent Him here to do. It is far better and more blessed to take special note of the following:
John 4:34 -- In response to his disciples questions to Jesus (vv. 31-33) "Then Jesus explained: 'My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work."
John 17:4-5 -- "I brought glory to you here on earth by doing everything you told me to do. And now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began."
John 19:30 -- "When Jesus had tasted it, he said, 'It is finished!' Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit."
Dare any reasonable person among us continue to assume that Christ failed in any element of the work of our salvation, or left something vital undone out of it that the unbelieving Jews couldn't accept, along with the other heathen who decide against Him and the great work of salvation that He planned from the very beginning on our behalf? (See Mt. 25:34.)
From all of these Scriptures, and the great testimony of all of the remainder which backs them up, we should realize just how totally wrong it is to support the modern state of Israel in its rebellious unbelief. Furthermore, we should recognize just how totally wrong it is to team up with the faithless nation whose sole purpose and desire is to continue to reject Christ still, and to erect yet another earthly temple and animal sacrificial system in Christ's place. Such Scriptures as II Cor. 6:14-18, Eph. 5:11, Rom. 13:12, II Th. 2:3, I Tim.4:1-3, and II John 7-10 give us much better insights. Those who do obeisance and honor to such heretical and even blasphemous ideas do clearly demonstrate just how deficient they are in their understanding of God's complete and finished work of salvation, as the Holy Spirit bears witness with God's Word of revealed truth. And then, finally, with our spirits also, as the truth is confirmed to us in great peace and joy unspeakable and full of God's great glory from his majestic throne on high. (See also Luke 11:33-36.) For in these wonderful truths, there is no deficiency or matter left unattended to await any future fulfillment, but that glorious and majestic completion that is powerful to establish our course on God's higher plane to victory in Him who suffered and died in our place, that we might indeed glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
In conclusion, I would have to say that to just rely solely on Gen. 12:3 with today's flawed set of presumptions and superficial misconceptions, and to seek no further light and insight in the Scriptures is to engage in extremely seriously reckless and dangerous thinking. Indeed, to cling solely to just this one Scripture, and even then, to misconstrue its real meaning so that it supports and honors unbelievers, is absurd and ludicrous in every conceivable way. It is filled with the kind of human folly that is so altogether reminiscent of the Scripture warning of the blind leaders (Mt. 15:14) and their indifferent followers of this present world who fall into the ditch, and are so far gone as to never even realize it. To such people, who insist on clinging to such dark reasonings, it cannot be overemphasized that they desperately need to pray and to study all the more to show themselves approved unto God as more worthy workmen who need not to be ashamed and are happy and willing to rightly divide the Word of truth (II Tim. 2:15) even over the deluded errors of the day, if indeed, they are truly called and chosen of God. For the entire matter could not be more pressing and serious! For Genesis 12:3 supports God's real children, who are believers in Christ, the Messiah whom Abraham served. Those who bless them will be blessed of God. But those who bless unbelievers will be cursed. Are we not seeing that in our nation today?
No comments:
Post a Comment