Willum wrote:
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Replying to post 42 by Provoker]
So when is it time for God to pay his debts?
Surely the people of Israel have the right to become impatient with their covenant, God did agree to his side after all...
Personally, I'd be miffed if a contract wasn't executed in my lifetime, but perhaps I have high expectations.
IMO Willum, God's promise was from His foreknowledge, and referred to the ending He saw from the beginning, rather than something God is going to do.
What God said in His everlasting gospel promise to Abraham, is that a great nation of Abraham's children, will inherit everlasting possession of all the land between the Euphrates and the river of Egypt, and will bless all the families of all the nations on the earth.
The blessing of God's gospel is unconditional for those who will receive it(everyone on the earth). There are always conditions which must be met for anything to take place, and that is why God explained the conditions which will be met, because God saw them taking place. Abraham is part of those conditions because it is a nation of his children which is going to do the blessing...Not God. The difference between the God of Abraham, and the pagan gods which have always existed, is that the pagan gods are evil, and will punish anyone who will not obey the priesthood. The God of Abraham simply, and graciously, revealed the good news for mankind, which is coming.
Or, perhaps your perspective is reasonable: The Jews have abandoned their covenant - after all, no one sacrifices rams (or humans) to Yahweh any longer, and murder and other commandment violations seems to be the way of life. So it seems very reasonable that the Children of Israel are in breach of the covenant and God is simply not fulfilling his part.
Thoughts?
My thoughts are that churchmen have been taught to major on minor things, and to completely ignore the major things...LOL
The Jews never had a covenant with God. The Children of Israel promised God that it would keep the 10 rules of national unity, and become the great everlasting nation defined by God in His everlasting gospel promise to Abraham. The Children of Israel was a mixed national assembly when it left Egypt, and when the land was divided up, non-descendants inherited equally with descendants. The point is that covenant national Israel was not based on bloodline, but on faith in God's everlasting, unconditional, gospel promise.
Laws are not part of God's gospel promise, but laws are always neccessary for a nation, and a nation is part of God's gospel promise.
After Moses died, Aaron abandoned the faith of Abraham and established a priest-defined pagan religion for Israel, like all the other nations of the world had.
Rome has fooled us since the 4th century, so there not enough of God's faithful, at this time, to establish the great everlasting nation of God's gospel.
What do you think Willum?