For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.

(…continues from part 1…)

2)            Now when it came to Abraham, Hebrews 11:8 says, “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” Abrahamic walk with the LORD is the commencement of the Dispensation of the Promise. God promised to raise a people, His own peculiar people, through which salvation will come to the world. God showed Abraham the land of His promise to him in Genesis 13:14-15 “And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: 15) For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.” God’s promise was, “to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever,” but Abraham had long been dead by the historical time of Joshua 11:23 “So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war.” This is what Paul is explaining in Hebrews 11:13, which Dr. Abel Damina fails or refuses to see.

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – the Patriarchs of Promise

                Abraham did not wane in the faith of what had been promised him and his descendants. Sarah, his wife, and the patriarchs – their son, Isaac, and grandson, Jacob – who came after them wavered not in faith till they all died. These are the ones (who received God’s Promised Land) Paul referred to in Hebrews 11:13. Let us look at how Elijah left this world. 2Kings 2:9-12 “And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. 10) And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so. 11) And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 12) And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.”

                Only the beguiling will of an eisegete reads literary couch of metaphorical innuendos into the verses of the two prophets’ discussion. There is not a smidgeon of doubt that Damina will definitely find any level of incongruity to fix his eisegetical ways of teaching the Scripture. Dr. Damina will not fail to disappoint me by saying something like, “You see, Jeremiah (or whoever he decides to be the author) used figures of speech to tell his story;” (as if the Holy Spirit has no hand in its scripting). Just because we find it very difficult to understand what we would not, out of laziness, and consequently allow the Spirit of God to direct us into an understanding, does not mean that they are couches of figurative language.

                Then one should not find it scripturally difficult to believe that the entire Bible is the writings of imaginations of literary works. The meanings of the Hebrew and Greek words, coupled with the contextual stances of the revealed Scriptures allow serious students of the Bible to come to the understanding of God’s protocolary documentation. This unreasonable assumptions goad many so-called theologians to say, “God created this present world in seven years,” awfully using 2Peter 3:8 as scriptural reference! Some will teach, without any scriptural care, “Lucifer slept with Adam’s wife to give birth to Cain,” while others believe that it was Cain who slept with his mother to produce the female of his own marriage! Take one millimetre away from the express understanding of the Bible, and you are a feeder of heresies!

                “Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee.” These are the words of Prophet Elijah to his apprentice, Elisha. Is “before I be taken away from thee” not expressive of: 1) the time of his translation away from the earth; 2) the period of which is not known, even to the fatherly Elijah? Are we, the Christians, not going to experience the Rapture one day? Does anyone have knowledge of the year, month, week or hour of its expectation? Elijah was taken away from the surface of our terra firma, out of Elisha’s reach. Where were they taken? This is given to conjectures, I want to admit. Why? The Bible is silent on where in actual terms. Maybe Abraham’s Bosom, maybe heaven, though, I will want to believe that it is the former place.

                My scriptural reason is based on the fact that Jesus had not yet died and risen from the dead to do the theological act of Ephesians 4:8; before then, I believe that none physically went to heaven. Can God not transport some i.e. Enoch and Elijah – for two is the number of witness and of testimony: that rapture will come – to heaven before the event of Ephesians 4:8? He can, if it happens to be what He had purposely spoken. Amen. I am, indeed, careful what I teach from the Bible, and so should everyone who professes to be God’s child. 

                Getting born again is a conscious effort on the part of an individual. Get born again. Say this sinner’s prayer.

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!” 

(…to be continued…)

Read part 1 here

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