The Fulfillment of The Abrahamic CovenantFall (Vol 18, No 2)

THE JOURNAL OF MINISTRY AND THEOLOGY 77-119
The Fulfillment
of the Abrahamic Covenant
Dr. Gary Gromacki
Professor of Bible and Homiletics
Baptist Bible Seminary
Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania
INTRODUCTION: THE IMPORTANCE

OF THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
Dispensational premillennialists understand the importance

of the Abrahamic covenant to premillennialism.1 John Walvoord,
for example, wrote:
It is recognized by all serious students of the Bible that the

covenant with Abraham is one of the important and determinative
revelations of Scripture. It furnishes the key to the entire Old
Testament and reaches for its fulfillment into the New. In the
controversy between premillenarians and amillenarians, the
interpretation of this covenant more or less settles the entire
argument. The analysis of its provisions and the character of their
fulfillment set the mold for the entire body of Scriptural truth. 2
Charles Ryrie wrote,
The interpretation of the Abrahamic covenant is a watershed

between premillennialism and amillennialism. The question
concerns its fulfillment. All agree that certain aspects of it have
1
This article was originally presented at The Council on
Dispensational Hermeneutics at Calvary Theological Seminary, Kansas
City, MO, on September 17, 2014.
2John Walvoord, The Millennial Kingdom (Grand Rapids: Dunham,

1959), 139.
78 THE JOURNAL OF MINISTRY AND THEOLOGY
been fulfilled. But all do not agree on the fulfillment of other

aspects of it, particularly the land promise. 3
J. Dwight Pentecost wrote,
This covenant has a most important bearing on the doctrines of

eschatology. The eternal aspects of this covenant, which guarantee
Israel a permanent national existence, perpetual title to the land of
promise, and the certainty of material and spiritual blessing
through Christ, and guarantee Gentile nations a share in these
blessings, determine the whole eschatological program of the
Word of God. The covenant becomes the seed from which are
bought forth the later covenants made with Israel. The essential
areas of the Abrahamic Covenant: the land, the seed and the
blessing are enlarged in the subsequent covenants made with
Israel.4
The Abrahamic covenant is developed in these

unconditional covenants: Land, Davidic, and New. The land
promise of the Abrahamic covenant is developed in the Land
covenant (Deut 30:1–10). The seed promise of the Abrahamic
covenant is developed in the Davidic covenant (2 Sam 7:18-16).
The blessing promise of the Abrahamic covenant is developed in
the New covenant (Jer 31:31–40).
What is the Abrahamic covenant? What promises did God
make to Abraham? Has God fulfilled his promises in the
Abrahamic covenant already? What is the relationship of the
church to the Abrahamic covenant? Will the land promise be
fulfilled for the nation of Israel in the future millennial kingdom?
This article will attempt to answer these questions.
First, this article will survey the promises made by God to
Abraham and their fulfillment. Second, various amillennial
views on the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant will be
3 Charles Ryrie, Basic Theology (Chicago: Moody, 1999), 526.
J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,

4
1958), 71.
The Fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant 79
defined and critiqued. Finally, various premillennial views on

the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant will be defined and
critiqued (covenant premillennial view, progressive
dispensational view, and traditional dispensational view).
GOD’S PROMISES TO ABRAM BEFORE

THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT (Genesis 12–13)
God promised to bless Abram and make him a blessing

(Genesis 12:1–3)
Now the Lord had said to Abram, “Get out of your country, from
your family, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show
you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your
name great. And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who
bless you and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the
families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:1–3).
God appeared to Abram in Ur of the Chaldees and

commanded him to leave his country, his family. and his father’s
house and go to a land that God would show him. God made
several promises to Abram in his initial call recorded in Genesis
12. The “I will” statements of God show God’s intention to bless
Abram and make him a blessing to the world.
First, God promised to make Abram a great nation. God
started to fulfill this promise when he gave Abram and Sarah a
son: Isaac. The nation of Israel is that great nation descended
from Abram, Isaac, and Jacob.
Second, God promised to bless Abram. God blessed Abram
with livestock, silver, and gold (Gen 13:2). Abram and Lot could
not live in the same area because “their possessions were so
great” (Gen 13:6).
Third, God promised to make Abram’s name great. God kept
his promise. Abraham is the father of the faithful. Abraham is
revered by three great religions: Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam.
Fourth, God promised to bless those who blessed Abram and
to curse him who cursed Abram. God blessed Abram’s nephew
Lot with great possessions (Gen 13). God cursed Pharaoh for
taking Abram’s wife into his harem (Gen 12). Throughout
history nations that have blessed Israel have experienced God’s
blessing (America). Nations that have cursed Israel and the Jews
have experienced God’s curse (i.e., Nazi Germany).
Fifth, God promised to bless all the families of the earth in
Abram. The universal blessing promise finds its fulfillment in
Jesus Christ—the Seed of Abram (Gal 3:16).
The literal fulfillment of the personal promises of God to
Abram show that God will literally fulfill the national promises
he made to Abram later in the Abrahamic covenant (Gen 15).
God promised to give Abram’s descendants the land after Abram

obeyed the call of God (Genesis 12:4–7)
So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him and Lot went
with him. And Abram was 75 years old when he departed from
Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son
and all their possessions that they had gathered and the people
whom they had acquired in Haran and they departed to go to the
land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed
through the land to the place of Shechem as far as the terebinth
tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord
appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this
land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to
him. (Gen 12:4–7; italics added)
Abram obeyed this command of God in stages. First, he left

his country Ur of the Chaldees. He took his wife Sarai, his father
Terah, and his nephew Lot and journeyed to Haran (Gen 11:31).
The writer to the Hebrews says,
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place

which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not
knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of
promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and
Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise (Heb 11:8–9).
Abram did not leave his father’s house until his father Terah
died in Haran (Gen 11:32). Abram left Haran and came to the
land of Canaan (Gen 12:4). He traveled through the land to
Shechem (Gen 12:6). The Lord appeared to Abram and gave this
promise to him: “To your descendants I will give this land.”
Abram worshipped the Lord by building an altar to the Lord at
that place (Gen 12:7).
It is important to see that God made a promise to Abram
about the land (Gen 12) before God confirmed the promise with
a covenant (Gen 15).
God promised to give Abram and his descendants

the land and to multiply his descendants
(Gen 13:14-16)
God promised Abram the land again after Abram allowed

Lot to choose where he wanted to live:
And the Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him, ‘Lift
your eyes now and look from the place where you are—
northward, southward, eastward and westward; for all the land
which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will
make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man
could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also
could be numbered. (Gen 13:14–16; italics added)
God promised to give Abram innumerable descendants

(Gen 15:1–6)
God told Abram that his reward would be great (15:1).

Abram thought Eliezer of Damascus (his servant) would be his
heir since he was childless (15:2–3). God told Abram that
Eliezer would not be his heir but that his own son would be his
heir (15:4). God told Abram to look to heaven and see if he was
able to number the stars (15:5). God promised Abram that his
descendants would be innumerable (15:5). Abram believed
God’s promise and God imputed righteousness to Abram (15:6).
GOD’S PROMISES TO ABRAM IN THE ABRAHAMIC

COVENANT AND THEIR FULFILLMENT
(Gen 15:13–16)
God identified himself as the LORD who brought Abram out

of Ur of the Chaldeans to give him the land as his possession
(15:7). Abram asked God about how he would know the land
would be his (15:8). God told Abram to bring a three-year-old
heifer, three-year-old female goat and a three-year-old ram, a
turtledove, and a pigeon (15:9). Abram then cut these animals in
half, but he did not cut the birds in half (15:10). Abram drove
away the birds of prey (vultures?) (15:11). Abram fell into a
deep sleep at sunset (15:12). A great darkness fell on Abram
(15:12).
God predicted that Abram’s descendants would be sojourners

and servants in a strange land for 400 years
(Gen 15:13)
“Then He said to Abram: Know certainly that your

descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will
serve them and they will afflict them four hundred years” (Gen
15:13). Jacob and his family moved to Egypt 430 years before
the Exodus (1876 BC according to Merrill; Gen 46; Exod 12:40).
The Israelites became servants of the Egyptians for 400 years
from 1846 to 1446 BC. Pharaoh set taskmasters over them to
afflict them with their burdens (Exod 1:11): “The Egyptians
made the children of Israel serve with rigor. And they made
their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar, in brick and in all
manner of service in the field. All their service in which they
made them serve was with rigor” (Exod 1:13–14). Stephen
referenced the fulfillment of this promise in his defense before
the Sanhedrin (Acts 7:6).
God promised to judge the nation that enslaved them

(Gen 15:14)
“And also the nation whom they serve I will judge” (Gen
15:14). God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh and the Egyptians: (1)
the Nile River was turned to blood (Exod 7:14–25), (2) frogs
(Exod 8:1–15), (3) gnats (Exod 816–19), (4) flies (Exod 8:20–
32), (5) death of livestock (Exod 9:1–7), (6) boils (Exod 9:8–12),
(7) hail (Exod 9:13–35), (8) locusts (Exod 10:1–20), (9)
darkness (Exod 20:21–29), and (10) death of Egypt’s firstborn
(Exod 11:1–12:30).
God promised to deliver Abram’s descendants

out of slavery (Gen 15:14)
God said, “Afterward they shall come out with great

possessions” (Gen 15:14). The book of Exodus reveals how God
delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt:
Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of

Moses and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver,
articles of gold and clothing. And the Lord had given the people
favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what
they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians . . . . Now the
sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was 430 years.
And it came to pass at the end of the 430 years—on that very same
day—it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from
the land of Egypt (Exod 12:35-36, 40–41).
God promised Abram that he would die

in peace at an old age (Gen 15:15)
“Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you

shall be buried at a good old age” (Gen 15:15). Later Moses
wrote, “This is the sum of the years of Abraham’s life which he
lived: one hundred and seventy five years. Then Abraham
breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full
of years, and was gathered to his people” (Gen 25:7–8).
God promised that Abram’s descendants would come back to the

promised land in the fourth generation
(Gen 15:16)
“But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the
iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete” (Gen 15:16). Joshua
led Israel into the promised land in the fourth generation from
the time of Israel’s enslavement in Egypt (1406 BC). A
generation was viewed as 100 years. The return to the promised
land was delayed because it was not yet time for the Amorites to
be judged for their sins (immorality and idolatry).
The Abrahamic Covenant Ceremony (Gen 15:17–18)
“And it came to pass when the sun went down and it was
dark that behold there appeared a smoking oven and a burning
torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the
LORD made a covenant with Abram.” (Gen 15:17-18a)
The Lord in a theophany (a smoking fire pot5 and a flaming
torch) passed between the pieces of the cut animals while
Abram was asleep. God alone passed between the cut pieces of
the sacrificed animals. This shows that the Abrahamic covenant
is a unilateral covenant and not a bilateral covenant.
Weinfeld argues that the Abrahamic covenant was an
unconditional “covenant of grant.”6 God alone was accepting
5 Wenham comments on the smoking fire pot: “Since it is used for
baking the Hebrew word may be translated oven but modern ovens
are so different that this is rather misleading. The term seems to have
been used for a large earthenware jar. The dough stuck to the side and
was then baked by putting charcoal inside the jar or putting the jar
near the fire. Smoke and fire are symbolic of the presence of God (Exod
13:21; 19:18; 20:18). (Gordon Wenham, Genesis 1–15. Word Biblical
Commentary, vol. 1 [Waco, Texas: Word, 1987], 332).
6 “In its original setting the promise of the land was unconditional,
although it presupposed—as we have indicated—loyalty and the
fulfillment of some obligations and duties (see Gen 18:19; Ps 132:12);
responsibility to fulfill the covenant promises, to Abram. Abram

was a recipient of the covenant promises but he was not placed
under any obligation for God to fulfill his promises to him.
Jeffrey Niehaus believes that the Abrahamic covenant was
conditional because he said it has the structural elements of a
second millennium BC suzerain vassal treaty but that it also
contains a grant of lands to conquer.
The fact that the land had to be conquered if it was to be

possessed constitutes another problem for Weinfeld’s approach.
The examples of the “covenant of grant” which he adduces are all
royal grants of land to people (citizens, vassals) who have in effect
earned such a gift by their loyalty to the king. In such cases no
warfare is required for the grantee to possess the land. He simply
walks in it, as it were, and enjoys ownership of it. The fact that
Israel will have to conquer the land in order to possess it marks a
major difference between the covenants of grant in the ancient
Near East and Conquest commission implied in the Abrahamic
covenant … the gift of the land to Abram by the Lord in Genesis 15
requires that the land be conquered if it is to be possessed, as
subsequent revelation makes clear. In other words the realization
of the gift of land turns out to be conditional.7
Abraham earned the gift of land by his obedience to the call

of God to go to a land that God would show him. Just because the
Abrahamic covenant has some structural elements similar to a
suzerain vassal treaty (historical prologue) does not mean that
it is a suzerain vassal treaty like the Mosaic covenant. The fact
that Abraham did not walk with God between the sacrificed
animals shows that God alone was taking responsibility for
fulfilling the covenant promises. The fulfillment of the covenant
the covenant of promise itself was never formulated as conditional”(M.

Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the
Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970), 184–203).
7J. Niehaus, “God’s Covenant With Abraham” JETS 56.2 (June

2013): 267.
promises would not depend upon the obedience of Abraham.

The Abrahamic covenant is an unconditional covenant of grant,
not a suzerain vassal treaty.
Victor Hamilton says that God was not placing himself under
any kind of potential curse by passing through the pieces of the
sacrificed animals: “Instead, what one finds here is that the
slaying and arranging of the animals is simply a sacrificial
practice by means of which a covenant is ratified.”8
Hasel states, “The killing and sectioning of the animals by
Abram is a sacrificial preparation for the subsequent divine
ratification of the covenant by Yahweh who in passing between
the pieces irrevocably pledges the fulfillment of his covenant
promise to the patriarch.”9
Wenham agrees with Hasel: “It is not a dramatized curse
that would come into play should the covenant be broken, but a
solemn and visual reaffirmation of the covenant that is
essentially a promise.”10
Walton writes,
Texts from Mariand Alalakh feature the killing of animals as part

of the ceremony of making a treaty. In these texts, walking
through this sacrificial pathway can be seen as a symbolic action
enacting the treaty as well as a curse on the one who violates the
promise. This sort of explanation is less satisfactory in Genesis 15
because it is unclear what significance a self-curse can possibly
have for God. Abram’s driving away the birds of prey is identified
as symbolic of future protection from Israel’s enemies provided by
Victor Hamilton, The Book of Genesis Chapters 1–17, NICOT

8
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 433.
Gerhard F. Hasel, “The Meaning of the Animal Rite in Genesis 15”

9
JSOT 19 (1981): 70.
10 G. Wenham, “The Symbolism of the Animal Rite in Genesis 15: A
Response to G. F. Hasel” JSOT 22 (1982): 136.

Abram’s faith. In the last analysis there are no parallels to this

ritual that fully clarify it for us.11
Wenham writes,
The Sinaitic and Deuteronomic covenants were agreements

imposing obligations on both God and Israel: their closest extra-
biblical analogy is found in the ancient international treaties made
by great powers with their vassals. This covenant with Abraham is
different: it is a promissory oath made by God alone. Weinfield
(JAOS 90 (1970), 184–203; TDOT, 2:270–272) says the nearest
parallel to this form is the royal land grant made by kings to loyal
servants. These grants of land were typically made to a man and
his descendants in perpetuity. In form and content they thus run
in parallel to the patriarchal promises.12
God promised the land to Abram’s descendants

(Gen 15:18–21)
“On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram saying
“To your offspring (seed) I give this land from the river of Egypt to
the great river – the river Euphrates” (Gen 15:18; italics added).
The Lord identified the inhabitants of the promised land:
“Kenites, Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites,
the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and
the Jebusites” (Gen 15:19–20).
This is the first time the boundaries of the promised land are
given in the Bible. Dispensational premillennialists believe that
Israel has never possessed at one time all of the land promised
to them by God in the Abrahamic covenant. So they believe that
there must be a future fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant
land promise for Israel.
The river of Egypt is the promised land’s southern border.
There is debate regarding “the river of Egypt.” Ryrie believes it
11John Walton, Genesis. The NIV Application Commentary (Grand

Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 423.
12 Wenham, Genesis 1–15, 333.

is a reference to the Nile River13 while Hamilton and Wehnam

say that it refers to Wadi el-Arish (which is east of Nile River).14
The Euphrates River is the promised land’s northeastern
border.
THE PROMISES OF THE LAND TO ABRAHAM, ISAAC AND

JACOB AFTER THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
God again promised the land to Abraham

and his descendants (Gen 17:5–8).
No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall
be Abraham for I have made you a father of many nations. I will
make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you; and
kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant
between me and you and your descendants after you in their
generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and
your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants
after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of
Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. (Gen
17:5–8; italics added)
God promised to make Abram fruitful and make nations

come from him. Abraham is not only the father of the nation of
Israel, he is also the father of the Arab peoples (from Ishmael as
well as the sons from his wife Keturah–cf. Gen 25:1–4).
13 Ryrie says in a footnote on Genesis 15:18–21, “The word for

river refers to a large river. A different word meaning a stream is used
for a wadi, which does not always have water in it” (Ryrie Study Bible,
27).
14 Hamilton writes, “The river of Egypt (see Num 34:5; Josh 15:4
which use nahal instead of nahar) is not the Nile but the modern Wadi
el–Arish, the dividing line between Palestine and Egypt” (Victor
Hamilton, The Book of Genesis: Chapters 1-17, NICOT (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1990), 438). Wenham also believes that the river of Egypt
refers to Wadi el-Arish (Genesis 1-15, 333).
God promised that kings would come from Abraham. Jacob

made a prediction about his son Judah: “The scepter shall not
depart from Judah. Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until
Shiloh comes. And to Him shall be the obedience of the people”
(Gen 49:10). The word “Shiloh” means “whose it is.” The
Messiah who had the right to the scepter would come from the
line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Judah. Later God promised
David in the unconditional Davidic covenant that one of his
descendants would sit on the throne and rule Israel forever (2
Sam 7:12–13). Jesus is the king of Israel who fulfills the
Abrahamic and Davidic covenants. The angel Gabriel told Mary
about her son Jesus: “He will be great and will be called the Son
of the Highest, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of his
father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever,
and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32-33). Mary
responded in worship to the angel’s announcement, praising
God for fulfilling the Abrahamic covenant through Jesus: “He has
helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. As He
spoke to our fathers to Abraham and to his seed forever” (Luke
1:54–55).
God promised to establish his covenant between himself and
Abraham and his descendants. God said that the Abrahamic
covenant is an “everlasting covenant” (Gen 17:7). God also
promised the land of Canaan to Abram and his descendants as
“an everlasting possession” (Gen 17:8). Renald Showers states
two guarantees of the Abrahamic covenant: “The Abrahamic
covenant guarantees Israel permanent existence as a nation and
it guarantees Israel permanent ownership of the promised
land.”15
The word “everlasting” shows that the Abrahamic covenant
is unconditional. The word “everlasting” would not have been
used if the Abrahamic covenant were conditional. In that case if
Israel disobeyed God’s commands, then they would forfeit what
God promised. Since Israel has never possessed all of the land
15Renald Showers, There Really Is A Difference: A Comparison of

Covenant and Dispensational Theology (Bellmawr, NJ: Friends of Israel
Gospel Ministry, 1990), 69.
promised to Abraham and his descendants, there must be a

future fulfillment for this promise. Later the psalmist would say
of the Lord,
He remembers His covenant forever, the word which He

commanded, for a thousand generations. The covenant with which
He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac and confirmed to
Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, “To
you I will give the land of Canaan as the allotment of your
inheritance.” (Ps 105:9–11)
God promised the land, multiplied seed and blessing

to Abraham’s son Isaac (Gen 26:3–5)
God promised the land to Abraham’s son Isaac and not to

Ishmael. God said,
Dwell in this land and I will be with you and bless you; for to you
and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the
oath which I swore to Abraham your father. And I will make your
descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your
descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the
earth shall be blessed because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept
my charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws. (Gen
26:3–5)
God promised the land, multiplied seed

and blessing to Jacob
(the father of the nation of Israel)
(Gen 28:3–4; 13–14; 35:11–12; 48:3–4)
Isaac blessed deceptive Jacob rather than Esau. He said,
May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply
you, that you may be an assembly of peoples; and give you the
blessing of Abraham, to you and your descendants with you, that
you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger, which God
gave to Abraham. (Gen 28:3–4; italics added)
At Bethel God renewed the Abrahamic covenant with Jacob:

I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac;
the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.
Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall
spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south;
and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be
blessed. (Gen 28:13–14)
God renewed the covenant with Jacob again after he

returned to Bethel and built an altar. God said, “I am God
Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of
nations shall proceed from you and kings shall come from your
body. The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and
to your descendants after you I give this land” (Gen 35:11–12;
italics added).
Jacob rehearsed for Joseph the Abrahamic Covenant before
blessing his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh:
God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and

blessed me and said to me, “Behold, I will make you fruitful and
multiply you, and I will make of you a multitude of people and give
this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession.
(Gen 48:3–4; italics added)
AMILLENNIAL VIEWS ON THE FULFILLMENT

OF THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
Amillennialists differ on the time of the fulfillment of the

Abrahamic covenant. Some amillennialists (Riddlebarger, Allis)
believe that the Abrahamic covenant has already been fulfilled
by Israel in the past. Some amillennialists (Pieters) believe that
the Abrahamic covenant is being fulfilled today by the church.
Some amillennialists (Hoekema) believe that the Abrahamic
covenant will be fulfilled by the church in the future eternal
state.
Amillennial View: The Abrahamic Covenant land promise was

fulfilled in the time of Joshua. (Riddlebarger)
Joshua 21:43–45 says,
So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to
give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it.
The Lord gave them rest all around, according to all that He had
sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood
against them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand.
Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to
the house of Israel. All came to pass.
Before he died, Joshua said,
Behold this day I am going the way of all the earth. And you know
in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one things has
failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spoke
concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one word of
them has failed. (Josh 23:14)
Kim Riddlebarger writes, “This promise of a land was

fulfilled when Joshua led the people of Israel back into
Canaan.”16
Israel took possession of the land during the time of Joshua
and experienced peace for as long as their leader lived. But the
first chapter of Judges records what happened in Israel after the
death of Joshua. Various tribes of Israel failed to take the land
allotted to them (Judg 1:19, 21, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36).
The struggle of the twelve tribes to possess the land after
Joshua’s death shows that the Abrahamic covenant was not
completely and finally fulfilled in the time of Joshua.
Nehemiah commented on how Israel possessed the land in
the time of Joshua (cf. Neh 9:24–25). But Nehemiah wrote that
Israel’s disobedience led to God delivering Israel into the hands
Kim Riddlebarger, A Case For Amillennialism: Understanding the

16
End Times (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003), 46.

of their enemies (Neh 9:26–27). Kaiser writes, “The emphasis of

Joshua 21:44–45 was on the promised word which had not
failed Israel, nor would it. But whether any given generation
remained in the land has depended on whether it has set a
proper value on God’s promised inheritance.”17
Ryrie writes,
God had kept his promise to give Israel the land of Canaan as
recorded in Genesis 17:8. It is true that the Israelites had not yet
fully conquered it, but God had told them they would do so
gradually. See note on Deuteronomy 7:22. The promise of Genesis
15:18–20 involving a larger territory will be fulfilled in the
Millennium.18
Donald Campbell writes,
Some theologians have insisted that the statement in Josh 21:43

means that the land promise of the Abrahamic covenant was
fulfilled then. But this cannot be true because later the Bible gives
additional predictions about Israel possessing the land after the
time of Joshua (e.g. Amos 9:14–15). Joshua 21:43, therefore, refers
to the extent of the land as outlined in Numbers 34 and not to the
ultimate extent as it will be in the messianic kingdom (Genesis
15:18–21). Also though Israel possessed the land at this time it
was later dispossessed, whereas the Abrahamic Covenant
promised Israel that she would possess the land forever (Genesis
17:8).19
17 Walt Kaiser, “The Promised Land: A Biblical–Historical View,”

307.
18 Charles Ryrie, Ryrie Study Bible, 366.
19 Donald Campbell, “Joshua” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary:

Old Testament, eds. Roy Zuck and John Walvoord (Wheaton: Victor,
1985), 364–65.
Amillennial View: The Abrahamic Covenant land promise was

fulfilled in the time of David–Solomon (Allis).
First Kings 4:21, 24 says,
So Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the River (Euphrates)

to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. They
brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life…For he
had dominion over all the region on this side of the River from
Tiphsah even to Gaza, namely over all the kings on this side of the
River; and he had peace on every side all around him. And Judah
and Israel dwelt safely, each man under his vine and his fig tree,
from Dan as far as Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.
First Kings 8:65 says, “At that time Solomon held a feast and
all Israel with him, a great assembly from the entrance of
Hamath to the Brook of Egypt, before the LORD our God, seven
days and seven more days—fourteen days.”
Oswald Allis writes:
The question naturally arises whether or to what extent the

Abrahamic covenant has been fulfilled….This would indicate that
the promise was regarded as fulfilled in this respect in the golden
age of the monarchy. That it was so fulfilled is confirmed by the
words of Heb 11:12. As to the land, the dominion of David and of
Solomon extended from the Euphrates to the river of Egypt (1
Kings 4:21), which also reflects the terms of the covenant. Israel
did come into possession of the land promised to the patriarchs.
She possessed it, but not for ever. Her possession of the land was
forfeited by disobedience, both before and after the days of David
and Solomon.20
Notice that the borders of Solomon’s kingdom were from the

northeastern border of the River (Euphrates) to the land of the
Philistines and as far as the border of Egypt. It does not say that
20Oswald Allis, Prophecy and the Church (Philadelphia:

Presbyterian and Reformed, 1964), 57–58.
Solomon ruled to the river of Egypt. Second, Solomon’s kingdom

did not include the land of the Philistines (modern Gaza strip)
which was also included in the borders of the promised land
given in the Abrahamic covenant. Third, the promised land was
not totally possessed by the Israelites as it says the kingdoms
brought tribute and served Solomon. Finally, ancient Phoenicia
(part of the promised land) was never ruled by Solomon.
Fruchtenbaum argues that even though David and Solomon
conquered their enemies the land was still possessed by their
enemies and not by Israel:
While David and Solomon extended Jewish control close to the

borders of the Promised Land, it was not total since Phoenicia
(Lebanon) retained its independence to the very end. Even if
Phoenicia had fallen, it would not have fulfilled the covenant
promises for with David and Solomon most of the non-Jewish
territory, such as Syria, Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, etc. was
merely under military control and they had to pay tribute (1 Kgs
4:21) which could hardly be considered a fulfillment of a promise
that concerned actual possession and settlement in the land and
not merely military control.21
Walvoord points out that later prophecies in the prophetic

books regarding the future possession of the land argues against
the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant land promise during
the days of Joshua and/or David and Solomon:
If its promises regarding the land were fulfilled in Joshua’s time or

in Solomon’s, why do the Scriptures which were written later still
appeal to the hope of future possession of the land? Practically
every one of the Major and Minor Prophets mention in some form
the hope of future possession of the land. All of them were written
21 Arnold Fruchtenbaum, “The Land Covenant” in Progressive

Dispensationalism: An Analysis of the Movement and Defense of
Traditional Dispensationalism, ed. Ron Bigalke, Jr., (New York: UP of
America, 2005), 98.
after Solomon’s day. This is an obvious rebuttal to the amillennial

position.22
Amillennial View: The Abrahamic Covenant is fulfilled

today by the Church (Pieters).
Pieters believes that the church replaces Israel and inherits

the spiritual blessings of the Abrahamic covenant. He writes,
Since the Christian church is now the Seed of Abraham under the
New Covenant, all the promises of God to his people must be
understood as her heritage, and all the prophecies concerning
Israel not yet fulfilled and still to be fulfilled must be fulfilled in
her; leaving nothing at all of either promise or prophecy for those
who are merely descendants of Abraham after the flesh.23
Michael Vlach summarizes various forms of replacement

theology:
Some replacement theologians prefer the title “fulfillment

theology” in describing their view of Israel’s current and future
role in relation to the church. Since supersessionism is a term that
describes both replacement theology and fulfillment theology that
term can be used interchangeably with replacement and
fulfillment terminology in describing various forms which the two
theologies may take. Supersessionism is the view that the NT
church is the new and/or true Israel that has forever superseded
the nation Israel as the people of God. It may take the form of
punitive supersessionism, i.e. God is punishing Israel for her
rejection of Christ. Or it may be in the form of economic
supersessionism, i.e. it was God’s plan for Israel’s role as the
people of God to expire with the coming of Christ and be replaced
by the church. The final form of supersessionism is structural
supersessionism, i.e. the OT Scriptures are largely indecisive in
formulation of Christian conviction about God’s work as
22 John Walvoord, Millennial Kingdom, 178.
23 Albertius Pieters. The Seed of Abraham (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1950), 121.

consummator and redeemer. Strong supersessionists hold that

Israel has no future in the plan of God, but moderate
supersessionists see a divine plan for the future salvation of the
Jews as a group, but not their national restoration to the promised
land. This last view holds that Israel is the object of God’s
irrevocable gift of grace and calling, but that such a role
guarantees them no national blessing as the OT promised. It
assures them only of becoming part of the church as the people of
God.24
What New Testament texts show that God

is not finished with Israel?
Matthew 19:28: “So Jesus said to them, ‘Assuredly I say to

you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the
throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on
twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.’” Jesus
predicts that he will sit on the throne of his glory (the Davidic
throne) in the regeneration (a reference to the millennial
kingdom). At that time the disciples will sit on twelve thrones
judging the twelve tribes of Israel. This NT verse shows that the
nation of Israel will exist in the future millennial kingdom and
will be divided into twelve tribes.
Luke 22:29–30: Jesus said: “And I bestow upon you a
kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me. That you
may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones
judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Jesus predicts that the
disciples will enter and enjoy the kingdom. Jesus predicts that
the disciples will dine with him in his kingdom. Jesus also
predicts that the disciples will sit on thrones judging the twelve
tribes of Israel in his kingdom. This verse shows that the twelve
tribes of Israel must be in existence in the coming kingdom.
Acts 1:6–7: “Therefore when they had come together, they
asked Him, saying “Lord, will You at this time restore the
kingdom to Israel?” “It is not for you to know times or seasons
24 Michael J. Vlach, “Various Forms of Replacement Theology,” The
Master’s Seminary Journal 20, no. 1 (Spring 2009), 57.

which the Father has put in His own authority.” The disciples of
Jesus anticipated the restoration of kingdom to Israel after the
resurrection of Jesus. Jesus did not say that the disciples were
wrong in anticipating a kingdom. He said that their timing was
off. The kingdom is future and not present.
Has the church replaced Israel so that Israel has no future in
the plan of God? No. Paul wrote that the covenants and the
promises are given to the Israelites (Rom 9:4).
Romans 11:1: Paul wrote, “I say then, has God cast away His
people? Certainly not. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of
Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.” Paul argues that God is not
finished with his people Israel. Paul uses himself as example A
to show that God is not finished with Israel. Paul was a Jewish
Christian. Paul claimed to be an “Israelite” and of the “seed of
Abraham.” Paul is an example of a physical–spiritual Jew. He is a
physical descendant of Abraham, and he also had the faith of
Abraham.
Paul argues that the natural branches (the Jews) have been
cut off so that the unnatural branches (the Gentiles) could be
grafted to the olive tree (the place of blessing of the Abrahamic
covenant). God is able to graft them in again (Rom 11:23).
Romans 11:25–26: Paul wrote, “For I do not desire,
brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you
should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has
happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
And so all Israel will be saved.” During the present time many
Jews are spiritually blind and have not received Jesus as their
Messiah. Blindness has happened in part since some Jews have
received Jesus as their Messiah. During the present time many
Gentiles are being saved. All Israel will be saved in the future at
the second coming of Jesus to earth (cf. Zech 12:10–13:2).
Amillennial View: The Abrahamic Covenant will be fulfilled as the

Church (made up of OT and NT saints) inherits
the world in the eternal state–
the new heavens and new earth (Hoekema).
Hoekema writes,
Prophecies about the restoration of Israel may also be fulfilled

antitypically—that is, as finally fulfilled in the possession by all of
God’s people of the new earth of which Canaan was a type. The
Bible indicates that the land of Canaan was indeed a type of the
everlasting inheritance of the people of God on the new earth. In
the fourth chapter of the book of Hebrews the land of Canaan
which the Israelites entered with Joshua is pictured as a type of
the Sabbath rest which remains for the people of God. From
Hebrews 11 we learn that Abraham, who had been promised the
land of Canaan as an everlasting possession, looked forward to the
city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God
(v.10). This future city, then, will have to be the final fulfillment of
the promise to Abraham that he would everlastingly possess the
land of Canaan. What can this future city be but the holy city which
will be found on the new earth? From Gal 3:29 we learn that if we
are Christ’s then we are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to
promise. Heirs of what? Of all the blessings God promised to
Abraham, including the promise that the land of Canaan would be
his everlasting possession. That promise will be fulfilled for all of
Abraham’s spiritual seed (believing Gentiles as well as believing
Jews) on the new earth. For if it is true, as we saw, that the church
is the New Testament counterpart of Old Testament Israel, then
the promises given to Israel will find their ultimate fulfillment in
the church.25
Hoekema believes that the OT says nothing about a

millennial reign of Christ. He thinks that the phrase “new
heavens and new earth” used by Isaiah in Isaiah 65:17-25 and
66:22-23 refers to the eternal state. Hoekema argues that since
25 Anthony Hoekema, The Bible and the Future (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1979), 211.

the same phrase is used in Revelation 21:1 it must refer to the

eternal state.
Hoekema argues that the word “everlasting” in the
Abrahamic covenant promises suggests a fulfillment in the
eternal state rather than just the millennial kingdom proposed
by premillennialists.
Critique of Hoekema
God says,
For behold I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former
shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice
forever in what I create. For behold I create Jerusalem as a
rejoicing. And her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy
in my people. The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her,
nor the voice of crying. No more shall an infant from there live but
a few days; nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days. For the
child shall die one hundred years old, but the sinner being one
hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and
inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They
shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and
another eat; for as the days of a tree so shall be the days of My
people. And My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble.
For they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the Lord and
their offspring with them. It shall come to pass that before they
call I will answer and while they are still speaking, I will hear. The
wolf and the lamb shall feed together; The lion shall eat straw like
the ox. The dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor
destroy in all My holy mountain, says the Lord. (Isa 65:17–25)
Various OT texts reveal conditions that are part of the

millennial kingdom on earth but not part of the new heavens
and new earth in the eternal state. Isaiah 65:17–25 and 66:22–
24 reveal conditions that cannot be part of the eternal state.
These descriptions require an intermediate kingdom prior to
the eternal state.
Isaiah states that the child will die one hundred years old
and the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed
(Isa 65:20). The death of children at 100 years old shows the
longevity of life in the millennial kingdom. This verse also shows
that King Jesus will judge those unbelieving children of the
tribulation saints who physically survive the tribulation period
and enter the kingdom in their physical bodies.26 Physical death
will not happen in the new heavens and new earth. John wrote,
“There will be no more death” (Rev 21:4).
The tribulation saints who survive the tribulation period
will have to rebuild houses and plant vineyards after the
devastating judgments of the tribulation period (cf. Rev. 6–19).
Isaiah 65:21 says, “They will build houses and inhabit them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.” Believers will not
have to build houses in the eternal state because we will be
living in the Father’s house which has many rooms (John 14:1–
3), also called the New Jerusalem (cf. Rev. 21–22).
Tribulation saints who survive the tribulation period will
marry and have children in the millennial kingdom. Isaiah
predicted, “They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children
for trouble; for they shall be the descendants of the blessed of
the Lord and their offspring with them” (Isa 65:23).
Isaiah 66:22–24 says,
For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall
remain before me,” says the Lord. “So shall your descendants and
your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one New
Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall
come to worship before Me,” says the Lord. “And they shall go
forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed
against me for their worm does not die and their fire is not
quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.
Isaiah 66:23 says that all people will come to worship the
Lord each new moon and Sabbath. This is a millennial scene. It
26 Only believers (tribulation saints) will enter the millennial

kingdom after the judgment of the nations by King Jesus (Matt 25).
Their children will still need to trust in King Jesus as their Savior.
Apparently some will reject Jesus as Savior and King. Their judgment
shows that the age of accountability in the millennial kingdom will be
100 years old!
cannot be a scene from the eternal state in the new heavens and
new earth. Revelation 21:23 states that there will be no need for
the sun or the moon in the eternal state. The last verse of Isaiah
is a strange one. Will believers look at corpses in the eternal
state when they go to worship the Lord? No. This must be a
millennial scene. Millennial saints will see the corpses of people
who refuse to believe and worship the Messiah: King Jesus.
Feinberg writes,
Hoekema’s view of history is not redeemable by the postulation of

a new earth because the goal of history (the new heavens and new
earth) is beyond history. The reason that a premillennialist can
genuinely be optimistic about history in spite of the spread and
intensification of evil is that he believes that God will make an
incursion into history and establish his kingdom on this earth.
Thus, while the course of human history apart from the visible
establishment of God’s kingdom will see the intensification of
opposition to God, history will also see the righteous rule of God’s
king.27
New Covenant Theology: The Abrahamic covenant has a physical

fulfillment of the land promise for Israel as Israel conquered the
land under Joshua. The Abrahamic covenant has a spiritual
fulfillment of the land promise in a spiritual rest for believers
(Steve Lehrer, Tom Wells, Fred Zaspel)
Lehrer believes that the land promises of the Abrahamic

covenant were already fulfilled historically “by the time of the
conquest of the land of Canaan under Joshua.”28 New Covenant
Theology teaches that the “Abrahamic Covenant contains both
the Old and New Covenants. The Old Covenant is the physical
fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise and the New Covenant is
Paul Feinberg, review of Anthony Hoekema, The Bible and the

27
Future, Trinity Journal 1 (Spring 1980): 108.
Steve Lehrer, New Covenant Theology: Questions Answered (n.p:

28
Steve Lehrer, 2006), 32.

the spiritual fulfillment.”29 Tom Wells says that the OT and NT

writers “read the terms of the Abrahamic covenant in two
different ways.”30 OT writers saw the fulfillment of the
Abrahamic covenant for Israel. NT writers saw the fulfillment of
the Abrahamic covenant for the church. Citing Josh 21:43–45
and Heb 11:8–9 and 39–40 Wells writes, “Everything is fulfilled
in Joshua; nothing is fulfilled in Hebrews. Clearly they are
reading the evidence from different perspectives.”31
Bill Barrick has written an excellent analysis of New
Covenant Theology:
Though New Covenant Theology (NCT) has positive aspects such

as an insistence on a biblically based theology, several aspects of
the system are not so positive. For example in pursuing a middle
course between Dispensationalism and Covenant Theology its
theologians rely on a strained view of Dispensationalism and
adopt an interpretive methodology called supersessionism. A
noteworthy omission in NCT’s listing of covenants is the Davidic.
To a degree, NCT agrees with Dispensationalism on the Noahic
and Abrahamic covenants, but the system fails to grasp the
thematic continuity of the OT covenants. Instead, NCT stresses
discontinuity as the defining characteristic of a covenant because
of the biblical contrast of the Old and New Covenants, and follows
a redemption, fulfillment, and kingdom hermeneutic rather than a
literal, normal or plain hermeneutic. NCT and Dispensationalism
agree on the centrality of the Abrahamic Covenant in the theology
of the OT, but NCT sees one kind of fulfillment of that covenant’s
land promises in the days of Joshua. It understands the spiritual
aspects of the Abrahamic Covenant as ultimately fulfilled in the
Messiah and the possession of the promised land as ultimately
fulfilled in a spiritual rest. The system holds that the gospel was
not clearly revealed before the coming of Christ. The system takes
the Old Covenant as fulfilling the physical parts of the Abrahamic
29 Ibid., 36.
30 Tom Wells, New Covenant Theology: Description, Definition,

Defense. (n.p.: Tom Wells, Fred G. Zaspel, 2002) , 60.
31 Ibid., 61.
Covenant and the New Covenant as fulfilling the spiritual parts.

NCT holds that the Israelites redeemed from Egypt were
physically redeemed, but not spiritually redeemed because the
Mosaic Covenant was based on works. This leads to the strange
position that OT saints were not saved until after the death and
resurrection of Christ. NCT thinks that the Davidic Covenant was
fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Christ and fails to allow
for the NT teaching of a future kingdom. With all its positive
features, NCT misses vital points featured in the OT covenants. 32
Progressive Covenantalism: The Church inherits the world in the

eternal state because of its connections to Jesus,
who is Lord of the whole world
(Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum).
Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum in their book Kingdom

Through Covenant view the land of Israel as a type of the future
new heavens and new earth. They write, “The land promise of
the Abrahamic Covenant must also be understood in terms of
what preceded it, namely, the covenant of creation. When this is
done, there is further biblical warrant to view the land as a type
or pattern of the entire creation.”33
They write,
Within the Old Testament and especially in prophetic anticipation,

the “land” of Israel is identified with the new creation associated
with the inauguration of the new covenant age… The New
Testament announces that the inheritance of the “land” is fulfilled
in our Lord Jesus Christ, who brings to completion all of the
Bill Barrick, “New Covenant Theology and the Old Testament

32
Covenants” The Master’s Seminary Journal 18, no 1 (Fall 2007), 165–

80.
Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum, Kingdom Through Covenant

33
(Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 709.

previous covenants (along with their types and shadows), and

who in his cross work inaugurates the new creation.34
It is important to note that in this entire discussion of what Christ

has accomplished in his new covenant work, there is little
evidence that the land promise finds its Christological fulfillment
in terms of a specific piece of land given to national Israel. The
story line of Scripture simply does not move back in this direction.
Rather, the entire New Testament instead announces that in Jesus,
the last Adam and true Israel, our inheritance is nothing less than
the new creation…Christ who is Lord over the whole world,
inherits as a result of his work the entire world. He is the Messiah
of Israel, but his rule extends far beyond the borders of the
original promised land (e.g. Phil 2:10; cf. 1 Corinthians 22–23;
Eph. 1:10). This way of thinking of the fulfillment of the land
promise in Christ is confirmed by other important New Testament
texts (Rom 4:13; Eph 6:3; and Heb 3:1–4:13; 11:8–22). For
example, in Rom 4:13, Paul is clear that Abraham did not view the
land promise as referring merely to a small piece of Palestinian
territory but ultimately saw it as a type and pattern of the entire
world. Or, in Eph 6:3, Paul can quote the fifth commandment
(which clearly pertains to the land of Canaan in its Old Testament
context) and now expand it to the entire earth.35
Another crucial text which also makes this same point, similar to
what Paul says in Rom 4:13 is Heb 11:8–22. There the author
contends that Abraham’s inheritance ultimately was not the land
of Canaan but a heavenly inheritance linked to the New Jerusalem
and the new creation.36
Given how the biblical covenants unpack the theme of land it

should not surprise us how the entire story line ends in Revelation
21–22. In the final chapters of Scripture the consummated state is
pictured as rest in terms that recall Eden of old, yet far greater. In
34 Ibid., 713.
35 Ibid., 714.
36 Ibid., 715.
this new creation, we have the geographical boundaries of Eden

(“the land”) expanded to the entire creation, which is also
beautifully described in the dimensions of the Holy of Holies,
signifying God’s covenantal presence throughout the entire
creation, not just in the limited dimensions of the Old Testament
tabernacle/temple. In this vision of the new heavens and new
earth, God’s people take up residence in God’s presence, a
residence described as the antitypical fulfillment of the Old
Testament land. In fact, in this final vision we discover our final
inheritance—what Abraham is said to have looked for—namely, a
city whose builder and maker is God and a creation that is full of
God’s glory.37
Michael Vlach gives a detailed review and critique of the

book Kingdom Through Covenant.38 Vlach points out that Gentry
and Wellum fail to make significant comments about key NT
texts such as Matthew 24–25, Luke 1–2, Acts 1–3, Romans 9–11
and Revelation 19–20. In Luke 1:32–33 the angel Gabriel told
Mary that Jesus’ coming is linked to the Davidic covenant and a
kingdom reign over national Israel. Zacharias referred to both
the Davidic and Abrahamic covenants as evidence that Israel
would be saved and rescued from her enemies (Luke 1:67–74).
Peter tells the leaders of Israel that they are still “sons of the
prophets and of the covenant which God made with your
fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of
the earth shall be blessed’” (Acts 3:25).
PREMILLENNIAL VIEWS
Premillennialists believe that the Abrahamic covenant will

be finally fulfilled in the future millennial kingdom. The Lord
Jesus Christ will return to earth in power and great glory before
he establishes his kingdom on this earth (Rev.19). At this time
37 Ibid.
Michael J. Vlach, “Have They Found a Better Way? An Analysis of

38
Gentry and Wellum’s Kingdom Through Covenant, The Master’s

Seminary Journal 24, no. 1 (Spring 2014), 5–24.
the promises of the Abrahamic covenant will be finally and

totally fulfilled.
Covenant Premillennial View: The Abrahamic covenant will be

fulfilled as the Church (made up of OT and NT saints) inherits the
world in the future millennial kingdom (Fuller).
Fuller writes,
When New Testament saints are perfected at the resurrection
then Old Testament saints will be resurrected and perfected as
well (Heb 11:40). So the manifold wisdom of God (Eph 3:10),
which was manifest when Gentile believers were included in the
church as well as Jews, will be evident from the final glorified state
of all the saints. Since Old Testament saints (mostly Jewish) are
going to be made perfect along with New Testament saints, the
group that will emerge at this perfecting will be an enlarged
church which shows the manifold wisdom of God in among other
things, having Jews and Gentiles on the same footing. 39
Fuller thinks that Israel will be saved at the time of Christ’s

premillennial second coming and that the Jews will then be part
of the church. He sees Israel and the church enjoying the same
blessing in the millennial kingdom:
But any thought of such a division of blessings must be rejected on

the basis that Gentiles are joint heirs (Eph 3:6) and share the fat
root of the olive tree (Rom 11:17).… But also since believers are
going to reign with Christ during the millennium, they will no
doubt have access to Palestine and will surely be a part of those
who will sit at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom
of heaven. (Matt 8:11)40
39Fuller, Gospel and Law: Contrast or Continuum? (Grand Rapids:

Eerdmans, 1980), 196.
40 Ibid., 192.
Critique of Fuller
Hebrews 12:23 presents a problem for Fuller’s view of an

enlarged “church” in the millennium and eternal state. “But you
have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general
assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in
heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of
righteous men made perfect.” In the New Jerusalem distinctions
are made between the residents. The church is distinguished
from the spirits of righteous men made perfect (a reference to
OT saints). Hebrews 11:40 states, “God provided something
better for us (the church) so that apart from us they (OT saints)
should not be made perfect.”
Fuller thinks that Christians (NT saints) will be resurrected
at the same time as OT saints as he holds to a post-tribulation
rapture of the church. Dispensational premillennialists argue for
a pre-tribulation rapture of the church (1 Thess 4:13–18; 1 Cor
15:51–58; Rev 3:10). Christians who have died will be
resurrected before the tribulation period. Old Testament saints
and tribulation martyrs will be resurrected at the end of the
tribulation period when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to earth in
glory (Dan 12:13; Rev 20:4).
One problem with the post-tribulation rapture view is that if
the church is raptured at the end of the tribulation, then no one
would enter the millennial kingdom with physical bodies. What
nations would Christ rule with a rod of iron (Rev 19:15)? Fuller
believes that unbelievers enter the millennial kingdom. He says,
“If Christ can work to convert rebels after he has returned to
earth, then unbelievers can enter the millennium and be saved
after they respond favorably to Christ.41” Fuller does not give
any scripture to support his assertion. Matthew 25:31-46 states
that when Christ returns all the nations will be gathered before
he and he will separate the sheep from the goats. The sheep
(Gentile believers from the tribulation period) will enter the
41 Ibid., 188.
millennial kingdom in their physical bodies and enjoy the

blessings. The goats (Gentile unbelievers from the Tribulation)
will be sent away into eternal punishment. Unbelieving Gentiles
who survive the tribulation period will not enter the millennial
kingdom in their physical bodies.42
Fuller gives these arguments for his view: (1) The church is
not unique because the Holy Spirit indwelt men in the OT in the
same way that he indwells believers today (Num 27:18; Col
1:27). (2) Ephesians 3:5 indicates that the mystery of Jew–
Gentile equality in the church was not made known in the Old
Testament to the extent that it is now made known in the New
Testament.
The following arguments answer the arguments given by
Fuller in his book. First, John 14:17 indicates that the
relationship of the Holy Spirit to men in the OT was different
from the relationship that the Holy Spirit has to believers today.
Colossians 1:26 also states that the mystery (Christ in you) was
hidden from past ages and generations. Second, the comparative
adverb “as” in Ephesians 3:5 can be taken grammatically as
descriptive (a comparison of kind) instead of in a restrictive (a
comparison of degree) sense. Fuller understands the mystery as
partially revealed in the OT and fully revealed in the New.
Dispensational premillennialists understand Ephesians 3:5 to
teach that the mystery was not known in the OT, but was
revealed by the apostles and NT prophets in the NT. Ephesians
3:9 indicates that Paul was called to reveal the dispensation of
the mystery (the church age).
42 Gary Gromacki, “A Critique of the Use of Galatians 3 in the

Theological Systems of A. Pieters, D. Fuller and A. Hoekema” (Th.M.
thesis, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1984), 52.
Progressive Dispensationalist View: The promises of the

Abrahamic covenant are fulfilled in Jesus, the seed of Abraham.
The new covenant is the form in which the Abrahamic covenant
will be fulfilled (Bock/Blaising).
Bock and Blaising believe that the Abrahamic covenant

promises are fulfilled in Jesus. “From the standpoint of the New
Testament the promises of Abraham are being and will be
fulfilled through the Christ, who is proclaimed as Jesus . . . God
blesses Christ, the seed of Abraham, the seed of David, and all
those of Abraham and of the nations of the earth who are in
Him.”43
The New Testament gives the good news concerning Jesus of
Nazareth, a descendant of David, to whom the grant covenant of
David has been confirmed. He has been anointed by the Holy
Spirit, raised up even from the dead, declared to be Son of God,
being made Lord and Christ as He has been enthroned at the right
hand of God, becoming the highest of the kings of the earth. In
receiving Davidic blessings, he has become the heir of the
blessings promised to Abraham, and He mediates those blessings
to others, both from Israel and from the nations, as they are
blessed in Him.44
Bock writes,
It is important to note that the blessing which Paul has in mind in

Galatians 3 is the reception of the Holy Spirit (see 3:2, 5; 4:6) and
the gift of righteousness (3:21–22). These are in fact new covenant
blessings, but Paul presents them as blessings of the Abrahamic
covenant. Again, this shows that the new covenant is the form in
which the Abrahamic covenant will be fulfilled. It is also important
to note that Paul, just like Peter, sees the Abrahamic covenant
blessing mediated in stages which are tied to the history of Christ.
The stages distinguish not only between degrees of blessing but
Craig Blaising and Darrell Bock, Progressive Dispensationalism

43
(Grand Rapids: Bridgepoint Books), 190.
44 Ibid., 210.
also between different kinds of blessing. Thus Peter spoke of the

restoration of all things predicted by the prophets at the future
coming of Christ. This certainly includes the national promises to
Israel, since these promises are included in “all things predicted by
the prophets.” Paul likewise spoke of the salvation of all Israel at
the coming of Christ (Rom 11:26).45
The emphasis in progressive dispensationalism is on the

present fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant for the church.
Bock and Blaising say that “the new covenant is the form in
which the Abrahamic covenant will be fulfilled.” They believe
that Jesus sits on the Davidic throne in heaven and mediates the
spiritual blessings of the Abrahamic covenant to the church (the
Holy Spirit and the gift of righteousness). Traditional
dispensationalists argue that Jesus sits on the Father’s throne in
heaven and will sit on the Davidic throne in the millennial
kingdom (Rev 3:21; Matt 19:28; 25:31). In their book
Progressive Dispenationalism, Bock and Blaising mention the
“national promises to Israel,” but they do not focus on the
fulfillment of the land promise for saved Israel in the millennial
kingdom.
Traditional Dispensationalist Premillennial View: The Abrahamic

Covenant will be fulfilled by saved Israel in the future millennial
kingdom. Saved Israel will inherit
the promised land in the millennial kingdom.
(Walvoord; Pentecost; Ryrie; Johnson; Gromacki)
Ryrie believes that the Abrahamic covenant promises will

literally be fulfilled in the future for Israel. He writes,
Israel is promised permanent possession of the land and

permanent existence as a nation. This is based on the
unconditional character of the covenant. Since the Church does
not fulfill the national promises of the covenant, these promises
await a future fulfillment by the nation Israel. Other Scriptures
45 Ibid., 191.
were citied to show that the Lord has promised a future

restoration of the nation and a return to the land. Thus, the
unconditional, partially fulfilled Abrahamic covenant becomes an
important plank in the solid basis for the premillennial faith.46
Arguments for an Unconditional

Abrahamic Covenant
The Abrahamic covenant is called eternal. In Genesis 17:7–8

God promised Abraham that the covenant he established with
him will be an everlasting covenant and the land of Canaan will
be given to him and to his descendants for an everlasting
possession. David praised God that the covenant made with
Abraham was confirmed to Israel as an everlasting covenant (1
Chron 16:17). The word “eternal” rules out the possibility that
Israel because of disobedience could abrogate the covenant.
The covenant ceremony of Genesis 15 was unilateral and
not bilateral. God alone passed through the pieces of the
sacrificed animals. Abram was asleep when God passed through.
God alone made the promise regarding the land. Abram was a
recipient of the promises of the covenant. The fulfillment of the
Abrahamic covenant is not dependent upon the obedience of
Abram or his descendants.
The Abrahamic covenant is a covenant of grant and not a
suzerain–vassal treaty. Weinfeld writes,
The structure of both types of these documents is similar. Both

preserve the same elements: historical introduction, border
delineations, stipulations, witnesses, blessings and cursings.
Functionally, however, there is a vast difference between these
two types of documents. While the treaty constitutes an obligation
of the vassal to his master, the suzerain, the “grant” constitutes an
obligation of the master to his servant. In the grant the curse is
directed towards the one who will violate the rights of the king’s
vassal, while in the treaty the curse is directed towards the vassal
who will violate the rights of the king. In other words, the grant
46 Charles Ryrie, The Basis of the Premillennial Faith (Neptune, NJ:
Loizeaux Brothers, 1953):74–75.

serves mainly to protect the rights of the servant, while the treaty
comes to protect the rights of the master. What is more, while the
grant is a reward for loyalty and good deeds already performed,
the treaty is an inducement for future loyalty. The covenant with
Abraham, and so the covenant with David, indeed belong to the
grant type and not to the vassal type.47
Fruchtenbaum writes,
It must be stressed that, although a covenant may be made at a

specific point of time, it does not mean that all provisions of the
covenant go immediately into effect. Some do, but some may not
for centuries. The Abrahamic covenant is a good example. Some of
God’s promises did go immediately into effect, such as providing
for Abraham’s physical needs in the land, his change of name and
circumcision. Others were fulfilled only in the near future. For
example, Abraham was promised a son through Sarah, but had to
wait twenty–five years before that promise was fulfilled. Other
provisions were fulfilled only later in Jewish history, such as the
Egyptian sojourn, enslavement, and the Exodus (400 years later),
which was also part of the covenant. Finally, other provisions are
still future, never having been fulfilled, such as Abraham’s
ownership of the land and Israel’s settlement in all of the
Promised Land. It is important to note that although a covenant is
made, signed, and sealed at a certain point of history, this does not
mean that all the promises or provisions go immediately into
effect. It should come as no surprise that not all of the provisions
of the unconditional Jewish covenants are presently being fulfilled
to, in or by Israel today. This is not necessary for the covenants to
still be in force. Nor is this a valid reason to teach that the church
has taken over these covenants or that they are now being fulfilled
to, in, or by the church.48
47M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in

the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 185.
48 Arnold Fruchtenbaum, “Where Are We Now? The Prophetic Plan

of the Abrahamic Covenant” in The Fundamentals for the Twenty–First
Century, ed. Mal Couch (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2000), 162–63.
The Mosaic covenant did not change the unconditional

nature of the Abrahamic covenant. Paul writes, “And this I say,
that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later
cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in
Christ that it should make the promise of no effect” (Gal 3:17).
The Mosaic covenant (the Law) did not nullify the Abrahamic
covenant (the promise). What was the relationship of the
conditional Mosiac covenant to the unconditional Abrahamic
covenant? The Mosaic covenant defined the means by which
each individual generation of Israel could enjoy the blessings of
the unconditional Abrahamic covenant. When Israel disobeyed
the law, they were disciplined by the Lord. The ultimate
discipline was Israel’s removal from the land.
The book of Hebrews declares the Abrahamic covenant to be
immutable:
For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could

swear by no one greater He swore by Himself saying Surely
blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you and so
after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men
indeed swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is for
them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more
abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His
counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in
which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong
consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set
before us. (Heb 6:13–18)
Premillennialists argue that God has not yet kept his promise to
Abram to give him and his descendants all of the promised land.
Since God cannot lie, He must keep his promise.
Seed of Abraham:
Who will inherit the promised land?
The promise of the land was made to Abraham and his

descendants. Who are the seed of Abraham? Amillennialists
believe that seed of Abraham refers to the church (believers
who have the faith of Abraham). Dispensational

premillennialists distinguish four different possible meanings of
the “seed of Abraham” in the Bible.
First, the seed of Abraham can refer to the physical
descendants of Abraham. Ishmael and Isaac were the physical
sons of Abraham by different women. Ishmael was the physical
son of Abraham and Hagar (Sarah’s concubine) and the father of
the Arab peoples. Isaac was the physical son of Abraham and
Sarah and one of the fathers of the Jewish people. Before Isaac
was born, God made it clear that he would establish his
covenant with Isaac and not Ishmael. “Sarah your wife shall bear
a son and you shall call his name Isaac: I will establish my
covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his
descendants after him…But my covenant I will establish with
Isaac” (Gen 17:19, 21). So the Arab peoples who currently live in
the Middle East cannot claim to be owners of the promised land.
God made his covenant with the physical descendants of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: the nation of Israel.
Second, the seed of Abraham can refer to physical/spiritual
seed of Abraham=saved Jews. Not all Jews were spiritually
saved. Israel was an elect nation but not all Jews were elect
(spiritually saved). Many Jews in Jesus’ day thought that they
would inherit the kingdom. But John the Baptist told the
unrepentant Jews, “Brood of vipers. Who warned you to flee
from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of
repentance and do not begin to say to yourselves we have
Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise
up children to Abraham from these stones,” (Luke 3:7–8). The
Jewish leaders said to Jesus, “Abraham is our father. Jesus said
to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the
works of Abraham,” (John 8:39). Jesus told the unrepentant
Jewish leaders that they were of their father the devil (John
8:44). Paul wrote, “For they are not all Israel who are of Israel,
nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham
but in Isaac your seed shall be called” (Rom 9:6–7). Within the
elect nation of Israel there are saved and unsaved Jews.
Dispensational premillennialists believe that only saved Israel
will inherit all the promised land in the future millennial

kingdom. Unsaved Jews will not enter the millennial kingdom.
Third, the seed of Abraham can refer to Jesus Christ. Paul
wrote, “To Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He
does not say and to seeds as of many but as of one, and to your
Seed, who is Christ,” (Gal 3:16). Ultimately, the blessings of the
Abrahamic covenant come to those who are related by faith to
Jesus Christ, the seed of Abraham. The seed promise of the
Abrahamic covenant was developed in the unconditional
Davidic covenant. God promised King David that a descendant of
his would sit on his throne and rule over Israel forever. Jesus
Christ is the physical son (descendant) of David will sit on the
Davidic throne and rule over Israel in the future millennial
kingdom.
Fourth, the seed of Abraham can refer to the spiritual
descendants of Abraham = saved Gentiles who have the faith of
Abraham. Paul identified the saved Galatians as spiritual sons of
Abraham. “Those who are of faith are sons of Abraham” (Gal
3:7). “So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing
Abraham” (Gal.3:9). “And if you are Christ’s then you are
Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to promise” (Gal 3:29).
Saved Gentiles will reign with Jesus Christ in the millennial
kingdom. They are heirs of the universal blessings of the
Abrahamic covenant but not of the land promise which is
specifically for the physical/spiritual seed of Abraham (saved
Jews).
Land: Will saved Israel inherit the promised land

in the future millennial kingdom?
Dispensational premillennialists believe that saved Israel

will inherit the promised land in the future millennial kingdom.
Pentecost wrote,
… because of the rejection of the offered kingdom, God brought the

Gentiles into the place of blessing, which program continues
throughout the present age. When that program ends, God will
inaugurate the theocratic kingdom at the return of the Messiah
and fulfill all the covenanted blessings. Thus, throughout the New
Testament the kingdom is not preached as having been
established, but is still anticipated.49
Elliott Johnson writes, “Therefore all covenant agreements

with Israel will be inaugurated in fulfillment when Israel
receives the One whom they crucified–the Son of David, the Son
of Abraham–when He returns (Zech 12:10).”50
The land promise of the Abrahamic covenant was developed
in the Land Covenant found in the book of Deuteronomy. The
book of Deuteronomy was a second law or restatement of the
Sinaitic covenant for the generation of Israel about to enter the
promised land under Joshua. It is a Suzerain–Vassal treaty (a
conditional covenant). The nation of Israel would experience
blessing for obedience and cursing for disobedience. If Israel
obeyed God’s laws they would enjoy blessing in the land (Deut.
28:1–14). If Israel disobeyed God’s law, they would experience
the curses (including locust judgments, invasion by foreign
nations and the final judgment of deportation from the land)
(Deut 28:15–68).
God made a promise to Israel that if Israel repented and
returned to the Lord that the Lord would gather Israel from the
nations and they would possess the promised land (Deut 30:1–
6). Dispensational premillennialists believe that in the future
Israel will repent at the second coming of Messiah Jesus to the
earth at the end of the tribulation period (Zech 12:10–13:2).
God will circumcise the hearts of the repentant Jews to enable
that future generation of Israel to inherit the land and blessings
associated with it in the kingdom (Deut 30:6). God will fulfill his
new covenant promises to Israel at this time (cf. Ezek 36:25–26;
Jer 31:31–34). Since the saved Jews will have the law written on
their hearts, they will be enabled to obey the Lord in the
49 J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come, 468.
50Elliott Johnson, “Covenants in Traditional Dispensationalism” in

Three Central Issues in Contemporary Dispensationalism, ed. Herbert
Bateman IV (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1999), 155.
kingdom. The final fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant is

guaranteed because God will change the hearts of the Jews and
they will trust in Jesus as their Messiah (Rom 11:26-27).
Ezekiel predicted that God would give the promised land as
an inheritance to Israel. Ezekiel 47:13: “Thus says the Lord God:
‘These are the borders by which you shall divide the land as an
inheritance among the twelve tribes of Israel. . . .’” Ezekiel
47:13–29 gives the borders of the promised land in the
millennial kingdom. Ezekiel 47:29 concludes, “’This is the land
which you shall divide by lot as an inheritance among the tribes
of Israel and these are their portions,’ says the Lord God.”
Amos predicted,
Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, ‘When the plowman
shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows
seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine and all the hills
shall flow with it. I will bring back the captives of my people Israel;
they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; they shall plant
vineyards and drink wine from them; they shall also make gardens
and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land and no
longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them,
says the Lord your God. (Amos 9:13–15)
Jews who trust in Jesus as their Messiah and survive the

tribulation period will enter the millennial kingdom and inherit
all of the land promised to Abraham in the Abrahamic covenant.
They will rebuild the waste cities (cities that have been
destroyed during the tribulation period) and inhabit them. God
will plant Israel back in their land.
OT Jewish saints will be resurrected at the second coming of
Messiah Jesus and will inherit the land. God promised Daniel
that he would die but then be resurrected to enter into rest and
receive his promised inheritance at the end of the age: “But as
for you, go your way to the end; then you will enter into rest and
rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the age” (Dan
12:13).
Jews who are martyred for their belief in Messiah Jesus and
their refusal to take the mark of the Beast in the tribulation
period will be resurrected and reign with Jesus during the

millennial kingdom. They will reign over cities in the promised
land (Rev 20:4).
CONCLUSION
This article has shown the importance of a literal

interpretation of the Abrahamic covenant to a defense of
premillennialism. Traditional dispensationalists argue that God
has fulfilled some promises of the Abrahamic covenant in past
history, but God has not fulfilled every promise that he made to
Abraham in the Abrahamic covenant. There has never been a
time in history when Israel possessed all of the land promised to
them by God in the Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 15). God will
fulfill his covenant promise to Abraham in the future at the
second coming of Jesus Christ to earth. The Jews will trust in
Jesus as their Messiah. “All Israel will be saved.” God will forgive
the sins of his people. Saved Jews will inherit all of the land
promised to Abraham and his descendants in the Abrahamic
covenant (from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates River). All
the nations will be blessed as a result of King Jesus reigning over
the world from Jerusalem during the millennial kingdom.

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What promises did God make to Abraham?

What promises did God make to Abraham?

What is the relationship of the church to the Abrahamic covenant?

What is the relationship of the church to the Abrahamic covenant?

THE JOURNAL OF MINISTRY AND THEOLOGY 77-119

INTRODUCTION: THE IMPORTANCE

Dispensational premillennialists understand the importance

It is recognized by all serious students of the Bible that the

Charles Ryrie wrote,

The interpretation of the Abrahamic covenant is a watershed

2John Walvoord, The Millennial Kingdom (Grand Rapids: Dunham,

been fulfilled. But all do not agree on the fulfillment of other

J. Dwight Pentecost wrote,

This covenant has a most important bearing on the doctrines of

The Abrahamic covenant is developed in these

3 Charles Ryrie, Basic Theology (Chicago: Moody, 1999), 526.

J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,

defined and critiqued. Finally, various premillennial views on

GOD’S PROMISES TO ABRAM BEFORE

God promised to bless Abram and make him a blessing

God appeared to Abram in Ur of the Chaldees and

God promised to give Abram’s descendants the land after Abram

Abram obeyed this command of God in stages. First, he left

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place

God promised to give Abram and his descendants

God promised Abram the land again after Abram allowed

God promised to give Abram innumerable descendants

God told Abram that his reward would be great (15:1).

GOD’S PROMISES TO ABRAM IN THE ABRAHAMIC

God identified himself as the LORD who brought Abram out

God predicted that Abram’s descendants would be sojourners

“Then He said to Abram: Know certainly that your

God promised to judge the nation that enslaved them

God promised to deliver Abram’s descendants

God said, “Afterward they shall come out with great

Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of

God promised Abram that he would die

“Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you

God promised that Abram’s descendants would come back to the

The Abrahamic Covenant Ceremony (Gen 15:17–18)

5 Wenham comments on the smoking fire pot: “Since it is used for

responsibility to fulfill the covenant promises, to Abram. Abram

The fact that the land had to be conquered if it was to be

Abraham earned the gift of land by his obedience to the call

the covenant of promise itself was never formulated as conditional”(M.

7J. Niehaus, “God’s Covenant With Abraham” JETS 56.2 (June

promises would not depend upon the obedience of Abraham.

Texts from Mariand Alalakh feature the killing of animals as part

Victor Hamilton, The Book of Genesis Chapters 1–17, NICOT

(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 433.

Gerhard F. Hasel, “The Meaning of the Animal Rite in Genesis 15”

JSOT 19 (1981): 70.

10 G. Wenham, “The Symbolism of the Animal Rite in Genesis 15: A

Response to G. F. Hasel” JSOT 22 (1982): 136.

Abram’s faith. In the last analysis there are no parallels to this

The Sinaitic and Deuteronomic covenants were agreements

God promised the land to Abram’s descendants

11John Walton, Genesis. The NIV Application Commentary (Grand