Promise Theology

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| Speaker: Ted Coburn |

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Theology
1. the rational and systematic study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truth

2. a particular system or school of religious beliefs and teachings

 

Covenant theology began with the reformer John Calvin (1509 – 1564), a French Protestant theologian.

Dispensational theology began with John Nelson Darby (1800 –1882), a Plymouth Brethren minister.

Covenant Theology
1. All men who have ever been saved have been saved by faith in Christ as their sin-bearer.
2. The ceremonial Laws have been abolished; the civil laws have been abolished except for their general equity; the moral laws continue.
3. God has always had only 1 people, the Church gradually developed.

 

Dispensational Theology
1. Men in the O.T. were saved by faith in a revelation peculiar to their dispensation, but this did not include faith in the Messiah as their sin-bearer. 
2. The Law has been abolished.
3. A clear distinction between God's program for Israel and God's program for the Church.

 

Promise Theology began with Willis Beecher, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.

Here is Walter Kaiser’s definition of the Promise-Plan of God.

The promise-plan is God’s word of declaration, beginning with Eve and continuing on through history, especially in the patriarchs and the Davidic line, that God would continually be in his person and do in his deeds and works (in and through Israel, and later the church) his redemptive plan as his means of keeping that promised word alive for Israel, and thereby for all who subsequently believed.  All in that promised seed were called to act as a light for all the nations so that all the families of the earth might come to faith and to new life in the Messiah.

Ten Characteristics Of The Promise-Plan Of God

• The Promise Of Messiah Is Found Is All The Scriptures
• The O.T. Teaching Was Regarded As A Single Promise
• The N.T. Promise Is Equated To The One Made To Abraham
• N.T. Promises Refer To The Single Definite Promise
• This Single Promise Is The Theme Of Both Testaments
• The Promise Involves Multiple Fulfillments
• O.T. Terminology Is Used By N.T. Writers
• The Promise Is Irrevocable
• The Promise Is Connected To Several Doctrines
• Individual Predictions Are Wrapped Up In One Promise

1.  The Promise Of Messiah Is Found Is All The Scriptures

The doctrine of the Promised Messiah is found throughout all the Scriptures and not just in isolated or selected passages.  Our Lord held the readers of the Old Testament accountable for knowing who he was and what would happen to him in Jerusalem. Yeshua soundly rebuked the two disciples he met on the road to Emmaus for their failure to understand the message of the Old Testament and the significance of what was written concerning the coming Messiah.

Luke 24:25-27  Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:  26  Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?  27  And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

Yeshua reveals himself to his disciples in this next verse.

Luke 24:44-46  And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.  45  Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,  46  And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: 

What the Old Testament contained only in a word of promise was precisely what our Lord held ordinary laypersons like Cleopas and his companion accountable for knowing, despite their obvious gloom over what they had thought was a tragic turn of events in the crucifixion of Yeshua.

 

2.  The O.T. Teaching Was Regarded As A Single Promise

The Old Testament Messianic teaching was regarded as the development of a single promise.

Here Paul states his case before King Agrippa.

Acts 26:4-7  My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews;  5  Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.  6  And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers:  7  Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.

As Beecher put it, “The thing he is speaking of he calls, not prediction, but promise; not promises, but promise; not a promise, but the promise.  The word is singular and definite.”  The whole essential messianic truth, as he knows it, he sums up in this one formula, “the promise made of God unto our fathers.”

More than forty New Testament passages refer to this word “promise,” which has as it’s most central and prominent feature the revelation concerning the Messiah.

3.  The N.T. Promise Is Equated To The One Made To Abraham 

The New Testament writers equate this single, definite promise as the one made to Abraham when God called him from Ur of the Chaldeans.

Instead of treating this definite promise as one that was recently received in the New Testament era, the writer of the book of Hebrews linked it with the transaction God made with Abraham long ago:

Hebrews 6:13-18  For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he could swear by none greater, he swore by himself,  14  saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.”  15  Thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise.  16  For men indeed swear by a greater one, and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation.  17  In this way God, being determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath;  18  that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us.

Hebrews 11:8-10  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.  9  By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:  10  For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Hebrews 11:39-40  And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:  40  God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

The apostle Paul makes the same argument in Romans:

Romans 4:13-14  For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.  14  For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
Romans 4:20  He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;

4.  N.T. Promises Refer To The Single Definite Promise 

While the New Testament writers occasionally speak of promises, using the plural form of the word, the manner in which they do so does not weaken the case for a single definite promise in the scriptures.  In those rare instances where the New Testament writers use the plural word “promises,” they do so to indicate that the one promise is made of many specifications.

Romans 9:4  Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;

Romans 15:8-9  Now I say that Yeshua Messiah was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:  9  And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name.

A brief sampling of some of the numerous specifications include the promise of the Holy Spirit, the resurrection of Messiah, the inheritance of the land of Canaan, the outreach to the gentiles, the coming of Messiah (both in his first and second coming), and the like.

5.  This Single Promise Is The Theme Of Both Testaments

The New Testament writers regard this single, definite promise, composed of many specifications, to be the theme of both the Old and New Testaments.  In one example, Stephen traces the path of the promise for the Sanhedrin.

Acts 7:2-3  And [Stephen] said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,  3  And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.

Acts 7:17-18  But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,  18  Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.

While the Old Testament does not have an exact verbal equivalent for the term “promise,” the same concept is found under other terms.  The earliest expression of the promise idea is found in the word “blessing” that occurs rather frequently in Genesis 1 - 11.  For example:

Genesis 1:28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Genesis 2:3  And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Genesis 9:1  And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

In more than thirty examples the Hebrew word dibber (usually translated “to speak”) could better be rendered “to promise.”  Add to these two terms God’s “pledge,” his “oath,” and his “rest,” along with several other terms and metaphors pointing to Messiah such as “Seed,” “Branch,” “Servant,” “Stone,” “Root,” “Lion,” and the list goes on.

6.  The Promise Involves Multiple Fulfillments

The promise made to Abraham is represented as both being partially fulfilled in the events of the exodus and yet still to be fully fulfilled in the distant future.  Paul showed this method of interpretation.

Acts 13:22-23  And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.  23  Of this man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Yeshua:

Since this plan of God was seen as an ongoing process that reached through all of history, it was necessary to point out each of the events in the historical line leading toward the Messiah, all the while fulfilling parts of the promise while moving to its final and complete resolution and fulfillment.  That is why the events connected with the birth of John the Baptist and Yeshua are treated both as fulfillments of the promise-plan and further predictors of what was to come.

Luke 1:67-73  And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,  68  Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,  69  And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;  70  As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:  71  That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;  72  To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;  73  The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,

7.  O.T. Terminology Is Used By N.T. Writers

The New Testament writers not only declare that the promise-plan of God is seen through the whole Old Testament, but they adopt the Old Testament terminology as part of their own way of expressing God’s revelation to them.  Terms and phrases that were added to the Old Testament over the course of time are used routinely by the New Testament writers.

8.  The Promise Is Irrevocable

The New Testament writers teach that the promise of God is operating eternally and is irrevocable.  Despite the fact that:

Romans 11:25  For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in,

Nevertheless,

Romans 11:29  For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

Galatians 3:15-18  Brothers, speaking of human terms, though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been confirmed, no one makes it void, or adds to it.  16  Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He doesn’t say, “To seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “To your seed,” which is Messiah.  17  Now I say this. A covenant confirmed beforehand by God in Messiah, the law, which came four hundred thirty years after, does not annul, so as to make the promise of no effect.  18  For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by promise.

Hebrews 6:13-14  For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he could swear by none greater, he swore by himself,  14  saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.”

Hebrews 6:17-18  In this way God, being determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath;  18  that by two immutable things [his word in Genesis 12 and his oath in Genesis 22], in which it is impossible for God to lie, we [the generations long after Abraham and his heirs] may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us.

Genesis 12:1-3  Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Get out of your country, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.  2  I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing.  3  I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. All of the families of the earth will be blessed in you.”

Genesis 22:15-18  The angel of Yahweh called to Abraham a second time out of the sky,  16  and said, “I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son,  17  that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your seed greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your seed will possess the gate of his enemies.  18  In your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

9.  The Promise Is Connected To Several Doctrines

The New Testament writers make a strong connection between the promise and a number of other doctrines.

Salvation To All The Nations

In Genesis 12:3, Abraham received the gospel in advance of its later fuller revelation.

The substance of the gospel was found in the words, “All nations will be blessed through you.”

Galatians 3:6-8  Even as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” 7  Know therefore that those who are of faith, the same are children of Abraham.  8  The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you [through you] all the nations will be blessed.”

Galatians 3:14  that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Messiah Yeshua; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Galatians 3:29  If you are Messiah’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise.

The Sealing Of The Holy Spirit

Ephesians 1:13  in whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,

Which is amazing for we Gentiles…

Ephesians 2:12  were at that time separate from Messiah, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

The Coming Of The Day Of Yahweh

2 Peter 3:9-10  The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 
10  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

The Resurrection And Eternal Life

Hebrews 9:15  For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

10.  Individual Predictions Are Wrapped Up In One Promise

All the individual predicted doctrines are wrapped up in the one promise doctrine, or promise-plan, which focuses on Yeshua Messiah.  To preach Yeshua as Messiah was to proclaim the promise.  These were not numerous predictions arbitrarily and randomly scattered throughout the Old Testament and then fulfilled now and again in the New Testament.  Instead, all three parts of the promise were repeatedly evidenced by the writers of both Testaments:

1. the promissory word
2. the events of history that served as the means, or links for maintaining the promise until it reached its planned goal
3. the final fulfillment in history in accordance with the revelatory words spoken ahead of time by God’s prophets and apostles

 

Any comments or questions accepted.

tedc@messiahshouseofyahvah.org