Commentaries:
These inspired words of Stephen plainly state that Abraham never received the promised inheritance—even though God's promise was made unconditional because of his obedience.
Will You Go to Heaven?
God gave Abraham none inheritance in that land—"yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him when as yet he had no child."
Abraham never received the promised inheritance—though God's promise was made unconditional because Abraham had obeyed God!
Further, Hebrews 11:8-10, 13 shows that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the fathers to whom the promises were made—all died, in faith, not having received the promises! Do you grasp what that inspired scripture of God says? In plain language, it says they died, but did not receive their reward—the very fathers to whom the promises were made did not "go to their reward at death." Thus saith the Lord!
Now further, the Scriptures tell us that Abraham is dead. When the New Testament was written, many hundreds of years after his death, Abraham was still dead, as recorded in John 8:52-53. There you read plain words: "Abraham is dead. . . ." Abraham has not received the promised inheritance, even to this day!
All through the New Testament, you read that Christians who become Abraham's children through Christ are not now, in this age, inheritors—they are now heirs. An heir is one who has not yet come into his inheritance.
Now why has Abraham, even to this day, as yet not inherited the promise? Since "eternal inheritance" of the earth constitutes the better promises of the New Testament, and since the message which Christ delivered in confirming these promises was the gospel of the Kingdom of God, it follows that the land of this earth—the land of the promise Jesus came to confirm—is the territory occupied and governed by the Kingdom of God!
Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986)
What Is the Reward of the Saved?
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