THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

68 The Hope of Israel: What Is It?
dignation, which shall devour the adversaries." (Heb.
10:27). It is due to the glory of God and the honor
of His gospel to insist upon this.
FROM THE DESERT TO THE RIVER EUPHRATES
Those who hold the doctrine of a national restoration
for the Jews, and with a territorial dominion
greater (so we are told) than any they occupied in
their past history, usually refer to the word of the
Lord to Abraham "Unto thy seed have I given this
land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the
river Euphrates" (Gen. 15:18), as affording support
for the doctrine. The argument is and it is regarded
by those who make use thereof as quite conclusive of
the matter that this promise has never been fulfilled
to the "seed" of Abraham, and hence there must
needs be a restoration of national Israel, if only for
the purpose of the fulfilment of this particular promise.
But this argument is based upon a two-fold mistake :
first, a mistake as to the facts of history, for the above
promise was duly fulfilled to Abraham's natural "seed,"
and the Bible contains clear records of the fact, as will
be shown presently; and second, a mistake as to the
nature of the promise; for the promise in its fulness
runs to Abraham's true "Seed" (which is Christ), as
clearly explained by the apostle Paul. This also will
be shown below.
1. As to the historical facts: At Mount Sinai God
showed to Moses how He would proceed to put the
children of Israel in possession of their promised inheritance.
He would not drive out the inhabitants of
the land "in one year" ;
but He said, "little by little I