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You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth. Daily Bible Study
Lesson # Genesis 17:3-5 Study Material - Genesis 17:3-5 You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth. Gen. 17:3-5 3 And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, 4 'As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, And you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 'No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. Christ is the second person of the trinity. He presents himself to Abram as, 'I Am, God Almighty'. This makes it very clear to Abram as to whom he is conversing with. Various other idol worshiping existed in the world, but here is the one who can see, and hear, and speak, as no other idol of mans making can. I have received a few inquiries regarding Islam and how and when it came into the picture. You probably are aware that Islam claims Abraham as the father of their collective religion or races, but that simply is not the case. Islam did not even exist until a little after 600 AD. This a long time after Christ's first advent and certainly long after Abraham by about 2600 years. So they were not even close in their historical claims. The selection of Abraham is purely arbitrary. Why not Noah? Why not Adam? Islam was begun by Muhammad around 625 AD. He states that he received a message from God through the angel Gabriel, and then wrote it down in what is now called the Qur'an (Koran). Followers are called Muslims, and they worship their one true god, Allah. Jesus is seen as a prophet along with Abraham and Moses and many others, about 124,000 others. Jesus was not seen as being crucified but depicted as one who came with a message and then ascended to heaven. The Qur'an includes the words and deeds of Muhammad, some laws of Moses, some writings of Jesus (many of which are rejected by current day Islam), and some of the psalms. It is clear that Muhammad had an education in Christianity. Might be interesting to know whether or not he was actually saved!! Islam spread rapidly throughout the Middle East, and was one of the reasons for the eight crusades which began after 800 AD, as conflict erupted over control for the area we now called Israel. Islam is relatively young as older religions go. Hinduism and Buddhism are much older. I placed a very simple chart on the Index Page (see link above to view it and print it) under the charts section comparing the older religions in history. I did not include the newer religions. Those which did not exist before about 1800 AD. I view Christianity as the basic concept of the Bible from beginning to end, therefore making it the oldest faith in human history beginning with Adam of course. This is what all other religions lack. A very old and fundamental history with all of mankind. These other beliefs began in arbitrary settings and have many contradictions within their philosophies. And, we have here before us the written word of God as spoken to Abram. The one and only true El Shaddai (God Almighty) speaks to Abram and makes a promise to him. If you will follow Me and remain blameless, then I, God, will do these things. And thus is the summary of Gods promise. Abram approached God in humility. He bowed face down representing his purity and fellowship status. He conversed with God. God speaks to us through his word, Prov. 6:22+, and through His Spirit, John 14:26. Apart from Gods word, there is no communication with God. Apart from His Spirit, there is no mechanism for communication with God. Man can only approach God on His terms. Never on mans terms. That is the basic difference between Christianity and all other religions. Christianity is God doing all of the work and God getting all of the credit, and through Gods plan, raising man up to His level through Bible doctrine. All other religions concentrate on man lifting himself up to Gods level and man in effect achieving that which God wants, with man doing all of the work and man getting all of the credit for mans own efforts. Christianity is a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. All other religions reject this concept. God promised Abram that he would be the father of many nations, but Abram is sexually dead at this moment. His wife has passed menopause as well. They are incapable of having children. Thus the power of God is able to do that which man cannot. Abram received a new name. Formerly Abram, 'exalted father', to Abraham, 'father of a multitude'. And as Rom. 4 further explains, Abram is a father of a spiritual multitude, not just to physical descendants. As Jesus told the Pharisees, claiming to be a descendant of Abraham means nothing. God could raise up rocks to be descendants. The spiritual pattern which Abram has displayed and will again display is what is important. Faith is the basis of this relationship. All who believe in Christ are in effect descendants of Abraham. Here we have a world just 300 or 400 years following the flood and people have fallen into two separate patterns of faith. Those who follow the worship of rocks and other things false, and then there is Abraham, a Hebrew (one who has crossed over, been set apart), separated from all others of humanity. This is the state of all who believe in Christ. We are all set apart from humanity and become the family of God. And in our specific case, we are Royal Family because of our current dispensation. Abraham is the undeserving recipient of Gods promise. We all are undeserving. There is nothing that we can do to earn this promise. All of Gods promises are gifts which we can neither earn nor deserve. God does all of the work. I Am is doing this. The Almighty God is doing this. Behold! See it. Believe it. Wake up and smell the coffee. Reality is here. You Abraham, are sexually dead and I, God, can make this promise and fulfill it, and solve your deficiency. You Abraham can do nothing to solve your problem. And so it goes with all of us. We all live on the brink of disaster. The world is too great for anyone of us to control. Every thing can be good in our life, then one morning it can simply fall apart. We live in a prosperous society here in the USA. I'm sure you have seen all the images of those in other countries who live in refugee camps and those who are on their way to these camps. In Afghanistan, there is poverty and violence and has been for decades. Yet these people know about Jesus Christ. They know about the prosperity of the USA, and they reject God and Christ and even us. They cling to their hate and even to their own perversions of their religion. They are a confused and deceived people, yet with full knowledge of the alternatives. They have no excuses. And still there are Afghans who have seen the light and they live here in our country. They are the smart ones. They chose to leave corruption and seek life elsewhere. They all claim Abraham as their father, but they miss the point. Muhammad picked up on this from reading Genesis. He invented his own religion and bastardized Christianity into something of his own invention and so many are deceived. Muhammad claims Abraham as an ancestor through Ishmael, but Ishmael is rejected as we will see. Isaac is the chosen descendant. And Isaac has not yet even been conceived. Gods promise is future from the point of the promise. Ishmael was born 13 years earlier and is not a part of the promise. The promise is born out of the spiritual life, not out of the sexual life, 'walk before me and be blameless'. Though certainly there is a dual purpose in this promise, but faith is the whole point in all of this. 
Now is the time to post a prayer. End Of Lesson Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth. |
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