Since Abraham never did ... just this fact ALONE means the fulfillment is still future.
Fact?
Joshua 21:43-45 "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."
Care to amend that claim? Or are the false prophets of Premillennial Dysfunctionalism correct and the Scriptures wrong? There is more to the Bible than just a few selected passages from Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation
“Care to amend that claim?”
No. I’m getting ready to go to church, so here is a quick
copy and past that reflects my view of the point you raise.
[after the passage you quote...]
“In 23:5 Joshua indicated that there was more land that the Israelites needed to possess. In 24:1–28 he urged the people to commit themselves anew to the Mosaic Covenant so they might experience all that God had promised their forefathers. These passages confirm that Joshua did not mean by his statement of God’s faithfulness here that Israel had already possessed all that God had promised her forefathers.”
“The point Joshua was making in verse 45 was that God had been faithful to His promises up to that moment. He had promised possession of the land, rest on every side, and victory over enemies. Israel had experienced all of these to some degree. God had been faithful to the “good promises” He had made to them when they had prepared to cross the Jordan (1:1–9).
“It was common among the Semites to regard a part of the whole as the whole (cf. Deut. 26:5–10; 1 Kings 13:32; Jer. 31:5; 2 Sam. 5:6–10; Rev. 14:1; 22:1; Rom. 15:19–24). The name for this viewpoint is representative universalism. Some students of this passage believe that Joshua was taking this view here. He was speaking in universal terms. He regarded the individual kings, towns, and areas that he had subdued as representative of the entire land of Canaan.
- Constable
You also did not include any discussion of the promise - “a possession forever”.
I do no think you can fulfill that until the end of time.
best,
ampu
PS - anytime someone feels compelled to include pejorative language, it weakens their credibility. Either your facts
are correct, or not. You don’t need the other stuff.
The promise was made to Abraham AND his descendents. Allow me to clarify this statement; it means
1. Abraham himself
2. All of Abraham's descendants
Now, most reasonable persons would agree that Abraham was dead long before Joshua ... so #1 above never happened. What are the implifications of this fact? This implies that either God lied to Abraham ... or God told the truth and this fulfillment has just not happened yet.
Since none of us would say God lied to Abraham, the fulfillment of #1 has to be someday in the future. How or when will that happen? It will happen during the millenium. God will raise Abraham and he will finally get to possess this land, along with his descendents. God will also fulfill the Davidic convenant, since now that He has a man who can sit on Davids throne. He will also fulfil the establishment of Daniels "kindgom which will not be destroyed" and which "will rule all other kingdoms." He will also fulfil the "new covenant" of Jeremiah that He made with the nation of Israel.
All of this is pretty straightforward if you read the text. But what irks me even more about your insistance is that you are willing to ignore one of the larger issues of this promise ... that God promised this land to Abraham and his descendants "forever." If that forever fulfillment began during the days of Joshua, Israel would still possess the land. In fact, the nation went into exile for 70 years during the Babylonian captivity. So that history alone says the start of "possess forever" has to happen sometime after that exile; not during the time of Joshua. Further, several other "forever" covenants have not been fulfilled as of yet. The Davidic covenant was also "forever," there is no throne in Jerusalem; the kingdom of Daniel is also "forever" ... there has been no kingdom since the time of the Babylonian exile. Etc. etc. etc.
All of these things will come together during the millenium ... of which even you (no matter how much you will despise it) will be a part.