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

“The promise to Abraham and his seed was always of the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem.”

The ORS really has a problem with scripture. I can see why it likes to use translations that are ambiguous. A little refresher on the promises to Abraham.

Gen. 12:1-3, “1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Gen. 17:7-8, “And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

The promises to Abraham were a nation, blessing and land. No mention of a city.

Heb. 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. 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: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”

13-16, “ These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”

The promise they have not received yet is the land, the country that has been promised and prophesied to them all through the Old Testament. And they won’t receive that promise until all the elect has been saved.

“So they do get Left Behind® when Jesus and the NT saints leave for the rapture, is that it?”

I don’t see any Old Testament saints around here so I don’t know how they can be raptured?

“Are we talking about The System®? I see no gap anywhere in Daniel.”

Of course you can’t see a “gap” in Daniel 9. The ORS won’t allow it. It throws the whole system off. But take a look at the passage and perhaps the light will shine through the ORS veil. However the ORS does recognize that “thy people” is a reference to Israel and Daniel 7-12 deals with “thy people”, not the church

Dan 9:25 Know therefore and understand, [that] from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince [shall be] seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

Using the ancient Jewish calendar, 483 years (69 X 7) from 445 B.C., the date Artaxerxes ordered Jerusalem to be rebuilt brings one to 32 A.D the time of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem (unto the Messiah the Prince). Then there is the crucifixion and destruction of Jerusalem and the temple some 38-40 years after but there is no time line for it in the prophecy, the “gap”.

Dan 9:26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof [shall be] with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

Now some time after the destruction of Jerusalem the time line begins again for 7 years and begins with a covenant of peace that is broken in the middle of the 7 years and ends with the resurrection of the believing remnant of Israel.

Dan 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make [it] desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Dan 11:36-12:3, “And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge [and] increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.

Dan 11:40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many [countries] shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, [even] Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians [shall be] at his steps.

Dan 11:44 But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

Notice that this resurrection deals with the believing remnant of Israel after the 7 year period but there is no mention of the church or believing nations.

I can see why it likes to use translations that are ambiguous.

Hardly. The Greek confirms the accuracy of the interpretation from NKJV.

The promises to Abraham were a nation, blessing and land. No mention of a city.

9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; 10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. … 13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. … 16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

It could not be any more clear. Call it a city or a country. Hebrews uses both images to infallibly interpret the OT promises for us.

22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. (Heb. 12)

Could it be that The System® is clouding your ability to read the text?

The promise they have not received yet is the land,

The promise, according to Hebrews, was the eternal, heavenly city. You bad explanation of the OT does not trump the clear explanation of the promise from the NT.

I don’t see any Old Testament saints around here so I don’t know how they can be raptured?

I thought “the rapture” of futurism involved the dead (those who are asleep) as well as the living. So Abraham and the OT saints still get Left Behind® while Christ and the NT saints head off for “the rapture”. That is your position, no?

Of course you can’t see a “gap” in Daniel 9.

I don’t see it because it is not there, in spite of your futurist explanations. I have not swallowed the kool aid. Only followers of The System® imagine modern, secularist Israel and Russia and China and the Common Market and Iraq and the World Bank and Nicolae Carpathia in the pages of Daniel. It’s the fantasy they have devised. Do not fault the rest of us for not playing along in your Fantasy Prophecy League.

The promises to Abraham were a nation, blessing and land. No mention of a city. --enat

Genesis tells us:

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

Genesis does not make mention any city in particular, nor of the world as a whole.

Hebrews tells us:

8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.
10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

And Paul in Romans tells us:

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.

that what was promised to Abraham was the kosmos, the world.

Are these different promises? Promises that didn't get recorded that Paul and whoever it was that wrote Hebrews somehow knew about? Or could it be that the (God breathed, inspired) new testament writers did not interpret the old testament the way the modern dispensationalist school does?