The teachers of the Premillennial theory lift a multitude of “promise” passages from the Old Testament—passages which turn on promises and prophecies many of which are figurative and poetic in nature—and without regard to context, they apply the passages to the future. These teachers refuse to observe how that in the events of history those Scripture references have long been fulfilled. Since their theory concerns the Jews, Canaan and Christ they have a distorted view of the Abrahamic promises and their fulfillment. Since so much of the Bible is taken up with the fulfillment of these promises, should they be found wrong here, their whole system will be found to be in error.
The National Promise
In Genesis God promised Abraham, “And I will make of thee a great nation” (Gen. 12:2). This promise was renewed in several places (Gen. 13:16; Gen. 15:5). When God made this promise, Abraham and Sarah had no heir and even though the promise was twenty-five years in fulfillment, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness (Gen. 15:1-6).
This promise to make of Abraham a great nation was renewed to Isaac (Gen. 25:25). God chose Jacob through whom the promises should come. Jacob had twelve sons, one of whom was Joseph. After Joseph was sold into slavery Jacob and all his family went down into Egypt and it was there that the great nation of Israel was formed. It was 430 years from the time of the promise until this nation, newly delivered from Egypt, stood at the foot of Mt. Sinai to receive the Law of Moses. The Lord said, “and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod 19:6 NAS). This promise to make of Abraham a great nation was now fulfilled.
The Land Promise
When Abraham obeyed God’s commands and thereby left his country and his kindred and passed through the land of Canaan unto the place of Shechem, Jehovah appeared unto him and said. “Unto thy seed will I give this land” Gen 12:7 KJV). This was repeated when the Lord said, “For all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever” (Gen 13:15 NAS; cf. Gen. 15:18).
At this point mention should be made of the fact that the Premillennialists contend that the land promise has never been fulfilled and they connect that with the millennium and the return of the Jews to Palestine. What they fail to understand is that every land promise concerning Israel has been fulfilled. Not one has failed. After the nation wandered forty years in the wilderness, Joshua led them into the Promised Land. At the end of his life he made a speech to Israel and in it said the following: “Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the LORD your God spoke concerning you has failed; all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed. “And it shall come about that just as all the good words which the LORD your God spoke to you have come upon you, so the LORD will bring upon you all the threats, until He has destroyed you from off this good land which the LORD your God has given you. When you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down to them, then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land which He has given you.” (Josh 23:14-16 NAS). Joshua said not one thing had failed which God had promised, and twice identified the land as part of that. But their retaining of the land was conditioned on obedience to God. Disobedience offered the promise that they would perish off that land. Millennialists object that the “larger” land promise has never been fulfilled, the land from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates. But they are wrong again. “And he was the ruler over all the kings from the Euphrates River even to the land of the Philistines, and as far as the border of Egypt” (2 Chr 9:26 NAS cf. also I Kg. 4:21). Solomon’s kingdom covered the exact dimensions of the land promise. Who do we believe? The Scriptures or the Premillennialists? One of the great mistakes they make is that they look for the fulfillment of things which have already come to pass.
Premillennialists then turn to the promises made during the captivity and say that God has never fulfilled His promise to bring Israel again into their own land. God promised only to bring a remnant into the land again and this was done under Ezra, Nehemiah and Zerubbabel (2 Chron. 36:20-23). Complete restoration was not promised. The remnant did go back. The lineage of Judah was kept intact and the promise lived on looking toward the seed to bless all nations. There is not one land promise made to Israel that has not been fulfilled and Premillennialists are wrong when they seek to inspire false hope in the Jews and cause them to glory in their flesh.
The Spiritual Promise
`In Acts 3:25-26 Peter reminded the Jews then present of the promise to Abraham to bless all nations in his seed, and then said God sent Jesus Christ to bless them, “in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” The blessing of the nations through Christ comes as people in those nations are turned from sin unto God. Paul connected this promise to bless all nations with the justification of the heathen through faith and said those that are of faith are “Blessed with faithful Abraham” (Gal. 3:6-9). Paul also said, “If ye be Christ’s then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:26-29 cf. Rom. 2:29). Yes, all promises made to Abraham have now been fulfilled.