Appendix A
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Promises that could not be kept

A large number of Bible expositors teach that all of God’s promises to men are irrevocable, that is, once made-they can never become void. For example, most people correctly believe that God will never abide by His covenant with man that He will never send another flood to totally destroy the world. Notice the promise: “I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” (Genesis 9:11)

This covenant is unilateral, that is, it has nothing to do with man’s behavior. God has made an unconditional covenant that he will never again destroy the world with a flood. Therefore, this covenant is irrevocable.

 

But, the question has to be asked. Are all of God’s covenants unilateral and therefore, irrevocable? Does God ignore the behavior of man and fulfill His covenants anyway? This subject becomes interesting whenever people discuss the Jews. Many people hold to the idea that the Jews are still God’s chosen people on earth today, even though they reject Jesus Christ as the Messiah and His claim that He was the Son of God. Many popular scholars teach that the book of Revelation predicts the conversion of 144,000 Jews to Christianity after the rapture. These Jewish Christians, they believe, will then evangelize the world during the great tribulation and gather in a great harvest of souls for Christ’s second coming. So, does the Bible teach that all of God’s covenants are irrevocable?

 

Possibilities

 

To explain the covenant that God gave to the Jews, I must ask three things that might be disturbing to some readers. To make the following presentation as simple as possible, I have to ask the reader to assume the possibility that the plan of salvation, that is, the means of salvation, has not changed since the day the plan was implemented. In timeless words, “Trust and obey, for there is no other way.” (Hebrews 11) Secondly, I ask that the reader assume the possibility that the plan of salvation is one thing and the terms and conditions of trusteeship are another. In other words, the plan of salvation is a trust and those who have the responsibility of sharing the good news are trustees of the plan. My second request includes the concept that terms and responsibilities of trustees have changed from age to age ass God saw fit. This means that God has required certain things of trustees at certain times that He didn’t require at other times. (Acts 15) Lastly, I ask the reader to assume the possibility that faithful trustees of God and all who receive salvation through them come to a place where they recognize the sovereignty and righteous authority of God. This means that all who receive God’s salvation joyfully submit to God’s law-not as a means to salvation, but in response to His great mercy. (John 14:15, Ephesians 2:8)

 

With these three items addressed, we shall investigate the administration of the plans of salvation.

 

God sets up a trust

 

In the simplest of terms, a trust is an arrangement whereby one person transfers something of value to a second person for the benefit of a third person. In this definition, a trust involves three distinct parties. First, the person creating the trust is called the grantor because he owns an asset that he wants to distribute. But, instead of distributing the asset himself, he asks another to do it for him. In this case, the person responsible for the distribution of the asset is called a trustee. His responsibility is to carry out the wishes of the grantor and so doing; the trustee is rewarded for his services. Lastly, the person designated to receive the asset is called the beneficiary.

 

A trust is quite different than a will. A testamentary will is a document whereby one person declares that his assets are to be transferred to another person after he dies. The major difference between a will and a trust is that a will takes effect upon the death of the testator whereas a trust can take effect as soon as it is set up.

 

The reader may already guess what my next comment will be. The plan of salvation, from its inception, was set up as a trust instead of a will. God established the plan of salvation, as a trust so that mankind could immediately benefit from it the day sin should appear. Further, it has ever been God’s plan that some people would serve the plan of salvation as trustees. Clearly, He intended that His trustees would faithfully discharge their duties, and as a result, the entire world could become beneficiaries of His assets. These last two concepts are no small points and the reader should give this due consideration.

 

God chooses trustees

 

As stated earlier, a simple trust involves three parties: the grantor, the trustee and the beneficiary. The plan of salvation was designed as a trust because God designed that certain human beings should work for the salvation of other human beings. In other words, God has from the beginning, entrusted certain people with advanced knowledge about the conditions and blessings of salvation and in turn, these have been responsible for disseminating the benefits of God’s salvation to the rest of the human race. If it is a privilege to serve as a trustee of a wealthy trust, what is the honor of serving as a trustee of the plan of salvation?

 

The first trustee of the plan of salvation was Adam. God revealed to him the basic elements of the plan. Adam was commissioned to teach his offspring about sin and God’s plan for salvation. In turn, the firstborn male of each succeeding generation was to inherit the privilege of trusteeship as part of his birthright. If each trustee was faithful to his responsibility, then every person on earth would have knowledge of God’s wonderful plan to redeem man and restore him to his Eden home. But alas, Cain, the firstborn of Adam, wanted nothing to do with God or His plans. He didn’t want the responsibility of being a trustee. And, in anger, Cain killed his younger brother, preventing him from receiving this special opportunity.

 

To replace Abel, Eve gave birth to Seth. (Genesis 4:25) By studying Adam’s ancestry down to the time of the flood, we find that with the exception of Cain, trusteeship was passed to the firstborn of each generation.  The trustees were known as patriarchs for a patriarch is a person who inherits the property of the family according to paternal right, that is, the rights that go with being the firstborn male. We also read in the Bible that the trustees began to openly proclaim the teachings of the Lord when Enosh was born to Seth. (Genesis 4:26) By the time we reach Noah, we find that most of the people who lived before the flood wanted nothing to do with God’s plan of salvation. In fact, 1,656 years after Adam sinned, we find only one trustee living upon the earth. His name was Noah, and the total number of antediluvians beneficiaries turned out to be seven. Notice the lineage of the patriarchs up to the time of the flood:

 

Ten patriarch trustees

 

Adam – Seth – Enosh – Kenan – Mahalalel –

Jared – Enoch – Methuselah – Lamech – Noah. 

 

Note: Paternal rights could be, under certain circumstances, redirected. In the case of Adam, paternal rights were transferred to Seth. Centuries later, paternal rights were fraudulently obtained by Jacob, but they need not have been. God would have provided an honorable was of transfer the birthright from Esau to Jacob, for in God’s plan, no one must bear the responsibility of being a trustee if he doesn’t want to.

 

Two things stand out about the trusteeship of the patriarchs. First, there are only ten trustees between the expulsion from Eden and the flood, a span of 1,656 years. Because each of these men lived to be several centuries old, and because they had many offspring, the world must have been populated by thousands of people at the time of the flood. Secondly, the significance of being the firstborn son back then was much different than today. God used the special love and affection given the firstborn, as an object lesson to teach that one-day Jesus, His only begotten Son, the faithful and true Trustee of the plan of salvation, would come to earth and redeem mankind.

 

Another beautiful object lesson is also found in the fact that in those days, the firstborn inherited everything. Today, this would seem most unfair, but in those days, the firstborn received everything owned by his father. Of course, the firstborn then distributed any or all of the estate as he saw fit. Again, the object lesson here is that someday, Jesus, the firstborn of the God, will receive the kingdom of the earth. And, as the option of the firstborn, Jesus will freely distribute the wealth of His kingdom among His brothers and sisters.

 

 

God seeks more trustees

Noah was the last of the patriarch trustees. None of Noah’s sons walked with God, as did their father. We cannot even be sure who the firstborn of Noah was, although some think it was Japheth. (The Hebrew language leaves no room for uncertainty as to whether Shem or Japheth was the eldest. Genesis 10:21) Even with the uncertainty of who the firstborn of Noah, the history that follows shows that none of the three boys walked in their father’s steps. It’s sad to note that even though the flood cleansed the earth of sin, the stain of sin remained in the hearts of the survivors. In fact, about a century after the flood, the descendants of Noah built the tower of Babel in defiance of God’s covenant that he would never again destroy the world with a flood!

 

At the Tower of defiance, God separated the people of earth into groups by language. This simple act caused the dispersion of mankind upon the face of earth. At that time, there are no known trustees of the plan of salvation.

 

The Bible traces the genealogy of Noah through Shem down to Abraham. If I’ve calculated correctly, Abraham was about 58 years old when Noah died. If Noah lived out the remainder of his life in the area around the mountains of Ararat, then Abraham probably never met the ancient patriarch. When God called Abraham to move to the land of Canaan, Abraham lived out on the eastern frontier of civilization. Ur of the Chaldees was more than 800 miles from the mountains where the ark had rested. God’s call to this descendant of Noah literally turns out to be, “Go west, young man, go westward to the land of Canaan.”

 

When Noah died, so did the trusteeship begun with Adam. Since the chain was broken, God started over. About 375 years after the flood, He looked down upon the earth and chose an openhearted man named Abram as a trustee of the plan of salvation and Abram favorably responded to the invitation. It is important to note that Abram (later, Abraham) was not in line to receive the trusteeship. In fact, it is highly doubtful that Abraham was the first born of Terah. But, God sought new trustees of the gospel and Abraham was, for the most part, an honest man. (Genesis 20)

 

Abraham walked with God. He was a friend of God. And, after a period of testing the faith of Abraham, God purposed to make Abraham the father of many nations.

(Genesis 17:4) So, the trust, originally given to Adam, was implemented again. God called Abraham and he responded. However, with this new beginning, trusteeship continued much as it was before the flood, that is, the firstborn still inherited all the land and the wealth upon the death of the father. This lineage of trustees is called the Abrahamic trustees. Notice their progression:

 

 

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