God of Abraham

“ If, when Abraham died, there had been an end of him, there had been an end likewise of God's relation to him as his God; but at that time, when God spoke to Moses, he was the God of Abraham, and therefore Abraham must be then alive; which proves the immortality of the soul in a state of bliss; and that, by consequence, infers the resurrection of the body; for there is such an inclination in the human soul to its body, as would make a final and eternal separation inconsistent with the bliss of those that have God for their God. ”

“ The chief-captain said, “Seest thou, most holy Abraham, the terrible man sitting upon the throne? This is the son of the first created Adam, who is called Abel, whom the wicked Cain killed, and he sits thus to judge all creation, and examines righteous men and sinners. For God has said, I shall not judge you, but every man born of man shall be judged. Therefore he has given to him judgment, to judge the world until his great and glorious coming, and then, O righteous Abraham, is the perfect judgment and recompense, eternal and unchangeable, which no one can alter. ”

“ Abraham was neither a Jew, nor a Christian; but he was of the true religion, one resigned unto God, and was not of the number of the idolaters. Verily the men who are the nearest of kin unto Abraham, are they who follow him; and this prophet, and they who believe on him: God is the patron of the faithful. Some of those who have received the scriptures desire to seduce you; but they seduce themselves only, and they perceive it not. O ye who have received the scriptures, why do ye not believe in the signs of God, since ye are witnesses of them? ”

“ Therefore the invisible God said to Death, Come hither, thou bitter and fierce name of the world, hide thy fierceness, cover thy corruption, and cast away thy bitterness from thee, and put on thy beauty and all thy glory, and go down to Abraham my friend, and take him and bring him to me. ”

“ He was sure—it was demonstrated to him by the experience of an eventful life—that, amid all the vicissitudes of men and things, one thing stands immutable, and that is the will of God. He was sure that Abraham's family had not become a nation, merely in order to be blotted out of existence by a conqueror who knew not Iahvah; that the torch of a true religion, a spiritual faith, had not been handed on from prophet to prophet, burning in its onward course with an ever clearer and intenser flame, merely to be swallowed up before its final glory was attained, in utter and eternal darkness. ”

“ The God of Abraham is the God of the Latter-day Saints. As he guided and directed him and delivered him from his enemies, so the Almighty's hand has been and is over us, and will continue to guide and deliver us, inasmuch as we continue to carry on his work. ”

“ God said to the chief-captain Michael, Go to my friend Abraham yet once again, and speak to him thus, Thus saith the Lord thy God, he that brought thee into the land of promise, that blessed thee above the sand of the sea and above the stars of heaven, that opened the womb of barrenness of Sarah, and granted thee Isaac as the fruit of the womb in old age, Verily I say unto thee that blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thy seed, and I will give thee all that thou shalt ask from me, for I am the Lord thy God, and besides me there is no other. ”

“ Abraham is the religious father of all those who associate with this personal and supreme Deity a providential oversight of this world,--a being whom all are required to worship, and alone to worship, as the only true God whose right it is to reign, and who does reign, and will reign forever and ever over everything that exists, animate or inanimate, visible or invisible, known or unknown, in the mighty universe of whose glory and grandeur we have such overwhelming yet indefinite conceptions. ”

“ Abraham kept up public worship, to which, probably, his neighbours resorted, that they might join with him. Note, Good men should not only retain their goodness wherever they go, but do all they can to propagate it, and make others good. (2.) In calling on the Lord, we must eye him as the everlasting God, the God of the world; so some. Though God had made himself known to Abraham as his God in particular, and in covenant with him, yet he forgets not to give glory to him as the Lord of all: the everlasting God, who was before all worlds, and will be when time and days shall be no more. ”

“ So the chief-captain, turning the chariot and the cloud, brought Abraham to his house, and going into his chamber he sat upon his couch. And Sarah his wife came and embraced the feet of the Incorporeal, and spoke humbly, saying, I give thee thanks, my Lord, that thou hast brought my Lord Abraham, for behold we thought he had been taken up from us. And his son Isaac also came and fell upon his neck, and in the same way all his men-slaves and women-slaves surrounded Abraham and embraced him, glorifying God. ”

“ Through this Abrahamic channel flow all the purposes of a Divine Providence in this world. Through his seed all the nations of the earth are to be blessed. The children of Abraham are the appointed and Divinely authorised agents of God. Through them, as primary, he has, and is, and will evangelise the world. Abraham stands to the generations of earth as the Gulf-stream to Europe and the isles of the sea. ”

“ Abraham acknowledged him the Priest of the Most High God, and gave him the tenth part of the spoil. Perhaps this was to shew God’s approbation of Abraham’s conduct, and to point out the future victories of our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross, in the hearts of his people, and, finally, over mystical Babylon, and its kings—the recovery of his elect, who lay in the hands of Satan, Sin, and Law; and of whom the Father had covenanted with his dear Son, that he should divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul unto death. ”

“ Hence Abraham, the father of the nations, believed; in Genesis: “Abraham believed in God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” [4] In like manner, Paul to the Galatians: “Abraham believed in God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Ye know, therefore, that they which are of faith, the same are children of Abraham. But the Scripture, foreseeing that God justifieth the heathens by faith, foretold to Abraham that all nations should be blessed in him. Therefore they who are of faith are blessed [5] with faithful Abraham.” ”

“ Make his paths straight. 3:5 Every valley will be filled. Every mountain and hill will be brought low. The crooked will become straight, and the rough ways smooth. 3:6 All flesh will see God's salvation.'"*
3:7 He said therefore to the multitudes who went out to be baptized by him, "You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and don't begin to say among yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father;' for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones! ”

“ The attractive power of Jehovah drew him from his home, his relations and his country, and with every fresh revelation of God, Abraham's faith grasped more of God and clung to Him with a firmer hold. God's word was all he had to go by; whatever God said was enough for him; whatever God told him to do, he did it, because, to trust God means to obey Him. He had God with him at every step.
If ever there was a clear-sighted man, that man was Abraham, for trust in God enlightens our understanding. He was a man with a far sight. He saw what no other man then living saw. ”

“ God's principles were Abraham's rules. Lot was taken prisoner, and the kinsman's part was now Abraham's duty. The battle-field in the vale of Siddim shall be his now, as the tent had been his till now in the plains of Mamre. The mind of God had another lesson for him than that which he learnt while the potsherds of the earth were alone in the conflict; and a time to break silence calls him out at the head of his trained servants.
Excellent and beautiful indeed in a saint is this intelligence of the mind of Christ, and beautiful is everything in its season. ”

“ This was God’s first revelation of Himself to Abraham. Up to this time Abraham to all appearance had no knowledge of any God but the deities worshipped by his fathers in Chaldea. Now, he finds within himself impulses which he cannot resist and which he is conscious he ought not to resist. He believes it to be his duty to adopt a course which may look foolish and which he can justify only by saying that his conscience bids him. He recognises, apparently for the first time, that through his conscience there speaks to him a God Who is supreme. ”

“ The Jews said unto Him, Now we know that Thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and Thou sayest, If a man keep My word, he shall never taste of death. Art Thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest Thou Thyself? Jesus answered, If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing: it is My Father that glorifieth Me; of whom ye say, that He is your God ”

“ It is with equal difficulty that one can depart, with any reverence left, from the mass of legend and childishness with which one is crushed in such places. One escapes with the thought of the real Abraham, his glorious service to humanity, his lifelong devotion to the making of souls, to the spread of the knowledge of God. One recalls the Abraham who, in the Jewish tradition, is the type of unselfishness, of watchfulness on behalf of his descendants, the marks of whose genuine relationship to the Patriarch are a generous eye and a humble spirit. ”

“ When he was gone into the evils of the night, God called to Abraham, and said, ‘I have suffered this man, whom thou hast cast out, these hundred years, and couldest thou not endure him one night, when he gave thee no trouble?’ Upon this Abraham fetched the man back and gave him entertainment: ‘Go thou and do likewise,’ said the preacher, ‘and thy charity will be rewarded by the God of Abraham.’” [51]
Jeremy Taylor did not learn this teaching from Archbishop Laud, but from the droiture of his own conscience, and the kindness of his own heart. ”

“ This is the only conclusion a believer in the gospel of the kingdom can come to. All theories opposed to this are mere sublimated infidelity. If Israel be not restored, then the promise to Abraham will have failed. But Abraham's seed are under no apprehension of this kind. They believe in God, who has sworn by Himself, that what He has promised He is able, willing, and determined to perform. ”

“ Such was the confidence of Abraham, who hoped that his posterity would spread over the whole world, according to the Divine promise, though by the order of God Himself he should sacrifice to Him the life of his only son at a time when he could not expect to have another. ”

“ Hence the promise to Abraham has its complete fulfillment in New Testament salvation.
In Romans 4, Paul again dips deep into the promise of God to Abraham and brings forth beautiful teaching which shows that, to him, God's promise to Abraham was spiritual as well as material, that there was to be a spiritual seed as well as literal seed, and that "faith" is as potent as natural birth in making men children of Abraham. ”

“ Abraham would have risen, but the voice of God called to him, saying, “Remain where thou art, and let thy pious, sitting posture teach future generations in their prayer and instruction to be seated; and let judges, in delivering judgment, occupy the same position.”
Then Abraham lifted his eyes, and beheld three men, who seemed to approach and then to withdraw. These were the angels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel, sent to him with messages, whereof each bore one. ”

“ They are all living; and therefore God is their God." This is very good Platonism, but very bad logic, and egregious nonsense. When Jesus quoted the passage, it was to prove that "the dead are raised." The question therefore is, How does this testimony of Moses prove it? In this way -- Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are dead; but "God is not the God of the dead," yet He is called "their God": therefore in order to be their God, they must be made alive, "for God is the God of the living": hence, to style Him "God of Abraham" teaches the resurrection by implication ”

“ God saw proper to reveal unto him the ancient records of the people that lived on this continent, as a descendant of Abraham, and what was his message to the people? "Go ye unto all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature; he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." ”

“ It is perfect in its generation. Abraham had till now suffered, and taken it patiently, because till now he had been a heavenly stranger on the earth; and such patient suffering in such an one is acceptable with God. But now, times are changed. The heavenly stranger has become the head of the nations, sought by the Gentile; and rights and wrongs must now be settled, and the cry of the oppressed must be heard.
All this has great moral beauty in it. I know not how sufficiently to admire this workmanship of the Spirit in the mind of Abraham. ”

“ Abraham was the friend of God; we are the friends of God, and if we are not his friends, he cannot find them on the earth; if we are not his friends, he cannot find friends who dare do as we do—who dare cleave to the truth in the midst of shame, obloquy, persecution, and reproach. But we still live, and the truth still lives, and the kingdom of God still exists ”