3.4 The Promise to Abraham

The Gospel taught by Jesus and the apostles was not fundamentally different from that understood by Abraham. God, through the Scriptures, “preached before the gospel unto Abraham” (Gal. 3:8). So crucial are these promises that Peter started and ended his public proclamation of the Gospel with reference to them (Acts 3:13,25). If we can understand what was taught to Abraham, we will then have a very basic picture of the Christian Gospel. There are other indications that “the gospel” is not something which just began at the time of Jesus.

§ “We declare unto you glad tidings (the Gospel), how that the promise which was made unto the (Jewish) fathers, God has fulfilled” (Acts 13:32,33).

§ “The gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets (e.g. Abraham, Gen. 20:7) in the holy s ...