THE TIME WHEN THESE PROMISES ARE TO BE FULFILLED

1. They were not fulfilled to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange land, dwelling in tabernacles. Hebrews 11:9. These also “all died in the 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:” verse 12.APEC 45.4

2. They were not fulfilled to the Jews under the Mosaic dispensation. For the promise or grant of that inheritance was “for an everlasting possession.” But the Jews have not inherited the land of Canaan even one half of the time since they came out of Egypt, and should they again be restored to that land, and retain the possession a thousand, or even 360,000 years, it would not be an “everlasting possession.”APEC 46.1

3. They have not been fulfilled to Christians under the Christian dispensation. For Canaan has, during most of the Christian dispensation, been in the hands of either heathens or Mohammedans. Those promises have not, therefore, been fulfilled.APEC 46.2

4. Those promises relate to an heavenly inheritance, and are to be fulfilled in an eternal state. Hebrews 11:10: “For he (Abraham) looked for a city which had foundation, (the New Jerusalem-see Revelation 21.) whose builder and maker is God.” Also verses 14th, 16th: “For they that say such things, declare plainly that they seek a country. 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.”APEC 46.3

But these promises can only be fulfilled in an eternal state, because there can be no such thing as an everlasting possession in time. They will be fulfilled, therefore, “when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, (the seed of Abraham to whom the promise was made,) and he shall reign forever and ever.”APEC 46.4