§146Abraham thus fulfils the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen":7 "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness."8 Because he was "strong in his faith", Abraham became the "father of all who believe".9

§762The remote preparation for this gathering together of the People of God begins when he calls Abraham and promises that he will become the father of a great people.157 Its immediate preparation begins with Israel's election as the People of God. By this election, Israel is to be the sign of the future gathering of All nations.158 But the prophets accuse Israel of breaking the co…

§2571Because Abraham believed in God and walked in his presence and in covenant with him,10 The patriarch is ready to welcome a mysterious Guest into his tent. Abraham's remarkable hospitality at Mamre foreshadows the annunciation of the true Son of the promise.11 After that, once God had confided his plan, Abraham's heart is attuned to his Lord's compassion for men and he dares to …

1. Anarchy is an evil, and the occasion of many calamities, and the source of disorder and confusion. For as, if you take away the leader from a chorus, the chorus will not be in tune and in order; and if from a phalanx of an army thou remove the commander, the evolutions will no longer be made in time and order, and if from a ship thou take away the helmsman, you will sink the…

Chapter 23.—Of the Word of the Lord to Abraham, by Which It Was Promised to Him that His Posterity Should Be Multiplied According to the Multitude of the Stars; On Believing Which He Was Declared Justified While Yet in Uncircumcision. The word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision also. For when God promised him protection and exceeding great reward, he, being solicitous abou…

After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram. This chapter contains one of the most important passages in all of Scripture: Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. This is the very foundation of justification by faith. The covenant ceremony with the divided animals is a solemn ratification, in which God alone passes between the pieces, sh…

What shall we say then that Abraham our father hath found? Paul proves from Abraham and David that justification has always been by faith, not works. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness — before circumcision, not after. Therefore Abraham is the father of all who believe, whether circumcised or uncircumcised. Faith was imputed to Abraham for righteou…

Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. Abraham was justified not by circumcision, not by work…

'And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.' See Gal. iii. 8 and Gen. xii. 3 and Gen. xviii. 18. This is a notable passage. Paul says that the Scripture foresaw. But the Scripture is not a person that can foresee. It is God who foresees, but because God fo…

We teach that sinful man is justified before God (that is, absolved from all his sins and from the sentence of death) only by the grace of God, for the sake of Christ, through faith alone, without any merit of his own. For "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" and "are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." Christ took…

We believe a man to be not simply justified through faith alone, but through faith which worketh through love, that is to say, through faith and works. Not that the foundation and certainty of our salvation resteth upon works; for no man can do the works of God — for Christ hath said, "Without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5) — but that faith without works is dead, and worketh…

Josephus retells the Genesis narrative: creation, the fall of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, the genealogy from Adam to Noah, the flood, the tower of Babel, and the lives of Abraham and Isaac. He follows the biblical account closely but adds rationalizing explanations and draws on extra-biblical traditions.

1. But that no one may suppose that his doctrine is new and strange, as if it were framed by a man of recent origin, differing in no respect from other men, let us now briefly consider this point also. 2. It is admitted that when in recent times the appearance of our Saviour Jesus Christ had become known to all men there immediately made its appearance a new nation; a nation co…