Church of Christ - Nehemiah 9:8

Church of Christ

Common
Trinity
Soul
Heaven
Hell
Satan/Demons
"Saved"
Baptism
Resurrection
Antichrist

Science
Miracles
Evolution
Creation
Carbon Dating

Inspiration
Partial
Contradictions
& Inaccuracies

Nehemiah 9:8: ". . . and madest a covenant with him [Abraham] to give the land . . . to his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous:"
Problem:: This passage is used by the Church of Christ in an attempt to prove that the Abrahamic covenant of land inheritance (Gen. 13:15) was fulfilled when the land of Canaan was possessed by Israel under Joshua.
Solution:

The promise in Neh. 9:8 refers to the seed of Abraham, but it was Abraham personally who was promised the land forever in Gen. 13:15. Stephen stated boldly before the Sanhedrin, that God removed Abraham into the land of Palestine, "wherein ye now dwell. And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him . . ." (Acts 7:5). Clearly, then, the words of Nehemiah cannot be interpreted to infer that the Abrahamic covenant was fulfilled in Israel's possession of the land under Joshua.
The inheritance of the land under Joshua must also be regarded as only a token fulfillment for an additional reason: In the passage to which Nehemiah refers (Gen. 15:13), God promised to give to Abraham's descendants all the land from "the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates." Israel never inherited this entire land area. Its fulfillment awaits the future return of the Messiah to bring the first dominion to Zion. (Micah 4:8).