Part 2 Genesis 12: 1-3
Aug 26, 2024
1, Now the Lord said to Abram; “Get out of your country, from your family, and from your fathers house, to a land I will show you.
2, I will make you a great nation; I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.
3, I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all families of the earth shall be blessed.
“I will make you a great nation”, what could that possibly mean?
From my many years of learning from the scripture (and learning from scholars smarter than me), I have discovered one important thing. God sees way into the future and in that sight, he has a plan and a purpose. Not just a purpose for the world in general, but for the nations of the world, the people of the world and for you and me. You and me meaning, those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as ourSavior and dedicated ourselves to accept his directions in fulfilling his purposes.
Do you suppose that God had a plan and a purpose for the United States of America so very long ago? Like hundreds of years ago? Do you suppose that God has a purpose for you and me. Are you listening?
Let’s break our verse down into components --
a, “I will make you a great nation,”
There is absolutely no denying that, of all the nations of the world, this country has been the greatest. None have come close except maybe Rome and China. I see no point in speculating on that further, it’s just too obvious. But if I were to speculate, it would be why. Does and did God have a purpose?
It may be hard to say with absolute certainty, but certain, at least to myself, God surely had a belly full of the Church of England.
It started many years before the Church of England became intolerably corrupt and dictatorial. I, for one, believe that in the year 300 AD the King of Rome, Constantine, for selfish purposes, determined that by making Catholicism the national religion of the nation of Rome, he could bring all of the fragments of people that had been brought into Rome as the spoils of war (slaves) which were supposed to, in time, assimilate into the Roman culture. But of course they didn’t, which you had to be pretty stupid to think that they would.
And then, there was Ferdinand II and Isabella I, who were the first king and queen of a unified Spain in the fourteen hundreds. Both were sold out to the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church of Rome. They, in their many escapades to find gold in the new worlds, demanded that Christianity, (Romes style) be spread to virtually every continent and island the explorers encountered. So you can decide for yourself, was it King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel that brought Christianity to the New World or was it Columbus and Magellan. Or, was it God and these were implementing his purpose.
Ironically, it wasn’t only the gold that Ferdinand and Isabel required the explorers to bring back to Spain, but also slaves from among the indigenous peoples, and leave behind Catholic priests to assure that the locals were learning catechism the right way.
And so you see, the Catholic church was dictatorial from the very beginning. And that may have been the way honor and respect for the church was taught.
And, whether you agree with their techniques or not, a style of Christianity was spread all over the New World, especially in the islands and South America.
The Church of England was created in 1534 by Henry VIII, in the midst of the Protestant Reformation, but with a primary motivation being to be able to annul his marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.
If for any reason you’d be looking for similarities, look no further than the good ole blessed USA.
End Part 2a
