The Galatians 3:16 Fallacy

I recently watched a video¹ of Dr Taylor Marshall of the New Saint Thomas Institute in Texas commenting on an apparent drifting of conservative American commentators into abandoning Israel. He listed Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, and Nick Fuettes as having already done so, and suggested that Vice President J.D. Vance, Matt Walsh, Michael Knowles, and Megyn Kelly are not far behind.

He began by quoting Candace Owens's text thread in which Charlie Kirk stated: "Leaving me no choice to leave the pro-Israel cause" - earlier in the thread, Charlie had said he felt bullied by a Jewish donor demanding that he break ties with Tucker Carlson. Dr Marshall described Charlie's about-turn as his 'intellectual development' into rejecting Israel as the people of God. 

Dr Marshall then said he had just been showing Jason Whitlock how Galatians 3:16 proved that the only those trusting in Jesus are Abraham's heirs, and he concluded by urging us all to accept his interpretation and to join the Catholic Church as the one true church.

Of course, many other well-meaning theologians think that all the promises were and are fulfilled in Jesus, concluding that Israel’s rebirth as a nation is simply coincidental rather than God fulfilling His promises to them. This is usually referred to as Fulfilment Theology, which has a slightly different emphasis to Supercessionism or Replacement Theology, but the same outcome: the nation of Israel is no longer relevant to God.

However, feeling some affinity with all except Nick Fuentes, I am alarmed that they could be so easily moved from supporting Israel, if indeed they have been, especially if they had been convinced by Galatians 3:16!

'The Promises'

Read it for yourself:

Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, "And to seeds," as referring to many, but rather to one, "And to your seed," that is, Christ (Gal 3:16)

Dr Marshall said it would take only a few minutes to hear his case - that the Abrahamic covenant has only one heir, Jesus - before going on to v. 29:

And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise (Gal 3:29)

There, he said, it's as simple as that: we Christians are Abraham's only heirs today so the Jews and Israel have no more legitimacy as a nation.

Except that in his rush, he's misread the text. As Paul says, 'the promises were spoken to Abraham' so what exactly did God promise Abraham? Dr Marshall refers vaguely to "Genesis 12 and 15" but Paul is actually quoting Genesis 17:5 and 22:18 and there were six distinct promises in all. In the first four, God promised Abram, as he was known then, that He would bless and protect him, making him:

(i) "a great nation" (Gen 12:2)

(ii) a great "name" (Gen 12:2)

(iii) "a blessing" (Gen 12:2) to "all the families of the earth" (Gen 12:3)

(iv) a gift of the land of Canaan for his "seed" (Gen 12:7) and "forever" (Gen 13:15)

He later explained that Abram's "seed" would become as innumerable as "the dust of the earth" (Gen 13:16), "the stars of the heavens" (Gen 15:5, 22:17), and "the sand on the seashore" (Gen 22:17), hence Promise No (v), he would become "the father of a multitude of nations" (Gen 17:4-6), i.e. more nations than just the nation of Israel. God therefore changed his name to Abraham (Gen 17:5).

More immediately, however, God promised him a literal son (Gen 15:4, 18:14), i.e. Promise No (vi), and it was Abraham's believing this and the promise of "seed as innumerable as the stars" that made him righteous (Gen 15:6, Rom 4:18-22). As we know, the Lord left it until Abraham was aged 100 and Sarah 90 so this son, Isaac, was miraculous.

Promises Fulfilled

In his hurry, Dr Marshall overlooked how all six have been fulfilled to very different people and people-groups over the last 4,000 years:

(i) Abraham's "seed" became "a great nation" in Egypt over 3,500 years ago (Gen 46:3, Deut 26:5)

(ii) He has had a great "name" ever since, revered to this day by Jews, Christians, Arabs, and Muslims

(iii) See below

(iv) Abraham's "seed" through Isaac and Jacob became the nation of Israel who finally received all of the Promised Land under Kings David and Solomon c. 3,000 years ago (1 Kin 4:21) as an "everlasting possession" (Gen 13:15, 17:8, 48:4; Ex 32:13)

(v) His "seed" through Ishmael became "twelve princes" (Gen 17:20) and through Esau many more nations (Gen 36:1-43), including today's 22 Arab nations

(vi) Abraham received Isaac c. 2066 BC.

It is actually Promise No (iii), "a blessing" to "all the families of the earth", that has been wonderfully fulfilled in Jesus and in all who belong to Him since 30 AD² as Dr Marshall rightly noted from Gal 3:16 & 29.

Notice, however, Jesus did not receive the other five promises: Abraham received Promises (ii) and (vi), i.e. the great name and the baby boy; the nation of Israel received Promises (i) and (iv), becoming a great nation and the Promised Land; Abraham's non-Israeli descendants received Promise (v), i.e. all the Arab nations.

In what sense then were 'the promises spoken to Abraham and his [unique] Seed', Jesus, as written in Gal 3:16? They heard them all and Jesus is the guarantor of them all, as Paul explained to the Corinthians:

For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us (2 Cor 1:20, emphasis added)

In other words, Jesus validates them all to everyone as promised to them so it's 'yes' in Him - it's not 'no, in regards to the nation of Israel', i.e. Promises (i) and (iv) as Dr Marshall wants us to believe.

It was Jesus with His 'rod of iron' (Psa 2:7-9, Rev 12:5) who cast the Jewish people out of the Promised Land in 70 AD, just as He said (Luke 21:20-24), and it was Jesus who restored them to their land in 1948 and to Jerusalem in 1967 (Luke 21:24).

And it is to Jesus they will be turning en masse when the United Nations tries to take Jerusalem off them (Zech 12:1-3, 10; Rev 1:7).³

Our Share

This is also why we who believe in Jesus receive Promise (iii), the blessing of Abraham. This is our share of the promises so we can say 'Amen'.

N.B. We Gentiles do not receive any of the other five promises.

This is what Paul is spelling out in Galatians 3:16. Look at the context because Dr Marshall's 'text without a context is a pretext'. Look at the preceding verses:

…in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (Gal 3:14)

'The blessing of Abraham' for us Gentiles is 'the promise of the Spirit through faith'. Consider the whole point of Galatians chapter 3:

This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? (Gal 3:2)

In 3:16, Paul is referring to Genesis 22:18 which was made to 'seed' singular, as he says, but in Romans 4:17, Paul quotes the promise that Abraham will be 'a father' not of 'seed' singular but of 'many nations' (Gen 17:5), i.e. plural.

These two distinct promises are also readily distinguishable in the context of Genesis 22:18. Just look at v. 17 as well:

17. “…I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.
18. “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice” (Gen 22:17-18, emphasis added)

In v. 17, "seed" is unmistakably plural, being like the innumerable stars and grains of sand; it is v. 18 which Paul quotes in Galatians 3:16 as being "seed" singular.

It is through the second promise, through the unique Seed, that all the earlier promises that Abraham would bless "all the families" (Gen 12:3) and "all the nations of the earth" (Gen 22:18) would be fulfilled. It is only in Jesus that all believers in Him receive every spiritual blessing now:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ… (Eph 1:3, emphasis added)

Ultimately, this will include the whole earth (Matt 5:5, Rom 4:13).

In the Meantime…

In the meantime, before the Lord returns to receive His inheritance of the whole earth, Abraham’s other 'seed' were to receive the land of Israel, i.e. the multiplied descendants 'according to the flesh' (Rom 9:3) of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel. They alone were promised the land of Israel as promised to Abraham (Gen 12:1-3; 12:7; 13:14-17; 15:7, 15:18-21; 17:8), to Isaac (Gen 26:2-4), and to Jacob (Gen 28:4, 13-15; 35:12). The writer of Hebrews summarises:

By faith he [Abraham] lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise… (Heb 11:9, emphasis added)

This covenanted promise of the land therefore remains to this day; it is an "everlasting covenant" with Abraham (Gen 17:7), Isaac (Gen 17:19-21), and Jacob (1 Chron 16:17, Psa 105:10).

When Israel were in exile in Babylon for the 70 years, God reminded them that they will always be a nation before Him. Even after making wonderful new promises regarding the New Covenant to all of us who believe in Jesus (Jer 31:31-34), God told us to watch the heavens, the earth, and the sea:

35. Thus says the LORD,
Who gives the sun for light by day
And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar;
The LORD of hosts is His name:
36. “If this fixed order departs
From before Me,” declares the LORD,
“Then the offspring of Israel also will cease
From being a nation before Me forever.”
(Jer 31:35-36, emphasis added)

Look out your window - is the sun still shining? Are the moon and stars still there at night? Are the waves still rolling in the oceans (v. 35)? Then Israel is still to be a nation! And in case that's not clear enough:

37. Thus says the LORD, “If the heavens above can be measured
And the foundations of the earth searched out below,
Then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel
For all that they have done,” declares the LORD (Jer 31:37, emphasis added)

The James Webb Space Telescope is showing us today that the Universe is vastly bigger than we even imagined, so Israel is still to be a nation!

Despite "all" that "all the offspring of Israel… have done" (v. 37), and they are a sinful people like the rest of us , God will not give up on them, i.e. the "seed" plural of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as "a nation" (v. 36). They are a nation today in the land of Israel because of God's promises and Jesus' reign today.

King David understood this, singing that we are to...:

15. "Remember His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded to a thousand generations,
16. "The covenant which He made with Abraham,
And His oath to Isaac.
17. "He also confirmed it to Jacob for a statute,
To Israel as an everlasting covenant" (1 Ch 16:15-17, emphasis added)

Conclusions

This is not to say that the Jews are still the chosen people of God because they are not. Only Jesus and those trusting in Him, whether Jew or Gentile, are God's chosen people (1 Pet 2:9); only they will be saved. Nevertheless, the Jews, Israel 'according to the flesh' (Rom 9:3-5) are especially 'beloved' by God, even when they are completely opposed to Jesus.

Paul explained this to 1st century Christians in Rome:

28. From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers;
29. for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (Rom 11:28-29, emphasis added)

If you are in any doubt, read these words again.

Paul wrote this several decades after Jesus was crucified and inaugurated the New Covenant and, despite Dr Marshall's confident claim that God therefore rejected the Jews in 33 AD, they were and still are 'beloved'. Why? For the sake of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel with whom He covenanted 4,000 years ago, and for the sake of their 'seed' with whom He made the Mosaic covenant 3,500 years ago.

The Promised Land was one of God's 'irrevocable' everlasting 'gifts' to the Jews; He has not given it to us Christians. Nor has He given it to the Arabs - they already have 22 lands. Nor to the Muslims - they have 58. Even when the Jews are in exile, He promised:

42. "…I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land.
43. "For the land will be abandoned by them…
44. "Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them…
45. "But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God…" (Lev 26:42-45, emphasis added)

Like it or not, Dr Marshall, Israel is here to stay as a nation because our Lord Jesus Christ has regathered the Jews into their Promised Land after their 2,000 years in exile (Matt 24:32-35 - see Footnote 4), providing extraordinary evidence today of God's faithfulness to His covenant with Abraham. It is also a major sign of His return in our generation - but that's another story.⁴