Picking up where we left off in part one of this series on the story of Abraham, we find ourselves in Scripture (Genesis 12:2-3) that is often debated among several different religions.  It is a debate surrounding the question, “Who are the children of Abraham?”

Therefore, in this article you will not only discover who the children of Abraham are, but you will also learn who the true “Seed” of Abraham is according to the Bible.

One can easily look to the Scriptures and discover Abraham had 8 children.  His children came from 3 women:

Hagar

• Ishmael

Wife Sarah

• Isaac

2nd Wife Keturah

• Zimran
• Jokshan
• Medan
• Midian
• Ishbak
• Shuah

Those are the eight sons of Abraham.  However, it is important for the reader to know that over the last 18 years your author has never been asked, “Who are Abraham’s eight children?”  Though I’ve answered thousands of Biblical questions, not a single time have I ever been asked about Abraham’s eight sons.  Not once.

Therefore, in order to truly understand the purpose of this article, it is imperative to first understand the question being asked.  Every time I’m asked, “Who are the Children of Abraham,” the questioner is actually seeking the answer to an underlying connotation.  The questioner is really asking, “Who are the Spiritual children” or “Spiritual descendants of Abraham?”

There was a recent uproar on multiple social media platforms that left many asking that same questions.  And the event setting this debate ablaze was a statement made by an American politician.

Not long ago a U.S. Congressman was asked why he supported the United States helping Israel to fight their battles.  In his response, the congressman quoted Scripture from Genesis Chapter 12:3 when God told Abram, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse.”  When making his statement, the politician inferred that God is referring to the Jewish nation of Israel.  The problem with this inference, however, as your author already stated in the introduction to this series, is there are three major religions of the world who consider Abraham to be the father of their faith.  Those are the three religions of:

• Judaism
• Christianity
• Muslim

Therefore, we are now left with the task of answering a highly debated question. And the question the world is currently asking is, “What does the Bible say pertaining to the true children of Abraham?”

Before moving forward, it is imperative the reader first understand it is not the author’s goal to solve a political debate in this article.  As always, The Potter’s Blogger mission is to assist the reader in answering Biblical questions.  And we will now do so in this article by using proper exegesis of the Scriptures.

We will publish an article in the near future about the “Double Meaning” found within the life of Abraham.  However, you will get a small glimpse into the double meaning throughout the remainder of this article.

As we examine the Old Testament Scriptures in the Book of Genesis, we find God makes several key promises to Abraham.

• Genesis 12:2-3 – to make Abraham into a great nation.  (Abraham will have many descendants)
• Genesis 13:15 – to give the land to Abraham and his offspring forever.
• Genesis 15:4 – a son who is his own flesh and blood.
• Genesis 15:5 – descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.
• Genesis 17:4 – that Abraham would become  father of many nations.
• Genesis 17:19b – to establish an everlasting covenant with Abraham’s son, Isaac.
• Genesis 21:12b – it is through his son, Isaac, that Abraham’s offspring would be reckoned.
• Genesis 22:18a – through Abraham’s offspring (Seed) all nations on the earth will be blessed.

Therefore, from God’s promises we can easily understand that Abraham will:

• Have a son of his own flesh and blood (whom he is to name, Isaac)
• Have numerous descendants through his son, Isaac
• Become the father of many nations

… and all nations on earth will be blessed through Abraham’s Seed.

So at this point, though God has given us a glimpse of things to come, we do not yet have definitive answers to the two questions we’ve set forth at the beginning of this article.

Now there are obviously many things that happened with and to Abraham’s descendants during the following 2,000 years leading up to the birth of Christ.  However, when examining the New Testament Scriptures, the revelation of the true meaning of God’s promises to Abraham are finally revealed to the world.

As you begin reading the Four Gospels of the New Testament, you soon discover that Messiah did not come to establish an earthly kingdom as the Jews had thought.  Rather, Christ came to establish His spiritual reign.  This sentiment is echoed when Jesus informed Pontius Pilate that, “My kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18;36)  And the Good News throughout the New Testament is even the Gentiles (those who are not Jews) are invited to join Christ.  And this, then, is where we learn who the true children of Abraham really are.

When John the Baptist began his ministry, preparing the way for the coming Messiah, he was baptizing in the Jordan River. When seeing the Pharisees and Sadducees approaching, he proclaimed,

“You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?  Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.  And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’  I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.”

Here, John is warning the Jewish leaders that Salvation does not depend on biology as they were thinking.  He was proclaiming the God of Abraham had the power to create children of Abraham from objects that had no life at all; that God can call things into being that are not.  He was hinting at the reality to come, where children of Abraham are not children because of bloodline, but are children by faith and obedience.

In the first chapter of John’s Gospel he declares,

“He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

Sound familiar?  Doesn’t this sound a lot like what John the Baptist saying?  Yes!  The apostle is proclaiming that Messiah came to the Jews, but they rejected Him.  But all who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God.  Children born not of the natural bloodline of Abraham, but those born of God Himself.

When writing to the church at Galatia, Paul declares,

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is nieiher Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Though your author will not post this entire passage from the Gospel of John, Jesus is having an extremely straight-forward conversation with Jews “who had believed him.”  And they answered Jesus, saying, 39) “Abraham is our father.”  And Jesus replied,

“If you were Abraham’s children… then you would do what Abraham did.  As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things.  You are doing the works of your own father.”

Jesus continues the conversation in verse 44, saying, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires.”  And he continues in verse 47, saying, “Whoever belongs to God hears what God says.  The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

In order to draw an accurate conclusion as to who the true children of Abraham really are, we must first answer the question as to whom the Scripture is referring in Genesis 22:18, when referring to the “Seed” of Abraham.  Afterall, the Scripture tells us that, “through Abraham’s seed all nations on the earth will be blessed.”  It’s quite easy to understand why the Jewish people believed they themselves were the blessing, isn’t it?

However, the Apostle Paul, who himself was a Jew, from the tribe of Benjamin, clears up an confusion about the aforementioned Scripture.  

In Galatians 3:16 Paul declares, “The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say ‘and to seeds,’ meaning many people, but ‘and to your seed,’ meaning one person, who is Christ.”

Aha!  Christ is the “Seed.”  Christ is the blessing to all nations on earth.

Therefore, the true children of Abraham are all who have the same faith as Abraham.  Faith in the One and only Son of God, Jesus Christ the Messiah.  No matter your ethnicity.  No matter the color of your skin.  No matter of what sins you have committed in the past.  Anyone who is baptized into Christ and lives according to God’s will, those are the children of Abraham.  Those are the Children of God.  Amen.