Against Heresies: Book V

Since certain orthodox people's beliefs are influenced by heretical teachings, they lack understanding of God's plans, the mystery of the resurrection of the righteous, and the earthly kingdom that marks the beginning of incorruption. This kingdom allows those who are worthy to gradually share in the divine nature. It is important to inform them that the righteous must first receive the promised inheritance that God made to the ancestors. They will reign in it when they rise again to see God in this renewed creation, and judgment will occur afterward. It is fitting that in the very creation where they labored or suffered in many ways, they should receive the reward for their suffering. In the creation where they were killed because of their love for God, they should be brought back to life; and in the creation where they were subjected to servitude, they should reign. For God is abundant in all things, and everything belongs to Him. Therefore, it is proper for the creation itself, once restored to its original state, to be under the unrestricted rule of the righteous. The apostle clarified this in the Epistle to the Romans, when he said: "For the creation eagerly awaits the revelation of the sons of God. The creation was subjected to futility, not by its own choice, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be freed from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of the sons of God."

2. So, the promise of God, which He gave to Abraham, remains steadfast. For He said: “Lift up your eyes, and look from this place where you are now, towards the north and south, and east and west. For all the earth you see, I will give to you and your descendants, forever.” And again He says, “Arise, and walk through the length and breadth of the land, since I will give it to you;” yet he did not receive an inheritance in it, not even a footstep, but was always a stranger and a pilgrim there.

UPON THE DEATH OF SARAH HIS WIFE: when the Hittites were willing to give him a place to bury her, he declined it as a gift and bought the burial place (paying four hundred talents of silver) from Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite.

Thus, he waited patiently for the promise of God, and was unwilling to seem to receive from men what God had promised to give him, when He said again to him: “I will give this land to your descendants, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates.” If, then, God promised him the inheritance of the land, yet he did not receive it during all the time of his stay there, it must be that together with his descendants, those who fear God and believe in Him, he shall receive it at the resurrection of the just.

For his descendants are the Church, which receives the adoption to God through the Lord, as John the Baptist said: “For God is able from the stones to raise up children to Abraham.” The apostle also says in the Epistle to the Galatians: “But you, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of the promise.” And again, in the same Epistle, he clearly states that those who have believed in Christ receive Christ, the promise to Abraham, by saying, “The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his descendant.

He does not say, "And to descendants," as if referring to many, but as to one, "And to your descendant," which is Christ.” And again, confirming his previous words, he says, “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Know therefore, that those who are of faith are the children of Abraham.

But the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, declared to Abraham beforehand, That in you shall all nations be blessed.

So then, those who are of faith shall be blessed with faithful Abraham.” Thus, those who are of faith shall be blessed with faithful Abraham, and these are the children of Abraham. Now God promised the earth to Abraham and his descendants; yet neither Abraham nor his descendants, those who are justified by faith, now receive any inheritance in it; but they shall receive it at the resurrection of the just. For God is true and faithful; and for this reason He said, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”