The Historic Abraham

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Foundation For Genesis 11 & 12, The Historic Abraham

Introduction

“It’s the book in which he gives the genealogies from Adam onto Abraham, and so the geology is the foundation that is laid in that genealogy leading up to Christ. There’s a foundation you might say in revealing God as Creator. There’s a foundation in revealing God as the Creator who is creating a spiritual family in his image. All kinds of things have their foundation, their roots in the Book of Genesis, including the first sin and all of that that took place in the Garden of Eden. So, Abraham being the father of the family is kind of looked upon as the progenitor, he’s the beginning, he’s the foundation, under Christ, and yet he’s also the father of Christ, physically, very interesting relationship. And we’ll be talking here mostly about, at least tonight, we’re going to be talking about the foundation or the environment and so forth in which Abraham found himself at the time these things are recorded in Genesis 11 and 12. What we’re heading for, hopefully, is to reveal a great deal more about Abraham’s impact on history. Abraham, if any of you have done any reading in books that have been written by the scholars, is looked upon as being, by most of the liberal ones anyway as being more or less a legendary figure. They’re not all that sure that he even existed, just like they say that Adam and Eve really didn’t exist, that they are a composite type, or symbols. That there was no tree of the knowledge of good and evil, there was no tree of life, I mean, that’s what the “scholars” say. They kind of tend to reject what the Bible says as being literally true. And so they do that with Abraham to a considerable extent. I want you to turn back to 2^nd Peter 3, we’re going to begin in this chapter to pick up a verse that we covered the last time, pardon me while I make a spectacle of myself here, getting harder and harder for me to see then small print. But in 2^nd Peter 3, and in verse 5, boy I can see it now, “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water perished: but the heaven and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” (verses 5-7)” now you probably remember that verse, but the part that I want you to get, is that it says scoffers, and that’s a large percentage of mankind, whether through ignorance or academic reasoning, it says are willingly ignorant. That means to me, that is not that they do not possess any knowledge of it, but rather they are aware of it, but choose to reject it, for whatever their reason might be. Whether they feel that there is not enough evidence, whether they feel that the evidence that they do have is skimpy, I don’t know. But it does say that they were willingly ignorant, and that seems to imply to me pretty strongly that there is an awareness, through the Word of God, of these occurrences or characters or personalities, or whatever you want to do. Now Peter of course is talking about the Flood, and so man rejects it. And notice back here in Romans the first chapter, Paul said virtually the same thing in a somewhat different context. He says in verse 19 of Romans 1, let’s go back to verse 18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold” now that word “hold” should be “suppress” or “hinder” ‘they suppress’ the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.” (verses 18-19) It’s manifest simply by observation, in many cases, whether it be the creative power of God, or whether it be historical occurrence or personalities that may be referred to only in the Bible. Or it may be referred to in the Bible or in secular history. And so God is condemning men for suppressing things that they should be willing to admit that have occurred or that have existed, because God has showed it to them. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even the eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: because that, when they knew God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” see we’re getting right to the crux of the matter, ‘vain in their imaginations or idle speculation or foolish reasonings,’ “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,” (verses 20-22) verse 28, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,” that word “knowledge” incidentally is the word “science” in the Greek, come into the English virtually untranslated, ‘in their science,’ God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;” then he goes on to explain the moral effects of the rejection of things that should be very apparent. So Abraham has become looked upon by most of intelligencia as being somewhat of a mythological hero, possibly even a composite type, that is, the events of Abraham’s life have not just occurred to one man, but they might be a collection of occurrences of several men, and all attributed to Abraham. Even Dr. William Albright, he’s one of the most famous Biblically oriented archaeologists that the United States of America has produced, says that Abraham was nothing more than a donkey caravanner, somebody who kind of pilgrimed around the Middle East there in a donkey caravan. So the idea is to picture Abraham as being backward, uneducated, somewhat of a clod, maybe a man of ability, but nonetheless, certainly not a figure who influenced history in any significant way at all. Now the Bible, and even some secular history sources though, reveal Abraham as being a very skillful, intelligent and effective leader. He was a ruler, he was a mathematician, and he was an astronomer, all wrapped up into one. So when God called Abraham, he wasn’t calling any backward, you know, back-woodsy clod, as we’re going to see. But he was calling someone who was very capable, he was a great personality, and God I’m sure chose him because he recognized that in Abraham was at least in a latent way, the abilities that would provide the kind of person that he needed for his work at that particular time. So let’s go back to Genesis the 11^th chapter, we’re going to be bouncing around most of Genesis 11 and 12 and a few other verses as we progress through this.

Modern Archaeology Of The 1930s Proves The People Listed In Genesis 11 Were Real & Not Mythological

Now in Genesis 11 and in verse 26, “And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.” Now I guess you could say he had triplets in his 70^th year, however it doesn’t work out that way. If we jump up to, ah, let’s see, verse 32, “And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.” Now let’s see if I can pick up another verse here. Now immediately after that in verse 1 of chapter 12, it says, “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:” Now we understand from other places, as we’re going to see, that Abraham was 75 years old at that time. Let’s see, verse 4 says that, “So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.” If Abram departed when he was 75, immediately after, Terah died, and that seems to be the indication, and we’re going to see some interesting evidence along this line. That means then that Abraham was born whenever Terah was 130 years old, not when Terah was 75, but Abraham was born when Terah was 130 years old. OK now, going back to verse 26, we can put this together with other information, and we’ll begin to fill things in as we go along, that Haran was the oldest son of Terah, that he was the one who was born when Terah was 75, that Abraham as second, that he was born when Terah was 130, and that Nahor was Abraham’s younger brother, and was born at some unspecified time after Abraham, so that Abraham was the middle son of the three that are mentioned here. Now whether there were any other children I don’t know, probably some girls, and maybe some other fellows, but they don’t play any part in the genealogy, and so the Bible simply does not include them. Now I want you to go back on the genealogy, let’s pick up in verse 10, “These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood. And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah…And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber…And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg” (verses 10-16) now this is the line of men that continued that line that began back in Genesis 5 with Seth. The scholars tend to call this “the holy line,” or “the righteous line,” they were the ones that God chose to preserve his truth, that’s why their names are mentioned. And so these were, in their time, significant leaders. Now the first and most significant leader of this time was Noah. And we’ll get back to him in a little bit later. Now for quite some time, I guess especially since about 1600AD or 1700AD, these people were looked upon as being mythological or just kind of fanciful names, something that might have been traditional, but not necessarily provable. However, beginning about 1930, 1935 around there, a very large number of archaeological excavations took place in the nation of Iraq. Iraq is the site of ancient Babylon and Mesopotamia, of Assyria, but now called Iraq. Between 1935 and 1939 twenty-six different cities were unearthed, who had names that appear in Genesis 11. Now the only conclusion that these archaeologists could come to was, that these cities possessed the names of their founders. And apparently there were some cities, or some there, who were named as the founders of more than one city. We could construct or reconstruct maybe all kinds of scenarios, but let’s say that Peleg would founded a city, and then a war or something would take place, and his city would be wiped out, and he would move somewhere else and start a new city and call it Peleg again. And so there were some cities that had the same name. But what it did, it gave very strong evidence that since the names of these cities agreed with Genesis 11, that these characters indeed were very real people, they were not mythological at all, but rather they founded cities, dynasties, families or whatever, and gave their name to the city that they founded. Now we’ll get to that just a little bit later, is this one, no [he’s showing something up onscreen]. Oh I know what I wanted to say, some of these cities still exist today, for instance, the city of Haran, which the evidence indicates was begun by an ancestor of Haran, let’s see, I think it’s, there’s a Haran in here somewhere other than, maybe it was Nahor, either Nahor or Serug, was one of those two, it still exists today. And if you look, no it’s Haran, if you look on a Bible map, you will find Haran listed, here it is, it’s in northern Mesopotamia, way up, a little curve on the Euphrates river, but there it is. OK, that’s just a little aside. Now Genesis chapters 10 & 11 present three very important topics in which the foundations for these subjects are laid. Now number 1 is the Tower of Babel incident, now what that incident is included for in the Bible, is to provide an understanding of how the nations were divided and separated from that Fertile Crescent, the cradle of civilization and how it came to be that men were spread all over the face of the earth, all having different languages. OK, the second thing is, to provide an understanding of the holy line, down to Abraham, and also, to introduce, this is the third point, to introduce Abraham, who was to become the father of the faithful, and the direct progenitor of Jesus Christ. So the division of tongues, or the Tower of Babel, the Holy Line, and to introduce Abraham. Now throughout this study, I’m going to be giving you some dates. I want you to understand that the dates are very close, but they are not necessarily absolutely accurate. They are as accurate as we are able to determine under the circumstances. OK now, from the Flood, which took place, by our reconning in the year 2369, from the Flood to Abraham was 351 years, or another way of saying it would be in the 352^nd year after the Flood, Abraham was born. That would bring Abraham’s birth in the year 2017, 2017BC [now proven to be 1876/7BC]. A little bit later I’ll show you how to calculate this from a different direction, and you’ll see that it agrees exactly with the Flood date. OK, 2017BC, Noah died in the year 2019BC, so that Abraham never saw the greatest personality who lived after the Flood and up to that time. He died two years before. We know where he died, he died in Italy, in what is today Italy. Apparently he just died a natural death at the age of 950, they’re doing it everyday, 950 years old. Boy I’ll tell you, could you pile up the wisdom in that time, if you’re using your marbles. OK, at the time Abraham was born, Shem was still alive. Shem was 450 years old, and still alive and lived about another 50 years after that. Now this is from the period in which other very important Biblical characters lived. Cush was alive, Cush was the father of Nimrod, Semiramis, Nimrod’s wife was still alive when Abraham was born. And so was Horus, at least he was alive during Abraham’s lifetime, very early, he might have been born very early in Abraham’s life. But Horus was the illegitimate son of Semiramis, if you remember any of the background of some of the stories on how Nimrod was killed, and then Semiramis took over the rulership for a short period of time, and said that Nimrod was resurrected in this illegitimate son that she bore and that illegitimate son was Horus. If you know the story, later on Horus married his own mother, and then later on Horus killed his own mother. But that comes a little bit later in the story. You know what it says back here in Genesis 10, in verses 8-10, “Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.” Nimrod was against God, it was Nimrod who instigated the building of the Tower of Babel, it was Nimrod who began to get all of the peoples together against God, into city-states, where he brought them for their protection, quote, unquote. And bringing them together of course brought them under his control much more firmly, making it easier for him to rule over them in direct defiance apparently of what God wanted. And God of course came down and scattered these people all over the face of the earth. But even though it defused Nimrod’s power somewhat, he still was nonetheless a powerful figure, and he had to be dealt with. So much of what was going on in this period of time was in the form of clashes of one form or another between the line of Noah-Shem, down through Arphaxad, down through Peleg and down on through Nahor and Terah and onto Abraham, clashes between that line, and the line of Cush, Cush on through Nimrod and Horus. So one line trying to maintain the government of God, that’s the Shem-Noah line, and the other line, against God, in an adversarial position, trying to wipe out the Truth. So a very crucial and really a much neglected period of history. This really points out why the Bible is necessary to properly understand history. But the whole world went haywire after the Flood because of Nimrod and Semiramis and Cush and Horus being able to gain the upper hand, gradually and eventually, over the line that came from Noah down through Shem and down through Abraham. Now this just about reached a fever pitch about the time that Abraham was born. And so Noah was dead, Shem was a very old man, 450 years old. He was beginning to lose his vitality, his energy and his drive, his ambition and things like that [I know what that feels like], but he was the patriarch of the family. Nobody could supplant him, unless he either appointed someone else, or someone else was provided to take his place after his death. See what we’re eventually going to lead to, we need to understand that Abraham was the man that God provided to step into the shoes that had just been vacated by Noah and were being filled by Shem. Now when you begin to understand then who Abraham was and what he represented, he begins to become an extremely important figure in the history of mankind.

The Bible Tells Us Which Ur Abram Came From

OK now, in Genesis 11 and in verse 28, it says “And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.” So Haran, Abraham’s older brother died. Now what does that mean? It means that in the patriarchal setup, Abraham is now the heir, because normally the patriarch of the family would be the oldest one living as a direct descendent from Noah. OK, that would have made it in this case, you see by the time these others had died off, it would have been then Haran. But now he died off, so Abraham is in the right position. OK now there is some argument in scholarly circles as to where this Ur is located [one of the two Ur’s, this one in southern Iraq--I’ve seen photos of one of the Tel’s of Ur, taken by a soldier friend who took it during the Iraq Gulf War]. Now turn back to the Book of Acts. Now the reason there is some argument is because there were two Ur’s, I’m going to call it Ur, I really don’t know how it’s pronounced. But in Acts the 7^th chapter, in verse 2, Stephen is the speaker, and he said “Men, brethren and fathers, hearken, the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Charan” or in Canaan, “and he said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charan: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.” (verses 2-4) Now that pinpoints exactly where Abraham came from. He came from Ur of the Chaldees, in the land Mesopotamia. Now go back to the Old Testament again in the Book of Joshua, in Joshua the 24^th chapter, and in verses 2 and 3, “And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.” Now looking at it casually, where it says “the other side of the flood,” there might be a tendency to think of the flood of Noah. But he qualifies it by saying, “even Terah.” Terah did not live on the other side of the Flood, the only ones who lived on the other side of the Flood where Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives. So that cannot possibly mean the Flood of Noah. What it really means is the river Euphrates. They lived on the other side of the river Euphrates. Now that’s an important clue. Because one of the Ur of the Chaldees, or one of the Ur’s is on the other side of the flood, or Euphrates, and the other one is on this side of the flood. Now the one that is on this side of the flood, or this side of the Euphrates river is Ur that is in the land of Shinar. The other is Ur of the Chaldees, it is on the other side of the Euphrates river. Now how do you know which side is which? Anyone want to answer that? Right, all directions in the Bible are given from the land of Palestine, or from Jerusalem to be more specific. So “the other side of the flood” would mean on the other side of the river from Jerusalem. This side of the flood would mean on this side, so this side would be the west side, the other side would be the east side. Therefore, we know exactly where Abraham came from, he came from the Ur which was in Mesopotamia. Now Mesopotamia was in the northern part of what is the present day country of Iraq. Babylon or Shinar is in the southern section of what is the present day country of Iraq. So that place is Ur of the Chaldees, on the banks of the Euphrates river, on the eastern side, in the northern country of Mesopotamia. Now what about the name Ur? Where did it come from? Now go back to Genesis 11 again. Now we find in studying, the Hebrew language, the Assyrian language, the Babylonian languages, the Greek language that this man, Arphaxad, in verse 11 of chapter 11, it says “Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.” OK, that word is translated here into the English A R P H - A X A D. Now in the Hebrew or better still in the Greek, that would be better, it is a little bit more understandable because in the Hebrew they cannot write their vowels. But in the Greek that is spelled U R F A – A X A D, Urfa-Axad. OK now, where in the world did the Axad come from? Well I guess it’s rather difficult to chase. But the word Chaldee, or Chaldean is a Greek word. It is the equivalent of a Hebrew word that is spelled C H E S E D, Chesed, they both mean exactly the same thing, that is, a descendant of Chesed. Now who in the world was Chesed? Well when the people who trace these genealogies trace them back, Chesed turns out to be nobody else but Arphaxad, or Urpha. So a Chaldean is somebody who is a descendant of Urpha, who was a son of Shem, who was a great, great grandparent of Abraham. So this city is Ur of the Chaldees, was a city which he began and was named after him, that was Abraham’s homeland. Apparently he was born in that same area, maybe not necessarily in the city itself, but he was born apparently in that area. So the word “Arphaxad” means nothing more than “Urpha the Chaldean,” or “Urpha the Chesed.” He was born in Ur of the Chaldees, so Ur was named after Urpha. Now back in Genesis 14, Genesis 14, and verse 13, it says, “And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew;” now I’m not all that positive, but I think that is the first place in the Bible that the word “Hebrew” appears. Abraham, or Abram the Hebrew. Now where did “Hebrew” come from? It comes from this man who is mentioned in Genesis the 11^th chapter, and beginning in verse 14, “And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber: and Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg.” (verses 14-16) So the word “Hebrew” means “a migrant,” now that’s exactly what Eber was, he was a migrant. Now again through secular history, this man’s movements can be traced, at least to somewhat limited extent. There’s enough to let us know what he was doing. Now remember who Eber was, he was a direct descendant of Noah, that he was a direct descendant of Shem, that he was a direct descendant of Arphaxad, in fact Arphaxad was his grandfather. This was the holy line, these were righteous men, as far as we are able to see, at least the great number of them were righteous men. They were carrying the truth of God to the populations of man, as they were spreading out, and preaching to them about God’s plan. Now at the same time they were ruling over these people. Now Eber apparently was a man that Noah used to a very great extent, sending him out on long journeys. There is enough history for us to come to a very reasonable conclusion that Eber is the man who founded what is today present-day Greece, he spread civilization out to that area. And he went to other areas as well. But that seemed to be the base of his operation. Ok, Eber then was a migrant, he was a man who was somewhere else. And his name then became with synonymous with somebody who was comfortably on the move. And thus it was attached then to Abraham, not only because he was a descendant, but also because he too was constantly on the move. Now doesn’t that begin to fit into us being pilgrims and strangers and foreigners? You see the whole family of God is sort of always on the move, I mean, at least under this particular setup, we are to look upon ourselves as being like Abraham, like Eber [Eberews, Heberews, Hebrews], like Noah, we are always on the move, that we are not firmly anchored in this world. Now apparently what he was used for was primarily to put down the rebellions of the family of Cush.

Abraham’s Birth Date Figured From The Exodus

OK now, let’s determine Abraham’s birth date from a different perspective. Let’s go back to the Book of Exodus, in Exodus the 12th chapter, in the account of the march out of Egypt, it says in verse 40, “Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.” (verses 40-41) the selfsame day as what? It asks a question. God manipulated this thing so that the Exodus took place on a date that had something to do with something that occurred exactly 430 to the day that Israel left Egypt. And I’ll tell you, that’s good timing. OK, we’re not going to go all the way through that and prove it, but it’s referring back to the occurrence that took place in Genesis the 17^th chapter, in Genesis 17 we have the making of the first covenant, beginning in verse 1. “And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.” (verses 1-2) and you go all the way down through the chapter, he talks in verse 13 about an everlasting covenant, in verse 14 about people who break the covenant, and in verse 19 he talks about Isaac and an everlasting covenant and so forth. And then in verse 23, “Abraham took Ismael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God has said unto him.” Now the date is the 15^th day of the month of Abib or Nisan. OK now, what occurred in Exodus the 12^th chapter, was, you might almost call it, a celebration, a memorializing of that covenant that was made with Abraham exactly 430 years before. OK now, all we have to do then, is to know when the Exodus took place. Now the best we can tell is it was 1487 BC [no, actually 1446BC]. OK now, add 1487 to 430 [1446BC added to 430] and then add to that what it says here in Genesis 17, in verse 1, that Abraham was 99 years old, and you will come out then with 2016 [1446 + 430 = 1876BC], Abraham was in his 100^th year when this covenant was made, he was 99 years old, but he was in his 100^th year. Now the Hebrews used an autumn to autumn reconning, which you can prove very easily, on the reconning of their dates and so forth. [So by the newly established dates for the Exodus, which have been proven accurate and widely accepted now, Abraham was 99 years old in 1876BC]. Now if Abraham was in his 100^th year, he was 99, but he was in his 100^th year, in order to arrive at his birthday you’re going to have to add 1 more year, in order to do that. You don’t get to the year 1 until one year has already passed. You understand? You’re born, but you don’t reach the age of 1 until a year has already passed. You add that one year on to the 2016 [to the 1976] and what do you come out with 2017 [1977]. So figuring it from the Flood, or figuring it from the Exodus, they both come out to the same date, Abraham was born 2017BC [new dates, 1977BC]. You can use it either way, there are several different dates that are fairly well established. The one that was mentioned down at the Feast, the fall of Babylon, 539BC. OK, that’s fairly well established. Now counting from the fall of Babylon, we can put together genealogies in the Bible and come up with a Creation date of somewhere around 4025, 4026BC. OK all you have to do is subtract the genealogies then that are given in the Bible, and I think you come up with 1650 some years, you subtract that from the 4025 or 4026 and you come up with 2369 [and all of this is off now by 40 years]. But we always keep coming out with the same dates, within a year or so of one another. But it’s fairly well established. [Now the established date for Abraham’s birth really is 1976/7BC] OK, now the thing you want to remember, is that the populations of this time were quite small, I mean, small by comparison to what we have today where there are 4 billion people [sermon given in 1979, now in 2023 there are 8 billion people on earth. Estimated population of the world before the Flood, 6 billion people.] For some reason, apparently their families were quite small, at least in relationship to what you would think that they would be able to produce by the number of years that they lived. [I really don’t think we know, we weren’t there.] But at any rate, nobody knows for sure exactly how large the populations were. But every indication that we are able to get from both secular history as well as the Bible, was that the populations were apparently quite small. For example, remember the war that Abraham went into in order to rescue Lot? How many men did he have in his army? 318 men, now that’s not a very large army. And yet it was enough to overcome the army what was then the most powerful nation on earth [for one, it was a night attack], Assyria. Now we understand they had God’s help, but nonetheless apparently the armies did not occupy tens and 30 thousands of men, like they do now. [But in the time of Hezekiah, when half the Assyrian army had surrounded Jerusalem, that one half was 185,000 men, which one holy angel wiped out in one night. So the actual size of the Assyrian army in the land of Israel at that time was 185,000 x 2, or 380,000 men.]

They Had A Patriarchal Form Of Government--What Is That?

The governmental setup then was somewhat different than we would have today, they used what the scholars called a patriarchal system. That is, that there was usually a man who was the oldest men in the whole clan, who was generally looked upon as the patriarch or the leader. And they gave to him, or he had then, the authority to administrate the government in his area. Now apparently, we have never been able to find kind of an indication that had gotten to the place where they were actually establishing boundaries between one country and another, you know like we have today, very clearly established boundaries, rivers, lakes, mountains or whatever. But people apparently went from one area to another with a great deal of liberty, unlike we have today. However, don’t let this lead you into thinking that there was no educational system, or the people were ignorant and dumb. Because at the same time these archaeologists cannot find a really highly systematized government, or can’t find huge populations or numerous people in armies, they find that these people understood a great deal about our solar system, for example. They have found maps that these people drew that show very plainly that they knew that the earth was round, for example. You know, all the way up to Columbus’ time they were arguing about it being flat, I think the ancients knew a great deal more than we give them credit for. They knew from tablets and things that have been found, that the earth was not the center of the solar system, that we live in a system that included the sun, and that the earth was rotating around the sun. They were able to pinpoint the positions of stars, and they could forecast where those stars would be at any given time in history. Now that takes a highly developed mathematical system. They knew long in advance when eclipses where going to occur. Do you know how we know they knew these things? Because the priests left records. And used their ability to prognosticate about the heavens, to hold the people in sway underneath them. You see it made the people feel as though the priesthood had an in with the gods, see, the gods were the sun, the moon, the stars and so forth. So this is the period in which astrology was born. And so that the priesthood would say ‘Well look, I’m going to tell you right now, 18 months from now there’s going to be an eclipse, now you mark it down,’ and then it would occur, you see, and that would give the priesthood a great deal of power. That’s the way they used it, but they could not help but leave a record of it, that’s how we knew. We know now that those people understood about the solar system, and they knew that these heavenly bodies were moving. But they turned that knowledge around and said ‘Hey, these are gods.’ Now Abraham is going to play a very big part, and his knowledge of the heavenly bodies is going to play a very big part in his life as well, almost in a way that seems almost tragic. But at any rate, the kind of government that they used, I mean, this holy line, was theocratic, it was government from the top down. However it was somewhat different than the government that is used in the church today. God’s government always has the same basic structure, however it is not always the same. For example today, the government of God is in the hands of the ministry [Comment: And depending on what part of the Body of Christ you’re a part of, that church governmental system will be different. The Episcopal system is hierarchal, as found within the Episcopal or Church of England, and within the Roman Catholic church. The Presbyterian form of church government, is where the church denomination is run by a counsel of elders (the United Church of God is administered by a counsel of elders, and even this form of government tends to be hierarchal). Then there is the Semi-Autonomous form of church government, where the pastor of the local congregation holds the main authority, and is loosely tied to a mother church, as found in the Calvary Chapels, whose mother church is Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, located in Costa Mesa, California. Within the local congregation it is hierarchal under the local pastor, but that pastor and his congregation under him has more leeway into local ministry, how they approach evangelizing within their local community, all administrative decisions are made locally. The early Church under Paul and Peter was thought to have been Semi-Autonomous. Also there is the Congregational form of church government, found within the Congregational denomination, where it is one man, one vote, they can vote in and vote out their pastor, he’s a hireling. This pastor giving this sermon, was giving it whilst within the Worldwide Church of God, which had a form of hierarchal government, which sadly led to massive corruption just under their main leader (whom I believe was not corrupt, but didn’t know what was going on underneath him). God’s form of government in heaven is hierarchal, but God is beyond corruption, so that government is perfectly administered. All of man’s forms of government, even within his churches, are going to be found wanting, because we’re still human and subject to error, temptation and sin, both morally and physically. What happened to the Worldwide Church of God? It’s a sad story (see https://unityinchrist.com/wwcofg/wwcofgod.html)] But it wasn’t always that way. At the end of the historical section of the Bible, what kind of government did they have? Well it was in the hands of the Prophets. But in other times, God used the kings, but actually for only a very short period of time, the only two or three kings that he used, really, were David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Josiah. But you see, as that period began to fade out, then who did God turn to? You see he turned to the Prophets, and they then began to carry the authority of government [i.e. religious authority, whilst the kings continued to rule civil government, and often corruptly. The priesthood of God was also not without corruption, as during the times of Isaiah, Ezekiel, the Minor Prophets, and Daniel.] Now what about before the kings [of Israel]? It was the Judges. And that system goes all the way back to Moses. So the system is always basically the same, but it’s not always quite in the same form, or in the hands of the same people. OK now, right after the Flood, the system of government was patriarchal, that is that the authority rested almost always in the hands of the oldest person in the clan. And they called him a Patriarch. The word Patriarch is actually a Latin word. However it corresponds to the Hebrew word, and it’s simply named “chief father,” or “high father.” And he was responsible to administer the laws within his clan, and he was also responsible for the education processes within the clan. Now there’s a very interesting comment, back in the Book of Genesis here. And I want you to see that, in Genesis 18^th chapter and in verse 19. And you can see what God was grooming Abraham for. Notice, at the end of this test, and he’s repeating the Promise and so forth, verse 18, starting in verse 17, “And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.” (verses 17-19)

Abraham & The Austrian Chronicle

Yet we know out of the Bible and the Austrian Chronicle, that Abraham married Sarah, and then she did not produce any children, and so according to the times, in the life that they lived, Abraham took a concubine in order to begin to establish a royal line of his own. And he took Susanna as a wife [according to the Austrian Chronicle]. OK now, just prior to 1944BC, according to the Austrian Chronicle, a son was born to Abraham and Susanna, they named Acahim, and it is from this man that Austria’s royal line came. OK now, the Austrian Chronicle states, in the year 1944BC Abraham fled from Mesopotamia and came to what is today Austria and established a habitation on the banks of the Danube River. Now even that begins to become interesting. Guess what the most ancient Greek name for the River Danube is? We call it the Danube, but they called it the River Noah. OK why would they call it the River Noah? I think we’ll all just go back a wee bit and get a running start, towards the newer material tonight. But anyway Abraham was born in, as best as we can determine 2017BC [no, now it’s 1976/7BC, see https://unityinchrist.com/lamb/exodus1.html]. And remember I mentioned to you last year that please don’t feel that these dates though are part of the Law of the Medes and the Persians, as far as we know, the dates are very accurate, but to absolutely state that Abraham was absolutely born in 2017, I don’t know whether we can do that. Like I said, we’re pretty close [now, apparently 40 years off from his date, but even that’s close]. I don’t think that it’s more than a year off. But at any rate, he was born into quite a tumultuous time. Nimrod had been dead for quite a long period of time, before Abraham was born, I believe it was about 50 years or so, before that Nimrod had been actually killed, as far as we’re able to see. However Semiramis was still alive at the time Abraham was born, she in turn was murdered about ten years after Abraham was born. But her son Horus, who was the son of Nenus, who was another son of Asshur, who was the founder of Assyria, took over the throne. In fact, from what we’re able to gather, it was Horus himself who was responsible for Semiramis’ death, and he was a pretty powerful ruler, and he continued to expand the dynasty that had been started by Nimrod. Noah was dead by the time Abraham was born, in fact Noah died in 2019BC. So Shem was filling the office that had formerly been held by Noah. And Eber, who was apparently the other descendant of Noah, who was most active during this period of time, was occupied with putting down rebellions and dissensions and so forth and dissidents against the government of God that was in the hands of Shem, and Noah before him. So Eber was kind of going all over the place as a sort of roving diplomat and military leader, and doing his best to contain these rebellions. [Pastor Rittenbaugh, a serious history buff himself, is trying to put some flesh onto what is the skeletal outline Genesis chapters 2 through 12 give us. But we must be aware that we’re looking into a very gray area of history beyond that skeletal outline, the accuracy of which is not currently known. We’ll find out just how accurate this is at the soon-coming Wedding Feast of the Lamb of God (cf. Revelation 19:7-9).] The Biblical record of Abraham’s life prior to Genesis 12 is simply not available, there’s nothing there, other than the fact that he came from the line that began with Adam through Seth, through Enos, through Enoch, through Noah, and of course down through Shem, Eber and on to Abraham. We stated though that there are three very important foundations given in Genesis the 11^th chapter. Remember Genesis is the book of foundations, it’s the book that begins all of the stories that later on become important in the Bible. So in the Book of Genesis, in the chapter of Genesis 11 alone, the Tower of Babel takes place, and I believe that took place 237 years after the Flood, I’m reasonably certain of that date, 237 years after the Flood. And this of course gives us an understanding about what caused the migration of all of the families to go over the entire earth. Then of course the line through which God preserved his truth is shown [that is the Messianic line, promised in Genesis 3:15], that is Noah, Shem, Arphaxad and Salah and Eber and Peleg down through Terah and Abraham. And then of course Abraham is introduced to us, and that’s the 3^rd factor, and this is the man through whom the nation that God would eventually use was founded, and of course also the one whom the Saviour would eventually came. Now even though the Bible record of Abraham’s life prior to Genesis the 12^th chapter is missing, there is a record, a secular, historical record. And it’s contained in the Austrian Chronicle. [Austrian Chronicle: “The Austrian Chronicle of the 95 Rulers (Österreichische Chronik von den 95 Herrschaften ) of Leopold von Wien (formerly known as Leopold Steinreuter) of Vienna (lived ca. 1340–1400) is a 14th-century chronicle compiled by order of Albert III, Duke of Austria. The chronicle is notable for recording legendary history from the time of Noah, constructing an ancestry of the Dukes of Austria connecting them with biblical rulers of the Kingdom of Israel. It exerted considerable influence on 15th century Austrian historiography, a fact underscored by its preservation in more than 50 manuscripts (among these Cod. 2820 foll. 33ra–171vb in the Austrian National Library). In the 16th and 17th centuries, the popularity of the chronicle waned rapidly due to its assumed fictional content, and it remained unedited until the early 20th century. Since its edition, it has played a certain role in proving Biblical history, particularly in US American Biblical literalism, in publications such as those of Herman L. Heoh and Herbert W. Armstrong of the Worldwide Church of God who took the chronicle's genealogies at face value to postulate that, e.g., "European civilization — and its history — is as old as Egypt's. But it has been suppressed. Not since the close of the seventeenth century has it been allowed to be taught publicly." (Hoeh (1963), vol. 2 ch. 3 [2]) [taken from Wikipedia article on Austrian Chronicle] [Also from The Student Room, “An ancient manuscript, called the Austrian Chronicle, suggests that as early as 703 BC, Assyrians were present in Central Europe and they were pursuing fleeing Israelites along the Danube River valley.
The Romans claimed to have founded the ancient German city of Trier. But there is a German tradition much stronger than that, and there is a building in that city called the Red House. On that building is an inscription in Latin that states that Trier or Treves was founded at least 1300 years before ancient Rome and that it was founded by Trebada, a son of Semiramis, the consort of the wicked Nimrod. She was the woman responsible for the Babylonian mystery religion. (https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7087285)] Now the Austrian Chronicle is a German work, the last entry in this Chronicle dated 1404AD, 1404AD, it contains a history of the Danube Valley, and primarily a history of Austria-Hungary from the time of Abraham up until that period of 1404AD, so the early 1400s. To the best of our knowledge, the church’s knowledge [that would be the Worldwide Church of God he’s referring to] there is only one copy of this Chronicle in the United States, and it’s in the research library of UCLA, which is the University of California at Los Angeles. Also interesting is, Austrian history begins with a man named Abram, which is a Hebrew name. What would a history of an essentially Germanic people, why would it begin with a man named Abram? Now it’s very interesting apparently to those men who did the research in this Chronicle, that apparently the writers of the Austrian Chronicle never connected the Abram of their history with the Abram of the Bible, the Abram, or whatever his name is. However, they did very carefully date things. And there is no conflict between the dating that appears in this record of this Abram and the Abram of the Bible. Now the events that occurred that they report on, there in that Austrian Chronicle, just go together with the Abram of the Bible like hand in glove. So our fellows feel that there is no doubting at all that these are one and the same individual, that the Abram of the Austrian Chronicle is identified as the Abram of Genesis the 12^th chapter. We’re going to begin at a Scripture here that we used last week in Genesis the 25^th chapter, “But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country.” (verse 6) Now the Austrian Chronicle states that their Abram took a wife named Susanna, which incidentally is another Hebrew name, just another little item that’s very interesting. Now Diodorus who was a Sicilian [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diodorus_Siculus], I guess he was, he was of Sicily, but he was a historian, and he also names Susanna. And he names her as being the half-sister of Horus. Now Horus remember was Semiramis’ son, and Horus was the king at the time Abraham was in Mesopotamia. Now Abraham is presented in the Bible as being of the holy also one might say the royal line [now referred to as the Messianic line, going back to the promise God made in Genesis 3:15]. There is no doubt that Noah was the king of the earth. I mean, who was there to challenge him after the Flood? So he only ruled over seven other people. But as the population grew and more and more people came under Noah’s rule, and the families of the earth began to develop. However, the patriarchal structure of their government would mean, at least under normal circumstances, the rulership would be passed on from father to the oldest son, to the oldest son, to the oldest son, to the oldest son. Now we’re going to see a little bit later that it didn’t work out that way for a very interesting reason. But Abraham was of that line, therefore he was of royalty, as was Horus’ sister. Now Horus and Susanna had the same father, and Diodorus names him, he was Nenus. Now I just have to think, I didn’t check on this earlier to see if he is named here, but at any rate, Nenus was a son of Asshur, no he is not named, it just goes as far as Asshur, and then that genealogy stops. But at any rate Diodorus supplies the missing information that both Horus and Susanna had Nenus as their father, however Semiramis was Horus’ mother and Susanna’s mother is not named. OK now, Sarah, Isaac, Ishmael, and Hagar are not named in the Austrian Chronicle. Now that’s not too unusual, because they were not interested in these other people. Now they were only interested in Austrian history. Now you’ll notice that the Bible does not name Susanna either, because she does not fit into the Biblical record. But it does mention Hagar, who does fit into the Biblical record, and it mentions Hagar’s son Ishmael who fits into the Biblical record. Now notice though Genesis 25:6 says that Abraham had sons and concubines [concubines, plural] that he sent away. Now the only concubine that was named in the Bible is Hagar, the only son [of a concubine] that is mentioned in the Bible is Ishmael. But the Bible says that he had sons and concubines, sons by the concubines. Now the Austrian Chronicle fills in who these others were. The other concubine was Susanna, the other son was a son that was born to them by the name of Acahim. OK now, Acahim was born either just prior to or very early in 1944BC, now the Austrian Chronicle states that very dogmatically, 1944BC. Now that fits in very well with the Bible [Abram being born in 1976BC, yes, that fits, he would have been 32 years old in 1944BC]. Now Jewish and Arabian history both state that Horus persecuted Abraham. Now Horus died in 1968BC, begin to get these dates. Abraham was born in 2017 [no he was born in 1976BC], Semiramis died I believe it was about 2006BC, 2007BC, Horus took over, he ruled until 1968BC, then he died. Abraham by this time was about 40 years old when Horus died. Now somewhere in this period of time, Abraham married Sarah. However as Genesis 11 states, Sarah was barren. First, Abraham didn’t know that until after they were married, and he might have been very patient for a long period of time. However under the culture in which they were living, it was apparently ok with them to take another wife or a concubine, so he took Susanna, who was Horus’ half-sister, all the while this persecution was going on. And she gave him a son in 1944BC. Now that persecution continued sporadically, according to the Austrian Chronicle, mostly at the hands of a man that is called Count Sattan, now he of course took his orders from the king. Now the king who followed Horus, was Horus’ son Arioch. Now Arioch ruled until 1938BC, these dates are going to all fit together here, as you’re going to see. Now he ruled from 1968BC to 1938BC, and it was during this period of time that Abraham was living Mesopotamia, he took Sarah to wife, and he took Susanna as a concubine, Susanna gave him a child in 1944BC.

Now Back To Abram In Haran With Terah His Father

Now Genesis 11 again, Genesis 11, and in verse 28, “And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren; she had no child. And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.” (verses 28-31) Now according to the Austrian Chronicle, that the persecution intensified so that in 1944BC Mesopotamia, leaving behind Susanna his wife and Acahim his son. Now the reason I read Genesis 11:28 is the account of Haran dying before his father, that is his father Terah. Now it is possible, I’m not going to say it is dogmatically true, but it is possible, since Haran was a young man, and there would be really no expectation for him to die so young, since these people lived to such great age, but since he died before his father, and since the Hebrew can also mean that he fell, that it’s quite possible that he died in a persecution, that is, that he was murdered, his life was taken. So that we can begin to get a little bit of a scenario that might be true. We’re not going to say dogmatically that it is. Now, we’re going to see a little bit later that Terah was not a converted man, it says very plainly that he worshipped idols, now that was Abraham’s father. However, it is possible that Haran, as we’re going to see a little bit later on, because of Abraham, began to see the truth, and that he decided to stand and fight, and was killed for his efforts. Abraham on the other hand fled. Now we will see later on, evidences that Abraham was not the bravest man in the world. Did he leave because he was afraid to stand and fight? I don’t know. But it’s without a doubt, he did have to come to the place where he trusted God, and did what God said rather than what Abraham wanted to do. But at any rate Abraham fled. Now Nahor did not flee. Now we know that from subsequent history. Now what kind of picture can we get of Nahor? Well he must have compromised. He did not go along with Abraham and with Haran, and so he compromised, and people let him live. Now we know he compromised because later on Jacob married Nahor’s granddaughter, and she worshipped idols, the whole family did. They were not involved in the worship of God. So Nahor then was allowed to remain in the country, and left alone. Abraham fled, and Haran was killed. OK now, the Austrian Chronicle says very plainly that Abram fled to the Danube Valley. Now why did he go there? Well other history shows us that that area was settled by Eber and his descendants. Eber was of course the man from whom the term Hebrew came from, he was a son of Shem, several generations removed. He is accorded of being the founder of Greece. If you look on a map, Greece is just south of the Danube Valley. Now we also note that Joktan and some of his sons settled in the Danube Valley. Joktan is mentioned here in Genesis the 10^th chapter, and let’s see, in verse 26, if you look in verse 21 you will see that what is being named are the descendants of Shem. And down in verse 26, after 25, “Unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan.” (verse 25) Joktan I believe had 12 sons [no, count them, 13], and these fellows scattered over much of the Mediterranean, some of them went up into the Danube River valley. So when Abram fled from Mesopotamia, he went to a place where he felt very sure that he would receive a warm welcome, that is, his relatives were there, through a different family of course, but they were nonetheless Semitic people who believed and practiced basically the same way he did. OK now, he went then to the area that he felt contained the greatest concentration of Hebrew people. Now the Austrian Chronicle begins by naming Abram as it’s first ruler, and that he is accorded a 30-year period, from 1944BC till 1914BC. Now that data will become interesting in just a little wee bit, till 1914BC. Now, the Austrian Chronicle records that Count Sattan died in 1942BC or early 1941BC, Abram upon hearing this, went back to Mesopotamia to claim his wife and child. Now it’s at this point that Genesis 12:1 begins. Now notice, “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:” I want you to notice that, I wonder if you ever put any emphasis on the word “I” with an understanding of why he might have said that. Did you ever stop to think that Abram might have ideas of his own, that his idea might be to go back to Mesopotamia, get his wife and child, go back then to the Danube River Valley where all these Hebrew peoples were, and where he was recognized as being of royalty, one in line from Noah, through Shem, through Eber to be the next king? And so you see, on his own, he had found a place where he had peace, and that place is what we know of today as Austria-Hungary. So he had found that land on his own. But God says ‘I’m going to show you a land that I will show you.’ Now, here it gets kind of interesting in the Austrian Chronicle, because it states that Abram took Susanna and Acahim to Judeus Spata, now I don’t know German, but they say that means “he took his wife, Susanna and the child, to Jew’s Land, to the Jew’s Land.” Now where’s the Jew’s Land? Well it’s Palestine. However our fellas think that they didn’t mean Palestine, he feels that, really it was Dr. Schultz that did most of the research on this, he feels that the authors and chroniclers felt that Abraham came back immediately to the Danube River Valley, because there were so many Jews there. Now how did the Jews get there? Well the Bible even tells us how they got there, it tells you in 2^nd Kings 18, it tells you in 2^nd Chronicles 32, and it tells you also in Isaiah the 36^th chapter how the Jews got into the Danube River Valley, and why there are so many Jews today in Germany, in Poland, in Austria. You know how they got there, they got there because the Assyrians took them there. But it was about a thousand years after these events that we’re reading of took place. [In 2^nd Kings 18, the Assyrians during the reign of king Hezekiah, after conquering and deporting the northern 10 tribes of Israel, the House of Israel, he moved south into Judah, the House of Judah, and laid siege to Jerusalem. But in the process, his forces were occupying, had conquered the land of Judah, so even though God a little later conquered and destroyed half his army by one holy angel in one night, the other half of his army had already conquered and deported many Jews, and taken them north with them back to Assyria. Although not stated in the Bible, this is a given, considering how the Assyrian army worked in instantly deporting conquered people to another location as soon as battles were being won.] Because that didn’t take place until Isaiah and Hezekiah were alive. But we feel that they got there history confused. However what they wrote is absolutely correct, because Abraham did take her into Jews Land, into Palestine. Now, I mentioned 1914BC, and that they, in the Austrian Chronicle say that Abraham’s reign ended in 1914BC. Now why would they say that, when it was obvious that Abraham lived much longer? [Abraham was 100 years old in 1876/7BC] OK now, Genesis 25 and verse 6, that’s the Scripture we went to before, that Abraham sent away the sons of the concubines, now when you read that in Genesis 25, it appears as though it took place right there. But it did not. According to Josephus that thing is out of time sequence, it belongs in Genesis 21. In Genesis 25 is reported to have occurred, however the actual event according to Josephus took place in Genesis 21, when Isaac was two years old. OK now, that’s recorded incidentally in Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews, Book I, chapter 12, paragraph 3. OK now, when we put the Bible and Josephus and the Austrian Chronicle all together, it will become apparent that Abram sent away Susanna and Acahim at the same time. Now back to Genesis 21 and verse 5, it says, “And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.” OK Isaac was born when Abraham was 100, and therefore in his one hundred and first year. OK when was Abraham born? 2017 [1976/7BC] that means that Isaac was born in 1917 [1886BC, we’re in the ball park here]. Now the very earliest that he could have been born was in late 1917, you see as we would reconn it, the fall or the winter of 1917 [1886/7] that period from October, November, December, right around in there. And really, in a way, that does not seem wrong, because remember Isaac was a type of Christ, and Christ we believe was born in that period of time, September, October, November, and this son Isaac, who was the promised seed would very likely be born at the same basic time. OK now, that would mean then, that Abraham was 100 and in his 101st year. Now Josephus says that Isaac was weened when he was two, that is, he would be then in his third year. OK, all it takes then is a little bit of timing, from 1917 [1886BC] take away two years, that brings you to 1915 [1884BC], doesn’t it? Now Josephus does not say he was weaned when he was exactly two, he says he was weaned when he was two, that would mean that Isaac was in his third year, and it would mean then, that could have been weaned very easily, with no stretch of the imagination at all, not twisting facts or truth at all, in 1914 [1884BC].

Birth Of The Austrian Throne

OK, when Isaac was weaned, that’s when Josephus says that the sons of the concubines were sent away. Now the event that took place is recorded here, let’s see if I want to go that far yet, let’s see, verse 8, “And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.” and incidentally that word “feast” is the Hebrew word “mistah,” it means a drinking feast, had a big blast, “And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son. And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.” (verses 8-12) So this is time that Abraham got rid of the concubines, all that Genesis 25 does is tell us that he got rid of more than one. But this is when it occurred. It occurred when Isaac was two years old, just after he had been weaned. OK now, that brings us to 1914BC, now back to the Austrian Chronicle, is says that Abram reigned from 1944BC to 1914BC, now guess who the next ruler of Austria was? It was Susanna. Now we know where Susanna went [and obviously, by our corrected dates, she went back to Austria much earlier than he is saying, 40 years earlier, so much for trying to nail down the specifics of every verse multiple thousands of years later. It does not mean the events didn’t occur, and for the stated reasons.] She left Abraham, went back to the Danube River valley, to Austria-Hungary, she is recorded then as being the next ruler of the Austria-Hungarian Empire, and her rule is dated from 1914BC until 1895BC, then the next ruler is Acahim, her son, and Abraham’s son, and his rule is dated from 1895BC to 1850BC. You see, Abraham was not there. So whenever Abraham sent them away, Susanna and Acahim, what he was doing in effect was relinquishing all claims to the Austrian throne, and he just turned it over to her, and then she went back as the rightful, legal ruler of Austria, maintained it until her son Acahim was trained, and then he then took over and reigned for the next 45 years. That’s very interesting because what it did was establish a Semitic culture in Central Europe. Now it really gets interesting, because these people were there from, actually the time before Abraham, because there were already Semitic people in Central Europe, in Austria-Hungarian area. OK now, whenever the Israelites poured into Central Europe, after they were taken into captivity, where did they come from? They came from Assyria. Now guess who the Assyrians are? They’re Semitic too, in Genesis the 10^th chapter, and in verse 21, it says “Unto Shem also, the father of the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born. The children of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram.” (verses 21-22) Asshur is the father of the German people, Asshur is a Semitic, Asshur is the father of Assyria. So, whenever the Israelites were taken captive by another Semitic group, the Assyrians, taken back to northern Mesopotamia, which was Assyria in those days, and then they migrated out of there with the Assyrians, and went into central Europe, two great branches of the Semitic family were joined together, that is the Germanic people, if I can put it that way, those who came through Abraham, and the Germanic people who came through Asshur. Now that’s the way we know them today. Now it’s very interesting, if you look at their cultures. Their cultures are somewhat different. Germany is sort of like a western Reich and Austria is like an eastern Reich. Now when you think of Germany, what do you think of? You think of beerhalls. When you think of Austria, what do you think of? I think of concert halls. You think of Germany and dancing, what do you think of? You think of Polka’s. You think of Austrian dancing, what do you think of? Waltzes. Actually what we see is two different cultures of the same people, and I think that one culture, most people would say, is a great deal more refined than the other, that is the culture that came through Abraham, that was established through Susanna and Acahim. But whenever the German people or the Assyrian people who became the German people arrived in Europe, it was really nothing more than another wave of Semitic people. It’s ironic that the German people are probably the ones who have been most vociferous about being against the Jews, anti-Semitic, and yet they are Semites too, just a different branch of the same family, they’re both Semitic, both from Shem, just through different children. I’ll tell you, life has a way of being very strange. OK, so Abraham’s rule then was relinquished, and that’s the end of him as far as the Austrian Chronicle is concerned. Now back to Genesis 12 again. We have to begin to understand what it was that made the Assyrian people so vociferous in their feelings about Abraham. I’m going to be reading here from Josephus, from his Antiquities of the Jews, this is from Book I, it’s from chapter 7, and paragraph 2, I think that’s the one I want. OK, “Now Abram, having no son of his own, adopted Lot his brother Haran’s son, and his wife Sarai’s brother. He left the land of Chaldea when he was 75 years old, and at the command of God went into Canaan, and therein he dwelt himself, and left it to his posterity.” Now listen to this description of Abraham, “He was a person of great sagacity, both for understanding all things, and persuading his hearers.” now he was quite a speaker, an orator, really, he was a preacher is what he was. “And not mistaken in his opinions, for which reason he began to have higher notions of virtue” that is righteousness, “than others had, for he determined to renew and to change the opinion of all men happened to then have concerning God, for he was the first that ventured to publish this notion that there was but one God,” now notice this, Abraham published, wrote books, got things like that published, “concerning that there was but one God, the Creator of the universe, and that as to other gods, if they contributed anything to the happiness of men, that each of them afforded it only according to his appointment and not by their own power. But this opinion was derived from the irregular phenomena that were both visible at land and at sea, as well as those that happened to the sun, the moon and all of the heavenly bodies. But he said, if these bodies, the heavenly bodies, have power of their own, they would certainly take care their own regular motion. But since they do not preserve such regularity, they make it plain that insofar as they cooperate to our advantage, they do it not of their own ability, but as they are subservient to him that commands them, to whom alone we ought to justly offer our honour and thanksgiving.” Isn’t that interesting that we can quote something that was written by Abraham. I didn’t think of that until just now. But apparently Josephus had reference to things that had been left…[transcript of an expository sermon from a series on Abraham, given by Mr. Rittenbaugh, a pastor in a Sabbath-keeping Church of God, 17 October 1979.]