A Man Once Identified Himself as ‘the God of Abraham’
Who passed through the cut covenant as guarantor for Abraham’s heirs?
The New Testament calls Jesus not only Abraham’s descendant but the one existing before Abraham; Xiaoyang links visible YHWH, the cut covenant, Isaac and the cross in a Christ-centred covenant model.
Who passed through the cut covenant as guarantor for Abraham’s heirs?
- 01Jesus’ ‘before Abraham was, I am’ places his existence before Abraham and gives ‘Abraham saw my day’ more than ordinary chronological force.
- 02The New Testament locates Christ in Exodus, Moses and Isaiah, supporting the eternal Son’s work before the incarnation.
- 03Xiaoyang distinguishes the invisible Father from visible YHWH who reveals him, while acknowledging that identifying every theophany as Christ exceeds shared creedal wording.
- 04Only the divine sign passes between Genesis 15’s pieces; Xiaoyang reads this as covenant guarantee and an early legal pattern of the cross bearing covenant curse.
- 05Genesis 22 portrays father giving beloved son and son walking toward sacrifice; Xiaoyang additionally reads it as human love responding to prior divine covenant love.
- 06Eden’s garments, covenant, sacrifice, cross and white robes form a developing line of covering; the speculative two-thousand-year rhythm cannot set dates.
Read the in-depth version
Who is Abraham’s God?
Exodus names God as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Judaism knows him as Israel’s God; Nicene Christianity confesses the one God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with the Son eternally pre-existent. The New Testament reads Jesus not as a late entrant but as active within Israel’s earlier story.
Jesus takes the question back to Abraham
In John 8 Jesus says Abraham rejoiced to see his day and declares, ‘before Abraham was, I am.’ This clearly rejects the idea that Jesus began to exist at Bethlehem. Whether Abraham only foresaw the Messiah or personally encountered the pre-incarnate Son is the further question.
The New Testament places Christ before Moses
Paul identifies the wilderness rock with Christ; Hebrews speaks of Moses bearing Christ’s reproach; John connects Isaiah’s throne vision with Jesus’ glory. Jesus says Moses wrote about him and expounds himself from Moses and the prophets.
Why does YHWH appear in two locations?
Genesis 18 says YHWH appeared as the narrative presents three men, and Genesis 19:24 speaks of YHWH bringing judgment from YHWH in heaven. This cannot casually create two gods or prove the Trinity alone, but it leaves room for considering Father-Son relations alongside literary repetition and agency.
How can people see God if no one has seen God?
Jacob says he saw God face to face, while Exodus says no one can see God’s face and John says the unseen God is made known by the Son. Xiaoyang distinguishes the invisible Father from the visible YHWH who reveals him—the pre-incarnate Son. The broad doctrine is orthodox; identifying every theophany is disputed.
Did Abraham meet the pre-incarnate Christ?
The common view that Abraham saw Messiah’s future by faith is sound. Xiaoyang additionally connects YHWH’s appearances to Abraham, Abraham seeing Jesus’ day, and Jesus’ ‘I am,’ proposing a real encounter with the Son before he took flesh.
Who passed between the covenant pieces?
In Genesis 15 Abraham arranges divided animals but falls asleep. A smoking furnace and flaming torch representing divine presence pass between the pieces, and YHWH makes covenant. God, not Abraham, takes the active covenant path.
Why covenant cutting carries a curse
Jeremiah 34 links passing between divided pieces with the fate of covenant breakers. Against that background, Genesis 15 portrays the divine sign taking covenant responsibility while Abraham receives the promise.
Is the cut covenant an Old Testament cross?
Xiaoyang proposes that if visible YHWH is the pre-incarnate Son, the Son is the covenant bearer who later bears the curse at the cross. Genesis does not explicitly name the Son in the fire; this is a legal-theological synthesis supported analogically by Galatians and Hebrews.
Grace and guarantee precede the Mosaic law
Paul says Abraham’s promise preceded the law by about 430 years and could not be cancelled by it; he centres the promised seed in Christ. The covenant resembles a guarantee signed before the law itemises humanity’s unpayable debt.
The guarantor signed before the bill arrived
On this model, the visible YHWH undertakes covenant liability before Sinai. The law reveals the debt; the cross honours the ancient guarantee. Abraham’s covenant and Christ’s blood are stages in one saving purpose, not rival plans.
Law is not the opposite of grace
Promise and covenant come first, law exposes sin, and the cross bears the curse. Hebrews says animal blood cannot finally remove sin; Christ’s once-for-all offering completes what sacrifice anticipated.
The offering of Isaac: Father and beloved Son
Genesis 22 stresses Abraham’s beloved only son, father and son travelling together, Isaac carrying the wood, and God providing the lamb. Christian tradition rightly sees a powerful pattern of the Father giving the Son and the Son walking willingly toward sacrifice.
Perhaps not only a type, but love answering love
Xiaoyang goes further: if Abraham knew the visible YHWH as the Father’s beloved Son who had graciously borne covenant responsibility, offering Isaac may include love answering prior divine love. Genesis does not state this psychology, so it remains meditation rather than explicit exegesis.
Isaac is not merely a passive prop
Scripture does not fully report Isaac’s age, strength or understanding, but it presents him carrying the wood, walking with his father and occupying the altar. In the New Testament no one takes Jesus’ life; he lays it down himself.
Isaac was spared; God’s Son was truly given
God stops Abraham and supplies a ram in Isaac’s place. At Golgotha Jesus is himself the supplied Lamb. Isaac receives a substitute; Jesus becomes the substitute, carrying the covenant curse to its end.
Can the line reach back to Eden’s garments?
Genesis 3 describes God walking in the garden and clothing the sinners with skins. Xiaoyang sees a possible pre-incarnate appearance, while anthropomorphic narration remains a sound mainstream reading. The safer point is divine provision of covering; the text does not explicitly narrate an animal sacrifice.
Garments, covenant, cross and white robes
Xiaoyang traces covering in Eden, covenant responsibility, substitutionary sacrifice, the cross and Revelation’s white robes. These are not identical events, but together they concentrate the Bible’s movement of covering and cleansing in the Lamb.
Jesus did not suddenly appear two thousand years ago
The New Testament does not arrange Abraham, Moses and the prophets as a story Jesus joins late. Paul sees Christ in Exodus, John sees Jesus’ glory in Isaiah, and Jesus reads Moses and the prophets as witnesses to himself.
Knowing Moses is not the same as understanding Moses
Jesus tells people devoted to Moses that true belief in Moses should lead to him. Christians likewise can name Jesus while knowing only a success-giving idol rather than the eternal, covenant-bearing, cross-calling and returning Lord.
A two-thousand-year rhythm is not a date formula
Xiaoyang notices approximate two-thousand-year spans under some literal genealogical schemes and extends the idea through a speculative post-millennial history. Scripture establishes no such formula. It may encourage watchfulness but can never calculate a year, day or hour.
Both Abraham’s descendant and covenant guarantor
Paul centres Abraham’s promised seed in Christ. Jesus becomes Abraham’s descendant in history while existing before Abraham; he is both the promised heir and, in Xiaoyang’s synthesis, the divine guarantor behind the promise.
Would you recognise Abraham’s God before you?
Lineage and religious labels do not ensure recognition of Abraham’s God. If visible YHWH, Moses’ subject, Isaiah’s glory, the wilderness rock, covenant bearer, Lamb and crucified Saviour converge, Christianity’s answer is Christ-centred: the eternal Son reveals the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Frequently asked questions
Does mainstream Christianity believe Jesus existed before Abraham?
Yes. Nicene Christianity confesses the eternal uncreated Son. Debate concerns whether each individual Old Testament theophany should be identified specifically as Christ.
Does Genesis 19:24 alone prove the Trinity?
No. Narrative repetition and agency are possible readings. Trinitarian doctrine rests on the whole biblical witness, not one construction.
Does Genesis explicitly call the fire passing between the pieces Jesus?
No. It names a smoking furnace and torch representing divine presence. Identifying the bearer specifically with the pre-incarnate Son is Xiaoyang’s synthesis.
Was Abraham consciously answering the love of Father and Son by offering Isaac?
Genesis does not report that full awareness. The idea may serve as Christological meditation, not a stated psychological motive.
Do Eden’s skins explicitly prove animal sacrifice?
No sacrificial procedure is narrated. The garments can function as a theological image of covering and cost without adding details to the text.
Can the two-thousand-year rhythm predict Christ’s return?
No. Both genealogical calculations and the post-millennial extension are disputed. It may prompt watchfulness but never a date.