What did Abraham believe? What was the content of his faith in God? Did he believe in God for lots of grandkids and great-grandkids, or did he also have everlasting salvation on his mind?

When Abraham believed, could he have believed in God for something eternal?

I wish there were an explicit verse that answered those questions. However, there is an abundance of evidence to indicate that is what Abraham was expecting.

Let me explain my reasoning.

What We Know About Ancient Biblical Religion

First, as a general principle, we know that Biblical faith concerned the restoration of a life lived forever with God. After all, that is what was lost in the fall in Genesis 3. Had Adam and Eve not sinned, they would have lived forever with God. Because they sinned, death entered the world. That means the Bible begins with a problem: how would God restore men and women to a state of living forever with Him? That is the great question of Biblical religion. I think it is reasonable to think that would have been Abraham’s concern, too.

Second, as a general principle, we know that ancient Biblical faith involved the expectation of a coming Messiah. That is implied in Gen 3:15. But it is explicitly stated by Job:

“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
And at the last He will take His stand on the earth ” (Job 19:25).

Third, as a general principle, we know that ancient Biblical faith linked the expectation of a Messiah to bodily resurrection. God created men and women in bodies, and they were originally meant to live forever with Him in bodies. Hence, after death entered the world, bodily resurrection was part of God’s plan of redemption:

“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.
Even after my skin is destroyed,
Yet from my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:25-26).

I think we can reasonably expect Abraham to have shared those beliefs. But does the Bible explicitly tell us that Abraham believed those things?

What We Know About Abraham’s Beliefs

The OT and NT give us hints about what Abraham believed.

First, we know Abraham believed in God for an everlasting relationship:

“I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you” (Genesis 17:7).

Second, we know that Abraham believed in a coming Messiah.

“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56).

Third, we know that Abraham believed in bodily resurrection:

“He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type” (Hebrews 11:19).

Fourth, we know Abraham looked for the everlasting kingdom built by God:

“For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10).

What happens when you put those four pieces of evidence together? What do they tell us about what Abraham believed? Was eternal salvation on his mind?

The evidence concerning the content of ancient Biblical religion, and the explicit statements about Abraham’s faith, lead me to this conclusion: When Abraham believed in God, he was expecting a (1) resurrection to everlasting life in (2) an everlasting kingdom, in (3) fulfillment of God’ s everlasting covenant to him, as (4) mediated through the coming Messiah.

No doubt Abraham was also believing in God for children and great-grandchildren. But more than that, he was believing in God to bring the everlasting salvation He had promised since the Fall.