Replacement Theology

Pastors Perry Stone, Hal Lindsey, and Terry Gray all spoke about Replacement Theory in the past few weeks. Below are my collective notes on the subject.


Replacement Theology


In 160 AD, Justin Martyr became the first Christian theologian to call the Church, "the new Israel"


Between 185-254 AD, Christian pastors began propagating the idea that God has permanently rejected Israel and that the Church is the new Israel. This idea also gained Augustine's support.


Replacement Theory...
1) Distorts the Scripture
2) Leads to the wrong understanding of the Scripture
3) Promotes anti-Semitism
4) Calls God a liar, insinuates God is not faithful


Replacement theologists over allegorize the Bible.


Dr. David L. Cooper:
“When the Bible uses and allegory or figure of speech, it is obvious. But when an interpreter arbitrarily takes a passage that is obviously intended to be a literal statement of fact, and treats it as allegory, he is twisting the Word of God and knowingly perverting its meaning.”


Replacement Theory teaches that the Israelites forfeited God’s covenants when they rejected Jesus as Messiah and forced His execution.


Replacement teaches that the Church has replaced the Israelites forever as God’s representative on Earth and inherited their covenants.


Replacement teaches that all prophets in the Bible, such as Daniel and Ezekiel, and the Book of Revelation have already been fulfilled.


The above teachings inevitably leads to the belief that the present state of Israel and all Jewish people are imposters destined for destruction. It results in the anti-Semitic attitude toward Israel today.


The biggest problem with Replacement Theology is that it announces God as a liar.




Replacement theology leads to anti-Semitism


Between 1095-1300 (the Crusades, one of the darkest and most embarrassing history of Christianity), the Church started the holy war, taking up arms against those who did not believe in Christ, who were mainly the Muslims. During this time, the Muslim Dome of Rock stood in the Israelites' Holy Land, and the Muslims therefore forbade Christians from visiting the Holy Land. The Crusaders were thus ordered to go into the Holy land to kill the non-believers. They not only killed the Muslims, they also killed the Jews. How could the Church kill the Jews? Because Replacement Theology states that they were no longer God's people!


During the Inquisition Era of the Romans, the Roman Catholic Church came down hard on heresy and heretics. In the name of Christ, under the cross, many people were burned, hanged, and killed if they were suspected of going against the beliefs of the Church (note that these beliefs were set by politically driven-church heads, NOT beliefs grounded in the Bible).


During the Reformation period, which culminated with Martin Luther, the Roman Catholic Church was challenged on numerous issues--namely, how far their practice has strayed from Biblical Truth of God. Luther hammered home the idea that salvation is by faith alone. Though he did a lot of great things for the Christian church, he became extremely anti-Semitic in his later years. In 1543, he wrote a book, On the Jews and Their Lies, championing the burning down of the Jewish synagogues, throwing Jews into pits of sulfur and hell fire, taking away their Bibles, being forbidden to praise God or teach about God, and being forbidden to utter the name of our God in our hearing. Luther further noted that we need to be save from the Jews, who were under Satan's influences. Other parts of his writing also reflect Replacement Theology, supporting that the Church has replaced Israel. Adolf Hitler would later use some of Luther's writings to support his anti-Semitic mission to wipe out the Jews.




Replacement Theory is heretical because 1) Israel is God's chosen people, and 2) God will never abandon Israel.




Israel is the apple of God's eye


1. Israel is the only nation on Earth ever formed by a direct covenant with God


God formed a covenant with Abraham for Israel:
Make you a great nation (Genesis 12:2)
Shall become a great and might nation (Genesis 18:18)
Shall make a righteous nation (Genesis 20:4)
A nation and a company of nations (Genesis 35:11)
Shall be a kingdom of priest and a holy nation (Exodus 19:6)


To God, there  is no one else on Earth as near to God as Israel:


Deuteronomy 4:7-8
For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the LORD our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?


2. Jerusalem is the only city on Earth marked by God
Jerusalem has a covenant with King David


Deuteronomy 12:5
But you shall seek the place where the LORD your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go.


3. The Jews are the only people on Earth that were given the oracles of God and the promise of God.
Gentiles were grafted into this New Covenant through the Jews. Israel is the only nation on Earth whose beginning, middle, and end—its destiny—is sealed in blood.




God is not done with Israel
Romans 9-11 


1. God made numerous UNCONDITIONAL promises to Abraham and his descendants, despite the failures of past and present Israelites.


Genesis 12:2-3


God's covenant with Abraham:


- I will make you a great nation: implies that Abraham will have at least one son and that the nation will inherit the covenant through Abraham


- I will bless you: this was fulfilled (Genesis)


- I will make your name great: Abraham’s name has been honored for over 4000 years


- You will be a blessing: Abraham has been the source of blessing for numerous nations


- I will bless those who bless you: Designed to protect Israel, God’s chosen people, God’s representatives on Earth


- Whoever curses you I will curse: Designed to protect Israel


- All peoples on earth will be blessed through you (Genesis 12:3): God’s whole purpose of creating the nation of Israel! God chose the Israelites as His representatives on Earth, showing everyone else the blessing of God through faith, so that God, through Israel, could reach and bless all other nations on Earth.


2. God promised a physical piece of land (the Holy Land) to Abraham and his descendants 
Only the Israelites have the title deed to a piece of land given to them UNCONDITIONALY and FOREVER by God:


Genesis 13:14-15
“The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, ‘Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever’” (Genesis 13:14-15)


Genesis 15:18-21
“On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I give this land, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites…’”


The Israelites have not possessed all this land yet, but God has promised that there will be a time where all will be restored to Israel.




Replacement Theology calls God a liar


Preterists


- Are one of the most fervent supporters of Replacement Theology


- Believe prophecies in the Book of Revelation have already been fulfilled in 70 AD, and the Church has permanently replaced Israel to inherit God’s covenants with Israel


These views are contradictory to the Bible, for it ignore this prophecy, given by Jesus Himself:


Luke 21:22-24
“… because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people; and they – the Israelites – will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the gentiles UNTIL the times of the gentiles are fulfilled” 


When the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 AD, Jesus prophesied that the Israelites would be trampled by other nations. And indeed, they were and have been ever since. HOWEVER, there is a time limit to this! “… UNTIL the times of the gentiles are fulfilled!”


Jesus confirms God’s plan for His people


Matthew 25:31-46
Upon Jesus’ return to Earth, He will separate the surviving Gentiles from the Israelites. The believers will join Jesus in His Kingdom, whereas the unbelievers will be judged.


When Jesus returns, the separation between Israelites and Gentiles will be re-instated. This marks the end of the Church Age, during which the Gentiles act as God’s representatives on Earth.


During the Church Age, there is  no distinction between the Israelites or the Gentiles – Israelites or Gentiles, as long as we are followers of Christ, we're all known as Christians. This is especially stressed in the Book of Ephesians.


From the Tribulation and onward, the distinction between the Gentiles and the Israelites is reinstated.


This is one of the factors supporting the pre-Tribulation Rapture theory. The Church has to be removed from Earth prior to the Tribulation, because if the Church was still on Earth during the Tribulation, there would be no way to distinguish between a believing Gentile from a believing Israelite!


Ezekiel 20
Israelites are going to be judged on Mount Sinai, a place different from where the Gentiles would be judged. Believing Israelites will be separated from the non-believing Israelites, and this passage shows that the covenant God once promised to the Israelites are still binding to the believing Israelites.


Romans 9-11
Paul wrote this to silence the people back in his days who were leaning toward anti-Semitism.


Romans 9: Israel “elected” (the past)
Romans 10: Israel “rejected” (the present)
Romans 11: Israel “accepted” (the future)


Romans 11:22-24
“Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!”


The Olive Tree symbolizes the promises and covenants of the eternal relationship with God that was first given to Abraham and Jacob and passed on to their descendants. They are therefore the cultivated olive tree that possesses these things.


Romans 11:25-29
“I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part UNTIL the full number of the gentiles has come in. And so, all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.’ As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable”


Israel was God’s chosen people to bring His blessing to the rest of the world. However, Israel failed. God then gave this mission to the Gentiles, thus starting the Church Age, where the Gentiles are God's ambassadors on Earth. During this period, Israel is under partial blindness (Isaiah).


The Church Age does not last forever. When the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, God will graft the believing Israelites back into the Olive Tree. These remnant Israelites will receive all the promises made in the covenant between God and Abraham.




God is faithful. To insinuate God is otherwise is heretical.




Christian Zionism
The belief that God will return the Israelites to their ancestral homeland in the last days, as God has unconditionally promised.