Replacement Theology, also known as Supersessionism, essentially teaches that the NT church has superseded and replaced Israel. This heretical theology teaches that the church is Israel's replacement and that the many promises made to Israel in the Bible are fulfilled in the Christian church, not in Israel or the Jewish people. Adherents of this corrupt theology and philosophy believe the Jews are no longer God’s chosen people, and God does not have any specific future plans for the nation of Israel. They believe that God has permanently cast away the nation of Israel and replaced it with "the church" (just to be clear, there is no such things as a "universal church;" all NT churches are local, only — we cover this subject here and here). In fact, many of these people don't even believe the Jewish people exist today, believing that they were eternally cursed for rejecting their Messiah. This heresy purveys that Old Testament (OT) Israelites and New Testament (NT) believers are the same people and that the Church is but a continuation and successor of Israel. They teach that the Church, as the successor of Israel, has now absorbed and appropriated OT prophecies and promises. The prophecies in Scripture concerning the blessing and restoration of Israel to the Promised Land are spiritualized or allegorized into promises of God’s blessing for the church. They have become God's chosen people now alone, and Israel is permanently out of the picture. According to this philosophy, the promises which God made to Israel are now being fulfilled by the Church or they have been forfeited because of Israel’s unbelief (cf. Jer 31:31-37). The implication is that Israel and the Jewish people themselves mean nothing beyond the signification of any other pagan nation; thus the land of Israel has no significant importance. Some of the adherents to this theology believe that the only way a Jew can be saved is to renounce their Jewish heritage and nature. Truly, Anti-semitism and severe arrogance are at the heart of this heresy, and that dovetails further with the heresy of Reformed Theology and Calvinism, where Replacement Theology runs supreme.
This system of theology is heretical and directly opposed to Scripture which makes a clear and Biblical distinction between God’s program for Israel and God’s program for the Church (Ac. 15:13-18; Rom. 11:25-26). It flips the entire body of Scripture and truth right on its head, leaving people with serious confusion and contradictions. Anyone that is born again knows that this is not true. This is a heresy of such magnitude that it indicts a lost and dead spiritual condition without any shadow of doubt. They clearly do not understanding the difference between national election and personal election, and many don't understand election to begin with, a subject covered here: Romans 9, Election, and Calvinism.
Sometimes Replacement Theologians employ the anti-Semitic conspiracy that the Jews as a body are attempting to take over the world and produce a one-world government, in which their Antichrist will be the ruler of the world, and this will commence the Great Tribulation. This false belief has been handed down from the so-called "church fathers," enforced brutally by the Catholic church, and is even to this day demanding Jewish lives through Moslem obedience to the Qur'an, neo-Nazis, and likely more bloodshed on the horizon in the name of “Christ.” Though individual Jews will (and are) undoubtedly part of producing the NWO, this is not anymore a concerted conspiracy by the Jewish people as a group than it is the Gentiles as a group. The people behind this very real plot are both Jew and Gentile, and their hatred for God and love for tyranny and power is what they have for shared values, not their heritage.
There are three major divergent views on the difference and relationship between the local church and Israel. (1) The church has replaced Israel (i.e. replacement theology--the subject of our report) (it bears importance to mention that when they say "church" the mostly imply a universal church, which is likewise heretical); (2) The church is an expansion of Israel (i.e. covenant theology); and (3) The local church is completely different and distinct from Israel (i.e. dispensationalism/premillennialism). The only point that is Biblically accurate is the third one.
Replacement theology and covenant theology are basically the same. There are very minor differences in these positions. Covenant theology is basically standard Presbyterian theology. It is also called Reformed and Federal Theology. It can be traced back to the time of the Heidelberg Catechism of 1584 and was encapsulated within the Westminster Confession one hundred years later. Covenant Theology, like Replacement Theology, claims that the OT prophecies pertaining to Israel have already been fulfilled spiritually or allegorically or symbolically in the church and that Israel has been permanently rejected and that there has been only one group of redeemed people: Israel in the OT and now the church, which supposedly has replaced Israel. Where covenant theology typically differs is in the area of infant baptism. This theology has traditionally been accompanied by the practice of infant baptism, which is seen as the entrance into God’s new covenant. The argument they make for this is that since the old covenant had the rite of circumcision for babies, the new covenant must have the rite of baby baptism. But like so many other things they corrupt and wrest in the Scriptures, they do the same concerning babies and covenants (and the gospel). the new covenant is applicable to Israel alone (Heb 8:8, 10).
We are told by many that God is finished with Israel, that she has been replaced with the church, and that the church is Zion, and the earthly Jerusalem has been replaced with the heavenly Jerusalem. Reformed covenant theologians are parroting this, and they follow the “church fathers” religiously who devised this heretical and unBiblical philosophy. Even some so-called Independent Baptists such as Steve Anderson, a false teacher and wolf in sheep's clothing, brashly embrace and purvey this heresy. In his video Marching to Zion, Anderson parrots the very popular lie that Israel today, the Israel that returned to her land and established a modern state, is not the Israel of the Bible. Rather, God is finished with the nation Israel and NT believers are the “true Israel.”
“It’s those of us who believe in Jesus Christ that are Israel. . . . We Christians are the true people of God. We are the true Israel. And we are marching to Zion.” (Steve Anderson, Marching to Zion).
As apostasy increases throughout the world in line with Biblical prophecy, dispensational interpretation of prophecy and support for Israel is rapidly declining, which inadvertently further fulfills prophecy concerning apostasy and eschatological anti-semitism as prophesied in Scripture. Surveys completed among evangelicals in 2018, 2020, and 2021 and reported in the book Christian Zionism in the Twenty-First Century (2023) authored by Kirill Bumin and Motti Inbari, reveal that support for Israel declined from 67.9% in 2018 to 33.6% in 2021. With the dramatic decline comes other accompanying heresies such as amillennialism and postmillennialism and a major cause of these things, including the decline, is Reformed Theology/Calvinism.
Like Israel's rabid enemies, the Moslems who openly declare their destroy to kill all the Jewish people (as their unholy books demand), some "Christian" denominations and mainstream "evangelicals" have declared that Israel has no special title to any land in the Middle East, even initiating a boycott against companies that do business with Israel in an effort to destroy her, fulfilling such passages as Ps 2 and 83:3-4, “They have taken crafty counsel against thy people . . . Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation” Replacement theologian heretics such as D. James Kennedy and R.C. Sproul, and others allied with them have rejected modern Israel as of any significance in the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In “An Open Letter to Evangelicals and Other Interested Parties: The People of God, the Land of Israel, and the Impartiality of the Gospel,” they declare:
"The inheritance promises that God gave to Abraham . . . do not apply to any particular ethnic group, but to the church of Jesus Christ, the true Israel. . . . The entitlement of any one ethnic or religious group to territory in the Middle East called the “Holy Land” cannot be supported by Scripture. In fact, the land promises specific to Israel in the Old Testament were fulfilled under Joshua." (Quoted from Judgment Day, David Hunt, pp. 276-77)
An everlasting covenant fulfilled under Joshua, who only lived 110 years?! Hundreds of “promises specific to Israel in the Old Testament” had not even been foretold by Israel’s prophets until centuries after Joshua died! Even the prophecies made by Moses during the lifetime of Joshua that Israel would live in rebellion and reject God's salvation and be cast out of the land were not fulfilled “under Joshua.” This heretical declaration by Kennedy, Sproul, et al., is a massive defiance of the God of Israel and truly reflective, as much other evidence proves, of their unregenerate and apostate nature. These men were false teachers and wolves in sheep's clothing, and this serious teaching alone proves the point. Here is the Word of the Lord:
"Therefore, behold, the days come saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, the LORD liveth which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt [in Joshua’s day]; But, the LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country [Russia et al.], and from all countries whither I had driven them" (Jer 23:7-8)
The obvious fulfillment of such promises in our day, since 1948 (not in Joshua’s day), rebukes those who say that the church has replaced Israel! To even entertain this idea while knowing Israel is finally back in her land again (while they, the reformed calvinist heretics and others, are not), reveals how spiritually reprobate (2 Tim 3:8) these "liars, evil beasts, slow bellies" (Ti 1:12) really are. In their hypocritical position, they haven't grasped the obvious truth that local churches aren't fleeing from Gentile nations to Israel, in alleged fulfillment of God's prophecies to Israel. But what has occurred, and perfectly inline with Scripture, in the last 80 years or so, Jews have returned by the millions to Israel, her homeland and her nation again since 1948, from more than one hundred nations, which is perfectly inline with Biblical prophecy. There is plenty of Biblical prophecy of the nation of Israel’s return, restoration and reconciliation with her Saviour (e.g. Is 11:11; 54:5-8; 66:19-22; Joel 3:1; Ezk 37:1-10; Jer 30:17ff.; Rom 11:25-27). Those who deny God’s promises to and prophecies of Israel for today, which is denying God’s covenants with them (which span hundreds of verses), need to genuinely repent and be truly converted to the true Lord Jesus Christ of Scripture, not the one of John Calvin or Martin Luther or some other man-centred hero who has misled and deceived them in their sojourn down the broad path that leads to destruction unto "another Jesus" and "another gospel," by "another spirit" (2 Cor 11:4).
Major problems exist with this abhorrent view, such as the continuing existence of the Jewish people throughout the centuries, and the revival of the modern state of Israel. If Israel has been permanently condemned by God and there is no future for the Jewish nation, how do we explain the supernatural survival of the Jewish people over the past 2,000 years despite the many attempts to destroy them? How do we explain why and how Israel reappeared as a nation in the 20th century after not existing for 1,900 years? How do we explain the rebirth of the pure language in the last days, as prophesied (Ze 3:8-9)? Most importantly, how do you explain away the hundreds and hundreds of Scripture that refer to Israels covenants, return to the land, preservation, repentance and reconciliation with her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? There is A LOT of Scripture that has to be plainly ignored or wrested in order to deny Israel and spiritualize the church. How on earth do you argue away the 70th week of Daniel that remains unfulfilled in our present day and is specifically for the Jewish people, as the first 69 weeks already were? These are only some of the questions that reveal the confusion behind Replacement Theology.
Without a shadow of doubt, this heretical philosophy of Replacement Theology would certainly be considered under the Bible's warning of “doctrines of devils.” (1 Tim 4:1). That might sound harsh but it's Biblical language, and I believe it fits into what the whole philosophy of replacement theology is all about, and how it corrupts so much of Scripture. Paul warned Timothy, and all who have ears to hear:
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;” (1 Tim 4:1).
From Whence Cometh This Heretical Teaching?
Since it didn't come from the Bible, what exactly were its origins?
As the apostasy grew during the early centuries after the apostles during the era of the heretical “church fathers,” the clear Biblical teaching about Israel was rejected. These false teachers embraced a lot of heresy, so it is unsurprising that they also usurped Israel's place as God's chosen covenant people. The following brief list is an edition version adapted from The Coming Apocalypse by Renald Showers, in chronological order:
Justin Martyr (AD 100-166), in Dialogue of Justin Martyr with Tropho a Jew, said that Christians "are the true Israelitic race." He also asserted that the biblical expression "the seed of Jacob" now referred to Christians, not Jews.
Tertullian (160-220) wrote an anti-Semitic discourse titled An Answer to the Jews. He allegorically interpreted God’s statements to Rebekah concerning the twins (Esau and Jacob) in her womb (Gen 25:23) in the following manner: "Esau, the older brother, represents the Jewish people; Jacob, the younger brother, represents the Christians. He indicated that God thereby revealed that the Christians would overcome the Jews, and the Jewish people would serve the Christians."
Origen’s (185-254) allegorizing method of interpretation permitted him to read almost any meaning he desired into the language of the Bible. It allowed him to claim that the word Israel in the Bible can mean the church, not national Israel.
Cyprian (195-258) wrote Three Books of Testimonies against the Jews. He stated that in this work, he "endeavoured to show that the Jews, according to what had before been foretold, had departed from God, and had lost God’s favour, which had been given them in past time, and had been promised them for the future; while the Christians had succeeded to their place." Like Tertullian, he interpreted God’s statements to Rebekah concerning the twins in her womb (Gen 25:23) allegorically Esau representing the Jews and Jacob representing the Christians. The implication is that the Christians have inherited the birthright that the Jewish people have forfeited. He declared, "The Gentiles rather than the Jews attain to the kingdom of heaven." This is serious corruption and wresting of Scripture by these wicked men (2 Pet 3:16-17). The name Jacob means Israel. It doesn't mean or refer to "the church."
Constantine (272-337), the first Roman emperor to declare himself a Christian, and really the father of Roman Catholicism, became sole ruler of the entire empire in 323. He began an increasingly "hostile policy toward the Jews." In 329 "the death penalty was ordained for those who embraced the Jewish faith, as well as for Jews versed in the Law who aided them."
Sylvester, bishop of Rome from 314-335, incited the inhabitants of the Roman Empire against the Jews.
John Chrysostom (347-407) delivered messages Against the Jews.
Ambrose (340-397) used the Jewish people as "a type of the infidel." He regarded the Jewish soul to be "irrevocably perverse and incapable of any good thought" and asserted that "burning a Jewish synagogue was not a crime." Hmm, any chance Martin Luther read Ambrose?
Augustine (354-430) influenced the future direction of organized Christendom more than any person since the apostle Paul, and not in a Biblical manner either. Augustine was a terrible heretic and wolf in sheep's clothing, as detail in the link. Augustine’s Tract Against the Jews was so influential that derogatory arguments against Jewish people throughout the Middle Ages were usually called ‘Augustinian.’ Augustine applied the allegorical method of interpretation to the prophets and Revelation, as most false teachers characteristically do. He interpreted the first resurrection and millennium of Rev 20 as salvation of the soul at the new birth. Augustine developed the idea that the church is the kingdom of God foretold in such Scriptures as Dan 2 and 7 and Rev 20. In The City of God, Augustine was the first person to teach that the Catholic church is the Messianic kingdom and that the Millennium began with the first coming of Christ. "Therefore the Church even now is the kingdom of Christ, and the kingdom of heaven. Accordingly, even now His saints reign with Him." Augustine is also the real father of Calvinism.
Cyril, bishop of Alexander (378-444) drove the Jews from the city. "He assembled the Christian mob, incited them against the Jews by his excessive fanaticism, forced his way into the synagogues, of which he took possession for the Christian," and handed over the Jews’ property "to be pillaged by the mob, ever greedy of plunger."
This became the official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). Thus the RCC really became the father of this heresy, thanks to their "church fathers." They claimed to be the new Israel and adopted many things from the OT dispensation in their system of religion: e.g. priests, robes, temples, candles, incense, sprinkling of water, etc. This is one reason why the RCC attempted to take over the Holy Land during the crusades of the Middle Ages, but the Holy Land belongs to Israel, not Roman Catholicism or any other so-called Church. It is also the cause behind the persecution of the Jews by the RCC, including during the Crusades.
Protestant denominations continued to propagate this heresy of Replacement Theology as they came out of Roman Catholicism in the 16th to 18th centuries, maintaining a hold on many of the errors of Rome (not just heresies on Israel and the church but also the gospel, a topic covered somewhat briefly in this report). These denominations include Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Reformed, and Lutheran. In the truckload of heresies and errors that they brought with them we find heresies pertaining to ecclesiology and the interpretation of prophecy, which sheds light on their true spiritual nature and condition. They taught that Israel was permanently rejected by God and replaced with the church. They did not believe that the OT promises and prophecies pertaining to Israel will be literally fulfilled. To one extent or another they also adopted certain rituals from the OT dispensation, such as priests, liturgy, infant baptism (which they claim is the spiritualizing of circumcision), sabbath-keeping (which they foisted onto the first day of the week with no Scriptural authority), etc. Martin Luther, for example, the father of Lutheranism, became extremely anti-Semitic and called for the princes to persecute them and mobs to set upon them, "even as Moses did, who slew three thousand of them in the wilderness." He called for their synagogues to be destroyed, their houses pulled down, and their books burned. The Reformed denominations of Switzerland and Germany adopted Replacement Theology claiming that since Israel rejected Christ as Messiah, God has forever rejected the nation of Israel as His people and replaced Israel with the church. The church is now the Israel of God and inheritor of the blessings God promised to national Israel.
This view by the so-called "church fathers," Roman Catholicism, and Protestant denominations, amongst other cults (such as Worldwide Church of God, founded by Herbert W. Armstrong, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists, and others), meant that national Israel lost forever its rightful claim of ownership of the land that God gave to it in ancient times. But its a lie. An abominable lie based upon a doctrine of devils.
The Damage Done to Scripture and Common Sense under Replacement Theology
1. The damage done to common sense.
Obviously massive problems exist with this heretical philosophy. From a common sense point of view alone, never mind the massive Biblical proof, this corrupt theology collapses in supreme fashion. For instance, the Jewish people, a pure people and solely Jewish, not intermixed with Gentile people (over the centuries, in most Gentile nations, laws were passed that forbid Jews from marrying Gentiles), have continued to exist throughout the centuries and into the revival of the modern state of Israel, in spite of Satan and mankind's best efforts at her destruction (Rev 12:17). Since the beginning, from their father Abraham, till the present day, Israel has supernaturally continued to survive and exist, and not only so, but been the major subject of world events and domination of world headlines, truly a cup of trembling among the nations, in spite of the demonic hatred and many attempts to annihilate her. Over the last decades, >80% of time spent and sanctions passed by the United Nations is upon Israel, even though she makes up only roughly 1/1142 of the world population. In spite of the worlds hatred towards the Jews (and thus the God of the Jews, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy One of Israel), Israel reappeared as a nation in the 20th century after not existing as a nation for 1,900 years, in perfect fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.
One of the greatest reasons why we know God's Word is absolute truth? Israel.
Yet despite this common sense, many corrupt Israel and deny her continual place in God's plan of the world and her redemption.
2. The damage done to Biblical prophecy.
A large portion of the Bible contains prophecy. Indisputably, Israel is the major topic of biblical prophecy, just as it is of the daily news. Israel itself is the most common subject in Scripture. The word "Israel" (and appendages) is found over 2,600x, and almost predominantly in the OT, a time in which the local church didn't exist. The word "Jew" (and appendages) is found over 250x. “Jerusalem” is found 811x. Biblical prophecy is no small matter. The word prophecy means “shewed before” (Ac. 7:52), to reveal something prior to its fulfillment.
Fulfilled prophecy is one of the greatest evidences of the divine inspiration of Scripture:
“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” (2 Pet. 1:20-21).
God can reveal what no man could possibly predict:
"Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them." (Is. 42:9)
“I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done” (Is. 46:9-10)
Who is this God who inspired the Bible through some 40 different prophets over a period of 1,600 years? The Bible says His name is “I AM” (Ex 3:13-14 -- meaning that He is self-existent, without beginning or end). Nine times He is called the “God of Abraham . . . Isaac . . . and Jacob.” (Ex 3:6,15-16; Matt 22:3; Mk 12:26, etc). From these patriarchs, the 12 tribes of Israel which were the 12 sons of Jacob, have all the Jewish people descended. He is called “the God of Israel” 203x—and it is to Israel that He gave the Promised Land (Gen 28:13; 35:12; Ex 5:1; 24:10; Jos 7:13; 1 Sam 1:17; 1 Ch 16:15-19, etc). Israel is Israel, and not the church.
Unlike any other religious text, the Bible does not hesitate in the least to make many highly detailed predictions anywhere from 6,000 years to a few years before the events come to pass. And they ALWAYS come to pass! This should be no surprise from the only religious book in the world that claims to be a "book" of prophecy (Rev 22:19), that speaks "words of prophecy" (Rev 22:18), brought about by the "spirit of prophecy" (Rev. 19:10). Prophecy is the Bible's forte we could say. It is as content in making far-reaching and "impossible" predictions as we are breathing air. With the fulfillment of its predictions, what better proof is there than this to show it is the pure words of the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Triune God of heaven and earth?
God told us that He gave prophecy to validate the inspiration of His Word (Is 41:21-24; 42:9; 45:21; 46:11). There are hundreds of fulfilled prophecies. No other body of literature has fulfilled prophecy. Scripture holds itself up to the standard of 100% fulfillment of prophecies. The Bible records many detailed prophetic predictions. If one prediction is accurate, it might be called coincidence. When dozens come true, the odds become astronomical. God designed mankind to discern truth in a major way by means of mathematical probability. That is a primary point of prophecy. The fantastic number of fulfilled prophecies in the Bible show that it is no book authored by mere man. Experts in probability mathematics have come up with these statistics concerning the following prophecies:
7 prophecies against Tyre in Ezk 26:3-5, 7-8,12,14,21 coming true—1 in 7.5 x 10 to the power of 7.
5 prophecies against Samaria in Hos 13:16 and Mic 1:6 come true—1 in 4 x 10 to the power of 4.
5 prophecies against Gaza and Ashkelon in Am 1:8, Jer 47:5, Zeph 2:4-7—1 in 1.2 x 10 to the power of 4.
3 prophecies against Moab and Ammon in Ezk 25:3-4, Jer 48:47; 49:6—1 in 10 to the power of 3.
9 prophecies against Edom in Is 34:6-15, Jer 49:17-18; Ezk 25:13-14; 35:5-7—1 in 10 to the power of 4.
8 prophecies against Babylon in Is 13:19-22; 14:23; Jer 51:26,43—1 in 5 x 10 to the power of 9.
9 prophecies about Jerusalem in Jer 31:38-40—1 in 8 x 10 to the power of 10.
7 prophecies about Palestine in Lev 26:31-33; Ezk 36:33-35—1 in 2 x 10 to the power of 5.
9 prophecies about Petra and Edom in Is 34:6-18; Ezk 25:13-14; 35:5-7—1 in 2 x 10 to the power of 5.
4 prophecies about Thebes and Memphis in Ezk 30:13-15—1 in 10 to the power of 3.
4 prophecies about Nineveh in Nah 1:8,10; 2:6; 3:10,13,19—1 in 10 to the power of 2.
Consider the first one in the list. Ezk 26:4-5 predicted that the walls of the island fortress of Tyre would be destroyed and scraped clean and become a place for fishermen to dry their nets. When Ezekiel made that prophecy, the island fortress of Tyre had not even been built yet! Two hundred years later, in 332 B.C., Alexander the Great conquered Tyre (which had been built and established within those years) by building a causeway from the old mainland city, scraping away everything but bare rock.
The probability of these 11 prophecies coming true is 1 in 5.76 x 10 to the power of 59! This is almost impossible to visualize. Suppose this number were silver dollars. There would be enough to fill 10 to the power of 28 suns! Or think of it like this. In the universe there are about 2 trillion galaxies, each containing about 100 million stars. From our 5 x 10 to the power of 59 we could make all of the stars in all of the galaxies 2 x 10 to the power of 5 times! Only one silver dollar in all of these stands for the chance a writer could have guessed all these prophecies correctly! Even more astounding is the fact that these are only 11 prophecies. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of others which have already come true.
In the book Science Speaks, mathematician Peter Stoner applied the rules of probability to only 8 prophecies given in the Scriptures that have happened as prophesied. Stoner concluded that the chance of all 8 being fulfilled in one person is 1 in 10 to the power of 17. That’s a 1 with 17 zeroes behind it (100,000,000,000,000,000). If we were to take that many silver dollars and lay them on the surface of Prince Edward Island, they would cover the island to a depth of 2 feet. Then, if we were to mark 1 of these silver dollars and mix them all up, and we were to blindfold a man and tell him he must pick the marked silver dollar in one attempt, he would have exactly the same chance as these eight prophecies would have in coming true for any one man.
Every major section of the Bible foretells in detail the same events. In this way, God is emphasizing the literalness of the events. If a person studies prophecies in the OT, prophecies of Jesus, prophecies of the apostles and the prophecies described in Revelation, he will see a repetition of the same events described in the most literal fashion. All give details of the same major scenes, eschatology for instance — the worldwide seven year tribulation, a wicked world ruler, Christ’s second coming in glory, destruction of rebels and the unsaved, judgment of the world, the national regeneration of Israel, and the glorious earthly millennial reign of Christ. Of course, many prophecies remain to be fulfilled in the future. For example, an amazing prediction was made in Rev 11:9 that many nations would view the same event at the same time. When that prophecy was recorded, communication and transportation across the Roman Empire took months. Today, billions of people from around the world simultaneously watch the same event over television and their phones.
The same is true of Israel, both in fulfilled and unfulfilled prophecy.
Scores of prophecies concerning Israel have been fulfilled without one single failure; all have proven 100% correct. There are present specific, fulfilled prophecies of our day—examples of what God says He is presently doing on this earth—and unfulfilled promises to Israel and unfulfilled punishment upon the Gentile nations that He is about to pour out for their mistreatment of His people, the Jews, and the nation of Israel. Hundreds of prophecies fulfilled in the past are an absolute guarantee that biblical warnings applicable to our generation are not empty threats. They are literal and will be literally fulfilled as detailed in Scripture.
God’s promises to Israel have never failed, and the many prophecies and promises that remain, will not fail either (Heb 6:17-20). God warned Israel that if she rejected His salvation, and thus His Word, she would be judged and evicted from her land and scattered among the nations (De 28:15, 25, 37, 64-67). On the same hand, God also promised to restore Israel (De 30:1-9), both of which are summarized in the prophecy of Hos 3:4-5.
"For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days."
This prophecy has been fulfilled only in part. The children of Israel are back in their land, but yet spiritually dead and thus not the children of God (cf. Rom 9:4-8), and therefore are not seeking after the LORD their God in truth (which is that Jesus Christ is God the Son and their Messiah) and do not fear the LORD. They have not repented. This corresponds to Ezekiels vision of the valley of dry bones (Ezk 37). The bones have come together, have sinew that keeps them together, but are without life. They came together in the late 19th century, became a nation again 50 years later in 1948, but remain spiritually dead to this day, thus the third and final instalment of the prophetic vision remains to be fulfilled. But alas, they will tragically go through great tribulation during the 70th week of Daniel, which is specifically for them, before they will finally seek the Lord Jesus Christ in the fear of Him, and be dramatically converted to Him. Then the completion of Ezk 37 will come to life,
"My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore." (Ezk 37:27-28)
God’s covenants with Israel are unconditional, eternal, and unchangeable, with the exception of the Mosaic Covenant. We cover these in some detail here: The Land of Israel, the Jew and the Covenants of God vs Replacement Theology (a Doctrine of Devils).
Consider the Davidic Covenant in 2 Sam 7. In His covenant with David and Israel, God (1) promised that Israel would own her own land (v. 10), (2) promised that the throne of David would be established forever through David’s seed (v. 13), (3) promised a personal relationship through salvation (v. 14); (4) promised chastisement for sin, which is a proof of true conversion (De 8:5; Pr 3:10-11), but never annulment of the promise (vv. 14-15), (5) established David’s house and kingdom forever (v. 16). To David the LORD God said He would establish an eternal kingdom. The throne, house and kingdom of Solomon/David would be established forever (2 Sam 7:12-13, 16). That means Israel will never cease to exist. Never. All of this is fulfilled through Jesus Christ, David’s Son, who has inherited the throne of David (Matt 1:1) and who will establish the Davidic kingdom when He returns from Heaven (Is 9:6-7) at the end of the 70th week of Daniel (Zec 6:12-13; Matt 25:31).
The “Palestinian covenant” of Deuteronomy 29-30 guarantees the return of Israel to the land. The same Israel that would rebel and be cast out of the land and suffer great indignation (De. 30:22-28) is the Israel that will return (De. 30:1-9). This covenant was made with the 12 tribes of Israel at the end of the 40 years of wilderness wandering just before they entered the Promised Land. It was made in the land of Moab (De. 29:1), which bordered the land of Canaan on the east. The covenant is unconditional and sure--“thou SHALT return and shalt obey his voice” (De. 30:2-2); “the Lord thy God WILL bring thee into the land” (De. 30:5); “God WILL circumcise thine heart” (De. 30:6); “God WILL put all these curses upon thine enemies” (De. 30:7); “thou SHALT return and obey the voice of the Lord” (De. 30:8); “God WILL make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand” (De. 30:9). The covenant will be fulfilled when Israel, scattered among the nations repents (De. 30:1-2). This proves that apostate Israel of the Diaspora is the Israel that will fulfill this covenant. Israel will be gathered from among the nations and brought to “the land which thy fathers possessed” (De. 30:3-5). This covenant is not fulfilled in Israel today, but it will be fulfilled when Israel is converted during the time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jer 30:7). Israel will be restored to the place of God’s blessing.
“And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers” (De. 30:9).
The covenant cannot be applied to “the church” without doing violence to the language. It pertains to people who were scattered among the nations and then brought back to the very land possessed by their fathers. The same people who are scattered will be restored.
The Abrahamic Covenant (Gen 12:1-3) refutes replacement theology and plainly tells us God is not finished with Israel. God’s covenant with Abraham is one of the most important things in human history. By this covenant, God created the nation Israel and brought the Scriptures and the Saviour to the world. By this covenant, God brought salvation to the sinful human race through Christ, the seed of Abraham and David. By this covenant, God will fulfill His eternal plan to bring together all things in one in Christ (Eph. 1:10). God blesses the nation that supports the Jewish people. This comes from an understanding of the Abrahamic covenant in Gen 12:1-3. This kind of support seems to match no other support for any other people.
The New Covenant says God is not finished with Israel (Jer 31-33; Heb 8). The New Covenant is God’s promise to convert rebellious Israel, restore her to her own land, and bless her. The New Covenant was made with the nation Israel (Jer 31:31) and promises the regathering of Israel (Jer. 31:6-11 -- it is the same Israel that was scattered by God among the nations that will be regathered); God’s blessing upon Israel’s land (Jer. 31:4-5, 12-14, 24-25) which Ezekiel often refers to as “the land of Israel” when he prophesies of Israel’s restoration (Eze. 11:17; 20:38, 42; 37:12; 38:18-19; 40:2; 47:18); the spiritual conversion of the people and cleansing from sin (Jer. 31:33-34); the reestablishment of Israel’s kingdom and the possession of the land (Jer. 31:35-37); blessing upon Jerusalem as the capital of the kingdom (Jer. 31:38-40); is unconditional and sure (Jer. 33:19-26). God goes out of His way to make this unequivocal.
All of God’s promises/prophecies to Israel in the OT will be literally fulfilled. Let's consider some of these from the book of Zechariah:
Israel will be restored to the land (Ze 10:6-12).
Israel will be brought through severe judgment during the Great Tribulation and 1/3 of the Jews will call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (Ze 13:8-9) whom they pierced (Ze 12:10).
Israel will repent and will be redeemed (Ze 12:10-13:1).
The Messiah will return and defeat Israel’s enemies and rule from Jerusalem (Ze 14:1-21).
Israel restoration to her land and Jerusalem rebuilt, and Israels conversion are the abundant declarations of God’s Word; surely nothing is more plainly stated in the Scriptures. For instance:
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea." (Is 11:11)
“For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem" (Joel 3:1)
'For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.” (Is 54:5-8)
“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.” (Rom 11:25-27)
Is 61:1-12 is a major prophecy concerning Israel. Verses 1 and 2 from this chapter is the passage that Jesus read in the synagogue at Nazareth at the beginning of His ministry (Lk 4:18-21). He stopped mid-way through v. 2 and declared, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” This prophecy tells us that the old wastes will be rebuilt (v. 4); strangers will serve Israel as shepherds, farmers and vinedressers (v. 5); Israel will be converted and be the priests and ministers of God (v. 6), and will finally be what God intended that she be, which is a light to the nations; Israel will be physically blessed and enriched (v. 6); the nations will recognize Israel’s conversion and know that God has blessed her (v. ), which further reiterates that these are real, earthly events.
Ezk 36:22-38 is a major prophecy pertaining to the New Covenant. God will restore Israel for His name’s sake (vv. 22-23). As God’s name has been profaned among the nations because of Israel’s apostasy, so His name will be glorified in her repentance and restoration. He will be glorified because of the display of His power and He will be glorified because Israel will exhibit His character of holiness and righteousness and truth and compassion before the nations. God will regather Israel from among the nations and bring Israel to her “own land” (v. 24). This is proof that the land of Israel belongs to ancient Israel and that currently apostate Israel will be restored to it. This is also proof that the same Israel that rejected God and was scattered among the nations is the Israel that will return. Israel will be converted and cleansed and given a spiritual heart to love and obey God (vv. 25-27). Israel will then dwell in the land that God gave to their fathers (v. 28). Again, we see that the land is Israel’s for a permanent possession. Israel will be physically blessed in the land (vv. 29-30, 33-34, 38). The nations will know that the Lord has done this (Eze. 36:36). The restoration and blessing will be visible, dramatic events, and there will be no question by the onlookers that prophecy will have been fulfilled.
Ezk 37:1-14, the prophecy of the Valley of Dry Bones. This great prophecy is the only one that explains that Israel will return from her wanderings among the nations in two stages, and in the first stage she will return in a spiritually dead condition. The interpretation of the valley of dry bones is plainly given in the prophecy itself. It signifies Israel in her dispersion among the nations. “Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts” (v. 11). The resurrection of the dry bones represents Israel’s return to the land and restoration as a nation. “Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel” (v. 12). This is as great a miracle as the resurrection from the dead. Never in human history has a nation been evicted from its land and scattered throughout the world for 2,000 years to survive as a nation and be restored to its original land with its original language and religion. The first stage of the restoration of Israel is in an unconverted state. “So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.” (vv.7-8). This is exactly what Israel is today and where Israel is today prophetically. Modern Israel is not righteous and is not a fulfillment of the regathering described in connection with the prophecies we have previously considered that describe the New Covenant. Since the 20th century, the land of Israel has been developed in an amazing way, but it is not a fulfillment of prophecies about the desert blossoming as the rose (Is 35:1). Modern Israel is, by her own profession, a secular state and most Jews are secular Jews who aren’t religious and don’t believe in the God of the Bible. A large percentage of them are atheists or agnostics. A minority hold to various branches of “orthodox Judaism,” which is a religion that does not follow the Old Testament but rather follows the Talmud. Israel is back in the land in an apostate condition to set the stage for the fulfillment of the last week of Daniel’s 70 Week prophecy (Dan 9:27). Israel must return in a spiritually dead condition in order to sign a covenant with the Antichrist. A living, redeemed Israel would not do that. But Ezekiel’s prophecy explains that God is going to touch Israel again and convert her spiritually. “Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. . . . And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD” (vv. 9-10, 14). This is in the future, and it is described in many prophecies, as we have seen, such as Ze 12-14. It is clear from Ezekiel’s prophecy that God is not finished with Israel. The same apostate Israel that was evicted from the land and scattered among her nations for her sin will be restored to the land. This has nothing to do with church age saints.
Biblical prophecies are direct, straightforward, and fully verifiable declarations foretelling major events in world history centuries and even thousands of years in advance. Many, many reference the nation of Israel and the Jewish people, and they are literal, just like prophecy has always been fulfilled in a literal manner. The above are only a few.
Replacement Theology damages the prophecies of Scripture to an immeasurable degree.
3. The damage done to the text of Scripture.
The heresy of Replacement Theology is supported by corrupting, perverting, twisting, wresting, manipulating and proof texting scripture such as Matt 21:43; Rom 2:28-29; 9:6; 11:16-24; Gal 3:16, 26-29; 4:21-26; 6:15-16; Eph 2:13-16, 19-22; Phil 3:3; Heb 12:22-23; etc. Proponents of Replacement Theology take these verses completely out of their context (immediate context, Book context, and whole Bible context) and use them to attempt to overthrow the teaching of the entire Bible. This, of course, is the standard operational procedure of false teachers.
This teaching frequently ties together with the perverted methodology of Bible interpretation, that of allegoricalism (spiritualizing scripture), in fact it requires it since that is how this theology is derived out of scripture: by spiritualizing scripture.
Replacement Theology takes the prophetic covenants, blessings, and promise of restoration and reconciliation of Israel and spiritualizes or allegoricalize's these prophetic truths and promises, and converts them into something for the church. This is the very definition of corrupting and wresting the Scriptures, which Paul the Apostle said saved people don't do (2 Cor 2:17), and Peter the Apostle declared was an "error of the wicked" (2 Pet 3:16-17).
Here are a few of the passages of Scripture that are misused and abused to proof text the heresy of replacement theology:
Matt 21:43. When Jesus said to the Israelites, "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof,” He clearly did not mean permanently. How do we know that? Christ Himself said that He isn't finished with Israel. He said they would not see Him TILL they repent: "Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Matt 23:39). Furthermore, there are hundreds of prophecies in the OT, some of which have been covered in this report, that clearly relate this truth (describing in detail the return, redemption and reconciliation of Israel with her Lord), so it cannot possibly mean permanently. Only if one interprets this passage privately (in opposition to 2 Pet 1:21) without considering the rest of Scripture, thus not rightly the word of truth (in opposition to 2 Tim 2:15), could one construe a permanent transfer. Ac 1:6-7 also tells us that Christ clearly agreed that the kingdom of Israel will be restored. To the question, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (v. 6), Jesus answered: "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." (v. 7). This was all in the context of speaking to the disciples “of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Ac. 1:3), which is obviously about the kingdom promised in OT prophecy and nowhere did Jesus or any NT writer teach that the church has replaced Israel. Clearly the apostles believed that Israel’s kingdom would be restored, they just didn’t know when. Neither does Christ clarify any misunderstanding about Israel's kingdom, had they been wrong. Just the opposite: He tells them that the timing of the establishment of Israel's kingdom is God's business and they need to stay focused on the business to be done on earth, which is preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth (Ac 1:8).
Rom 2:28-29. The local churches (a universal “church” does not exist) are not the fulfillment of "true" Israel as “believers.” When Scripture speaks of a true Jew, such as Rom 2:28-29, it is referring to the Jew not only by flesh, a child of Israel, a fleshly descendant of the 12 patriarchs, which is all the Jews in the world, the circumcised of the foreskin, but more importantly the Jew who is circumcised of the heart (Rom 2:28-29). The contrast is made between the mere child of Israel, who benefits from the covenants of God from an earthly perspective alone, to the child of Israel who is also a child of God through the new birth, the true Jew like Abraham, Juda, Samuel, David, Deborah, Jeremiah, Mary, Joseph, John the Baptist, and many more. Circumcision of the flesh does not have any eternal value without circumcision of the heart, the new creature (Gal 6:15-16). When Paul writes “the Israel of God” (Gal 6:16) he is only referring to the actual nation of Israel, the Jewish people, the descendants of the 12 sons of Jacob, obvious according to the context, Gal 6:15, the reference to circumcision. Like anywhere else in Scripture, this would make absolutely no sense if Israel was "the church." Rom 2:28-29 is not teaching that an unsaved Jew is not a Jew or that unsaved Israel is not Israel. Nor is it saying that a true Christian is the true Jew and that the church is Israel. All such things have to be blatantly read into the passage, which is corrupting and wresting the Scriptures.
Rom 9:6. They "are not all Israel" because many, actually majority, did not believe from among the Israelites, which is true of their entire history thus far (2 Cor 3:13-17). Paul had just in vv. 1-8 laid out God's love for Israel even in her unbelieving and unregenerate, Christ-rejecting, condition, and the great advantage the Jews had because of the covenants, the law, the service of God, the fathers, the Word of God and chiefly, “of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came.” The obvious question loomed as to how God’s promises to Israel could be reconciled with her present rebellion, which Paul rhetorically answers: “Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.” The true Israelite, the true Jew like Paul had already stated in Rom 2:28-29, is the Jew by both physical birth and by spiritual birth. These are the true Israel that will inherit the land eternally. The terms Israel and Jew are used throughout Scripture in two ways, as illustrated by Paul here: Rom 9:4 refers to all Jews and to all the nation Israel, and then Rom 9:6 refers to the true Jew and true Israel which is the saved Jew and saved Israel. Verse 6 is not saying that a Jew is not really a Jew or that an Israelite is not really an Israelite, or that true Israel consists of NT Gentile Christians and that the church has replaced Israel. These are presuppositions derived from eisegesis and an inability to harmonize and rightly divide the word of truth, which is the mark of an unregenerate false believer. Paul is simply explaining what a true Israelite or Jew is before God, which is not one that is a mere fleshly descendant of Israel. The Jew is not simply saved because he is born a Jew. Salvation is not by being a physical descendant of Abraham. Inheriting the eternal promises of God which rest in the New Covenant is only for the one that is genuinely converted to Christ, and Paul proved this point by declaring that not all of Abraham’s children inherited his promises (Rom 9:6-8). This teaching was not contained to Paul's writings alone: John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Christ taught the same thing (Lk 3:8-9; Jn 8:39-44).
To know and understand the proper Biblical view and teaching concerning Israel and the Church is not difficult to perceive but it does require true conversion so that the child of God can properly interpret and understand the scriptures and rightly divide the word of truth by the indwelling Spirit of God, the "Spirit of truth" (Jn 14:17; 15:26; 16:13) and the teacher of truth (1 Jn 2:27), and then studying the subject out from Genesis to Revelation, and NOT by privately interpretation or falsely dividing Scripture or reading into Scripture (eisegesis) ones own biases or presuppositions.
If one uses the normal, literal method of Bible interpretation, the whole Bible is found to speak with one thunderous voice about Israel and her future, and a handful of isolated proof texts (eisegetically utilized to support Replacement Theology) cannot change or overthrow this clear teaching. To attempt to do so does great violence to the literal truths of Scripture.
Israel and the Church are Two Entirely Different Entities
"The church" is NOT the same as Israel (Rom. 9–11). FAR from it. It's a diabolical lie, truly a "doctrine of devils" (1 Tim 4:1).
1 Cor 10:32 states that there are three categories of people in general in the world today:
"the JEWS . . . the GENTILES . . . [and] the CHURCH OF GOD."
Obviously then, Israel is not the same as the church of God. The relationship between Israel and the Church is fundamental to a right understanding of Scripture.
It seems many churches have forgotten that the God of the Bible is “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Ex 3:15-16, and hundreds of more times). No matter what one thinks of Jews, God chose them as a “special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth” (De 7:6), the “apple of His eye” (De 32:10; Lam 2:18; Ze 2:8). He gave them the land of Canaan “from the river of Egypt unto . . . the river Euphrates” (Gen 15:18) to be their “everlasting possession” (Gen 17:7-8; 1 Ch 16:16-18, etc), promising that Israel’s latter end would be better than her beginning (Ezk 36:8-38; 37:21-28; etc), and that she would never cease to be a nation (Jer 31:35-36). He declared that the land of Israel was His land never to be sold (Lev 25:23) and that all nations would be punished for dividing His land (Joel 3:2). God’s Word is very clear on who Israel is and their relationship to Him.
The reason most churches have forgotten is because they’re apostate!
There are many Scripture passages that very clearly, crystal clear, reflect the truth that God will never be done with Israel and that Israel and the ekkelsia are two very different entities (again, meaning visible, autonomous local churches, not some universal platonic organism), even though saved Jews and Gentiles are also of the same spiritual body, i.e., the local church and family of God. Here are a few:
“And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God” (Lev 26:44)
“For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished” (Jer 30:11)
“For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days” (Hos 3:4-5)
The Bible is extremely clear that God will save Israel when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled:
"For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." (Rom 11:25-27)
"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn." (Ze 12:10)
Replacement Theology does not acknowledge or recognize God's unfinished plans for His chosen people, the Jews. It does not affirm God's promises and makes God out to be a liar. God however is perfectly true in His nature, Word, and everything. Paul reflected OT teaching when he wrote (Rom 11:26): "all Israel shall be saved." He rewrote what Isaiah said: "Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation." (Is 45:17). We know Israel will be saved. We know how and when Israel will be saved. God will save Israel because He promised He would to Abraham. He promised He would to Isaac, Jacob, and King David. He continued to promise that He would through His prophets. It's true that God will only save believing Israel, but Israel will believe. The OT provides that testimony in Is 52-53 and Ze 14 among other places. The Apostle Paul reiterates it in Rom 11 and John in his book of Revelation. This is NOT applicable to the church or to Gentiles. This refers to the Jewish people, only.
That Israel and God's local church are different is perspicuously plain in the Bible. The terms "church" and "Israel" are never to be confused or used interchangeably. The church does not replace Israel as a nation or as partakers of His OT covenants. The local church has not replaced Israel in God’s plan and purposes. While God may be focusing His attention primarily on the church in this dispensation of grace, God has not forgotten Israel and will one day restore Israel to its intended role as the nation He has chosen (Rom 11). Scripture teaches that that the church is an entirely new entity that came into being in the days of Jesus Christ and will continue until such time the fullness of the Gentiles is complete (Rom 11). Local churches have no correlation or relationship to the curses and blessings for Israel. The covenants and promises towards Israel were valid for Israel alone, besides the new covenant (in part). Israel has been temporarily set aside in God’s program during these past 2,000 years of dispersion, but soon they, the natural branch, will be grafted back into the Olive tree (Rom 11).
Reading the Bible as “the church” (which isn’t a platonic, universal entity but local, visible, physical congregations) being Israel, isn’t just excessively confusing and contradictory but also unscriptural and heretical. It's a "doctrine of devils" (1 Tim 4:1). Thus--historical records proving--true born again Christians over the course of two millennia have rejected the heresy of Replacement Theology, because that is not what the Bible teaches and they do love the nation of Israel from the time of their conversion, for God's Word teaches to bless the Jews (Gen 12:3; 27:29; Num 24:9), and to oppose Satan's hatred of the Jews (1 Ch. 21:1; Rev. 12:13) which are God's chosen people (...), and because of all the spiritual blessings that came through the Jewish people (Rom 3:1-2; 9:4-5). Israel continues to be the elect of God, but concerning Israel that is not referring to salvation. Absolutely everything in the entire Bible, thousands of verses, reflect these truths, and it’s not difficult.
Contrary to replacement theology, dispensationalism teaches that God will restore Israel in the Great Tribulation period, as the primary focus of His plan to finalize the 70 weeks of Daniel (Dan 9:24-27). This period of time is predominately, and rightly, referred to as the 70th week of Daniel, the "time of Jacob's trouble," (Jer 30:1-7), but also Jacob's deliverance and redemption. Rev 6–19 covers this most awful time period that the world has ever seen (Matt 24:21), where the world will be judged for their rebellion to God's Word and rejection of Christ, while Israel is redeemed through the trials of the great tribulation and then prepared for the second coming of her Messiah. With Christ's second coming at the end of the tribulation, Israel is ready to receive Him. All of Israel will be spiritually and physically saved, which is the 1/3 of Israel that survives the wrath of the Antichrist, and the only means whereby they survive is by crying out to the One whom they crucified and pierced, and at that Jesus comes in the clouds to Mt. Sinai and rescues His chosen people who have finally turned to Him for salvation. At this point the Lord Jesus Christ together with His army of saints slaughters massive amounts of people in the world, who rejected Him and His gospel (2 Th 1:7-9; Rev 14:17-20; 19:11-21) and were actively attempting to annihilate His people. The angels of God then gather all the people from all four corners of the earth (Rev 14), and the judgement seat of Christ is established in Jerusalem where the Son of man sits on the "throne of His glory" and judges all the nations of the world that remain, as sheep or goats, depending upon how they treated His chosen people, "my brethren" (Matt 25:31-46), and while Christ "sit[s] on the throne of His glory," the twelve apostles "shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." (Matt 19:28). At the completion of this judgment, the Lord will establish His 1,000 year kingdom of peace upon the earth with Jerusalem as its capital, which will be the New Jerusalem, and He will rule the world with "a rod of iron" (Ps 2:9; Rev 2:27; 12:5; 19:15), "and the government shall be upon his shoulder:" (Is 9:6). Both Jew and Gentile born again believers will judge and rule over the Gentile nations. With Christ reigning as King, Israel will be the leading and judging nation, and representatives from all nations will come to Jerusalem to honour and worship the King—Jesus Christ.
In contrast to Israel’s covenants and prophecies, the Church is a mystery that was not revealed in OT prophecies (Eph 3:4-6). Rom 11:25-29 tells us more about the mystery of the church. Christ came to Israel (Matt 1:21) but was rejected (Jn 1:11). Christ was crucified and raised from the dead and ascended back to heaven. Nearly a decade later the armies of Rome destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and the Jews were scattered among the nations and for nearly 2,000 years and did not have a home of their own. Israel has been blinded because of her rebellion against God. During this age of grace or the church God is calling out people from among all nations to be saved (Ac 15:13-18). When this work is finished, God will turn His attention to fulfilling His covenants with Israel.
"And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me: Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." (Ac 15:13-18)
It is irrefutable that Israel once possessed a physical, historical land that was given to her by God’s eternal order. It is equally an historical fact that she was expelled from this land by God himself for her rebellion, in the 1st century. And it is no less an historical fact that Israel became a nation once again, May 14, 1948, and that millions of Jews have since returned to that Promised Land from more than 100 countries, just as Scripture foretold. This can be nothing less than the beginnings of God’s promised restoration of Israel so that her latter end would be better than her beginning. Here are a mere of these promises from God:
"Unto thy seed will I give this land . . . forever . . . from the river of Egypt unto the . . . river Euphrates. . . . I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee...for an everlasting covenant. . . . And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed . . . all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession...for unto thee [Isaac], and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father...the land whereon thou liest, to thee [Jacob] will I give it, and to thy seed. . . . Be ye mindful always of his covenant...which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac; and hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant....Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance” (Gen 12:7; 13:15; 15:18; 17:7-8; 26:3; 28:13; 1 Ch 16:14-18)
In Jer. 33:19-26 God specifically corrects those who say that He has cast off the families of Israel that they should be no more a nation. This is exactly what Replacement Theology says.
Neither the Abrahamic, Palestinian, or Davidic covenant can be applied to “the church” without doing serious damage to Biblical language and doctrine. They pertain ONLY to people who were scattered among the nations and then brought back to the very land possessed by their fathers. "For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it." (Jer 30:3). According to Replacement Theology, Jesus is currently sitting on David’s throne in heaven and this is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant, but this requires some serious allegorical and mental gymnastics. It requires “spiritualizing” the plain words of the Davidic covenant and the New Covenant but there is no way to make this fit "the church" without doing violence to plain Bible language and to the clear promises of God.
The Bible describes Israel as distinct among the nations of the world. As a nation and as a people, the Jews are distinguished from all others in hundreds of verses such as:
“I will give . . . unto you . . . a land . . . I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people. . . . And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine” (Lev 20:24-26)
“[T]he Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth” (De 7:6)
“And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee. . . . And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all the nations whither the Lord shall lead thee. . . . Ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth unto the other” (De 28:10, 37, 63, 64);
“Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations...He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.... It shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever” (Jer 31:10, 40)
“And thou [Gog and Magog, et al.] shalt say, I will go up … upon the people that are gathered out of the nations. … And thou shalt come up against my people Israel ... in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me” (Ezk 38:11-16)
Etcetera
At the same time that God promises eternal blessings to Israel in a full restoration in the last days, He also recites her unfaithfulness to Him without a hint that the many sins of Israel and the Jewish people would be any deterrent to His fulfilling all of His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob:
". . . the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them . . . the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever....I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen . . . be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel...in the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities. . . . For I will...gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land . . . and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the LORD. . . . I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it." (De 1:8; Jer 7:7; Ezk 36:11, 22-26, 32-36)
Furthermore, the prophets foretold that the Messiah would be rejected by Israel and crucified, yet in all of these prophecies there is never even a suggestion that because of her rejection God would break His everlasting covenant with His chosen people. The covenant was made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—not with their descendants (Gen 12:1-3; 15:7, 18-21; 17:7-8, 19, 21; 26; 28:13; 1 Ch 16:14-18, etc.). It was never conditioned upon the obedience of their descendants, and therefore could not possibly be broken by anything those descendants did or failed to do. It is a slap in the eternal God’s face to say that Israel has been replaced!
Scripture records literally hundreds of promises from God that Israel as a nation would never cease to exist (Jer 31:35-37, etc.) and nowhere is there ever even a hint that they would be replaced by another group. These prophetic promises cannot be annulled even by God himself. To do so would make Him a liar. Nor can they be spiritualized away as though the land of Canaan, which became the land of Israel, could simply mean the heavenly inheritance of the church.
Ze 12 to 14 refer to Jerusalem as a “cup of trembling” for all nations in the last days, to Israel being attacked by all nations of the earth, to Christ coming to the Mount of Olives to rescue His people and all Israel seeing Him and believing on Him. One cannot spiritualize Israel without doing violence to history, the present facts, and the Bible as a whole. Replacement “theology” is massively abusive to scripture and the truth. If Israel is the church, then why does Paul say, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved” (Rom 10:1)? To be in "the church," (i.e. "Israel" to the replacement theologian) one should already be saved in the sense of Mk 1:14-15; Ac 20:21; Lk 13:5; Jn 3:3-18; Ac 16:31; Rom 1:16-17. But Paul saus of Israel, NOT "the church,"
“For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Rom 10:3).
Eph 2:11-22 does not teach that “the church and Israel are "one,” as is often corrupted. It declares that the Gentiles are “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise,” but through Christ they become part of “the household of God.” The message is not about the oneness of Israel and the church but the fact that both Jews and Gentiles (as individuals through faith in Christ) are made “one new man.” There is a new entity, the body of Christ visible on earth as local churches, “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone” (Eph 2:20).
The church came into existence during Christ’s ministry upon the earth. If Israel was already the church, Christ would hardly have stated that He was starting to build His church now: “I will build my church” (Matt 16:18). Identifying Israel with the church requires such a spiritualizing of Scripture that its entire meaning is changed and the major promises concerning the return of Christ to Israel to establish His kingdom on the throne of His father David become mere allegories and tales.
The only biblical and true view is that the church is completely different and distinct from Israel (dispensationalism/premillennialism). The whole Bible refutes Replacement Theology.
Scripture is Crystal Clear that God has Not Cast Away His People Israel
"His people" (or "my people") by the way does not necessarily mean saved when it comes to Israel. All of Israel is "His people" because of the covenants and promises and God's special use of them throughout the ages (Rom 9:4-5), but that doesn't necessarily mean they are actually saved. This ONLY applies to Israel, not the Gentiles. Unsaved Gentiles are NOT "His people" while saved Gentiles are, like the Jews but in a different sense unless the Jews are saved themselves, but that doesn't mean "His people" in Scripture always applies to Gentile saints. In most cases it does not. The right and simple understanding of Scripture, where everything perfectly harmonizes, embraces the truths within this report. When you reject literal, dispensational, rightly divided truth, you will confuse much of scripture and embrace eisegesis form of Bible interpretation, which is both dishonouring and heretical.
The common belief surrounding this damnable heresy of replacement theology, is that since Jews rejected Jesus Christ as the Messiah and have continued in unbelief and disobedience to God and since Judaism today is not based on the Bible but on the Talmud, Israel today is not the true Israel. She has been rejected by God and replaced with the church. God is finished with her.
They arrive at this conclusion by corrupting, perverting, twisting, wresting, manipulating and proof texting scripture such as Matt 21:43; Rom 2:28-29; 9:6; 11:16-24; Gal 3:16, 26-29; 4:21-26; 6:15-16; Eph 2:13-16, 19-22; Phil 3:3; Heb 12:22-23, described under the section "The Damage Done to Scripture and Common Sense under Replacement Theology." Proponents of Replacement Theology take these verses completely out of their context (immediate context, Book context, and whole Bible context) and use them to attempt to overthrow the teaching of the entire Bible. This, of course, is the standard operational procedure of false teachers.
That God is not finished with national Israel is taught from Genesis to Revelation. For instance, Is 10:20-22; Ezk 37:1-14; 38-39; Dan 9:24-27 (Daniel’s 70 Week Prophecy); Hos 3:4-5; Am 9:8-15; Matt 23:38-39; 24:15-21; Lk 19:11-27; Ac 1:3-8; Rev 7-20; etc.
Let us consider Daniel's 70th week prophecy. This prophecy tells us that God is not finished with Israel (Dan 9:24-27). This great prophecy gives a complete summary of God’s program for Israel from the Babylonian Captivity until the second coming of Christ. The 70 weeks are actually weeks of years (a common system of time keeping in the OT), or 490 years, noted clearly from the 483 years fulfilled so far. During the 70 weeks, God’s judgments upon Israel will be completed and Christ will come back to earth to bring in the millennial kingdom. The angel tells Daniel that the prophecy pertains to his own people, the Jews, and to the holy city, Jerusalem (Dan 9:24). This does NOT apply to the Gentiles or the church of God. It’s to the Jews/Israel ALONE. The first 69 weeks (483 years) extended from the time that the commandment was given to rebuild Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity to the time of Christ’s first coming, precisely to the day He--Israel’s King (Matt 21:5)--would ride into Jerusalem on the back of an ass, with a colt by His side (Matt 21:2-11). The commandment to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem was given by Artaxerxes the king of Persia, and is described in Neh 2:1-8. (The same king gave the commandment to rebuild the temple 13 years earlier as described in the book of Ezra, but Dan 9:25 speaks particularly of the rebuilding of the city wall.) Daniel’s prophecy describes three great events that occurred in this time. First, Jerusalem was rebuilt (Dan 9:25). The rebuilding of the city streets and walls in troublous times is described in the book of Nehemiah. Second, the Messiah was “cut off, but not for himself,” meaning that He died for mankind on the cross, for the sins of man (Dan 9:26). His death was substitutionary (2 Cor 5:21). Third, the city and temple were destroyed (Dan 9:26). This occurred in AD 70 when the armies of Rome destroyed Jerusalem. After that there will continue to be wars until the time of the end (Dan 9:26). This describes the Roman Jewish wars, but it also describes the last 2,000 years of Israel’s history. Even today, though Israel is back in the land, she has had no peace, and she will have no peace until she repents and receives her Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. The 69 weeks of Daniel has been fulfilled but the last week, or seven years, the 70th week of Daniel’s prophecy, remains unfulfilled (Dan 9:27). Between the 69th and 70th weeks is the church age, which is called a “mystery” because it was not revealed to the OT prophets (Eph 3:3-6). Paul describes the church age as the time of Israel’s divinely orchestrated blindness in Rom 11:25-27 as punishment for her rejection of the Messiah. The last week (seven years) of Daniel’s prophecy is divided into two parts (Dan 9:27). At the beginning of the seven years, the Antichrist will make a false peace covenant with Israel. It is at this time that the Jewish temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem. Rev 11 describes it being measured at the very time when the Two Witnesses (Two Olive Trees) will prophesy in Jerusalem. Mid-way through the seven years the Antichrist will break this covenant and desecrate the temple by sitting in the holy of holies and exalting himself as God, which is referred to by as“the abomination of desolation” (Matt 24:15). This event marks the beginning of the 3.5 years of Great Tribulation such as the world as never seen or will ever see (Matt 24:21).
The Apostle Paul taught the early churches that God’s covenants with Israel do not belong to the church and will yet be fulfilled. Consider the following clear teaching from Rom 11 which answers the question, “Hath God cast away his people?”
Paul rhetorically answers the question, “Hath God cast away his people?” with an emphatic expression of negation, “God forbid.” (Rom 11:1)
Paul proves that God has not permanently cast away Israel by the fact that there is presently a remnant, of which he is a member (Rom 11:1-5). The nation Israel is preserved before God through the believing remnant. This has always been the true Israel (Rom 9:6-8), as in both children of Israel and children of God (Rom 9:6-8; Ac 2:28-29)
The present fall of Israel has a divine purpose, that of bringing salvation to the Gentiles, and Israel’s fall is not permanent but will end in their fulness (Rom 11:11-12).
The same Israel that has been cast away will be reconciled (Rom 11:15).
Israel is likened to an olive tree. Branches have been broken off, but the tree remains (Rom 11:17-24). When Israel ceases to abide in unbelief, by repentance, they will be saved or “graffed into their own olive tree.”
Israel’s present blindness will only last until the end of the age of the Gentiles, “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (Rom 11:25).
Israel will be saved either just preceding or at the coming of Christ and God’s New Covenant will be fulfilled in them (Rom 11:26-27).
Lest Israel be restored again to her own land, her native land, the larger part of the book of Revelation, certainly chapters 7 through 20, would be almost entirely without meaning, for they relate nothing at all to the Gentile churches. Those chapters are largely Jewish, and relate to events that will take place in the 70th week of Daniel, the Time of Jacob's Trouble, to a considerable extent in Palestine and the beloved city of Jerusalem.
The entire record of God's Word, from Genesis to Revelation, tells us clearly over and over, repeatedly, that God is NOT finished with the nation of Israel and the Jewish people. The church has not replaced Israel in God’s plan. While God may be focusing His attention primarily on the local church in this dispensation of grace, God has not forgotten Israel and will one day restore Israel to their intended role as the ruling nation He has chosen (Rom 11).
Embracing the Heresy of Replacement Theology Comes from an Unregenerate Spiritual Condition
Replacement Theology is indeed a salvation issue. The truth of matter is, people who believe this have never actually been born again. Period. They are unsaved, unregenerate, religious folks who are void of the have indwelling Spirit of God. It is impossible to be truly born again and hold to this "doctrine of devils" called Replacement Theology. The two statements are as contradictory as "Christian Rock." Jesus is a Jew and He loves Israel, and separates them from the Gentile people. People that hold to the replacement heresy do not love Israel and the Jews (as all saved people do, from the very moment of their salvation), which further establishes their unregenerate spiritual condition.
This kinda of ignorance to Scripture and required perversion of so much Scripture (which is truly normal in many of these circles, especially Reformed Calvinism and Neo-evangelicalism, including arrogance in their position especially of the former), only reflects what we write in so many of our reports. People that cannot Biblically exposit and exegete scripture, or lack understanding of such an obvious and plain subject in Scripture, i.e., Israel and the incredible difference between Israel and the Church, do not have 20/20 Scriptural vision, and thus are UNSAVED. The Bible makes that very, very clear. Crystal clear. Knowing and understanding the truth and being able to rightly divide and interpret the Scriptures is a huge evidence of true conversion. That Israel is Israel and the Church is the Church (i.e. local churches, plural, the pillar and ground of the truth), is so perspicuously plain, one literally has to be both spiritually and physically blind not to see it. The spiritual blind cannot see it and they ignore tangible facts, so they twist the Scriptures to support their presupposition of a system of theology (such as Calvinism and Reformed Theology). Here are a few passages of Scripture that speak to this truth of absolutely knowing the truth, applied ONLY to truly born again, regenerate, saints of God, something completely absent in adherents of Replacement Theology. The Lord Jesus Christ declared:
“All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.” (Pr 8:8-9)
“Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge, That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?” (Pr 22:20-21)
1 Jn 2:20-21, 27 makes it further abundantly clear that all truly born again believers know the truth and reject lies (such as Replacement Theology), and that this is an important evidence of salvation:
“But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. . . . But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.”
God loves Israel. Just as God told Hosea to love Gomer, God loves Israel (Hos 3:1). True born again believers love Israel like God loves Israel, and this started the very moment of their new birth, when they entered into an eternal relationship with God the Father. He says the Jewish people are enemies of the gospel in our present age, "but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes." (Rom 11:28). People that don't love Israel are unsaved. Period. God commanded to preach the gospel first to the Jews (Rom 1:16), because they are first in God's purpose and plan. The Jews are a priority for the gospel. They might not listen, but true born again evangelism-minded believers go to Jews anyway (Matt 13:13-15, Is 6:9-10; cf. 2 Cor 5:17-6:2). Like many other passages of Scripture, the message of Obadiah was that God will restore His people (Obd 1:16-18), and despite Israel’s sin, He will punish those who oppress Israel (Obd 1:1-15). God judged Edom, the Amalekites, and others severely for mistreating Israel. We know God will save Israel. We should treat Jews like we know God will save tens of thousands of Jews (Rev 7 & 14). Even further, God will save the 1/3 of Israel that lives after the Antichrist slaughters the rest.
Also reject the damnable heresy of Replacement Theology, clearly a doctrine of devils. Who wants to embrace a doctrine contrived by Satan? Reject the heresy and the people that promote it. Mark them and avoid them.
"Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. "For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." (Rom 16:17-18)
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