Replacement Theology
An Invention of the
Dispensational Christian Zionists
All
Scripture is taken from the King James Bible.
Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all
Israel, which are of Israel: (Romans 9:6)
There
is a teaching which has come to the forefront of many theological discussions,
especially in the area of eschatology.
It is the teaching which states that the church has replaced Israel in
the area of the intentions, plans, and promises which God had made.
Here is the reality in a nutshell.
The church and national Israel are two distinct entities.
Ancient Israel was a political nation.
The church, speaking of the eternal church, is a spiritual nation.
Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given
to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
(Matthew 21:43)
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation,
a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called
you out of darkness into his marvellous light: (1 Peter 2:9)
The
Lord Jesus Christ told the Jews that because of their rebellion toward Him, that
the Kingdom of God would be taken from them and given to a nation bringing forth
the fruits and that is the fruit of salvation.
This action has never been rescinded by God. To confirm that we are on
the right understanding, Peter in 1 Peter 2:9 confirms the fact that the eternal
body of believers is called a holy nation.
So the Lord Jesus made the point that the Kingdom of God would be removed
from the political nation of Israel and given to the eternal church, the
spiritual nation of believers. This
was going to happen because the gospel would no longer be limited to one single
political nation but would be going out to the entire world until the last day.
Then on the day of Pentecost, we saw the beginning of the evangelization
of the world. This was not the
beginning of the eternal church but the beginning of the last days and the
worldwide dissemination of the Gospel.
And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? {9}
Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in
Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, {10} Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in
Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and
proselytes, {11} Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the
wonderful works of God. (Acts 2:8-11)
Political Nation/Spiritual Nation
Many
hundreds of years before the ancient nation of Israel was formed after the
Exodus, the spiritual nation or the eternal church had already come into
existence. And Abel, he also
brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had
respect unto Abel and to his offering: (Genesis 4:4)
I am going to begin with Abel although
Adam and Eve may have become saved.
Here we see that God had respect unto Abel and the offering which he bought.
We see that this is confirmed in Hebrews 11:4.
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he
obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it
he being dead yet speaketh. (Hebrews 11:4)
Here
we read that it was by faith that Abel offered unto God.
Where did his faith come from?
We get the answer from Galatians 5:22.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, (Galatians 5:22) Faith is a fruit of the
Holy Spirit which means that Abel was saved because he had the Holy Spirit
indwelling him giving him faith to approach God with the correct type of
sacrifice. The idea that the Holy
Spirit was not active in the Old Testament is a wrong understanding because no
one can become saved unless they have the Holy Spirit living within them.
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the
Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is
none of his. (Romans 8:9)
We
need to understand that the eternal church was formed way before the political
nation of Israel was formed. The
nation of Israel was formed while they were still in bondage in Egypt but they
were not able to access the land which God promised them until they had left
Egypt which was about 1447 B.C. and it was yet another 40 years while they
wandered in the desert. It was
Joshua who took Israel into the promised land which could have begun about 1407
B.C.
When
we look at the time periods before that we will see some members of the eternal
church which existed. We can see
men like Job who was a contemporary with Abram.
Then we see Abram, Isaac, and Jacob who eventually was renamed Israel by
God. The name Israel means “Prince
with God.” Then of course we have
Moses and his brother Aaron, then Joshua and Caleb and probably others who had
become saved and obeyed God. So we
see that the thread of salvation was already in existence at the time of the
Exodus, which means that the eternal church existed before Israel did.
Now
enter the political nation of Israel.
After they went into the land and each tribe claimed their territory
according to the gift of God, the nation of Israel had formed and no sooner when
Joshua had died, they had failed to drive out the inhabitants of the land which
eventually become thorns in their sides and would aid them in disobeying God.
Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but
they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.
(Judges 2:3) As you look at the history, you will see that Judah had good
kings and bad kings. The northern
kingdom did not have any good kings.
In the south we saw David, Solomon, Asa, Jotham, Jehoshaphat, and others
who obeyed God.
As we
look at the history of Israel, we read that they had become so rebellious that
eventually God had to judge them.
The northern ten tribes went into captivity with Assyria about 721 B.C. and were
never heard from again as they were placed in all parts of the empire.
Then in 586 B.C., the southern kingdom or Judah had gone into captivity
because they followed the ways of the northern ten tribes.
And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel
committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her
treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.
(Jeremiah 3:8)
God had a special dealing with the tribe of Judah because it was
through this tribe that the Lord Jesus Christ came.
This is why God restored them after seventy years in captivity.
God brought them back to the land because the Messiah was to be born in
Bethlehem, according to the Scriptures.
But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the
thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be
ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
(Micah 5:2)
It
was in 63 B.C. when Pompey the Great captured Israel and made it a Roman
Province. You can see how God began
to set the stage for the coming of the Messiah.
The Lord Jesus Christ was born between 4-7 B.C. and was crucified in 33
B.C. As Jesus was in His earthly
ministry, He had interaction with many who were saved such as Nicodemus, Joseph
of Arimathea, Lazarus, Mary and Martha and others which means that even before
Christ went to the cross, the thread of salvation was present in Israel.
Then,
of course, once the day of Pentecost came, the preaching of the Gospel was now
in full swing. It was now going to
be preached throughout all the world.
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel
to every creature. (Mark
16:15)
The Great Commission simultaneous
with the last days have now commenced.
Enter
70 A.D.
The
Lord Jesus Christ had prophesied in no uncertain terms that the end of physical
Israel was at hand. The nation of
Israel had fulfilled all the rebellion that the Lord was going to take and now
their day of judgment was at hand.
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel
the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
{16} Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: (Matthew
24:15-16)
In 66
A.D. General Titus began the siege of Israel which lasted several years.
The Lord Jesus Christ had warned those living in Judah to flee when the
Roman army approached.
But when ye shall see the abomination of
desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let
him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the
mountains: (Mark 13:14) The unsaved
Jews did not listen to the warning the Lord Jesus gave but stayed put.
According to Josephus, all the Christians left Jerusalem and fled to the
mountains and as a result not one Christian perished in the siege of Jerusalem
but over one million Jews died. Many were taken to Rome as slaves and placed
throughout the empire.
So
now when Jerusalem was razed, even the temple was completely annihilated, all
vestiges of the temple were gone. The so-called “Wailing Wall” is not part of
the temple but was a supporting structure for the Antonia Fortress which housed
the Tenth Roman Legion. Israel was
no longer needed because all the prophetic events leading up to the coming of
the Messiah and His suffering and resurrection were fulfilled and there was no
more events to be fulfilled in or through Israel and therefore they were now
sent among the nations of the world.
It signaled the complete end of the Mosaic system of feasts, sacrifices,
observed days, etc. Israel’s
destruction was so complete that eyewitnesses said that it looked like no one
ever lived there. The area laid
unoccupied until 130 A.D. when Emperor Hadrian rebuilt the city as an outpost
for the Roman Army.
70-1948 A.D.
Now
we move toward the modern era but before we do, the time period from 70-1948
A.D. is 1878 years and in that time without the nation of Israel in existence,
God was continuing to build the spiritual nation or the eternal church.
It was in the first and second century when the church started expanding
into Europe and Africa and Asia.
Then after that time period the church continued to expand and God continually
built the church. During these 1878
years, the eternal church was persecuted by Rome until the fourth century, then
when Islam came into being in the sixth century, it was persecuted by the
Moslems. This resulted in the
middle east being ravaged and taken over by Islam.
Then in the twelfth century the Inquisition began by the Roman Catholic
Church and millions of Christians were persecuted by torture and death.
Then the church started seeing some victories.
In 1517 Martin Luther tacked his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle
church in Wittenberg, Germany. Then
England had persecuted the Pilgrims and Puritans as dissenters from the Church
of England which resulted in them going to Holland, where at that time the
national belief was Calvinism. From
Holland they went to America and settled in Massachusetts and as the settlers
moved in land, they began to settle other parts of the country and as a result
they started many churches and institutions of higher learning.
Christianity had now begun to spread rapidly in the colonies.
This led to the two Great Awakenings and to the great missionary
movements of the 18th and 19th centuries.
So all during the 1878 years after the destruction of Israel the eternal
church was being built worldwide with the blessing of God.
1948
In
1948 the modern nation of Israel came into existence and the entire Christian
community went crazy believing that this was now the end of times because God
had fulfilled His promise to the Jews of a home land.
Before one gets elated over this, some things must be put in its place to
get an understanding of this situation.
The
Balfour Declaration
The
Balfour Declaration was a November 2, 1917 letter from British Foreign Secretary
Arthur James Balfour to Lord Baron Walter Rothschild that made public the
British support of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The Balfour Declaration led
the League of Nations to entrust the United Kingdom with the Palestine Mandate
in 1922. The Declaration read:
“His
Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a
national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to
facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that
nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of
existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status
enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
Now
one obvious principle is very clear here.
When the first nation of Israel was formed, God used two believers to
bring it about, both were members of the spiritual nation or eternal church.
He used Moses and Joshua.
Moses led them to the Jordan River and Joshua took them across into the land.
When we look at modern Israel, we do not see any spiritual link to its
formation. If you notice, Balfour
sent the letter to Walter Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild banking family
which has been raping the wealth of nations and starting wars for hundreds of
years. If the modern nation of
Israel was of God, then why would He use Moses and Joshua, two believers, to
lead and form the first nation but a wicked family which has done nothing but
cause chaos and death for profit, to form the second one?
When
the first nation of Israel was formed, it was formed because it was to bring the
Messianic line to completion in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God had put up with all their rebellion for hundreds of years but finally
in 70 A.D. they were completely destroyed.
This modern nation of Israel which was formed has no special reason of
existence beyond being just one of the nations of the world.
Here is God’s assessment of the nations of the world.
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the
small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little
thing. (Isaiah
40:15) The nations are drops in a bucket and are nothing but dust,
just like man. For he knoweth
our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
(Psalms
103:14)
In other words, they are not special nor are they any closer to
God than any other nation.
The Promise of the Land
The
promises of God are to the believer and not to the unbeliever.
God had a special relationship with ancient Israel because the Messiah
was to come from it, however, because of their rebellion, they lost all rights
to the homeland God gave them and this is written in Scripture and cannot be
avoided for the purpose of selling prophecy books.
One of the major teachings of the prophecy preachers is that God did not fulfill
His promise to the Jews of giving them the land which He promised Abraham. So
they tell us for God to fulfill His promise it must be done during the
millennium. In other words, they preach God owes Israel. To say God owes any
mere human is outright blasphemy.
The following six verses teach that God had indeed fulfilled His promise to
national Israel concerning the promised land. To arrive at the theory that God
still owes a homeland to national Israel requires a flagrant denial of Scripture
which refutes this heinous lie.
{43} And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto
their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. {44} And the LORD gave
them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and
there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the LORD delivered all
their enemies into their hand. {45} There failed not ought of any good thing
which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.
(Joshua 21:43-45)
There is no way that these verses can be interpreted any other way than the
fulfilling of the promise to Abraham. Twice in these passages God tells us that
the land which Israel was dwelling in was the fulfillment of His promise to
Abraham. In verse 45, God is plainly telling us that He didn’t fail to keep His
promise because He brought all to pass. How can any commentator look at these
verses and say God still owes Israel a land?
To say God did not fulfill His promises, when He did, is total heresy and
blasphemy. It is a shame that so many Christians place prophecy books above
Scripture, and accept their heresy as if it was gospel. Scofield, the high
priest of prophecy, offers no comment on these verses, plus many claim it was
part of a promise and not the fulfillment. I have no idea how they arrived at
that erroneous conclusion but it was definite evasion of truth on part of the
commentator.
Remember the Bible said, "all came to pass" not part! In other words, you the
reader, will accept unbiblical Prophecy whether it is of God or not.
{7} Thou art the LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth
out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham; {8} And foundest
his heart before thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of the
Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites,
and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed thy
words; for thou art righteous: {23} Their children also multipliedst thou as
the stars of heaven, and broughtest them into the land, concerning which thou
hadst promised to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.
(Nehemiah 9:7-8, 23)
In these verses we have a reaffirmation that God fulfilled His promise to
Abraham and gave Israel the land. Here also, God is telling us plainly that His
promise to Abraham was fulfilled concerning the physical land of Canaan. Again,
to neglect these verses is evasion of Bible based truth. As the reader, stop and
ask yourself the question, should I believe what the Bible says or should I
believe the prophecy books? Should I build my theology on the hard truth of
Scripture or do I build it on the unbiblical theories of prophecy books,
pastors, or theologians? So we can
easily state that God had totally fulfilled His promise to Abraham of a home
land but because of their rebellion and hostility toward God, they lost the
rights to that land.
When
we look at the fact that they lost the land owing to their rebellion in the face
of God, how could it be that the prophecy pundits have now preached that God
owed Israel a land and in 1948 fulfilled that promise of a land for them.
It is because of their misunderstanding of certain verses and their
filtering everything through the eyes of ungodly Christian Zionism.
Their
Own Land
One
of the phrases found in the Old Testament is “their own land” or “your own
land.” What the prophecy pundits do
is instead of placing these verses in the proper time frame, what they do is
move it up and refer to it as being 1948.
However, those verses are speaking of the first return from their
captivity and when looking at the term “their own land,” it cannot be rejected
when used in reference to the time when they were removed from it for being
rebellious. The term must be
applied in total as the Bible teaches it.
One must keep in mind that these books are on the Old Testament side of
the cross. Assyria took the
northern kingdom in 721 B.C. and Babylon took the southern kingdom in 586 B.C.
So what we are seeing is the Old Testament Scenario concerning the return
to the promised land.
Removed From Their Own Land
Until
the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the
prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this
day. (2 Kings 17:23)
Until
I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and
wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye
may live, and not die: and hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you,
saying, The LORD will deliver us. (2 Kings 18:32)
And
the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death in Riblah in the land of
Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land.
(Jeremiah 52:27)
Son
of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it
by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness
of a removed woman. (Ezekiel 36:17)
For
thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led
away captive out of their own land. (Amos
7:11)
Notice how God uses the term “their own land.”
That is because the land that they are in was a fulfillment of the
promise that God made to Abraham’s physical descendants when He promised them
their own land. These five verses
deal with the fact that Israel and Judah were taken from their own land by
heathen nations in response to their rebellious and idolatrous ways.
The
Return To The Land
After
Israel was taken into captivity by Assyria, she was assimilated into their
culture and was never to be heard from again.
If God was going to call back Israel into their own land, then why not
the ten northern tribes? The reason
is because God was finished with them since the Messiah was to come through the
southern kingdom AKA the tribe of Judah.
The Jews had to return to the land because the Scriptures taught that the
Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem.
But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the
thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be
ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
(Micah 5:2)
Keep
in mind that Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah were written to the Southern Kingdom
of Judah and not to the northern kingdom which means God was focusing on Judah
to be returned to the land for the fulfillment of Scripture concerning the
birthplace and ministry of the Messiah. This
was the ultimate fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise concerning the physical
land that the Messiah would be born there and minister for a period of time.
So we see that the return in view has nothing whatsoever to do with 1948
and the modern nation of Israel because it was focusing on the return from
captivity to set the stage for the coming of Messiah.
But,
The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel
out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and
they shall dwell in their own land. (Jeremiah 23:8)
For
the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in
their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they
shall cleave to the house of Jacob. (Isaiah
14:1)
And I
will shew mercies unto you, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to
return to your own land. (Jeremiah
42:12)
For I
will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and
will bring you into your own land. (Ezekiel 36:24)
And
say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of
Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on
every side, and bring them into their own land: (Ezekiel 37:21)
Then
shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into
captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land,
and have left none of them any more there. (Ezekiel 39:28)
For a
more extensive study on the issue of the land see my study entitled: Their Own
Land.
www.scionofzion.com/tol.html
So
Far
So
far we have seen that the promises of God for a land for Israel was already
fulfilled, the return to the land we saw in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah had to
do with the return from Babylon of Judah, while the Northern Kingdom was never
called back. We also saw that the
term “own land” was used in reference to the fulfillment of God’s promise to
Abraham for a physical land for his descendants.
We also saw that both Israel and Judah were very rebellious and
idolatrous and as a result of their rancorous disobedience, God removed them
from their own land but only the southern Kingdom was returned to the land
because the Messiah would eventually come through the line of Judah.
The
New Testament
Now
we enter the period known as the New Testament which goes from the time of the
ministry of Christ to the last day.
When we look at the New Testament, there is not one verse which shows that the
physical nation of Israel will ever be resurrected.
The New Testament focuses on the spiritual nation, aka the eternal
church. The book of Revelation
focuses totally on the trials and tribulation of the eternal church in the last
days and has nothing whatsoever to do with a formation of a second nation of
Israel. The name “Israel” means
“prince with God.” Behold, what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
(1
John 3:1) Notice what
the following verse says: But
cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and
sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the LORD
of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.
(Malachi
1:14) God states that He is a Great King and in 1 John 3:1, the
believers are called what? “sons of
God.” What title is given to the
son of a King? It is the name
“Prince.” This means that those who
are born again in Christ are considered to be Princes.
This is why Jacob was renamed Israel by God because it was the spiritual
descendants which came through the physical nation of Israel that God was
focusing on.
Let
us go back to the beginning and look at our text verse.
Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not
all Israel, which are of Israel:
(Romans
9:6) They are not all Israel
which are of Israel, that is, all those who call themselves Israelis or Jews,
are not really that because both of those names denote a spiritual descendancy
from Abraham. The nation of Israel
which was formed as the conduit for the coming of Messiah had many unbelievers
in it which caused havoc for the believers.
Men like Korah, the ten spies who disbelieved God, the evil kings like
Saul and Ahab were not Israel even though they came from Israel.
This is why the term “spiritual Israel” is so absolutely biblical because
it denotes a separation between the true Israel (saved) and the false Israel
(unsaved) which was the worldly Israel.
It showed a difference between the political nation and the spiritual
nation which is the eternal church that came through the nation of Israel.
At present, the eternal church is in every single country and living
within the political atmospheres of all nations.
The
Promises
So we
must separate the promises which God made to physical Israel and those He made
to spiritual Israel. Since modern
theologians have melded these two, they came up with the idea of Replacement
Theology. The reality is that
spiritual Israel did not replace the physical Israel and the reason for that is
because they are two totally different entities.
God made promises to Abraham of a physical land for his physical
descendants but God made it clear that they would remain in the land if they
would be obedient to Him.
{18} Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and
ye shall dwell in the land in safety.
{19} And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and
dwell therein in safety.
(Leviticus 25:18-19)
Leviticus 25:18-19 are just two of the many verses which God gave to Israel
warning them that if they keep His commandments then they will remain in the
land. Well they could not keep His
commandments and as a result, after many years of rebellion, God removed them
out of the land. The covenant God
made with them was the covenant of law which meant it was temporary because they
could not keep the law. Ye shall
therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live
in them: I am the LORD. (Leviticus 18:5)
They
could not live in them and many of them died disobeying them.
As we saw in Nehemiah and Joshua that all the promises which God made
came to pass.
Then
we see the promises made to the spiritual nation or spiritual Israel.
Since these promises are very numerous, I can only list a few.
The covenant which God made with spiritual Israel is an eternal one and
not a physical one.
{15} For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed
for ever. {16} And I will make thy
seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the
earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. (Genesis 13:15-16)
{5} And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell
the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy
seed be. {6} And he believed in the
LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness. (Genesis 15:5-6)
{4} As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of
many nations. {5} Neither shall thy
name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of
many nations have I made thee. {6}
And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and
kings shall come out of thee. {7}
And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in
their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy
seed after thee. {8} And I will
give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a
stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be
their God. (Genesis 17:4-8)
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds,
as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
(Galatians 3:16)
And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the
promise.
(Galatians 3:29)
We
read above in Genesis 13:15-16 that God made a promise to Abraham that he was to
look at all the land which was promised to him but God includes a phrase which
makes this promise a spiritual one.
He says “to thy seed for ever.”
Which covenant was going to last forever?
It is the covenant of Grace, so here we have back in Genesis a hint of
the eternal covenant. Then in
Genesis 15:5-6, God shows him the stars and tells him that his descendants will
be as numerous as the stars, if he is able to count them.
Then in Genesis 17:7 & 8, God adds a word which tells us these promises
are definitely pointing to the covenant of Grace.
He adds the word “everlasting.”
Only the covenant of Grace will last forever because that is how someone
is saved. These everlasting
possessions can only be experienced in the new Heavens and the new Earth.
Then we look at the New Testament continuation of these eternal promises.
In Galatians 3:16, we read that Christ is the seed of Abraham and if you
belong to Christ, which means if you are saved, then you are Abraham’s seed and
heirs according to the promise.
Those
who are born again in Christ are the true seed of Abraham and will be heirs of
all the promises of God. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and
joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also
glorified together. (Rom 8:17) The Jews who were pushing the law on
people would not be heirs because the promise came not through the keeping of
the law but rather it came through grace alone. Abraham became saved and
believed God and it was reckoned unto him as righteousness and in like manner we
also are saved and are heirs as Romans 8:17 teaches.
Who
are the Inhabitants of Modern Israel?
Ancient Israel was the creation of God himself and through ancient Israel came
the Lord Jesus Christ who would bring salvation to all his people all around the
world. Modern Israel has absolutely
no connection to Ancient Israel.
Modern Israel is made up of four groups of people which are adherents to the
false religion of Judaism which is Talmudic based and not Scripture based:
Mizrachi
The
Mizrachi is the name of the religious Zionist organization founded in 1902 in
Vilnius at a world conference of religious Zionists called by Rabbi Yitzchak
Yaacov Reines. Bnei Akiva, which was founded in 1929, is the youth movement
associated with Mizrachi.
Ashkenazi
These were Jews of German and Eastern European origin along with their
traditions, customs, and rituals.
Sephardic
A Jew who is of Spanish or Portuguese or North African descent.
Khazar
The Khazars were a semi-nomadic Turkic people with a confederation of
Turkic-speaking tribes that in the late 6th century A.D. established a major
commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia.
Modern Israel is under the false religion of Judaism which is very anti-God and
anti-Christ. They are no better
than India with its Hinduism. Utah
with its Mormonism. Many Middle
East countries under Islam. Those
around the world under Roman Catholicism.
Judaism is just another false religion which will be judged on the last
day. These people are also not
Semitic in ancestry since they are mainly from Europe and Russia.
True Semitic people are brown skinned in color like the Arabs.
Every Jew you have ever seen is lily-white.
There are only four groups of Semitic people in this world: Arabs,
Akkadians, Phoenicians, and Hebrews.
The modern dwellers in modern Israel do not fall into any of those
groups.
Summary
So it
is easily seen that the promises of Ancient Israel and the promises of Spiritual
Israel are totally different because they have different goals.
Therefore, the eternal church did not steal any promises from them
because their promises did not apply to the eternal church.
The covenant of Israel was a temporary one because it was based on
obedience to the Law and we saw that they could not keep it.
Even during the period that ancient Israel existed, there were many who
were members of Spiritual Israel, namely those who were saved like Moses, David,
Solomon et al. Therefore,
Replacement Theology really does not exist, it is just another attack on the
Grace of God which under girds the spiritual nation.
Those who see the modern nation of Israel as more than just a nation
among nations have been blinded to truth or they have an obsession with that
country.
Nowhere in the New Testament does God even hint at raising up another physical
nation of Israel. The first one was
formed because the Messiah was to come through it.
What would be the purpose of the second one since all the promises that
God made were fulfilled in ancient Israel?
The idea that God owes the Jews is a blasphemous teaching because God is
indebted to no one, especially a group of people who show their hatred for His
Son, and who spurned His Law for hundreds of years, and shows a rancor for
Christianity today. Pastors and
theologians need to get their heads out of the Jerusalem Post and back into
their Bible without Zionist commentaries to mislead them.
This
study is available on line at:
www.scionofzion.com/replacement_theology.html