Replacement Theology
Replacement theology rejects the Biblical promises and prophecies concerning the Abrahamic Covenant that God established with the nation of Israel as an everlasting covenant with everlasting ownership of the land of Canaan (Genesis 13:14, 15; 17:7, 8, 19). Replacement theology claims that Israel broke the Abrahamic Covenant when it rejected Jesus Christ at His first coming, at His death on Calvary. As a result, the covenant was repealed, and God forever rejected Israel as a nation. Israel lost ownership of the land and the everlasting nature of the Abrahamic Covenant. God will save individual Jews, but He has no present or future program for Israel as a nation. According to replacement theology our Lord has rejected Israel as His people and replaced it with the church. The church is now the Israel of God, so the prophecies in scripture concerning the blessings and restorations of Israel to the Promised Land are “spiritualized” into promises of God’s blessing for the Church, not Israel. We need to see what scriptures says, and if it says anything at all! Let’s start at the beginning.
Gen 17:5-8, “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. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee
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. 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. The word establish means: To set and fix firmly or unalterably; to settle permanently. Gen 12:3 says: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” So, we see that from the time of Abraham there were promises from the beginning that there was a covenant established between our Lord and Abraham, which the land was called Canaan, and was for an everlasting possession! Would our Lord make a promise, a covenant then fall back on His words?
In Deut. 14:2 the Lord says “For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all people; The Lord chose Abraham and his seed to be the chosen, in fact they are called a royal priesthood:
1 Peter 2:9 says “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 marvelous light: This was after the death and resurrection of our Lord, Israel was still called a Holy Nation!
Our Lord made it clear, “Touch Not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm,” Psa. 105:15
How do you explain the survival of the Jewish people over the past 2000 years despite the attempts to destroy them? Explain why the Jews in the Six Day War of 1967 overtook their Arab enemies and conquered East Jerusalem, thus bringing their sacred capital once again under Jewish control? Even today, no one can nor will take over Israel, the land has been promised to Israel from our Lord, and He doesn’t lie!
It wasn’t until the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the giving of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost when the time of the church was open to all mankind. As Christ said, “These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Matt 10:5-6. After the day of Pentecost: “And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. Act 10:45. Israel was chosen from the time of Abraham, yet the Gentiles weren’t brought in till after the resurrection of our Lord. Gentiles were not, nor are they the chosen of our Lord.
Praise the Lord He made a way for us! We are grafted in, or adopted! “For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. “And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, the branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? 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 fullness of the Gentiles be come in.” Rom 11:16-25. These scriptures are referring to Jews and the Gentiles, Jews being the natural branches, and the Gentiles being the wild olive tree, which our Lord blinded the Jews for the Gentiles, making the way for the Gentiles to become part of the family of God and to partake in the inheritance.
Our Lord promises at the end of this age He would bring back His people, the Jews to their land, “And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.” Amos 9:14-15
So, has God cast away His people, the Jews, or Israelites? “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew,” Rom 11:1-2a, Even Paul said that our Lord did Not replace the Israelites with the Gentiles! We have to be grafted in! How? Through repentance, baptism, conversion in Jesus Christ! So how can Any religion or anyone replace the words of our Lord? He made a promise from the beginning, and He does not go back on His words. “God is not a man that he should lie; neither the son of man that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Num. 23:19.
These religions, nations, and people that are boycotting, coming up against Israel is asking for our Lord’s wrath, remember, “I will bless that that bless thee, and Curse him that curseth Thee!
If you do not support, back Israel, you have denied the word of God and brought a curse upon yourself, the Lord made it clear from the time of Abraham that the promise was given to him and all that are adopted into the family of Abraham.
If you have been against, condemned, or boycotted Israel for any reason, pray to the Lord for forgiveness, He is a loving Savior that will accept your repentance, He will forgive you and you too will be an adopted child of God.