Replacement Theology - Malcolm Heading

(Executive Director - International Christian Embassy - Jerusalem)

Replacement Theology is a misguided systematic approach to the bible that has not only led millions of Christians astray over the years but it has, in addition, birthed evil of the most horrific proportions, i.e. it played a role in the persecution of the Jews by the church through the centuries, including the Holocaust.

DEFINITION

Concisely put, Replacement Theology states that Israel, having failed God, has been replaced with the Church. As a consequence all the Biblical promises made to Israel are transferred to the Church. The Church is now the real Israel of God and Israel's national destiny in God is forever forfeited. The restoration of the modern state of Israel is thus an accident enjoying no Biblical credential and Christians who believe that it is an act of God, in faithfulness to His covenant cut with Abraham some 4,000 years ago, are considered misguided. This is the basic position of those subscribing to Replacement Theology.

ERRORS OF THINKING

(A) THE ALLEGORICAL METHOD OF INTERPRETATION

Replacement Theology effectively undermines the authority of God's Word in that it rests on the allegorical method of interpretation. That is, the reader of God's Word decides to spiritualise the text even if its context is literal. This effectively robs the Word of God of its own authority and the meaning of the text is entirely dependent on the reader's decision to spiritualise it or not. The problem is this: Man alone decides what he will spiritualise and what he won't. The Word of God can thus be manipulated to say anything! So, Replacement Theology rests on a false basis of Biblical interpretation.

INADEQUATE UNDERSTANDING OF COVENANT

Replacement Theology is only held by those who have not properly understood the nature of the Abrahamic covenant. This Covenant, first mentioned in Genesis 12:1-4 and thereafter repeatedly asserted and confirmed to the patriarchs is, in fact, the covenant of grace in Scripture for it underlines God's intention to bless the world with redemption. Such blessing, however, is through the nation of Israel. God says to Abraham: . . . "In you will all the families of the earth be blessed. . . "

So the Abrahamic covenant is one covenant having three vital elements:

1. It declares a strategy - to reach the world through the nation of Israel.

2. It bequeaths a land - as an everlasting possession to Israel . . .and

3. It gives a promise - those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse her will be cursed.

It is important for us to note here that if one element of the covenant fails then all fails. The covenant is like a coin having three elements, a rim, ahead side and a tails side. However, it remains one coin and one cannot retain one element of the coin and give away another. The Abrahamic covenant is just the same - it is one covenant. If one element of the covenant fails then all the elements fail. Thus if God's promises to Israel have now failed, then equally His promises to bless the world have also failed.

In short, if Israel's national destiny has been forfeited, through her disobedience, then the church is also finished! It must be remembered that the church's disobedience has been as great as that of Israel over the last two thousand years.

No one can deny this! So if Israel is finished because of failure then the church is as well!. There is no way that we can get around this. moreover, Paul underlines this very point in Galations 3 where he writes, years after Israel's rejection of Jesus as Messiah, that the Abrahamic Covenant cannot be annulled:

What I am saying is this: the Law, which came 430 years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify that promise. For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise." (Galatians 3:17-18)

According to Replacement theologians, this Covenant has been annulled. Only a superficial, inadequate grasp of covenant can lead to such a misguided conclusion.

THE PROPHETIC TESTIMONY

God's promises to national Israel are constantly re-affirmed by the prophets. In this way, He underlines the nature of His character and confirms the Abrahamic Covenant. An example of this is in Jeremiah 31:35-37:

"Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for light by day, and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; the Lord of Hosts is His name: If this fixed order departs from before Me, declares the Lord, then the offspring of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me for ever. Thus says the Lord, if the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the Lord."

So again, the fact that the sun, moon and stars are still with us confirms that ongoing validity of the Abrahamic Covenant and, as a result, Israel's national destiny. For Replacement Theology to be valid the sun and the moon must also be vanquished. There is no way that Replacement thinkers can get around this!

Moreover, Replacement Theology makes a mockery of God's character for it rests upon the premise that if you fail God in any way He will discard you . . . Even though initially He asserted that His commitment to you is everlasting. This sounds like a typical human response to the world and not like the God of the Bible which, of course, is but the thinking of men!

According to the writer of the book of Hebrews, we know that God will be faithful to us because in spite of Israel's disobedience He has kept faith with her. Speaking of the Abrahamic Covenant, He says:

"In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of His promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." (Hebrews 6:17-20)

Note again that we know God to be faithful because He has been faithful to Israel in all that He promised her through Abraham. In fact, this knowledge, says the writer, is the anchor of our soul (v19). According to Replacement Theology this is not true!!

THE TRUTH

In the final analysis, Replacement Theology is but the mere thinking of men unable to stand up to the test of Scripture. It contradicts Scripture everywhere and by so doing robs thousands of Christians from understanding God's redemptive purposes. The truth is:

1. God has not cast off national Israel.

2. Canaan to this present day is Israel's national homeland.

3. The church has not replaced Israel, she has only enlarged her. (Ephesians 2:11-13; Romans 11:17-18)

4. The modern restoration of Israel is evidence of God's faithfulness to His Word and the promise and strong encouragement to the Church.

5. The restoration of Israel will culminate in the coming of Messiah. Therefore the Church in the world is able to make herself ready and bless Israel as much as she can.

6. The restoration of Israel to her homeland in Canaan - including the West Bank - is the first step towards Israel's national redemption. (Romans 11:25-27)

In closing, it would be good for us to note a quote that came from the pen of the now famous and very godly Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Reverend J. D. Ryle. He said:

"I warn you, that unless you interpret the prophetical portion of the Old Testament in a simple literal meaning of its words, you will find it no easy matter to carry on an argument with a Jew. Will you dare tell him that Zion, Jerusalem, Jacob, Judah, Ephraim, Israel, do not mean what they seem to mean, but mean the church of Christ."

Malcolm Hedding is the International Director for the International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem - For More information about their work visit the ICEJ - Jerusalem based website:   http://www.icej.org/

Replacement Theology: Abolitionism and Reconstructionism
10/1/2006

Recently, I became more keenly aware of the spiritual conflict that rages over Israel. This conflict settles on the battleground of Replacement theology. While we reject this theological concept, it is worth noting that it is a stronghold that has strengthened itself over many centuries within churches of all traditions. It is therefore not easily removed and yet we are called to do so with the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.

To some degree, Replacement theology is so deceptive because it rests on half-truths. For instance, the Church is the “Israel of God” but not in a replacement sense (Galatians 6:14-16).

In essence, Replacement theology removes from Israel a national destiny in the land of Canaan because of her rejection of Jesus’ Messianic credentials. All the biblical statements of Israel enjoying future blessings in the land of Canaan are said to be descriptions of the spiritual blessings that now accrue to the Church. The expectation of a physical kingdom has been spiritualized and taken from Israel and given to the Gentiles (Matthew 21:43), even though Jesus never denied that the physical kingdom would be restored to Israel (Acts 1:6-7).

That this way of expounding Scripture completely violates the principles of biblical exposition is of little importance to them. We should interpret Scripture by the nature of the text. If it is literal, then we should interpret it literally, but if it is spiritual or figurative, then we should respond accordingly. For instance, Jesus said, “I am the door!” Does this mean He actually is a door? Of course not! The context is clearly figurative and needs to be interpreted as such.

We are therefore not committed to any singular form of biblical exposition – literal or figurative – but rather to the context. This will determine our style of exposition and therefore we uphold the integrity of Scripture and its authority.


THE ESSENTIALS OF REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY
Replacement theology rests chiefly on the idea that the whole or part of the Abrahamic Covenant has been abolished, for it is this Covenant that promises to Israel eternal ownership of the land of Canaan (Genesis 17:7-8).

Once this promise has been removed, the present-day restoration of Israel means nothing and her only hope is in the Church. Now it must be made clear that we believe that only in Christ Jesus can there be salvation for Jews and Gentiles alike (Romans 1:16-17). However, we do not believe that the promise of God in the Abrahamic Covenant bequeathing the land of Canaan to Israel has been removed, and therefore Israel’s modern restoration to the land of Canaan is indeed fulfillment of that promise and constitutes a milestone on her ‘way home’ to her Messiah (Ezekiel 36:24-28).

TWO POINTS OF VIEW
The Replacement camp is divided into two opinions concerning the Abrahamic Covenant:

(1) The Abolitionists
This camp sees the Covenant with Abraham as being entirely abolished. However they have serious difficulties because Paul writing to the Galatians states that Jesus died in order to bring to our lives the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant and if we belong to Jesus, we are Abraham’s children according to the promise (Galatians 3:13-14, 29).

If the Covenant has been abolished, then what Paul says is wrong! Moreover the writer of the Book of Hebrews states that we can trust God to be faithful to the New Covenant because He has always been faithful to the Abrahamic Covenant (Hebrews 6:13-20). This constitutes a serious problem for the Abolitionists because, if the Abrahamic Covenant has been abolished, then God is a liar and indeed is not faithful, though the writer of Hebrews affirms that He is!

Many Abolitionists have perceived this problem and have consequently moved to the...

(2) Reconstructionist Camp
This theory states that the Abrahamic Covenant has indeed not been abolished but it has been reconstructed. That is, the part that promises land to Israel now means spiritual promises and not literal ones. The problem with this theory is:

(a) It is a total presupposition and the Scriptures nowhere affirm it. That all nations would be blessed in Christ was actually the intention of the Abrahamic Covenant from the very beginning, but this does not remove from the Jewish people a national destiny in the Holy Land.

Reconstructionists lay emphasis on Paul’s teaching in the Book of Galatians concerning God’s promise in Abraham being made not to his “seed”, plural, that is the people of Israel, but to his “seed” singular, meaning Jesus (Galatians 3:15-18). Therefore they conclude that since the “seed” Christ has come, the promise to the “seed” of Abraham as in plural – meaning the people – has been removed! They have forfeited the land!

The truth is that Paul also uses the term “Abraham’s seed” in the plural in the New Testament (Romans 9:6-7). In other words both interpretations of the term “seed” are true! Abraham’s seed is singular and plural. The blessing God promised in Abraham is only in Christ Jesus because He died for the whole world, but the mediation or means by which this blessed “seed” comes into the world is through the “seed” plural – the people of Israel. The one truth does not contradict the other. Both truths are in fact interdependent (Romans 9:1-5), hence the extensive genealogy of Jesus given in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38).

The Bible nowhere states that the promises of God in Abraham concerning Israel’s everlasting possession of the Land of Canaan are removed. In fact, everywhere it affirms the opposite! That is, that a day is coming when Israel will be restored to the land and to her Messiah (Ezekiel 36:24-32). This passage from Ezekiel teaches the very opposite of Replacement theology, in that Israel’s rebellion and sin has not led to land forfeiture but to judgment and correction, yet in the end God will, for His Name’s sake, restore Israel to her ancient land and to Himself! He does this in spite of her history of rebellion and sin. The truth is that Replacement theology reflects the heart of man and not that of God!

(b) The Scriptures refute it. Jesus came to confirm the promises to the Fathers, not to reconstruct them (Romans 15:7-9). Confirm means CONFIRM! He takes away nothing but reinforces every promise that God made to the fathers (Acts 3:22-26). Peter affirms that there must be a time of “restoration of all things” before Messiah returns. This “restoration of all things” is spoken about by all the prophets – meaning a final regathering to the Land of Canaan and repentance leading to salvation in Jesus (Amos 9:11-15; Jeremiah 36:26-28).

PURPOSE
Israel has always been God’s vehicle of world redemption (Romans 9:1-5). In a way, she is God’s microphone, the means by which He speaks to a lost world. Moreover, she has birthed all God’s covenants into the world and has now come back to her ancient homeland, by the promise of the Abrahamic Covenant, to birth the final great covenant of history, the Davidic Covenant. Herein lies the ultimate purpose of her modern-day restoration. Jesus will return to Zion as the root and offspring of David (Revelation 22:1-6; Psalm 2:1-12; Psalm 72:5-11).

No wonder the conflict over Zion is so great. Our ministry, partnered with you, is removing the stumbling blocks from Zion and thereby preparing her for the arrival of her great and most blessed King (Isaiah 62:10).

Replacement theology is thus an instrument of the powers of darkness to frustrate the purpose of God, by disconnecting the Church from this final great redemptive initiative in history. We reject it and stand fully on the promises of God concerning Israel and the Church.

Rev. Malcolm Hedding
Executive Director
International Christian Embassy Jerusalem

©2006 International Christian Embassy Jerusalem –