In leaps and bounds
Replacement theology is once again growing in leaps and bounds within Christendom but this is nothing new in the history of the Christian Church. If you go back over the history of Christendom you will find that some of the early Church fathers, who were previously disciples of Plato, Socrates and other Greek philosophers, Ignatius, Origen, Justyn Martyr, Marcion and John Chrysostom, were propagating this Unbiblical theology. Replacement theology is the belief that the Jewish rejection of Jesus resulted in God rejecting Israel in favour of the Church. The Church is the new Israel and the old Israel is simply cursed. All of the promises in the Old Testament to Israel are now to the Church, while the curses remain the property of the Jewish people. This became official church doctrine by the fourth century, but was popular by the year 150 AD particularly through the writing of Justin Martyr, where he referred to the Church as the “True Israel.” Shockingly, the root of this demonic doctrine began to grow a mere 19 years after the resurrection.
The kindness and sterness of God
It is why Paul wrote such a strong caution in Romans 11, warning them of the consequences of turning against Israel. As Paul writes; “For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.” (Rom. 11:21-22) In its context Paul was not implying that God had finished with Israel but simply pointing out the fact that Gentile belivers would also be cut off from the Olive tree, being Israel, if they, like those individual unbelieving Jews, did not continue by faith. Paul went on to say that God could also graft unbelieving Jews back into their own olive Tree if they repented and exercised faith in the Lord Jesus their Messiah. If God had finished with His people the Jews then Paul would not have written what he did. In fact nowhere does Paul imply that God is finished with Israel as a nation. As to their spiritual and physical restoration in the last days it is very clear in the writings of the prophets.
Rabid anti-semitism
Rome became the primary persecutor of the Jews—particularly after Rome embraced Christianity. “Christianised” Rome was more lethal to Israel than Pagan Rome! They were viscous, some of their preachers claiming that God hates the Jews and Constantine himself, the man who turned Rome to Christianity, was a rabid anti-Semite. Thanks to Augustine and Luther ant-Semitism spread widely within Christendom as these men propagated their brand of theology that became part and parcel of reformed theology as taught by the reformers and held even to this day by the majority of those promoting reformed theology. In 130 AD, Emperor Hadrian went on a demonic rampage against the Jews. They were exiled from Jerusalem, forbidden to enter under threat of death. The name was changed from Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina, to honour Jupiter. Judea was renamed Palestine. He wanted to rid the land of every last vestige of Jewishness. For the next 1,818 years, the Jews wandered the globe without a nation. Having passed through persecutions, the Inquisition, pogroms, the Crusades and ultimately, the Holocaust, indeed, one could have made a strong case that the Jewish people were cursed—that God was finished with them.
Rebirthed in 1948
However, we have seen so many prophecies fulfilled in the last 150 years regarding the Jews, which one must be blind, dumb or intellectually dishonest to believe that God has replaced Israel with the Church or that Israel is forever cursed. Here we are, nearly 2,000 years later, with Israel restored and Jerusalem as her capital. You really have to disconnect yourself from modern history to still embrace replacement theology. That would mean that by massive coincidence, Israel was rebirthed in 1948, Jerusalem was restored through the miraculous victory in the Six-Day-War, millions of Jewish exiles came back to Zion just as the prophets predicted, and all this while being the most persecuted people in world history, having suffered 52 attempted genocides. No nation has ever lost her geographical homeland for more than a short time and remained an identifiable people. Israel wandered for two millennia and survived! Only God could have done that. The very fact that these Jewish fingers can type on this keyboard is proof that God has been faithful to His promises.
With these things in view let’s just look at just seven of the dozens of prophecies regarding Israel’s restoration and see if they’ve come to pass…
# 1. (Ezekiel 36:24) “For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.” Immigration of Jewish people, on mass, began in 1882. Since then, millions of Jews have made Aliyah (immigrated to Israel).
# 2. (Isaiah 43:5-6, 21) “Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, `Give them up!’ and to the south, `Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth…” From the east, they came back from Yemen, Iran and Iraq. From the south, they returned from Egypt, Ethiopia, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. From the west, they poured in from former Nazi-occupied Europe, Morocco, Algeria and the Americas. From the north…we will get there.
# 3. (Isaiah. 66:8) “Who has ever heard of such things? Who has ever seen things like this? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labour than she gives birth to her children.” In one day, May 14, 1948, Israel became a nation. This year marks her 70th anniversary. Never has a “dead” nation come back to life after 2,000 years of exile.
# 4. (Zechariah 8:6-8) “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘If it is too difficult in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, will it also be too difficult in My sight?’ declares the LORD of hosts. “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Behold, I am going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west; 8and I will bring them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness.’” Jerusalem was restored in 1967. According to this prophecy, God would be the One who does this. I understand that some don’t like the idea of a restored Jewish Jerusalem, certainly not the U.N. and those supporting the unbiblical notion of a so called ‘Palestinian State,’ but, “Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’” (Is. 45:9) The answer is ‘no’, by the way. Israel will become what God has said they will become.
# 5. (Jeremiah. 16:14-15) “However, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ but it will be said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their ancestors.” In 1991, the Iron Curtain came down and over 1,000,000 Russian-speaking Jews poured into Israel from “the land of the north.”
# 6. (Ezekiel. 36:25-27) “(After I bring you back) I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” God Himself will spiritually restore His people in the Land of Israel. There are still many Jews to come back but through applied pressure due to anti-Semitism multitudes will return to Israel. God has a pre-determined appointment for His people with their long lost and rejected Messiah our Lord Jesus.
# 7. (Hosea 3:4-5) “For the sons of Israel will remain for many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar and without ephod or household idols. Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king; and they will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness in the last days.” The prophets predicted that after Israel went through a long season without a government or Temple, and after God brought them back to their own country, they would have a spiritual awakening and embrace the Messiah. Of course King David was long dead and buried, but as Peter tells us in Acts 2:29ff that the prophecies about David after his death refer to the Lord Jesus the Messiah. Today, there are more Jewish believers in Jesus than ever before, numbering in the hundreds of thousands. In Israel, there are over 150 Messianic congregations and growing.
God has not finished with Israel
God has most certainly not finished with Israel! Some will insist that Israel has been constantly unfaithful and as a nation have rejected their Messiah. But has the Church been more faithful than Israel? Who has had more light, Israel or the Church? Look at the spiritually bankrupt condition of Institutionalised Christianity today. If God is finished with Israel them He most certainly has finished with the Church! If God does not honour His covenant promises to restore Israel at the end for His name’s sake, as He says He will, according to Ezekiel 36:22-38, then why should He bother honouring His promises to the Church? In the end the LORD will have a faithful believing remnant both Jewish and Gentile, pure and clean and free of idolatry who will co-reign with Him in Jerusalem in His Millennial Kingdom! Those who still advocate replacement theology argue against the Biblical facts and against all reason.
P.S. Adapted from Kehila News Israel January 2018 by Ron Cantor.
