Replacement Theology is the conviction that “God abandoned Israel because they rejected Christ as their Messiah”, and that “the church” simply replaced Israel and inherited the promises, covenants and blessings that God made to Israel. The Jews therefore are no longer God’s chosen people and God has no future plan or calling for the nation of Israel. However they are still subject to the curses found in the Bible as a result of their rejection of Christ.
It is a fact that millions of "church" members in the world today never hear a word from the pulpit concerning the Jewish State, Israel, and what the Bible has to say about it in the Old Testament prophecies. The people in some mainstream Christian Church denominations are totally left in the dark, and believe that God removed himself from the Jewish people and the State of Israel, and that the Jewish people no longer are part of God's bigger plan of salvation. This ignorance leads to their endorsement and support of the enemies of the Jewish State of Israel. The leaders and members of these churches are out of touch in understanding the extreme importance concerning events taking place in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, Russia and other Middle Eastern countries, and do not even realize that many news events today line up with prophetic fulfilment surrounding Israel and the Jewish people. They do not understand that the formation of the EU and the changes taking place right now is in alignment with prophecy. Sadly, if you are a member of any of these churches, you won't hear or understand anything concerning Israel in the Church, and you will most probably believe that Israel has been “replaced” by the Church.
Before the First Jewish Revolt in 66 AD, Christianity was basically a sect of Judaism. The separation between Judaism and Christianity began as a result of religious and social differences. The rapid acceptance of Christianity among the Gentiles fostered the irreversible divergence between the Jewish and Christian faiths. The destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD expedited the divide, with Jerusalem ultimately relinquishing her position as the centre of the Christian faith.
A brief look at the history of the first four centuries of Christianity identifies a "legacy of hatred" towards the Jewish people, which is against the clear teaching of the New Testament.
After the Second Jewish Revolt (133-135 AD), theological and political power moved from Jewish Christian leaders to centres of Gentile Christian leadership such as Alexandria, Rome, and Antioch. This power move influenced the early Church Fathers to make anti-Jewish statements and Christianity began to disconnect itself from Judaism.
Once Christianity and Judaism began to separate, the break became wider and wider. Judaism was considered a legal religion under Roman law, while Christianity, a new religion, was illegal. As Christianity grew, the Romans tried to suppress it with persecution. The resulting persecutions and frustrations of the Christians bred an animosity towards the Jewish community which were free to worship without persecution. Later, when the Church became the religion of the state, it would pass laws against the Jews in vengeance.
The resentment of the early Christians towards the Jews was reflected in the writings of the early Church Fathers. For example:
· Justin Martyr (160 AD) in speaking to a Jew said: "The Scriptures are not yours, but ours”.
· Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon (177 AD) declared: "Jews are disinherited from the grace of God".
· Tertullian, a great theologian on the deity of Christ (160-230AD) wrote his famous dissertation “Against the Jews”, in which he stated that God had rejected the Jews in favour of the Christians. The rejection was based on Matt 27:25 that Jesus’ blood would be upon the Jews and their children. According to these church fathers God destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem as a sign that He had abandoned the Jewish people.
· In the early 4th century, Eusebius wrote that the promises of the Hebrew Scriptures were for Christians, and the curses were for the Jews. He argued that the Church was the extension of the Old Testament and thus superseded Judaism.
Replacement Theology became the position of the Church during the time of Augustine, who popularized it in his book “The City of God”. In 321 AD, he made Christianity the official religion of the Empire and excluded all other religions. This signalled the end of the persecution of Christians, but the beginning of intolerance and persecution of the Jewish people. After 321 AD, the writings of the Church Fathers changed in character, and during this period we find many more examples of anti-Jewish predisposition. The burning question was: If the Jews and Judaism were cursed by God, then how can you explain their existence? Augustine tackled this issue in his "Sermon against the Jews." He argued that even though the Jews deserved the most severe punishment for having put Jesus to death, they have been kept alive by Divine Providence to serve, together with their Scriptures, as witnesses to the truth of Christianity. Their existence was further justified by the service they rendered to the Christian truth, in attesting through their humiliation, the triumph of the Church over the Synagogue.
By the Medieval Ages, the ideological acceptance of Christian anti-Semitism was totally normal. The reformation produced the greatest hater of Jews of all time, Martin Luther. Initially, Luther was sympathetic toward the Jews because he believed their rejection of the Gospel was due to their recognition of the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church. But when they continued to reject the Gospel, Luther turned on them with a vengeance. In 1543 he wrote a pamphlet entitled: “Concerning The Jews and Their Lies.” The document was an anti-Semitic discourse. In it, he referred to the Jews as: “A miserable and accursed people, stupid fools, blind and senseless, and the great vermin of humanity”. After having dehumanized and demonized them, Luther then proceeded to make some startling proposals for dealing with them:
· Their Synagogues and schools should be burned.
· Their houses should be destroyed.
· Their Talmudic writings should be confiscated.
· Their Rabbis should be prohibited to teach.
· Their money should be taken from them.
· They should be forced into forced labour.
His writings against the Jews certainly played a great part in events leading up to the Holocaust which occurred in “Christian” Europe. In his book Mein Kampf, published in 1925, Adolf Hitler referred to Martin Luther as “a great warrior, true statesmen, and a great reformer.” Hitler was a professed Christian. In 1924 at a Christian gathering in Berlin, he told thousands that he believed he was acting in the will of God to get rid of the Jews. The truth that most Christians are unaware of is that the Holocaust was the product of 1,900 years of dominant Christian anti-Semitism.
From the above overview of the depressing Christian History it is clear that anti-Semitism rooted in Replacement Theology still continues today under the guise of anti-Zionism.
“Replacement Theology” brought down through the centuries, is still erroneously taught in many theological colleges and seminaries which still hold the view that “the covenant” from the Jews passed from Judaism to Christianity at Calvary. God has not replaced Israel, nor has He changed His mind and rejected them. If God rejected Israel as His chosen people it would constitute a real failure on His part. God does not fail; neither does He change His mind, nor does He lie (1 Samuel 15:29). God declares to Israel through the prophet Isaiah that He is their God and there is no other, that there is none like Him. God declares that He has been their God from ancient times and that He will be their God in times yet to come. (Isaiah 46:9-10). How clear a statement is that! God did not replace His people. He punished them for their iniquities and idolatry by scattering them among all the nations of the world. He judged them according to their ways and deeds. (Ezekiel 36:18-19). Their punishment lasted 1900 years and ended when they were re-instated as a nation in Israel on the 14th May 1948 (Ezekiel 36:25; Isaiah 11:11-12). It is true that the Jewish people are currently under discipline because of their rejection of their Messiah. Over and over in the Scriptures the prophets said Israel would be disciplined if they were unfaithful, but the promise was also always made that they would be preserved. An example of this type of prophetic statement can be found in Jeremiah 30:11. God has preserved them in His grace because He loves them. In Zechariah 2:8 God proclaims that the Jewish people are “the apple of His eye,” and He warns against anyone trying to harm them.
If Israel has been rejected and condemned by God, and there is no future for the Jewish nation, how do we explain the remarkable survival of the Jewish people over the past 1900 years despite the many attempts to destroy them? Is the return of the Jewish people to the Promised Land as prophesied, just a coincidence or perhaps some "accident of history"? Can the astonishing rebirth of Israel, the nation that is at the centre of salvation history in every page of the Bible, be the result of a clever human scheme that has nothing to do with the Salvation plan of God? A major practical problem with replacement theology is the continuing existence of the Jewish people throughout the centuries and especially the revival of the modern state of Israel. (Isaiah 11:11-16; 43:5-6;; 30:3; 32:37; Ezekiel 11:17; 36:24 & 28; 38:8). Contrary to the heresy that God abandoned Israel, God restored His people in the land of their forefathers (Ezekiel 36:28). Contrary to the belief that Israel was no longer God’s chosen people, He protected them against their modern day enemies in the 1948, 1967 & 1973 wars. In all three conflicts Israel was totally outnumbered and outclassed by the sophistication of enemy weaponry, yet they were victorious in every conflict. During the October 1973, Yom Kippur War, 13 Muslim nations with more than 600,000 troops, about 600 planes, about 2,000 tanks & more than 3 billion dollars worth of Soviet supplies launched a surprise attack on Israel & broke through her defences. Nine days later, Israel annihilated them and the Soviet Union went to the U.N. pleading for a cease fire. Contrary to the belief of most Christians, Prophecy tells us that God will continue to keep Israel right to the end time.
What is God’s plan for the Jews in the end times and how will He bring about the salvation of the nation of Israel? Let us look at the end time situation for the nation of Israel, which has already started.
· We know that the Jewish people have already partially regathered in Israel from the four corners of the earth as detailed in Isaiah 11:11-12 and Ezekiel 36:25. This is the most prolific prophecy in the Old Testament. As I indicated before, if God has no purpose left for them, why would He go to the trouble of regathering them?
· The state of Israel has already been re-established (Isaiah 66:7-8).
· They will once again occupy the city of Jerusalem (Zechariah 8:7-8).
· All the nations of the world will come against them over the issue of the control of Jerusalem (Zechariah 12:2-3).
· The Antichrist will come to their rescue by guaranteeing them peace and allowing them to rebuild their temple (Daniel 9:27).
· But at the end of 3½ years, the Antichrist will declare himself to be God, and the Jews will reject Him (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4; Daniel 7:25).
· The Antichrist will then attempt to eradicate the Jews, and he will succeed in killing two-thirds of them (Zechariah 13:8-9; Revelation 12:13-17).
· At the end of the Tribulation, when the Jews have come to the end of themselves, they will turn to God and receive Jesus as their Messiah (Hosea 5:15; Zechariah 12:10).
· Jesus will return at this point in time, and He will regather all believing Jews to Israel where He will establish them as the prime nation in the world (Deuteronomy 30:1-9).
· The blessings of God will flow out to the nations through the Jews during the Millennium (Zechariah 8:22-23; Revelation 15:4).
The reason why anti-Semitism is so widespread and relentless is because it is supernatural. Satan hates the Jewish nation with a passion. He hates them because called them to be His Chosen People. He hates them because God provided both the Bible and the Messiah through them. He hates them because God loves them. He is determined to destroy every Jew on planet earth so that God cannot keep His promise. He works overtime to plant the seed of hatred towards the Jewish Nation in the people’s hearts. He tried to wipe them out in the Holocaust, but failed. He will try to destroy them again in the second half of the Tribulation, but he will fail again.
God is in control, not Satan. No one can foil God’s plan of redemption of His chosen people. The Jewish Nation will be saved and all the promises to the Jewish Nation will be fulfilled. On the awesome day of the Lord at the end of the Tibulation when Jesus returns in victory over Satan, the Jewish remnant will accept Him as their “Yahshua ha Mashiach Nagid” (LORD AND SAVIOUR)
by Johann Loots
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