FUTURE WORLD

REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY AND ISRAEL

From Hope For The World Update we learn the devastating effects of Replacement Theology(1)

During the last two decades a strong disdain for Israel has taken hold on our country. The growing acceptance of Replacement Theology, I believe, is one of the key reasons for America's changing views.

Replacement Theologians believe that God is forever finished working with or through the physical nation Israel. They maintain that any references to Israel in the New Testament are strictly allegorical and are intended to mean the church - the collective body of Christian believers wherever they may be in the world - which has replaced Israel.

If we begin to doubt the validity of the bible then where do we draw the line? What is true and what is allegory? We must look to God's word for the answer. It is found in the book of Psalms.

"As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless." Psalm 18:30 NIV (emphasis mine). Since God tells us his word is flawless we need not concern ourselves with determining what is allegory. He tells us it is all true.

To argue their point they [replacement theologians] cite well known passages such as Colossians 3:11 and Galations 3:26-29 which state that Jewish and Gentile believers are all one in Christ and are Abraham's seed. While some New Testament passages such as Romans 11: 25-29 and Ephesians 3:6 make reference to an Israel composed only of Abraham's literal offspring.

Context is the key to understanding passages of scripture.

Upon examining the Old Testament it becomes clear that many prophecies concerning "physical Israel" had not yet been fulfilled when the Church era began. Since the Bible is never wrong we must therefore conclude that these prophecies must be fulfilled prior to the second coming of Christ. One example is found in Isaiah 11:11-12. Isaiah prophesied:

Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people, who will remain, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the the islands of the sea. And He will lift up a standard for the nations, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.(emphasis in original)

This passage reveals that there would be not one, but two regatherings of the Jewish people. The return to Jerusalem of a remnant from Babylonian captivity in 535 B.C. represented the first regathering. In it, the dispersed of Judah were not brought back from "the four corners of the earth." The second regathering - which is global in scope - began in the last century and is still in progress. It has been visible for all to see.

Amazingly, replacement theologians believe that the re-establishment of Israel in our times is either a huge coincidence or the result of a plot by the Jews to rule the world from there. The possibility of physical Israel somehow fitting into God's sovereign plan for the endtimes is dismissed as nonsense.

Such widely respected apologists such as R.C. Sproul, J.I. Packer and Hank Hanegraff are squarely in the replacement camp. Other prolific authors from Robert Schuller and Rick Warren to D. James Kennedy and John Piper have for the most part side-stepped the issue, leading many to believe they too have embraced replacement teachings.

With the exception of several prominent Christian voices such as Pastor Chuck Smith - founder of Calvary Chapel, David Jeremiah of Turning Point and authors like Dave Hunt and Hal Lindsey, few Christian leaders are willing to tackle the subject of Israel from the literal biblical perspective. Why? It may be because it is politically incorrect to do so, and they will experience strenuous peer pressure if they put themselves on the line in this regard.

Replacement Theology has been taught for centuries by the the Roman Catholic Church.(emphasis mine) By the late 1800's, however with the call for a Jewish homeland gaining serious consideration, Bible believing Christians began to study the prophecies of scripture with a new vigor. They began to realize that the unfulfilled Old Testament prophecies concerning Israel - which had long been explained away as being allegorical - could in fact be fulfilled literally.

However, by the 1980's Replacement Theology began to make a comeback. Ever since, as the concept of unification with Catholicism has grown in popularity, more Evangelicals each year have climbed aboard Catholicism's replacement bandwagon. Today, it is actually fashionable in some "Christian" circles to degrade and denounce Israel and the Jews. These developments are very reminiscent of the days preceding the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany.

But even the most hardcore adherents to replacement teachings would have to agree that the manner in which Jewish settlers were removed from Gaza in August was deplorable. More than 8,000 Jews from 21 settlements were forced from their homes. The victims included women, children, and the elderly - everyone! Within several days of being evicted, their houses were leveled to the ground to ensure they would have no reason to return. Even the graves of their deceased loved ones were dug up and the bodies removed. Animals in most parts of the world, are not treated with such cruelty.

Yet, most of the international community - including many professing Christians - silently looked on as the Jews were forcefully extracted. Some political and religious heads went so far as to applaud these efforts.

And now we get to the main point of Gary Kah's article which in my view is: Who is behind this atrocity?

Gary States:

Along with some of the leaders in the Bush Administration, the parties most responsible for pushing the Gaza withdrawal were the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Vatican, the World Council of Churches [they should be most ashamed of all the groups listed, italics mine], and Europe's top leaders, along with various Islamic terrorist groups and Arab organizations. It is worth pointing out that these are the very same groups we have been exposing for years because of their involvement in promoting the one-world agenda. This fact alone should cause my replacement theology friends to reconsider their position. It seems clear that Satan is the one who is mobilizing the world against Israel.(emphasis mine)

Had the Palestinian people been removed from their villages in a similar fashion, you can rest assured there would have been deafening outcries from every part of the globe. In fact, such actions against the Palestinians would have probably triggered World War III. But because these victims were Jews, hardly anyone lifted a finger in their defense. Isn't interesting how history keeps repeating itself?

Israel: America's Blessing or Curse?

Sadly, it was the Bush administration - under pressure from the international community - that led the way in forcing Jews from Gaza. To ensure that Jewish soldiers would obey orders to remove their own people, the US quietly stationed special military troops in Israel. (Most Americans were unaware of this fact as none of our media covered this development). Thus it was ultimately the US that was responsible for the evacuation of Gaza.(emphasis and italics mine)

This is a sad day for America. Can God's judgment be far behind?

On Monday, August 22, the last Jewish settlement in Gaza was evacuated... The next day, August 23, the day after the completion of the Gaza evacuation, the government of the Bahamas issued a tropical storm warning for central and northwestern Bahamas...By Wednesday, August 24, the newly formed tropical depression was upgraded to Tropical Storm Katrina; and by Thursday, August 25 at 5 pm, Katrina became a hurricane. In a period of only 72 hours, tropical depression 11 developed and hit southeast Florida ... as a hurricane.(2)

Conclusion

Throughout history God has severely judged those nations and empires that have opposed or plotted against His people Israel. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Rome, as well as, The Third Reich of Nazi Germany were all brought low, at least in part, because of their treatment of God's chosen people.

In Genesis 12:3 God declares, "I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee." Contrary to the teaching of Replacement Theology this promise of God still holds true today, because it came attached to an everlasting[italics in original] covenant, and God will not go back on His word. The Lord's promise to Abraham is recorded in Genesis 17:7-8:

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. [emphasis in original].

God clearly warns us that he will not tolerate those nations who deal unjustly or harshly with Israel. Zechariah 12:2-3 proclaims:

Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.

And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut to pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

Does this not perfectly describe the current scene? In spite of every apparent effort to mediate a peaceful solution in Jerusalem, the situation only seems to get worse. This is because the leaders of the world are working against God's covenant. They are experiencing the frustration and turmoil - the burdensome stone - that results from violating God's purpose.

God warns the nations again in Zechariah 12:9, "And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem."(italics in original) By forcing Israel to give up its land for so-called peace, and by flaunting our immorality before the world, America has pitted itself directly against the Lord.

To read the whole article including more examples of God's judgment on this country you may subscribe to Gary Kah's Newsletter Hope For The World Update.

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Steve

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End Notes

(1)Gary Kah, "Has America's Judgment Begun?" Hope For The World Update, Fall 2005.
(2)Bill Koenig, "Gaza to Katrina - A Devastating Two Weeks," Koenig's International News, Update and Commentary, September 5, 2005
(http://watch.org/showprint.php3?idx=71101&mcat=1&rtn=/index.html)