Refuting The Lie Of Replacement Theology
What Is Replacement Theology?
Matt Slick, the president and founder of Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM), says this on the subject:
Replacement theology is the teaching that the Christian church has replaced national Yisrael regarding the plan, purpose, and promises of Yahuah… [In] replacement theology the church has replaced Yisrael as the primary means by which the world is blessed by Yahuah’s work… Replacement theology is also known as supersessionism, which means that the Christian church has superseded Yisrael in YAHUAH’s plan.
John Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), said this in his 2006 book, “Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World”:
“Adherents of replacement theology believe that the Yahudim are no longer YAHUAH’s chosen people, and YAHUAH does not have specific future plans for the nation of Yisrael” (page 72)… “Replacement theology means that Yisra’el failed, and YAHUAH has replaced Yisrael with the church” (page165).
Ironically, when I formerly taught replacement theology, my thinking was very much in line with Slick and Hagee. I wasn’t replacing Yisrael with the church, but I sure was replacing YAHUSHA with the modern nation of Yisrael.
This illustration epitomizes the replacement theology I’ve left behind. It takes the role belonging to YAHUSHA and assigns it to a political nation whose population generally has nothing to do with Him. The Renewed Covenant is especially clear in showing that it’s through salvation in YAHUSHA that the nations are blessed.
Consider the progression of Scriptural revelation regarding the promise recorded in Genesis 12:3:
[1] It was first made by YAHUAH to Abraham alone: “It will be through you [Abraham], that all the families of the earth will be blessed.” [2] It was repeated again in Genesis 22:18, and this time expanded to include his offspring: “And through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed Me.” [3] In Acts 3:25-26, the apostle Peter, speaking to a Yahudim crowd in Jerusalem, is clear in identifying Abraham’s offspring and the means of blessing for the nations:And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant YAHUAH made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ When YAHUAH raised up His servant, He sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”
It’s YAHUSHA who is Abraham’s offspring, and He blesses the nations, beginning with the proclamation of the gospel to Yahudim in the first century.
[4] The apostle Paul, in Galatians 3:7-8, declared that YAHUSHA’s followers are Abraham’s offspring too:“Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that YAHUAH would justify the Gentiles (Lost Sheep) by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’”
According to the terms laid out by Matt Slick and John Hagee, the apostles Peter and Paul were guilty of teaching replacement theology. Yet according to Peter and Paul, when it comes to YAHUAH’s plans, purpose, and promises, Slick and Hagee are seeking to replace Jesus and His church with a geopolitical nation located in the Middle East. It’s highly ironic that there are Christians who are comfortable with the idea of replacing YAHUSHA The Messiah (their Savior) with a mere political nation, but are up in arms with those who allegedly replace Yisrael with the church.
Galatians 3, incidentally, goes on to make the point even more strongly that all of YAHUAH’s promises are wrapped up first in YAHUSHA and second in His followers. Paul says this in verse 16:
“The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say ‘and to seeds,’ meaning many people, but ‘and to your seed,’ meaning one person, who is YAHUSHA The Messiah.”
YAHUSHA is singularly the recipient of all of YAHUAH’s promises, and He extends those promises to His followers (verse 29), who are all one in Him regardless of ethnicity, societal status, or gender (verse 28):
There is neither Yahudi nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Messiah YAHUSHA. And if you are Messiah’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:28-29)
Does Paul leave any room for those who are outside of Messiah to be heirs of the promises? No, he doesn’t, not even for Yahudim who are outside of Messiah. Neither did Peter (Acts 3:23), and neither did YAHUSHA (e.g. Matthew 8:10-12, Matthew 21:43, John 8:31-47). As Paul says in II Corinthians 1:20, all of YAHUAH’’s promises are “yes” and “amen” in YAHUSHA. What are they outside of YAHUSHA? Meaningless and void.
One of my questions for Slick and Hagee is this: If YAHUAH’s plan, purpose, and promises are waiting for the nation of Yisrael to carry them out, then did YAHUAH utterly abandon the world between 70 AD and 1948 when there was no nation of Yisrael? Or is it not possible that YAHUAH’s plan, purpose, and promises continued to be carried out by True Yisrael, i.e., YAHUSHA and His Assembly?
Consider also what Paul said to the Roman assembly: “A person is not a Yahudi who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Yahudi who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit…” (Romans 2:28-29). “For not all who are descended from Yisrael belong to Yisrael, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring… This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of YAHUAH, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring” (Romans 9:6-8).
The Assembly is Yisrael, that is, the Yisrael of YAHUAH (Galatians 6:16). This is only true because YAHUSHA is True Yisrael, and we who belong to Messiah are made one with Him. One more example of each of these points will suffice. First we will look at how Matthew takes what was once said about the nation of Yisrael, and applies it to YAHUSHA. Then, finally, we will look at how Peter takes what was once said of the nation of Yisrael, and applies it to the Assembly.
[1] In Exodus 4:22, YAHUAH instructs Moses to say to Pharaoh, “Thus says YAHUAH, ‘Yisrael is My firstborn son, and I say to you, “Let My son go that he may serve Me.”’” Then in Hosea 11:1-2 we read, “When Yisrael was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son. The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baal’s and burning offerings to idols.” Who is Yisrael in these Old Testament texts? Clearly it’s that ancient nation, known as Yisrael, which was finally destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.Yet look at how Matthew treats this same statement. To set the background, an angel has warned Joseph, the father of YAHUSHA, to flee to Egypt with his family, because Herod would seek to destroy YAHUSHA: “And he [Joseph] rose and took the child [YAHUSHA] and His mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what YAHUAH had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I called My son’” (Matthew 2:14-15).
Only 40 verses into the New Testament, Matthew declares, by strong implication, that YAHUSHA is True Yisrael.
[2] Compare what Moses spoke to “the people of Yisrael” (Exodus 19:3) to what Peter said was true of the Assembly. It’s impossible to miss the parallel language, and I have letter-coded the parallels (A, B, and C):To ancient national Yisrael: “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be [A] MY TREASURED POSSESSION among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to Me [B] A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS and a [C] QODESH (SET-APART) NATION…” (Exodus 19:5-6).
To the ASSLEMBLIES: “But you are a chosen race, [B] A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, a [C] SET-APART NATION, a people [A] FOR HIS OWN POSSESSION, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are YAHUAH’s people…” (I Peter 2:9-10).
Peter leaves no doubt that Messiah’s followers are chosen for the same purpose for which the nation of Yisrael was once chosen.
I abandoned replacement theology because YAHUSHA is irreplaceable, and I love His Assembly Yisrael.
YISRA’EL CAN NEVER BE REPLACED By The Church or Any Other Nation of People
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35 This says YHUH, who gives the shemesh for a light by yom and the ordinances of the yarayach and of the cochavim for a light by night, who divides the sea when the waves of it roar; YHUH Tzevaoth is His Name:
36 If those ordinances vanish from before Me, says YHUH, then the zera of Yisrael [2250] also shall cease from being a nation before Me le-olam-va-ed. [2251]
37 This says YHUH; If the shamayim above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the zera of Yisrael for all that they have done, says YHUH.[2252] [2253]
Jeremiah (Yirmeyahu) 31:35-37 RSTNE 7th Edition
Foot Notes:
[2250] All 12 tribes. [2251] Yisrael’s survival, the promised end of the exile and Messianic redemption are guaranteed by the visibility of creation in the heavens. As long as these lights shine, the restoration and Messianic redemption, as well as the survival of both houses of Yisrael are personally guaranteed by Father YAHUAH. [2252] YAHUAH also challenges us to remember that even as the heavens cannot be literally measured, neither can Yisrael be literally removed, or replaced as the only single eternal elect and chosen collective bride of YAHUAH , when found in their redeemed virgin state. [2253] In verses 31-37, texts that speak of the 10 tribes of the north rejoining Judah, YAHUAH’s Name appears 10 times, once for each returning tribe of the north.Glossary of Hebrew Words:
Shemesh (H) Sun
Yarayach (H) The Moon NOT Month
Cochavim (H) Stars
Tzevaoth (H) Host
Zera (H) Seed, Sperm
Le-Olam-Va-Ed (H) Forever, Or For eternity
Shamayim (H) The Heavens (Singular And Plural)
Restoration Scriptures True Name 7th Edition
