Replacement Theology

[Whatever]

I can't remember what I posted on another thread, but I was accused of "anti-Semitic Replacement Theology. This is pretty much a charge by those following dispensationalism and their fuzzy theology.

I will just deal with a couple verses from Romans 11:
Rom 11:17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree,

Notice, some Jews were broken off and Gentiles were grafted in to the olive tree.
Notice, these Jews were not broken out of Israel. The Jews rejected them.
John 12:42 Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue
And Gentiles were not grafted into Israel. They would be no more welcome in the synagogue that the broken out Jews.
Now back to Paul
Rom 11:23 And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

Question for you dispensationalists - what were the Jews grafted back in to? Certainly not national Israel. They were grafted back into the root and fatness of the olive tree. That is into Jesus Himself.

What did Jesus say He was going to build?
Mat 16:18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church (Ekklesia).
Is the Ekklesia something new?

Stephen says:
Act 7:38 "This is he who was in the congregation (Ekklesia) in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us,

Seems like the (Ekklesia) existed in the OT.

So the (Ekklesia) Church doesn't replace Israel, it is simply the New Covenant form of the Old Covenant (Ekklesia).

Luke 1:67 Now his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: 68 "Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited and redeemed His people,

Rom 11:26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”

All Israel does not mean every Jew, or even the nation itself. It is impossible to understand what Paul is saying if you reject his Calvinist view.
Rom 11:7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened

The whole nation did not obtain what it was seeking - national redemption, preeminence, above everybody else - but the chosen Ekklesia did obtain it.
All Israel is saved by redeeming elect Jews and Gentiles.

I'll let you guys have at it.

 

[NewLifeInChrist]

Israel was the caretaker (humanly speaking) of the kingdom of God. But because of their unbelief, God took this role away from them and gave it to us. Eventually, they will return to faith and join us. Unless, that is, we ourselves become unbelieving as Israel did. Then God will take the role from us and give it to others.

Reading the times we live in, with many Christians distrusting the Spirit of God and preferring intellectual pursuits instead, I am concerned we may be closer to the end of our role than we are to Israel joining us.

 

[Whatever]

Ephsians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace

Both Jews and Gentiles are now both one. What was the dividing wall of hostility that was broken down? It was the Old Covenant with its ceremonial laws.

Heb 8:13 In that He says, "A NEW COVENANT," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,

The whole statement in Hebrews 8:13, indicates that the writer regarded the Sinaitic covenant, even in Jeremiah's time, as obsolete, and that Jeremiah himself so regarded it. When God announced a new covenant he proclaimed the insufficiency of the old, and the promise of a new covenant carried with it the promise of the abrogation of the old. The new covenant is so shaped as to avoid the defects of the old one.
[Vincent's Word Studies]

 

[Whatever]

I am concerned we may be closer to the end of our role than we are to Israel joining us.

I don't believe as the dispensationalists do that Israel will build another temple and animal sacrifices will be brought back and that Jesus will return and rule from Jerusalem for a millennium, and then the great tribulation comes after that.

 

[NewLifeInChrist]

I don't believe as the dispensationalists do that Israel will build another temple and animal sacrifices will be brought back and that Jesus will return and rule from Jerusalem for a millennium, and then the great tribulation comes after that.

I havn't thought much about that. Doesn't ring true to me eather.

 

[D-D-W]

Replacement theology is more dispensationalist than its opposite. It says there was a time when God dealt only with the Jews but now has rejected the Jews in favor of the Gentile church. Replacement theology has been around since the Early Church Fathers, as demonstrated by many of the Ante Nicean writings.

And it led to Jewish Believers (called at the time Sect of the Nazorean) being excluded from the 325 ad Nicean Conference, being declared heretics. Eusubius wrote of them that they were completely orthodox in their theology and doctrines, but were heretics because they lived a Jewish lifestyle.

 

[D-D-W]

I don't believe as the dispensationalists do that Israel will build another temple and animal sacrifices will be brought back and that Jesus will return and rule from Jerusalem for a millennium, and then the great tribulation comes after that.

In Acts 21 we see the believers there under James (brother of the Lord) practicing animal sacrifice. Seemed a normal part of their worship. Even Paul took part in that.

 

[Whatever]

In Acts 21 we see the believers there under James (brother of the Lord) practicing animal sacrifice. Seemed a normal part of their worship. Even Paul took part in that.

Yes. to appease "those who were of the circumcision" for awhile.
Gal 2:11 Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; 12 for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision
Gal 2:14 But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, "If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?

 

[Whatever]

It says there was a time when God dealt only with the Jews but now has rejected the Jews in favor of the Gentile church.

God made the promise to a non-Jew Abraham that His seed would bless the world.
God made the temporary Old Covenant with Jews at Mt. Sinai.
Abraham's seed made the New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah
But
Eph 2:11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace.

The only reason the Church is mainly Gentile now, is because Jews reject their Messiah. They will be grafted back in when they accept Jesus. Part of the problem is that you messianics put so much emphasis on the old law of commandments contained in ordinances.

 

[D-D-W]

Yes. to appease "those who were of the circumcision" for awhile.

No. Go read it again. The entire encounter with James including the discussion from Acts 15. The exemption from the Law applied ONLY to gentile believers, NOT Jewish believers. What he wrote in all of his epistles was to primarily gentile congregations.

In the last chapter of Acts, Paul talks to the rabbis in Rome and says he not only kept the Law of Moses, but the oral tradition as well, the "customs of the fathers."

 

[Whatever]

The exemption from the Law applied ONLY to gentile believers, NOT Jewish believers.

As long as you associate with messianics, you will believe this.
You have your own forum to argue - https://christianforums.net/forums/messianic_judaism/

 

[NewLifeInChrist]

As long as you associate with messianics, you will believe this.
You have your own forum to argue - https://christianforums.net/forums/messianic_judaism/

It's a safe space for them. Nobody is allowed to argue with them there.

 

[Whatever]

In Isaiah 5:1-7 it talks about a vineyard the Lord planted.
Isa 5:1 Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard On a very fruitful hill.

Then it goes on about the vineyard. The first part of verse 7 says who the vineyard is:
Isa 5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant.

In Matthew 21 starting in verse 33 we have a section called "The Parable of the Tenants." It goes all the way to verse 46.
Here Jesus is taking up the OT view of Israel as a vineyard.
Mat 21:33 "Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.

You can read the rest.
He talks about sending His servants where they beat, killed and stones some. He sent other servants and they did the same to them.
Mat 21:37 Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.'

What did they do: They took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.
Jesus asked them:
Mat 21:40 "Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?"
Mat 21:41 They said to Him, "He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons."

Then Jesus said to them:
Mat 21:42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
Mat 21:43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.

Who is the kingdom taken away from:
Jesus was being questioned by the chief priests and the elders of the people. Judaism
And who is it given too?
Mat 16:18 And I tell you, . . . I will build my church . . .