Posted on 10/26/2007 9:00:59 PM PDT by topcat54
Replacement theology has become dispensationalism's latest prophetic boogeyman. If you want to end a debate over eschatology, just charge your opponent with holding to replacement theology. What is “replacement theology,” sometimes called “supersessionism,” and why do dispensationalists accuse non-dispensationalists of holding it? Here’s a typical dispensational definition:
Replacement Theology: a theological perspective that teaches that the Jews have been rejected by God and are no longer God’s Chosen People. Those who hold to this view disavow any ethnic future for the Jewish people in connection with the biblical covenants, believing that their spiritual destiny is either to perish or become a part of the new religion that superseded Judaism (whether Christianity or Islam).1
“Replacement theology” is dispensationalism’s trump card in any debate over eschatology because it implies anti-semitism. Hal Lindsey attempted to use this card in his poorly researched and argued The Road to Holocaust.2 He wove an innovative tale implying that anyone who is not a dispensationalist carries the seeds of anti-semitism within his or her prophetic system. This would mean that every Christian prior to 1830 would have been theologically anti-semitic although not personally anti-semtic.
As Peter Leithart and I point out in The Legacy of Hatred Continues,3 it’s dispensationalists who hold to a form of replacement theology since they believe that Israel does not have any prophetic significance this side of the rapture! Prior to the rapture, in terms of dispensational logic, the Church has replaced Israel. This is unquestionably true since God’s prophetic plan for Israel has been postponed until the prophetic time clock starts ticking again at the beginning of Daniel’s 70th week which starts only after the Church is taken to heaven in the so-called rapture. Until then, God is dealing redemptively with the Church. Am I making this up? Consider the following by dispensationalist E. Schuyler English:
An intercalary4 period of history, after Christ’s death and resurrection and the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, has intervened. This is the present age, the Church age. . . . During this time God has not been dealing with Israel nationally, for they have been blinded concerning God’s mercy in Christ. . . . However, God will again deal with Israel as a nation. This will be in Daniel’s seventieth week, a seven-year period yet to come.5
According to English and every other dispensationalist, the Church has replaced Israel until the rapture. The unfulfilled promises made to Israel are not fulfilled until after the Church is taken off the earth. Thomas Ice, one of dispensationalism’s rising stars, admits that the Church replaces Israel this side of the rapture: “We dispensationalists believe that the church has superseded Israel during the current church age, but God has a future time in which He will restore national Israel ‘as the institution for the administration of divine blessings to the world.’”6
Dispensationalists claim that their particular brand of eschatology is the only prophetic system that gives Israel her proper place in redemptive history. This is an odd thing to argue since two-thirds of the Jews will be slaughtered during the post-rapture tribulation, and the world will be nearly destroyed. Charles Ryrie writes in his book The Best is Yet to Come that during this post-rapture period Israel will undergo “the worst bloodbath in Jewish history.”7 The book’s title doesn’t seem to very appropriate considering that during this period of time most of the Jews will die! John Walvoord follows a similar line of argument: “Israel is destined to have a particular time of suffering which will eclipse any thing that it has known in the past. . . . [T]he people of Israel . . . are placing themselves within the vortex of this future whirlwind which will destroy the majority of those living in the land of Palestine.”8 Arnold Fruchtenbaum states that during the Great Tribulation “Israel will suffer tremendous persecution (Matthew 24:15–28; Revelation 12:1–17). As a result of this persecution of the Jewish people, two-thirds are going to be killed.”9
During the time when Israel seems to be at peace with the world, she is really under the domination of the antichrist who will turn on her at the mid-point in the seven-year period. Israel waits more than 2000 years for the promises finally to be fulfilled, and before it happens, two-thirds of them are wiped out. Those who are charged with holding a “replacement theology viewpoint” believe in no inevitable future Jewish bloodbath. In fact, we believe that the Jews will inevitably embrace Jesus as the Messiah this side of the Second Coming. The fulfillment of Zechariah 13:8 is a past event. It may have had its fulfillment in the events leading up to and including the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Contrary to dispensationalism’s interpretation of the Olivet Discourse, Jesus' disciples warned the Jewish nation for nearly forty years about the impending judgment (Matt. 3:7; 21:42–46; 22:1–14; 24:15–22). Those who believed Jesus’ words of warning were delivered “from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:10). Those who continued to reject Jesus as the promised Messiah, even though they had been warned for a generation (Matt. 24:34), “wrath has come upon them to the utmost” (1 Thess. 2:16; cf. 1 Thess. 5:1–11; 2 Pet. 3:10–13).
Before critics of replacement theology throw stones, they need to take a look at their own prophetic system and see its many lapses in theology and logic.
Read Part Two of this article...
2. Hal Lindsey, The Road to Holocaust (New York: Bantam Books, 1989). The address for Bantam Books is 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York.
3. Gary DeMar and Peter J. Leithart, The Legacy of Hatred Continues: A Response to Hal Lindsey’s The Road to Holocaust (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, 1989).
4. Inserted into the calendar.
5. E. Schuyler English, A Companion to the New Scofield Reference Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1972), 135.
6. Thomas Ice, “The Israel of God,” The Thomas Ice Collection: www.raptureready.com/featured/TheIsraelOfGod.html#_edn3
7. Charles C. Ryrie, The Best is Yet to Come (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1981), 86.
8. John F. Walvoord, Israel in Prophecy (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1962), 107, 113. Emphasis added.
9. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, “The Little Apocalypse of Zechariah,” The End Times Controversy: The Second Coming Under Attack, eds. Tim LaHaye and Thomas Ice (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2003), 262.
“We would have to define the terms re scripture what “lion and lamb” are. It appears from Scripture that one is the King of Judah and the other one Christ— one and the same”
If the lion and the lamb are Christ and the “little child, weaned child, suckling child” are christians, who is the wolf? the goat? the calf? the cow? the bear? the calf? the cub? the ox? the scorpion?
But with righteousness shall he judge the poor,
and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth:
and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins,
and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
And the cow and the bear shall feed;
their young ones shall lie down together:
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.
No, a Jew is physical, as he states in Rom.9:5-9.
A christian is neither a Jew or Gentile (Gal.3)
Are you denying that Christ was a Jew?
And what about those passages in Isa.11, have they happened yet or not?
We can speculate, read the headlines, or we can search the scriptures to see if these things are true.
If he was circumcised at 99 without anaesthesia, it was dead!!
The Lion and Lamb are Christ, since He appears as both, first as a Lamb (Jn.1) and then as a Lion (Rev.5)
It appears from Scripture that one is the King of Judah and the other one Christ— one and the same.
Yes, they are, and they appear as such as different times.
Can “a little child”, and we know from scripture readings that Christians are often called “little children” were told that they can pick up any thing, even poisionous snakes. We know Paul was not hurt by one. This has to do with belief, and whether literal or not, is meant to demonstate the power that Christians may call on. And all that is now, yes.
LOL!
That is not what the passage says.
So the wolf and lamb are now lying down together as well?
Just thinking about it makes me wince!
Are we taking individual cases? Because wolves can be raised peacefully around farm animals and lions can be fed a vegetarian diet.
Alot!
Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. I suppose many Benjamites have married Christians. But is that what it’s talking about? Maybe, maybe not, but it’s a truth
LOL!
Now, the passage is dealing with the nature of the beasts being changed so that a little child can lead them.
The passage also talks about the wicked being destroyed with the breath of his lips.
I still see plenty of wicked people around.
We know that happens when Christ returns in Rev.19.
“We can speculate, read the headlines, or we can search the scriptures to see if these things are true.”
The first section of the passage refers to Christ, the second to his peaceable kingdom. The lion-lamb stretch makes no sense of the passage.
Benajmin is said to ravin as wolf in the prophecy given to Jacob in Gen.49.
That is the same place where it was told that the tribe of Judah would be the ruling tribe, the tribe that Christ came from-a Jewish tribe.
You must lead a sheltered life. You can handraise anything just about from birth and a little child can lead it. However, I lean to the beasts being nations and how their natures are indeed changed in Christ, and it’s been going on since He came, still is and will be until they’ve all washed their robes as described in Revelation.
“A thousand years is to the Lord a day, and a day as a thousand years.”
If the Lord told you that something big was going to happen a thousand years from now when in reality it will happen tomorrow, would you think that was a bit misleading on God’s part?
I mean since a day is as a thousand years to God...
The fact is God was communicating to man (not to Himself), and God does not mislead.
And what has to do with changing the animals nature so that an asp won't bite it?
You let your children play with snakes?
No one's nature is being changed, except by a new birth in Christ.
Mankind is not getting better and is no different then he was 6,000 years ago.
Christ hasn't smitten the wicked- yet.
Is.11:4-16 are future passages, they aren't happening now, they didn't happen in 70AD but they will happen when Christ returns as the Lion of Judah (Rev.5:5)
If the Lord told you that something big was going to happen a thousand years from now when in reality it will happen tomorrow, would you think that was a bit misleading on God’s part? I mean since a day is as a thousand years to God... The fact is God was communicating to man (not to Himself), and God does not mislead.
When the Apostles asked when Christ was going to set up the Kingdom of Israel, the Lord said that it was not for them to know the times or seasons.
They werent' even aware that a church age was going to happen,that was only revealed to Paul (Eph.3).
So, God hasn't misled anyone, man keeps trying to figure out what God has hidden from him.
But we are alot closer now then we were 2,000 years ago.
Christ and Christianity changed nothing? Interesting view you have.
As for the serpent, that old red dragon, no my children didn't play with dragons, not even when they got old enough to.
For greater is He within than he that is without
Here’s two verses, the same prophecy, yet different instructions:
Daniel 8:26: “The vision of the evenings and mornings that has been given you is true, but SEAL UP the vision, for it concerns the DISTANT FUTURE.”
Revelation 22:10: Then he told me, “DO NOT SEAL UP the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is NEAR.”
Again, God knows how to communicate time to man. You can’t just suddenly change “near” to also mean “distant future” to make it fit your personal belief. Well, you can, but I don’t see why you’d want to.
Huh? Is not sanctification progressive? Does that God-given sanctification have any positive effect on the creation? If one Christian is a good thing, are not 100 Christians better? Is the call, "Onward, Christian soldiers," a signal to retreat?
That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." -- 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12"Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:
Christianity has a positive effect on the world as Christians "fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness." Christianity will triumph in this world because it is the will of God that He be glorified by His creation.
Before Christ, all mankind was in the dark. Since Christ, light has come into the world and nothing is the same.
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