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covenants, believing that their spiritual destiny is either to perish or become a part of the new religion that superseded Judaism (whether Christianity or Islam).1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.
You haven’t been able to prove anything — positive, negative, or neutral.
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PREACH IT BROTHER. Tooooo true.
But it does run through the State of Preterism.
“What part of my testimony, that I eschew all of the doctrines and traditions of men across the board, did you not understand?”
My apologies. Your post didn’t seem clear to me. But now that you’ve clarified it, I stand corrected: You’re not a dispensationalist.
You linked several articles here which attempted to authenticate dispensationalism historically.
Why then did you offer links to arguments that are based on a dispensational view of history. If you read these articles carefully, on thing you will discover is that the biases and presuppositions of the author is quite evident in coloring his view of history.
If you " eschew all of the doctrines and traditions of men", what makes you think this guy got it right? Or perhaps you don’t think his assessment of history is right.
In that same post you wrote:
Enoch is an example. It was known to the disciples, quoted in Scripture, beloved for 300 years and then not just rejected but discarded and remained lost until approximately 1775 when surviving manuscripts were discovered in Ethiopia. The true antiquity was confirmed by fragments of copies found in the Dead Sea Scrolls which carbon date to 200 B.C.What do you believe is the authentic, God-breathed Scripture? IOW, what is your Bible?
I see that you are using the expression "unique periods of time." You did not directly answer my question as to what you would call them, but this will suffice. We shall refer to them as "unique periods of time (UPT)."
Now, in the Eden UPT was there anything AT ALL different in the relationship between God and mankind than now entails?
Also, I have already pointed out to you that when all of Schofield's writings are put together, according to Ryrie, Schofield clearly believed that salvation has always been by grace through faith. Paul clearly says, "Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness."
Now, do you believe that Wilbur and Orville Wright are the last words on the aerodynamics of airplanes because they were among the 1st to write about the "practics" of it?
We’ve discussed this tc and you agree that “economy” was an appropriate understanding coming out of Eph 1:10. And “economy” is roughly what is meant by a dispensation by those of us who accept the reality of “unique periods of time” (UPTs).
I think it’s on this thread, unless my memory is faulty. You can go back and look it up if you like. If it isn’t this thread, then we’ll have to try to remember the other recent “dispensationalists are meatheads” threads that you’ve posted. :>)
Excellent.
Thx.
You are very welcome, Q.
UPTs are a biblical reality in terms of God’s dealing with humans in religious history.
Let’s not put words in my mouth. "Economy" an appropriate reading for what is being discussed in Eph. 1:10. I deny that the word is therefore appropriate for any arbitrary time period designated by the dispensationalists.
And “economy” is roughly what is meant by a dispensation by those of us who accept the reality of “unique periods of time” (UPTs).
I have agreed to no such thing. What dispensationalists mean by the word is the subject under discussion. You have yet to plainly explain how the word in Eph. 1:10 gives support to the beast known as dispensationalism.
I think it’s on this thread, unless my memory is faulty. You can go back and look it up if you like. If it isn’t this thread, then we’ll have to try to remember the other recent “dispensationalists are meatheads” threads that you’ve posted. :>)
No clue. Can you point it out?
Not according the Geneva Bible's notes He isn't.
The Geneva notes for Eph.1:10 state,
14) The Father exhibited and gave Christ, who is the head of all the elect to the world, at that time which was convenient according as he most wisely disposed all times from everlasting(emphasis added). And Christ is he in whom all the elect from the beginning of the world (otherwise wandering and separated from God) are gathered together. And some of these elect were in heaven, when he came into the earth, that is, those who by faith in him to come, were gathered together. And others being found upon the earth were gathered together by him, and the rest are daily gathered together.
http://bible.crosswalk.com/Commentaries/GenevaStudyBible/gen.cgi?book=eph&chapter=001
LOL!
It has?
The Jews have said that Christ is their God?
Christ said the last days would be the worst in human history (Mat.24:21) which 70 AD doesn't qualify as.
As for the intercalation, the author is right, we believe that God is using the Church today, not Israel.
But I noticed that he doesn't give our New Testament scriptural justification for it, it is based on the reading in Rom.11:25-28.
7) The promised Deliverer will come out of Zion and the nation will be saved (Romans 11:25-29). That the Christian now inherits the distinctive Jewish promises is not taught in Scripture. The Christian is of the heavenly seed of Abraham ; Genesis 15:5,6; Galatians 3:29 and partakes of the spiritual blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant.
It should be noted that when Scofield wrote his notes, there was no nation of Israel in existance.
http://bible.crosswalk.com/Commentaries/ScofieldReferenceNotes/srn.cgi?book=ro&chapter=011
Excellent thought. When that is considered in light of Romans 11, then we see that the glass through which Scofield and Darby were viewing was a bit murkier than our own. The existence of the nation of Israel does cause one to think more about the possibilities in prophetic literature about the promises to national Israel.
The only way to avoid dutifully viewing such ideas would be to ignore them.
In fact, many ethnic Jews have. Where have you been for the last 2000 years? Or do you believe all these millions of Jewish converts to Christ who in faith have cried out "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord" are inferior, disenfranchised "semi-Jews" of some sort?
Christ said the last days would be the worst in human history (Mat.24:21) which 70 AD doesn't qualify as.
Such a statement demonstrates a deficient understanding of hyperbolic and superlative language as it is used in the Bible.
Second, [in the Great Tribulation narrative] Jesus was using dramatic hyperbole or a proverbial method of speech taken directly from the Old Testament. Note the words spoken by Ezekiel regarding the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. "And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations" (Ezek. 5:9). Does this passage teach that Israel endured the worst judgment in human history in the 6th century B.C.? No. No one believes that the destruction wrought by the Babylonians was worse than that of the Romans in A.D. 70. The point is that the destruction will be severe, excruciating and unique. Similarly Daniel says, "by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem" (Dan. 9:12). "And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time" (Dan. 12:1). "The language of v. 19 [i.e., Mk. 13:19 the parallel to Mt. 24:21], as also of Dan, 12:1, which it cites, uses traditional expressions to denote severe tribulation, not simply of Israel but of other people also." For example, such language is even used to describe the anguish of the Egyptians after the tenth plague. "Then there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again" (Ex. 11:6; cf. 9:18; 10:14). "The cry of anguish sent up by this destruction will be unique, just as the disaster will be unique." Morison writes regarding Matthew 24:21, "It is superlative in its relation both to the past and to the future. We might explain this superlative mode of representation by the freedom which is universally assumed and accorded in popular speech. Men speak unhesitantly, when referring to anything remarkable, of the 'highest,' the 'greatest,' the 'extremist.' It is an idiom of hyperbolism." (Matthew 24 and the Great Tribulation by Brian Schwertley)Carefully comparing Scripture with Scripture will cure you of the noxious infection of the error of the dispensational system. By adopting a biblical hermeneutical system you will be forcing yourself to follow the rules of the Word of God, not the fanciful inventions of folks like CI Scofield, Tommy Ice, and Hal Lindsey.
So what are you claiming that the notes are saying to support the dispensational theory? To me this is only speaking of one time, that is the continuum of time "from everlasting".
INDEED . . .
God has spoken differently in different eras while remaining unchangeably Himself.
He has His reasons . . . whether Replacementarians can wrap their theology around such, or not.
It may grieve Him that they don’t trust His Word for what He says in it. But it won’t hinder Him working out His will as stated in His Word a gnat’s burp’s worth.
would be to ignore them.
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On that score, Replacementarians appear to be Olympic class gold medalist PhD’s.
Ignoring Scripture must be one of their highest rated doctrines.
Regarding Josh.22:43, it is referring to Gen.17:8 and Num. 34 not Gen.15.18.
Bullinger states in a note on Gen.15:18, that those boundaries were never possessed.
It would seem that Solomon kingdoms came close (1Ki.4:21),but did not reach the Nile (river) of Egypt.
The note says times not time.
Clearly, it is speaking of different periods of time that culminates in final in-gathering of the saints.
The note is speaking of past, present and future saints, not just present ones, as your post seem to indicate.
Scofield, right?
Regarding Josh.22:43, it is referring to Gen.17:8 and Num. 34 not Gen.15.18.
Bullinger states in a note on Gen.15:18, that those boundaries were never possessed.
Can you demonstrate any of this from the Bible without referring to Scofield or Bullinger?
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