For those who ascribe to “replacement theology” - that the Church has replaced completely the Jews (and Israel).
1) Read Romans 11
2) If the Church has replaced the Jews, and gets all the positive promises, then why not all the negative promises too? Do you want those as well? If you know your old testament, you would not want to live under that.
33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.
35 “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
38 “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
41 “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.
“
In the past few years, I have heard several sermons given from the viewpoint that Jesus is now reigning in fulfillment of prophecies...”
Let’s see now:
Matthew 28:18-20:
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
“all authority” seems a good indication of a “reign” on Earth, now.
Not a word about Israel. John, in Revelation, says not a word about Israel. The entire New Testament says not a word about an Israel, in any fashion, representing the Kingdom of God on Earth.
The mere fact that you would post the flag of the modern nation-state of Israel — a wholly secular state that not only tolerates but embraces non-biblical, immoral values — is itself evidence of the fact that there is a sick, entirely worldly political agenda motivating those who promote the heretical nonsense that is “dispensational” theology.
That is incorrect. Many of the early Church Fathers were at least preterist, including St. Augustine:
"Many passages I omit [in writing about the Last Things], because, though they seem to refer to the last judgment, yet on a closer examination they are found to be ambiguous, or to allude rather to some other event,--whether to that coming of the Saviour which continually occurs in His Church, that is, in His members, in which comes little by little, and piece by piece, since the whole Church is His body, or to the destruction of the earthly Jerusalem. For when He speaks even of this, He often uses language which is applicable to the end of the world and that last and great day of judgment, so that these two events cannot be distinguished unless all the corresponding passages bearing on the subject in the three evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are compared with one another,--for some things are put more obscurely by one evangelist and more plainly by another,--so that it becomes apparent what things are meant to be referred to one event." (City of God XX.5)
And Jesus said: “And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; 9 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.”
Then He said: “Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.”
Jesus is in full agreement with Paul in Romans.
Only those who accept Jesus as Messiah can be true Jews.
If I’m not mistaken, it was out that meeting in Chicago that the New International Version of the bible was born, probably the worst translation ever conceived. It took the “word for word” translation of the manuscripts out of the mix and instead inserted “dynamic equivalence” thereby giving the ungodly a way to reinterpret the Bible to their liking.
The Five Biggest Errors of Dispensationalism
1. CHURCH AGE. Dispensationalists would have us believe that the church age is but a parenthesis in history. In other words, the church age constituted an “interruption” in the fulfilment of the kingdom promises to Israel. This doctrine teaches that the gospel will ultimately fail, and Christ will have to return to set up a POLITICAL kingdom. But, Christ and the gospel were not a sidelight. That idea is an abomination and an affront to our Lord Jesus Christ. The kingdom of Christ―the New Covenant/Christian Age―is in effect now (Matthew 16:19; Colossians 1:13) and has NO END. There are dozens of passages which prove that: 2 Samuel 7:13; 1 Chronicles 17:11-12; Isaiah 9:7; Ezekiel 37:26; Daniel 2:44; 4:3, 34; 7:14, 18, 27; Luke 1:31-33; Ephesians 3:21; Hebrews 1:1-12; 5:6; 6:20; 7:16-28; 2 Peter 1:11; Revelation 1:6; 5:13; 11:15. Furthermore, the New Covenant and the gospel are eternal (Hebrews 12:28; 13:20; Revelation 14:6) and has universal application (John 3:16; Romans 1:16; Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 1:21; Titus 2:11; 1 John 4:14; Revelation 5:9; 7:9). And remember, Christ’s kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, not a physical one (Luke 17:20-21; John 18:36).
2. DUAL COVENANT THEOLOGY. Dispensationalists think that Israel is distinct from the church―that Israel will re-emerge as pre-eminent among nations. They will again be God’s people in a unique sense. But, this conception was obliterated with the teachings of Paul that all distinctions between Jew and Gentile have been broken down by the gospel (Galatians 3:28). Acts 20:21-24 is clear that in the New Covenant the gospel is the same for both Jews and Gentiles―repentance and faith in Jesus. The New Testament declares that all of God’s covenant promises were fulfilled in Jesus (Luke 1:54-55, 69-75; 2 Corinthians 1:20), the ultimate offspring of Abraham (Matthew 1:1; Galatians 3:16). The promises to Israel were contingent on obedience (Deuteronomy 28), but she failed the test (Matthew 23:29-24:3) and had a finite end (Mathew 21:18-19; Romans 11:11-24; Hebrews 8:13; 10:8-10; etc.). The kingdom was taken from the Jews and given to another group, namely the church (Matthew 21:33-45)―melding a remnant of faithful Jews with believers in Christ (Romans 9:27; 11:1-24; Galatians 3:28). The new Israel of God is no longer fleshly, natural Israel, but rather are those who have faith in Jesus Christ (John 1:12-13; 8:31-47; Romans 2:28-29; 9:6-8; Galatians 3:6-9, 25-29; 6:14-16; 1 Peter 2:4-10; etc.). The modern state of Israel has nothing to do with biblical Israel.
3. MISUNDERSTANDING THE LAST DAYS/END TIMES. There are 19 specific mentions of the last days or end times in the New Testament. Without exception, the writers of the New Testament declared that THEY were living in the last days (Acts 2:14-21; 1 Corinthians 7:19-21; 10:11; Hebrews 1:1-2; 9:26; 1 Peter 1:20; 4:7; 1 John 2:18; etc.) Thus, the last days/end times marked the end of the old covenant order, not the end of time or the end of the Christian Age.
4. INSISTENCE ON ALWAYS READING THE BIBLE LITERALLY. Just some questions: Should we literally hate our mother and father so that we can be Jesus’ disciple (Luke 14:26)? If your eye causes you to sin, should you literally pluck it out (Mark 9:47)? Is it necessary to literally eat Christ’s body in order to have life (John 6:53)? Did the mountains and the hills really break into song and the trees clap their hands (Isaiah 55:12)? When God judged Babylon according to Isaiah’s prophecy, an event fulfilled in actual history in 539 BC, did the stars and sun literally stop giving their light (Isaiah 13:10) and the heavens literally tremble (Isaiah 13:13)? When God judged Edom in 583 BC, did the sky literally roll up like a scroll (Isaiah 34:4)? Why do you insist on a literal earthly kingdom when Jesus said his kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36)? Is the New Jerusalem literally a future city 1400 miles square that will hover over the Middle East like a space ship? Geeze. Especially this literal millennial stuff, if it wasn’t being taught in Christian churches, it would be considered science fiction!
5. FUTURIZING DANIEL’S 70 WEEKS. Here are things that cannot be found in the 70 weeks of Daniel 9:24-27: the Antichrist, a covenant being made with the Jews by Antichrist (then broken), a gap of 2,000 years between the 69th and 70th weeks, a post AD 70 rebuilt temple. If these things are not found in Daniel 9, dispensationalism crumbles. Daniel 9:27 is clear that the prophecy ended with the “end to sacrifice and offering” and the Abomination of Desolation (which Jesus told his first-century followers they would witness per Matthew 24:15). These things happened in real time in AD 70 when the temple was destroyed (Matthew 24:2, 34).
“The very idea of a God that planned and predicted the establishment of the kingdom, at a given time in history, and sent His Son to accomplish that, only to see him fail, is surely one of the most shameful theological concepts ever invented. . . . Are we supposed to believe that Jesus ‘did not envision’―the establishment of the church, even though he came to die to purchase it?” (Don K. Preston, Seal Up Vision and Prophecy, pgs. 93, 96)
“Dispensationalism is a theological house of cards. The main reason that it remains the eschatology of choice among fundamentalists is its sensationalism factor. With its parenthesis view of history and a return to the Old Covenant rites of circumcision and animal sacrifices, it is beyond me how anyone can claim that dispensationalism is orthodox Christianity.” (from 10 Popular Prophecy Myths Exposed and Answered, pg. 102)
What has been replaced is not the Jewish people but the Old Covenant. The New Covenant in Jesus Christ is open to Jews and non-Jews alike. There are not two covenants; only one.
If the current state of the world is evidence of Jesus reigning somewhere, then we are in a world of hurt.
Scripture has a lot to say about the conditions on earth when Jesus establishes His kingdom. It doesn't include wars, sexual promiscuity, rampant crime, corruption of justice, etc.
"And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise."
Unfortunately, “replacement theology” has been the official position of historical chrstianity from the very beginning. It is philo-Semitism that is the recent innovation.