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covenants, believing that their spiritual destiny is either to perish or become a part of the new religion that superseded Judaism (whether Christianity or Islam).1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.
B: it's always good to see your thoughts. I am in complete agreement with you about salvation.
I included you with ftd because he and I have been going back and forth on this. He has stated that the criteria for the Apostles was different than for Christians following the resurrection. Also, on this thread a chart was posted that on the bottom stated different criteria for salvation during different dispensations.
If dispensationalism does not hold to theories of various criteria than it would seem the only basis for criticism would be the belief that God is not done with the Jews.
I think you're right.
God Bless and have a good Thanksgiving.
You're right. God will preserve the elect.
Have you become a Calvinist?
Interesting points...However; look at what we have now...Some religions believe we need to work our way to salvation...Some believe we must get wet to get saved...Some believe we must be a member of a particular church to be Christians...
Some say we have to endure to the end...Some say we must live by the law to gain salvation...
The interesting thing is all these ideas can be found in the scripture...Some say we have to eat Jesus...
Some religons will twist, turn, pervert, torture and delete or add to these scriptures to make everything fit their particular theology...
Question is; does it make a difference what we believe???
If it DOES make a difference, then we have to be right in understanding Jesus and his written words...
Are some of us already worshipping the beast???
Yes!!!!
Are some of us already worshipping the beast???
If we are sure we would not only need to disassociate from it, but to warn everyone we could.
THANKS THANKS
LIKEWISE.
The criteria for the apostles was the same. All are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
I truly do understand where the charge comes from; however, as stated, I have seen quotes by Scofield and others that either clarify or contradict such a charge.
If individual dispensationalists are off on this important point; it is not because that is what Scripture teaches or what dispensationalists as whole believe.
As to the charge that we believe God isn’t through with the Jews, I will happily plead guilty to that. He isn’t. And every Word of Scripture will be fulfilled; even his promises to Israel concerning their land in the Old Testament.
If this is the area of contention what is unique about the dispensationalist position verses the premillennialist position. I don't believe God is done with the Jews either.
Hope the turkey was good!
“And if ‘family’ and ‘clan’ mean the same thing, why change family to clan???”
Or why change “clan” to “family”? What does it matter when they mean the same thing?
When you can’t refute, you can always nitpick on a nonissue.
Amen. Rom.9-11.
That is the essential difference, that the church is not Israel and thus, does not receive those promises made to Israel in the unconditional covenants.
Amen.
At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn . They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. (NIV)
Even the NIV has all of the nation of the earth (not land) seeing Christ, so if the preterists can't slip 'land' in for 'earth', they have to assert that it is only 'apocalytic hyperbole'
So then, if Christians endure to the end, they will eventually be saved???
To them it will still be the Millennium.
Halleujah!
Classical Dispensationism has always maintained that one can only be saved by faith through grace after the Fall.
The essential difference between our views and that of the Covenant school, ( which is now being blurred by what is known as progressive' dispensationalism) is that the Church (the Body of Christ-composed of all those who are born again), is not Israel and once removed (rapture), Israel returns to the center of God's prophetic plan which will be completed with Christ sitting on the Davidic Throne,ruling a Millennial Kingdom from Jerusalem in a Temple described in Ezek. 40-48.
One fact which really upsets the Covenant school is the idea that sacrifices are started again, but those sacrifices are not for Atonement,(that having been paid for on the Cross by Christ, the Lamb of God), but only for reconciliation purposes.
I don't why the Gospel would split Jew and Gentile, except that the Jew is made jealous of the Gentile, as God intended (Rom.11).
Jew and Gentile are saved the same way, by faith, through grace, believing that Christ died for their sins and rose again (1Cor.15:3-4)
What the Jews of Christ's day rejected was the idea of a suffering Messiah, before a conquering one. Consider: You're aware of the John Hagee controversy, right? Do you find what he said as jarring as I do? Could his comments have come from any camp other than dispensationalism?
As for Hagee, he is confused, Christ certainly did offer Himself as the Messiah, but a suffering one (lamb of God) and was rejected-'we have no king but Caesar'.
The Jews could not see that their Messiah was to be both a suffering servant and a conquering King.
Even the Apostles had a hard time with this.
Thanks for the link!
They could only be saved as all before the cross could be saved, by faith in the unseen. IOW, faith that God the Father would not abandon them and he didn't he sent his Son to pay the price none could. Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. The surviving eleven Apostles did not understand the enormity of what Jesus did until the resurrected Jesus appeared to them. They had no special belief, or faith. Mark 16:14-16 Later he appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. The Apostles were ordinary flawed people like us. Despite seeing all the miracles they didn't "get it" until after the resurrection. If they did truly understand they would have followed Jesus to the Cross and been on a Cross as well. It seems this is the dividing line between dispensationalism and premillenialism. As a premill, I believe everyone from all ages has had the same criteria applied to them for justification. You are either righteous, or you have Faith in Jesus.
Everything you said is true, but the Apostles did not believe that Christ had to die for their sins, they thought that He had come to be the Jewish Messiah and rule a Kingdom (hence the question they asked about ruling in a kingdom (Matthew 20:21).
So, if the Apostles were not saved by believing on Christ dying for their sins, they had to be saved by believing in something else.
In their case, they believed the promises made to Israel and thus, were all saved men before Christ even chose them as His Apostles (with the exception of Judas)
Today, no one is saved unless they believe that Christ died for them on the Cross and rose again.
Thus, the content of the Gospel has changed, but not the method (faith by grace).
Ofcourse, Christ had to die for all of the sins of the world since that would be the legal basis of salvation from Adam through the final death in the Millennium.
By the way, the NIV translation also has earth, not land.
I haven't found any translation that translated Matthew 24:30 with the word 'land' instead of 'earth', which means that when Christ comes back He is seen by all of the peoples of the Earth, something that definitely did not happen in 70AD.
This is not speaking of judgment in the final sense, since all judgment has been given to the Son alone (Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10; Heb. 9:27; 1 Peter 4:5). There is certainly a sense in which judgment in this world is a present reality (John 12:31).
However, I believe the image here is of the saints overcoming the world, and in a very real sense we already exercise judgment since we have been raised up and are seated with Christ, the supreme Judge, in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:5,6). This is the vindication of the Church over the authority of the Jews, old national Israel, who had exercised ecclesiastical judgment (cf. Matt. 23:2). The Church now occupies the responsibility of sitting, not in Moses’ seat, but on the throne with Christ.
Also, I don't think you should be putting premil and dispensationalism together as though they are one and the same. I don't believe God is done with the Jews and Israel, or that the millennial reign has begun. However, if dispensationalism believes that there are different criteria for justification in different eras I do not believe that.
I intended to simply highlight the common understanding between both groups is the future millennial reign of Christ on the earth from Jerusalem.
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