I thought the author did a good job explaining why supersessionism is in error. I would be interested in your thoughts as well.
The only way to God is through Christ. Jews born before the time of Christ may very well have an opportunity to accept Christ. Those afterwards need to accept Christ, as did the Apostles, who were Jews.
“God’s Chosen People” are those who follow Him. Jews, with the knowledge of Christ, do not follow God.
For example Paul called the old Law a yoke of slavery that Christ had freed the Galatians (Gal. chapters 4,5) from and hence it was to the Jews that Christ preached to first to give them first opportunity to become part of what God now was establishing as Israel under the new covenant.
In Matthew 25: 31-46 “The Judgment of the Nations”, Jesus Christ tells us >who will get into Heaven. If you disagree with Jesus Christ, don’t tell me about it; please let >God know about it.
God gives sufficient grace & opportunity for >everyone to reach Heaven.
Thank you for posting the truth.
There is so much bad theology out there.
The Jews are God’s chosen. We (Christians) are adopted sons (grafted into the tree).
Jesus was (and is) a Jew. We Christians are “adopted” chosen sons. We should not get too full of ourselves.
It is one vine, with branches grafted in and some pruned out, but the root of the vine is the promise to Abraham, Israel.
Many Jews from the Southern Kingdom, whether they came back to Israel or not, retained their identities as being from Israel, children of Jacob, and worshiping God. Many of the children of Jacob from the Northern Kingdom ended up migrating to other parts of the world, assimilated into other cultures, and eventually forgetting about the true and living God. They lost their identities as children of the promises of Abraham, but God knew and knows who they are.
I believe that many who have been brought into the Church are, unbeknown to themselves, actually children of the promise of Abraham, his and Jacob's biological descendants. God has been recovery them, only in a different way, into His Church.
Still the Jews have a special calling as Jews. After the Church is raptured away they will fulfill their destinies as the children of the Abrahamic promise. At the end of time The LORD will gather together all of Israel, some who know that they are of the 12 tribes of Israel, the Jews, and some who don't. The tents of Judah have been being gathered first into Israel and are, according to the Bible, the ruling tribe. After Judah is gathered first, then others will be gathered. Right now it is the the Jews from the Southern Kingdom, also know as the Kingdom of Judah that have been returning to Israel, just as the Bible says.
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Zecharia 12:7 The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify [themselves] against Judah.
Zec 12:8 In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David [shall be] as God, as the angel of the LORD before them. Zec 12:9 And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Zec 12:10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for [his] only [son], and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for [his] firstborn.
Zec 12:11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
Zec 12:12 And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;
Zec 12:13 The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart;
Zec 12:14 All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.
The Christian Church has been plagued by an infectious disease for centuries. The viral disease of Replacement Theology; which, in itself, is antisemitism. Teachers of Replacement Theology are filling pulpits of churches across the globe. We cannot stand aside and watch as these lies permeate under the surface of our own churches. There is nothing in the Holy Bible on which Replacement Theology can stand. It is unbiblical, antisemitic and cannot be accepted as truth.
Replacement Theology disregards Israel’s biblical covenant with God, replacing Israel with the church. All of God’s covenant with Israel is shifted on to the church and Israel is pushed aside and diminished in every sense. Israel is cast aside and cut off from God’s plan and the church does not have any responsibility to stand with Israel or the Jewish people.
Pastor John Hagee in his book In Defense of Israel says this of Replacement Theology:
“Replacement theology is the underpinning of most of the atrocities committed in the name of Christianity against the Jewish people over the centuries.”
It has given license to the church to spread antisemitism and commit violence toward the Jewish people. How many Jews have died because lies like Replacement theology had become the norm?
“Early church fathers told their illiterate congregants that the Jews were the odious assassins of Christ. Century after century this vicious label was tied about the necks of the Jews, and as a result, the Crusader, the Iquisitors, and the Nazis turned Europe red with Jewish blood—all believing they were acting in accordance with God’s will.” —John Hagee, In Defense of Israel
Some may argue that those who committed such heinous crimes were not true Christians. That may be, but it does not excuse the fact that they did it in the name of Christ and for the betterment of the Christian church. It is a debt that we as Christian’s can never repay to the Jewish people. I need not remind you that Martin Luther, the great reformer of the church, was antisemitic and his teachings on the subject have been quoted on numerous occasions as further affirming for antisemitic causes. David Allen Lewis, the founder of Christian’s United For Israel, speaks about this in his book, Can Israel Survive in a Hostile World :
“Martin Luther, beloved among Protestants and Evangelicals made strong anti-Semitic statements late in his life. “All the blood kindred of Christ burn in hell, and they are rightly served, even according to their own words they spoke to Pilate . . . . Verily a hopeless, wicked, venomous, and devilish thing is the existence of these Jews, who for 1,400 years have been, and still are, our pest, torment, and misfortune. They are just devils and nothing more.” Malcolm Hay comments, “His doctrine provided many suitable texts for Hitler’s program of extermination.”"
He further explains the role the church played doctrinally in pre-Nazi Germany:
“The Church in pre-Nazi Germany was preaching the twin doctrines of Christian anti-Semitism. They are the doctrine of replacement theology and the doctrine of contempt. The theology of replacement contends that the Church has replaced Israel and that God no longer has any purpose for Israel. Contempt declares that the Jews crucified Jesus therefore they are under a curse and whatever happens, including the Holocaust, is their just dessert. We should not concern ourselves.”
We MUST not turn a blind eye to the antisemitic doctrine of Replacement theology which is rapidly becoming the prevailing theology in the church. Israel has an everlasting/eternal covenant with God. God revealed Himself to Abraham and made a covenant with him. It is recorded in Genesis chapter 15. In Chapter 17 God tells Abraham this specifically:
“And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; I will be their God.” Genesis 17:7-8 NKJV
That was pretty straight forward right? God made an “everlasting covenant” with Israel and they have an “everlasting possession” of their land. How could anyone say that God broke His covenant with Israel after reading that? The last time I checked God was the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). If God can abandon Israel, who’s to say that He wouldn’t abandon His covenant with the church? In Malachi 3:6-7 the Lord declares:
“”For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” Says the Lord of hosts.”
God has NOT abandoned His covenant with Israel. The Jews are God’s chosen people and we must stand with them. It is our biblical mandate to stand with Israel. Isaiah 62:6-7 says:
“I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent, and give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”
We are called to be watchmen on the wall. We must pray and speak up for Israel. That is the only way we can combat the false doctrine of Replacement Theology.
http://skylanthezionist.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/the-replacement-theology-lie/
No one can be a true believer in Christ and believe in replacement theology. Replacement theology denies the word of God and plays beautifully into Satan's hatred of the Jews and obsession with eliminating them.
If someone claims to be a Christian and tells you that the Church has replaced Israel, they are lying. They are not Christian.
Israel is to the Church as the caterpillar is to the butterfly.
IMHO, the quicker way to understand this doctrine is to study the Session.
Jesus Christ Ascended and was seated at the right hand of the Father.
His session is at the throne of God the Father at present.
His session at the Throne of David is still yet future and will be everlasting.
This points to major differences in eschatological interpretation of Scripture between different theologies.
Pretrib, premil is the only one which preserves the literal hermeneutic when discussing the Covenants of God with man.
Then there is the opposite view that when the Bible says “Zion” it means “Waco Texas” and where it says “Jewish” it means “Caucasian”, and if your name is Vernon Howell - you need to be named “David Koresh”.
Which view seems more reality based?
bflr