Letter to Those Believing the Church Has Replaced Israel

Rapture Ready ^ | 11/6/23 | Terry James

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Note: The following is a most relevant open letter, which is important to all within the Body of Christ to read. Our prayer is that you will read carefully and understand God’s Holy View of Israel in these end times when the Jewish people are again beginning to suffer hatred throughout the world.

Dear Brother or Sister in Christ,

If you are a member of a Catholic or mainline denominational church, you have probably been taught something called replacement theology (and perhaps you don’t even know it has that name). Replacement theology leads those who have adopted it to believe that Israel is no longer God’s people and that the modern regathering of the Jews in their historical land is theologically meaningless. Please know this is an error, and I write this letter to alert you to it so you can study God’s Word and reach your own conclusion.

Replacement theology, sometimes called supersessionism or fulfillment theology, is a doctrine stating either that the Church took Israel’s place as God’s people when Israel rejected Jesus as its Messiah or that the “old” Israel was set aside in favor of a “new” Israel, the Church, upon Jesus’s first coming. No matter how it got there, the Church is now God’s people and the beneficiary of the promises God made Israel in the Old Testament. Consequently, Jacob’s blood descendants have no unique destiny, and modern Israel’s existence has no significance. Because replacement theology is often woven into otherwise sound teachings on redemptive history, many believers aren’t even aware that it is a separate doctrine with its own name.

Nonetheless, replacement theology is enshrined in Catholic dogma and runs rampant in mainline denominations, even among those that otherwise take the Bible seriously.

Replacement theology raises troubling implications about God’s character, not the least of which are: if God revoked his promises to Israel, what keeps him from revoking them again, and does God really change not (as Malachi 3:6 says)? Many who have been taught replacement theology have not considered these implications. Perhaps you have, too, but have dismissed them out-of-hand or rationalized them away, possibly because they are too dreadful to imagine. Unfortunately, ignoring the implications does not make them go away.

Rather than addressing these (and other) broader implications, this letter will instead tackle the assumption that lies at the very heart of replacement theology: did Israel really forfeit its blessings? Did God really forsake or move past Israel? Fortunately, if you read the Bible without bias, it gives a clear answer.

One point is worth making before proceeding: I don’t have the ability or the moral duty to force you to reject replacement theology. Only the Holy Spirit can convict. All I can do is call relevant scripture to your attention and invite you to check it out yourself. That is what I will now do.

To keep this letter short and clear, I will rely only on two passages: Isaiah 6 and Romans 11. (If you are a Reformed believer, you tend to read Revelation figuratively because you have been taught that it is “apocalyptic literature.” I will, therefore, deliberately avoid Revelation’s many passages affirming Israel’s destiny, knowing that you will be unwilling to read Isaiah and Romans figuratively.) I will cite the King James Version, but any good version will do.

Isaiah 6 contains the well-known “Here I am. Send me” passage in which Isaiah volunteers to convey a message God has for his people:

“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed” (Isaiah 6:8-10).

God informs his people not only that they are hardened (deaf, blind and without understanding), and he is the one hardening them, but also that he has hardened them to delay their repenting and being healed. Note that God does not tell them why he wants a delay.

When the disciples ask Jesus why he speaks “to them” in parables in Matthew 13, he quotes this passage of Isaiah 6:

“He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive” (Matthew 13:11-14).

Paul also quotes this same passage of Isaiah 6 in Acts 28, reminding the local leaders of the Jews that they are hardened.

“And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (Acts 28:24-27).

Paul then discloses the reason why God hardened Israel, delaying its repenting and being healed:

“Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it” (Acts 28:28).

According to Paul, God hardened Israel so the Gospel could be taken to the Gentiles.

However, Isaiah 6 continues after the passage quoted in both Matthew 13 and Acts 28. God has more to say to Isaiah about his people. Returning to Isaiah 6, after hearing God’s decree against his people, the prophet begs God for an answer in verse 11, and God gives it to him:

“Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate. And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. But yet in [the land] shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof” (Isaiah 6:11-13).

God promises that he will lift Israel’s partial hardening during or just after a widespread devastation. This may be a great war, even a nuclear war, given the extent and degree of damage. However, it may be a direct act of God, acting in wrath. Only he knows.

Why, then, did Jesus and Paul’s quotations from Isaiah 6 stop short of verses 11-13? The answer is that they were speaking in the First Century. Isaiah 6:11-13 would be fulfilled in the future. They were only talking about Israel’s hardened condition in those days and not about when it would someday repent. Remember, Jesus was only answering a question from his disciples as to why he was teaching in parables, and Paul was only making the case for taking the Gospel to the Gentiles.

Now, let’s look at Romans 11, in which Paul answers the question his earlier chapters in Romans begged: if Christ is the answer and the law is not, what about the Jews, to whom God had given the law? Has God turned his back on Israel?

“I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal” (Romans 11:1-4).

The answer is an emphatic “God forbid!” God will save an elect remnant of Israel, and God will save them by grace, not the law. To keep the Gentiles from feeling superior to the Jews, Paul goes on to say:

“I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:11-15).

Then, after describing how the holy firstfruits of a lump of dough renders the whole lump holy, how a holy root can render the entire tree holy, and how branches grafted onto a holy tree become holy, even branches that had previously been cut off, Paul reveals a mystery in verse 25:

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (Romans 11:25).

Though he does not outright quote Isaiah 6:11-13, he affirms the promise God made in those verses to end Israel’s hardening. The mystery Paul reveals is that the partial hardening of Israel’s elect will end when the “fulness of the Gentiles be (has) come in.”

It is important to note that none of these passages are talking about the Church. God has never hardened the Church. He has only hardened Israel, and only temporarily, for the express purpose of taking the Gospel to the Gentiles and building a Church that encompasses all peoples, nations, and languages. This he did at Israel’s great expense, but he will resurrect and magnify Israel because of it. Consider the supreme irony: God hardened Israel to benefit the Gentiles, and so many churches have returned their thanks to Israel by teaching replacement theology.

God’s reply in Isaiah 6 and Paul’s teaching in Romans 11 raise two questions: when will this widespread devastation occur, and when will the fulness of the Gentiles come in? The Bible gives no clear answer; God wants us to depend on him alone for the timing.

However, we can be sure of this – God will restore the elect of his people Israel. That unambiguous Biblical truth, stated explicitly both to Israel in the Old Testament and the Gentiles of the Church in the New Testament, exposes replacement theology as bad doctrine. Now, it’s up to the Holy Spirit and informed believers to purge the Church of this sad error.

If replacement theology now troubles you as much as it does me, please do me a favor. Consider giving a copy of this letter to a brother or sister who has been mistaught. You will be helping them and doing a good work for God’s kingdom.

[Elsie]

All of them reject one thing: the One, True Church founded by Jesus Christ

I don't know why folks do not study the OTC's beginnings found in the first 3 chapters of Revelation.

THEN they see that the pope is RIGHT!

[MayflowerMadam]

“in the sense that us Christians should act like we’re set apart as God’s chosen people”

Christians are sanctified — set apart — and we should act like it.

[Elsie]

Seems bizarre we deviated from that translation as it was pretty precise.

...and having writ; moves on...

Language, being fluid, morphs and changes continually.

Read THIS:

The General Prologue
Whan that aprill with his shoures soote      1
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,      2
And bathed every veyne in swich licour      3
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;      4
Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth      5
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth      6
Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne      7
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,      8
And smale foweles maken melodye,      9
That slepen al the nyght with open ye      10
(so priketh hem nature in hir corages);      11
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,      12
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,      13
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;      14
And specially from every shires ende      15
Of engelond to caunterbury they wende,      16
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,      17
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.      18

[ducttape45]

It is the responsibility of the church pastor to ensure his flock is properly educated regarding matters such as these. If he does not do so, he will be held accountable on the other side of eternity, one way or another. As for that list, source material is getting harder to come by because Internet search engines regularly make that info harder to find. It’s bedtime for me now but I will try and find more info on this tomorrow.

[imardmd1]

Those 144,000 will plain-literally all be men, and they will all be virgins, as even Jesus was all His Incarnated life until now. They will have literal but spiritual bodies, gained at the moment of the ἁρπάζω¹ (Gk. pronounced har-pad'-zoh) when caught up², violently taken away³, in the "Rapture" (the theologians' Anglicization of the Latin verb rapere⁴, which is the Vulgate's translation of the corresponding Greek verb that is found many times in the New Testament Greek Koine, as well as in the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament scriptures).

These twelve dozen thousands of men are not all of the Jewish race, are they?

========

Notes:

(1) 1 Thessalonians 4:17 TR Greek verb ἁρπάζω
(2) 1 Thess 4:17 English KJV translation of (1)
(3) Deut. 28:31 English KJV translation of The Hebrew, which the Vulgate uses the verb rapere. and the LXX translates it as ἁρπάζω
(4) 1 Thess. 4:17 Vulgate translates as rapere (conjugated, of course)

[metmom]

These jokers want us to believe that his words have no meaning ....

Maybe, rather, the meaning that THEY give the word as opposed to common usage meaning that everyone else in the world operates by.

They seem to think they also have the authority to redefine words.

[mdmathis6]

It’s important that that covenant stands forever for if it didn’t stand, then what security would we gentiles have in the blood of Jesus to save us from sin and death?

I can’t fathom how this notion of replacement theology even got started. Paul speaks so plainly on the issue regarding the restoration of Future Israel and the remaining Jews/Hebrews to himself as a separate act from what Christ has done for the gentiles!

[mdmathis6]

Indeed..LOL! I see nothing about the future government of God as being an established constitutional representative republic. I do read that the throne of David is established forever thru Jesus whose seat is at the right hand of the Father.

[imardmd1]

You and other Catholics do not speak for True Christians . . .

Ditto. They put their Magic-Steers-'Em above God's Spirit, Who inscripturated His Will in His Holy Word, which is the final authority, open to any person whose thoughts are guided by the Spirit sent to us regarding the purposes of the Written Word:

Johh 14:26 (AV; bolding added for emphasis):

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. 

1 John 2:27 (AV)

But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

In the Scripture, He speaks for Himself, and needs no Magisterium to interpret what He says, or devotees of that self-proclaimed font of error.

[.30Carbine]

And they put up over His head the accusation written against Him:
THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Matthew 27:37

And the inscription of His accusation was written above:
THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Mark 15:26

And an inscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew:
THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Luke 23:38

Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was:
JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
John 19:19

[imardmd1]

Why does Satan care?

Because "Replacement Theology" (and practice of it) lends that religious organization an excuse to nominate hieratic priests, a clergy class trained to lord it over a separate class of "lay" constituents conned into believing the cult's philosophy of being the only channel of communication with God.

Jehovah God truly hates this scheme, as an outworking of sin and death, the tool of lying Satan. Jesus admonition to the president of the synagoguing assembly at Pergamos in John's time was this:

Rev.2:14-16 (AV; bolding added for emphasis, superscript asterisk to notes)

  ¹⁴But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. 
¹⁵So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans*, which thing I hate.
¹⁶  Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. 
-------------
* Note:
In NT Greek, Νικολαΐ́της, a combination of two words:

νικάω (nikaō, pronounced nik-ah'-oh)
A verb
From G3529; to subdue (literally or figuratively): - conquer, overcome, prevail, get the victory.

λαός (laos, pronounced lah-os')
A noun
Apparently a primary word; a people (in general; thus differing from G1218, which denotes one’s own populace): - people.

A coined term combining the two, a clergy class meant to overwhelm and subdue the class of non-priest constituents of a church known in that environment as "lay people."

This is Satan's way of perverting an assembly of professors of allegiance to the "Christ" as explained to them, by appointing the kind of officers equivalent to the Levitical priests of the Jewish Mosaic Covenant.

That form of religion was abolished, and the Mosaic Covenant abrogated, by Jesus' cross-fulfillment of God's righteous demands of a human based on Adam's sinful behavior. To reinstitute it by attempting to take the place of Jewry is to refute God's plan of reconciliation and salvation.

Y'all need to see that this arises from Satan's desire to be the god over humans, one by one; and displace The Triune Jehovah Elohim Who is a human's benefactor.

Figure this out for yourself, now. Do you need another intercessor with the Father other than His Son?

[imardmd1]

Mt. 28:18 (AV; bolding added for emphasis) 

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying,

All power* is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 

-----------

* Note: power here is in the Greek ἐξουσία (exousia, pronounced eggs-oo-see'-ah)
A noun
From G1832 (in the sense of ability); privilege, that is, (subjectively) force, capacity, competency, freedom, or (objectively) mastery (concretely magistrate, superhuman, potentate, token of control), delegated influence: - authority, jurisdiction, liberty, power, right, strength.

[imardmd1]

Remember, protestantism is built upon the doctrine of private interpretation of Scripture.

Asinine.

The need for Protestantism is based on the RCC's criminal misuse of Scripture, God's Guiding Truth, The Word Personified in God-Incarnate Jesus, Messiah and Lord.

One of the great flaws has beeen the marketing of "Indulgences," which the RCC still does in kind. And you and they continue to abuse it, even through mis-translations which Desiderius Erasmus--the true Father of the Reformation--attempted to correct through supplying a faithful copy of the genuine NT apographs for translation into the common language of any other culture, and interpreted there through a literal, historical, grammatical, and culturally faithful hermeneutic by learned Bible scholars.

I think that you might want to shush for a while and learn enough to be properly taught and admonished by spiritually discerning regenerated servants and Friends of the Messiah according to His commission to them, to hear the doctrine of the Apostles which they were ordered to broadcast, not a single hieratic priest among them in the Jerusalem prototype church, nor anywhere else in the commended churches of the New Testament Age.

For your information, please be aware that there have been since the beginning of the Church of the Firstborn a great congregation of non-RCC Christ-professing independent autonomous Bible-preaching assemblies that are not now and never were "Protestants." Please do not include commenters such as myself as one of the "Prods." These have been and always will be thew backbone of The Savior's works on Earth, which the RCC is not, IMHO.

[imardmd1]

So yes, God abandons promises depending on the behavior of men.

No. Regarding God's promises, Abraham's trust being one example:

Rom 4:20-25 (AV)

²⁰He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 
²¹And being fully persuaded that, what he^God had promised, he^God was able also to perform. 
²²And therefore it was imputed to him^Abraham for righteousness. 
²³Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 
²⁴But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 
²⁵Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. 

I believe that you are missing how God works. He has two aspects to His Plan, His determined, non-negotiable determinate Will (thelema); the other being the one in which He gives some choices (boulomi) where your choice will determine the consequences, but still ones which he promises and delivers.

Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will^{θέλημα}, him he heareth. (Jn. 9:31 AV)

θέλημα (thelēma, pronounced thel'-ay-mah)
A noun
From the prolonged form of G2309; a determination (properly the thing), that is, (actively) choice (specifically purpose, decree; abstractly volition) or (passively) inclination: - desire, pleasure, will.
---------------
Saying, Father, if thou be willing^{βούλομαι}, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will^{θέλημα}, but thine, be done. (Lk. 22:42 AV)

βούλομαι (boulomai, pronounced boo'-lom-ahee)
A verb
Middle voice of a primary verb; to “will”, that is, (reflexively) be willing: - be disposed, minded, intend, list (be, of own) will (-ing). Compare G2309.

========
So, God doesn't "take back" a promise; in some cases he gives you (a) choice(s); in other cases, no.

Capisce? Understand?

[imardmd1]

regenerated.

Anyone can call him/herself "Christian."

Originally, it was a word applied to a person as that of a tradesman, something of profit that one is performing and/or purveying; not just professing a state of mind.

"Regenerated" means a total renewal of one's being, to the People of The Way, spiritual rebirth that affects one's behavior toward sin.

[Elsie]

It is the responsibility of the church pastor to...

I've not seen it put quite this way before.

[Elsie]

Once; and Future...

[Philsworld]

——>It’s important that that covenant stands forever

What covenant would that be?

[Philsworld]

——>Paul speaks so plainly on the issue regarding the restoration of Future Israel and the remaining Jews/Hebrews to himself as a separate act from what Christ has done for the gentiles!

Show me

[mdmathis6]

You are a smart guy and have engaged in many discussions here and you know the books of the old testament...what covenants with Abraham and with David do you think I’m referring to?(Whether you agree as to their present relevance or not)

Otherwise I’ll have nothing else to say to you on this subject.