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Replacement Theology and Acts

ADONAI loves His Jewish people! ADONAI has always loved His chosen Jewish nation. To Him, Isra’el is His first-born (Ex 4:22). Isra’el has always mattered to God and Isra’el still is loved by God. Though Ha’Shem has disciplined Isra’el, Hebrews 12:6 tells us that He disciplines those He loves (Ps 94:12; Rev 3:19). YHVH’s love for Isra’el is unquenchable and inexhaustible (Jer 31:35-37). He will do whatever it takes to bring the Jewish nation back to Himself – even using trials and persecution during the last seven years of before He returns to bring Isra’el back to Himself (Dani’el 9:27) during the time called Jacob’s Trouble (see the commentary on the book of Revelation Cg – The Great Tribulation).

Some have tried to use Act’s passages such as Paul’s Macedonia call, Peter’s vision on the roof of Simon’s house in Jaffa, and the false impression that tens of thousands of non-Jews joined the Messianic Community to give the impression that God had rejected His people and taken for Himself a new people, a new nation . . . the Church. But Ha’Shem has chosen no Christian denomination to take the place of the Jewish people, who have come from Abraham’s seed and carry the name of God’s elect nation.

On theological grounds, it is incumbent upon us to examine all Scripture and see ADONAI’s great love for Isra’el as an example of His great love for the Church. God’s love is not blind to sin in His child, for neither Isra’el nor those who call themselves Christians can enter heaven merely by using the name “Isra’el” nor “Christian.” Only by truly loving God as Lord can both “Israel” (Deuteronomy 6:5), and “Christians” (Matthew 22:37-38) enter God’s glorious home. Definitely, no one is “replaced”; rather we are wondrously joined/united together into one body as the Ruach Ha’Kodesh inspired Paul to write: In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesian 2:13-22).

Replacement theology teaches points that directly oppose the Word of God. Note Paul’s rhetorical question and unequivocal answer in Romans 11:1ff: I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. To say that God has rejected the Jewish people explicitly contradicts Paul’s clear statement.

We also know that God has not rejected the nation of Isra’el because the sun is still shining by day and the moon and stars by night. Jeremiah makes the sun, moon and stars signs of God’s faithfulness to Isra’el, and does so in the context of proclaiming the B’rit Chadashah which God intends to make with Judah and Isra’el. The prophet writes: Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The Lord of hosts is His name, “If this fixed order departs from before Me,” declares the Lord, “Then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before Me forever.” Thus, says the Lord, “If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Isra’el for all that they have done,” declares the Lord (Jeremiah 31:35-37).

Replacement theology has hidden behind such slogans as “spiritual Isra’el,” or “the true Isra’el,” and have discredited Isra’el as the people of God by directly negating the written Word.

It has been contended that Paul turned to the Gentiles as a result of the synagogue’s rejection of his message. The book of Acts does not support this view at all. Both Acts and Paul’s letters to the churches that he started, indicate that while Paul’s commission was to the Gentiles, he continued to go to the synagogue every Shabbat. When visiting, he was invited to read from the Torah and to give a commentary on the text, something which would have never happened had the Jewish community suspected him of being heretical.

One of the texts frequently appealed to “prove” Paul turned away from the Jews and went to the Gentiles is Acts 13:46-47. And Paul spoke out boldly and said: It was necessary for the word of God to be spoken to you first (Romans 1:16). Since you reject it and judge yourselves unfit for eternal life – behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, “I have placed you as a light to the [Gentile] nations, so that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth”. It should be noted that Paul quoted from Isaiah 49:6. By preaching to the Gentiles, Paul was fulfilling the promise given to Isra’el by the prophets. The statement, we turn to the Gentiles, cannot be understood here as rejection of the Jews, because Paul continued to go to synagogue every Shabbat and to preach the gospel to the Jewish people all over Asia Minor and Greece until he reached Rome. In fact, three days after arriving in Rome, Paul gathered together the leaders of the Jewish community and says to them very clearly: Brothers, although I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans (Acts 28:17). Since Paul’s statement to the Jews in Rome is true, it indicates that he remained faithful to the Torah and to Jewish customs and traditions throughout his entire lifetime. The fact that he continued to frequent the synagogue proves false the claims that God has rejected Isra’el and also false that Paul had rejected his own people.6

Not only that, but Jeremiah tells us that the Gentile nations are to proclaim what God has declared. Hear the word of the LORD, O nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands, “He who scattered Isra’el will gather them and will watch over His flock like a shepherd” (Jeremiah 31:10). This verse clearly shows the error of Amillennialism, Covenant Theology, Replacement Theology, or the so-called “Hebrew roots movement” (see the commentary on Galatians, to see link click Ak – The Hebrew Roots Movement: A Different Gospel). These false theologies see no future for Isra’el, but instead see the promises to Isra’el being fulfilled spiritually by the Church. They do take “scattering” above literally, however, they then try to allegorize Isra’el’s return. But the two statements above are brought together in a way that they cannot be separated (see the commentary on Jeremiah Em – O LORD, Save Your People, the Remnant of Isra’el). Therefore, if the Church is not Isra’el, just what is the relationship between the two? See the commentary on Jeremiah Eo – The Days are Coming, declares the LORD, When I Will Make a New Covenant with the People of Isra’el.