Replacement Theology
Things that are different are not the same. This was the name of a booklet I read a number of years ago. Contentwise, I didn't care for the material but I liked the title. It came back to my mind this week as I was studying "Replacement Theology".RT teaches that there are no more promises to the descendants of Abraham. That the NT Church has replaced OT Israel. There are more than a few problems with this "nonliteral" approach to God's Word.
God always keeps His promises. If this were not true, He would not be Divine.
Quote:
| Genesis 13:14-17 And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.” |
The question that I have for my RT friends is this....will God keep His promise to Abraham or won't He?
Recently I was accused of "backing into" my theology. While I think the term was misapplied to my argument, I nevertheless have grown fond of the phrase. The only way to twist this Covenant into non-existence, is to "back into" it with a System of Theology that is outside of Scripture.
And as long as we are looking at covenants let's glance at the New Covenant.
Quote:
| Jeremiah 31:31-37 “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— |
An event is described in the future.
Quote:
| 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. |
This is a reference of course to the Mosaic Covenant. An authentic Covenant, with specific promises. It was conditional, but the New Covenant is said to be different, meaning unconditional (as the Abrahamic Covenant was)
Quote:
| 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” |
In all of the history of the nation of Israel, this has not yet been a reality.
Quote:
| 35 Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for a light by day, The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who disturbs the sea, And its waves roar (The LORD of hosts is His name): 36 “ If those ordinances depart From before Me, says the LORD, Then the seed of Israel shall also cease From being a nation before Me forever.” |
Have you ever seen such a promise? God, by whom all things are sustained, lays down a challenge here. If the laws of nature are completly reversed, then Israel will stop being a nation. And finally...
Quote:
| 37 Thus says the LORD: “ If heaven above can be measured, And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel For all that they have done, says the LORD. |
Just in case Jeremiah's reader's didn't get the message, He adds the verses above.
As far as I can see, from the plain reading of Scripture, God has a future plain for the descendants of Abraham. That is the physical descendants of Abraham.
Last week when the Iranian President proclaimed that "Israel must be wiped off the map", he declared himself to be on the losing side of history. I fear the same for the talk in this country of creating a "Palastinian State". It is encroaching on land that has been given to the Jews.
For me the scary thing is this. Those who adhere to "Replacement Theology", stand shoulder to shoulder with the Iranian President in regards to Israel.
Something to think about.
Posted On Oct 30, 2005 at 0:00 AM
On Oct 30, 2005 Trent wrote: Notice to all programmers who happen by. I am aware that I did not use the ref=/ref form. I attempted to but it gave me an error of some sort. I may try to fix it later. Then again, I may not
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