PART SEVEN
Now I’m going to go through very quickly and right at the end we’re going to look at in more detail some of the scriptures we didn’t cover.
Replacement Theology is also known as the Kingdom Now Theology or Dominion Theology. By the way the headquarters for one of their main publishing plants, interestingly enough is up in Gainesville, Florida, and this is the national headquarters of this group, I am told. They have infiltrated churches all over the world, and as I said, the majority of churches today believe this doctrine and teach it.
1. GOD MADE AN EVERLASTING COVENANT WITH THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM IN THE FLESH. (Genesis 17:7, 13, 19; I Chronicles 16:17; Psalm 105:10; Jeremiah 32:40; Ezekiel 16:60, 37:26)
He did not take away that agreement. If you’ll notice when the Bible says everlasting it means everlasting. Listen if God could take away the covenant from Israel that He said was everlasting, then He can take everlasting life away from you that He said was everlasting. Everlasting means everlasting, or He wouldn’t have used that word. This is what the scripture says,
| And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. (Genesis 17:7) |
There’s another scripture in 1 Chronicles 16:17, it says
| And hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, |
And again in 105:10
| And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: |
In Jeremiah 32:40
| And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. |
Ezekiel 16:60
| Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. |
Ezekiel 37:26
| Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. |
Very clearly God has established an everlasting covenant, one that isn’t going to run out.
2. THE PROMISE OF THE LAND OF ISRAEL IS GIVEN TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. (Jeremiah 30:3, 22, 31:1)
Not to Yasser Arafat, not to the Palestinians. In Jeremiah 30, in verse 3.
| For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. |
“The land that I gave to their fathers…”
Jeremiah 30, in verse 22.
| And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. |
Who’s He talking to, the Church ? Israel. In Jeremiah 31:1
| At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. |
“The families of Israel…”
3. GOD WILL NOT DISHONOR HIS AGREEMENT WITH DAVID. (Jeremiah 33:19-21, 32:38, 33:24)
This is so vital that we see this scripture because out of all the scriptures this one is so clear because it almost anticipates that somebody’s going to come along and try to say “God didn’t mean what He said.” I mean it almost anticipates that. In Jeremiah 33:19
| And the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers. |
“My ministers.” He is talking about people who have a physical lineage. The children of David, the children of Levi, this is all a guarantee that God gives that He will maintain them. That they will always be a part of His plan.
In Jeremiah 32:38
| And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: |
Jeremiah 33:24
| Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them. |
Now God had already said “Don’t go out and take a census. Don’t go out and find out how many men you have, how many are of soldiers age, how many are equipped for battle. I want you to depend on Me.” And so God forbade the Jewish kings from going out and taking that kind of a census. Well, now David comes along, and he hadn’t done it for years, well, in any part of his life he had never done it. And now, the Devil comes along and he says “David, you really need to know how many men you have, it just makes good sense. I mean that’s the way business is. It’s just a good business decision to go out there and count the number of soldiers you’ve got.” God already said “Don’t do it,” but you see Satan was provoking David to sin, and who did the Devil want to get at ? Israel. So the Devil has a history of hating Israel.
So He’s anticipating what people are going to do in the end times. And He’s saying “It isn’t going to work, this simply is not true.”
4. ELIJAH WILL TURN THE JEWISH PEOPLE BACK TO THEIR ROOTS IN THE LAST DAYS.
In Malachi chapter 4, in verse 4 it says:
| Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. |
Before the great and dreadful day of the LORD. Now what revisionist history, what the Replacement Theology, Kingdom Now Theology, and all that heresy, which is essentially the same thing, says is that “Israel has been replaced. They’re out of the purpose of God. The Church has taken over and all the promises that were given to Israel are now given to the Church.”
Last week I was reading a comment by one of the Rabbis over in Jerusalem and there were a bunch Christians who were encouraging a group called the “Temple Mount Faithful.” Now some of you may be familiar with this group. The head of it is Salomon Gershon, and he for quite a few years has been trying to regain the possession of the mount where all the Mosques are and put that back in Israeli hands. They’ve tried legal means, they’ve tried everything they can. Well lately what they’ve done is they have gotten the cornerstone of the Temple, and here’s this huge rock, and they have brought it up on logs, and they brought it up to the Temple Square. Now the Israelis won’t let get any further than that, but they have this huge cornerstone ready for the new Temple, and they want to bring it up this incline all the way up to the top, or at least at Passover they want to sacrifice a lamb on the Temple Mount.
Of course, politically that’s not a real good thing to do because our government is saying “No, no, give the land to the Palestinians it will make them happy, it’ll pacify them and they won’t bother you anymore.” And, anyone would have to be really stupid if they believe that. But that’s what they’re trying to do, and they’re saying “Don’t aggravate them, don’t get them upset.” And, so they’ve been holding them back.
There’s a Rabbi there who said “You know, Christians have been pushing this.” He says “They have the wrong motive. They think that once they get up to the Mount, that they will take our place.” Now what does that say to the Jewish people ? I don’t know how many people read his comments, I don’t know how many believed what he had to say. But what was the purpose of wanting to get up to the Mount and supporting this effort on the part of some Christians ? Many of them believe that they are modern day Israel, many of the believe that they are modern day Jews. And this is a very dangerous thing, a very dangerous attitude. And the Bible warns about it.
Over in Revelation Chapter 3. In verse 9. You see this has happened periodically where the Devil will try to get people to say that they are Jews when they are not. In verse 9 it says
| Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. |
And there was another case in there and down through history where this took place. People are trying to say that they are Jews. If you go over to Revelation 2, in verse 9. It’s the same thing, they tried it.
| I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. |
Now, do you see how serious this is ? Who wrote this that we’re reading right now ? Who breathed this ? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit says “Number one, what they are saying is blasphemy. When they say that they are Jews and they are not. And secondly, they’re not even Christians, they’re of the synagogue of Satan.”
You might wonder why I’ve spent three entire sessions dealing with this issue. It’s because today the majority of churches have adopted the Kingdom-Now Theology that says that Christians are modern day Jews. And what does the Holy Spirit say ? “That’s blasphemy and they’re from the synagogue of Satan.” I didn’t say it, that’s what God said. That is pretty strong language any way you want to cut it, and it’s very, very dangerous for a true born again person to get involved in situations where you have an alliance with people who think they are Jews and have convinced themselves that they are modern day Israel. One of the recent rash of shootings against churches that took place last month up in Minnesota took place at a branch of Garner Ted Armstrong’s church. It used to be the Radio Church of God, Worldwide Radio Church of God. This is an off-shoot from it, but they all believe that they are Jews. But, they don’t look at their physical lineage (which is NOT Jewish). They just say “Well, since we’re Christians, since we’ve been born again, since we’ve put our faith in Jesus Christ, therefore we have become Jews.” And that is such an abomination to God because He says “You’re mixing things up. I don’t want them mixed up. The Jewish Believers, the Gentile Christians are different by birth.”
Now we’re all in One Body in Christ because of the blood of Christ. A Jew who has been saved has had their entire theology fulfilled. They’ve been looking for the Messiah. They’ve been looking for the perfect Lamb. They’ve been looking for the blood that would wash away their sins. It’s all fulfilled in Christ. But, for Gentile Believers to say that they are now Jews is wrong. All the way up until the Book of Revelation the Bible still distinguishes between Jews and Gentiles. Now why would it do that if all Believers became Jews when they got saved ? It wouldn’t. But this is a heresy that is being given out in many, many churches, and it’s a serious and deadly one. The Bible says Elijah will turn the Jewish people back to their roots.
5. THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES SHOWS A FUTURE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL. (Ezekiel 37:3-6)
| And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. |
6. EVEN THE NEW TESTAMENT PROMISES THAT ISRAEL WILL BE RESTORED.
Let’s go over to Romans Chapter 11.
We know that the Bible is referring to Israel as the Wild Olive Tree, which is the natural olive tree that God had created. In verse 24, He’s talking to Gentiles, He’s talking to the Roman Christians who are Gentiles. He says
| For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? 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 (“Until”) the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. |
Now, He’s giving a time frame there isn’t He ? Saying “This is only going to happen for a certain period of time. You’re only going to see the Gentile Church prosper for a certain period of time. Then you’re going to see the Jews prosper all over again and they will be My instruments.”