Replacement Theology is a denial of the promises of God made to Jacob and his descendants. It is a false doctrine which has long been endemic in the Gentile Church, teaching that the promises made by God to his chosen nation Israel have been rendered null and void by the death of Jesus at Calvary, and are now applicable only to the Church.

Behind this erroneous interpretation lies a darker force: the demonic spirit of anti-Semitism.

God’s Covenant with Israel

The first 11 chapters of the Bible document the increasing corruption of mankind which followed the Fall, the resulting grief and anger of God which brought the Noahic flood, and the subsequent continuing rebellion culminating in the building of the Tower of Babel and God’s judgement in the form of confusion of language and scattering of the rebellious people.

In chapter 12, however, we read of a new initiative on God’s part; his calling of Abram to be the progenitor of a new nation through which the entire world would receive the blessing of salvation.

In Genesis 15 comes God’s further confirmation of that decision, in the form of a solemn covenant with Abram and his heirs which He makes unilaterally and unconditionally. This covenant is reaffirmed to Isaac in Genesis 26, and to Jacob in Genesis 35; and is expressed in Psalm 105:8-10 to be everlasting.

"Jacob’s descendants are irrevocably destined to be God’s chosen earthly nation through whom Messiah would come, and are granted an inalienable right to ownership of the land of Canaan."

Jacob’s descendants are irrevocably destined to be God’s chosen earthly nation through whom Messiah, the woman’s offspring (Gen 3:15), would come, and are granted an inalienable right to ownership of the land of Canaan (Gen 17:8).

What is Replacement Theology?

Replacement Theology is a denial of the validity of these promises of God to Jacob’s descendants. It is a false doctrine which has been endemic in the Gentile Church during most of her history, teaching that the promises made by God to his chosen representative nation Israel have been rendered null and void by the death of Jesus at Calvary, and that in consequence the Hebrew nation is no longer to be regarded as God’s chosen people.

The doctrine effectively declares that much of God’s Word is now obsolete, teaching that Israel has been disinherited and that both the calling and the promises of God are now applicable only to the Church, which is seen to have superseded the Hebrew nation in God’s purposes and to have become the “new Israel”.

However, to quote Malcolm Hedding, former Executive Director of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem:

Replacement Theology is nowhere to be found in the Bible…From a theological perspective, the Replacement doctrine can only exist if one can prove that the Abrahamic covenant has been abolished.¹

"Replacement Theology is nowhere to be found in the Bible…From a theological perspective, the Replacement doctrine can only exist if one can prove that the Abrahamic covenant has been abolished.” - Malcom Hedding

Such a teaching is driven by the spirit of anti-Semitism and the failure to understand that unless allegory is being used, Scripture is to be interpreted according to its plain literal meaning. When God says, concerning the descendants of Jacob, that “the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29), He means exactly what He says. He will not reject his chosen earthly representative nation, nor will He revoke his stated purposes and promises concerning them.

To teach that God has cast aside the nation of Israel and broken the covenant which he made unconditionally and unilaterally with Abraham in Genesis 15 is to make God out to be a liar, and to reject the plain teaching of Paul in Romans 11: “…has God cast away His people? By no means!”²

Paul explains the truth of what has taken place in the relationship between God and Israel, and warns the Gentile believers against the arrogance of thinking that they now have preference over the Jews and have replaced them in God’s purposes. In verses 28-29, Paul explains clearly that they remain God’s elect people and that He will never cease to love the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, nor withdraw His stated purposes for them.

The Origins of Replacement Teaching

In the light of the plain teaching of the Word of God, what accounts for the error which gives rise to the belief that the Church, which has been almost entirely Gentile since the end of the Second Century, has replaced Israel in God’s affection and purpose; and that Israel has therefore also forfeited the right to the land covenanted to the patriarchs? Why did the early Church Fathers introduce teaching which so twisted and perverted the plain statements of Scripture, robbing them of their clear and unambiguous meaning?

By the end of the second century, the Church had become largely Gentile, influenced by the Greek philosophy of the Roman Empire and becoming separated from her Jewish roots.

As early as 160 A.D. Justin Martyr was viewing the Church as the new Israel. In his ‘Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew’, Justin he declares to Trypho that the Hebrew Scriptures are “not yours, but ours” (chapter 29:2), while in chapter 82 he says, concerning the writings of the Hebrew prophets: “For the prophetical gifts remain with us [ie the Church], even to the present time. And hence you ought to understand that [the gifts] formerly among your nation have been transferred to us.”³

By the third century, early Church theologian Origen of Alexandria was teaching that the correct way to understand the Scriptures was by spiritualising the text and treating it as allegory.⁴

There is a profound difference between the Hebraic method of literal interpretation of Scripture at its face value and the Greek method, which tends to the error of taking the literal words and treating them as if they were simply allegorical. Consequently, where for the Hebrew mind the Word of God determines the doctrine, the Greek mind tends first to form the doctrine and then where necessary, to distort (or totally ignore) the word so as to make it fit.

The Spirit of Anti-Semitism

However, behind this erroneous way of interpretation and consequent false teaching lies a darker force. It is the demonic spirit of anti-Semitism, which is rearing its ugly head yet again in great strength and virulence in our own days. The Gentile Church Fathers were influenced not only by Greek thinking and philosophy, but also by increasing prejudice against the Jews as being a race of unbelievers who were responsible for deicide and had become rejected and cursed by God, the satanic lie which would lead to centuries of persecution and ultimately to the Holocaust.

"Behind this erroneous way of interpretation and consequent false teaching lies a darker force: the demonic spirit of anti-Semitism."

What accounts for the phenomenon of anti-Semitism, which has pursued and persecuted the Hebrew nation throughout their long history? What strange hatred led, for example, to the mass slaughter of all male Hebrew infants in Egypt (Ex 1:15-22); or to the thwarted desire of Haman (Est 3:8-15) to perpetrate the genocide of all the Jews in the province of Persia; of to the massacre at Herod’s command of male infants in Bethlehem (Matt 2:16-18)?

The root cause of the mysterious undying purpose of anti-Semitism to exterminate the Jewish people is to be found first in Genesis 3:15, where God declares that the seed of the woman will crush Satan’s head. Secondly, in Genesis 12:3 and 22:18, His promise to Abram is that “all the nations of the earth will be blessed through you”.

The recognition that this meant that Messiah, the promised seed of the woman, would arise from the offspring of Abraham brought the inevitable consequence of continued satanic attempts to prevent the fulfilment of the Word of God, first by destroying the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob so as to make impossible the first coming of the promised Messiah; and when that had failed, to destroy Jesus during His earthly life and ministry.

Following that failure, the object became to prevent His promised return by continuing attempts to destroy all Jacob’s descendants, so as to make impossible their prophesied return from exile among the nations to the land given by God’s covenant promise (eg Gen 15:18) to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants, summarised in the words of Psalm 105: 8-11:

He remembers his covenant forever...the covenant he made with Abraham…He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant: ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit.’

The 20th Century and Today

This satanic determination to prevent the word of God from coming to pass has had tragic but inevitable consequences for the Hebrew nation through many centuries. It reached a climax after the Balfour Declaration in 1917 (affirmed at the San Remo Conference of 1920) was enshrined into International Law in 1922, by the League of Nations’ Mandate to Great Britain to oversee the re-establishment of the Jewish homeland in the land called Palestine by the Romans, but now the sovereign state of Israel.

That series of events aroused the spirit of anti-Semitism to a new level of activity, resulting in Hitler’s attempted 'Final Solution', the Holocaust; and since 1948, in continual attempts to separate the restored Hebrew nation from the land of Israel by any and every possible means.

The prophecy of Daniel (9:26) concerning Jerusalem is that “war will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed”. The spirit of anti-Semitism will continue to stir up strife and destruction against Israel, and against all Jewish people throughout the nations, until Scripture is fulfilled in the return of Jesus the Messiah to save His people and to establish His rule on the earth.

"Unless we believe and teach that the Word of God means what it says, none of us is exempt from falling into error."

The anti-Semitism which continues the hatred and persecution of Jewish people wherever they may be, and the anti-Zionism which rages against the very existence of the State of Israel, are of one and the same antichrist origin and purpose. The unbelieving world cannot understand this, but the professing Church believes and teaches the anti-Semitic doctrine of Replacement Theology at its peril, for by so doing it is denying the Word of God and encouraging hostility against His people and His stated purposes. If we do, we fall into the trap of cursing the descendants of Abraham and consequently bringing God’s curse upon ourselves (Gen 12:3).

Unless we believe and teach that the Word of God means what it says, none of us is exempt from falling into error. The warning contained in Romans 11:17-21 is as valid today for us, as Gentile believers, as it was for the first hearers to whom Paul was writing: “Do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches…Do not be arrogant, but tremble.” The covenant which God made with Abraham remains guaranteed by the unchanging character of God, and He will remain faithful to fulfil all that He has promised concerning the descendants of Jacob.

References

1 Hedding, M, 2006. Standing with Israel Today, ICEJ Word from Jerusalem, May/June edition (first published in The Jerusalem Post Christian Edition, March 2006).

2 Rom 11:1, New King James Version.

3 Dialogue with Trypho the Jew. 2nd Century AD, transl. George Reith.

4 Eg On First Principles, Book IV.

What Kind of People Ought We To Be?

In 2 Peter 3:11 Peter asks the early Christians, who were suffering more and more for their faith, “What kind of people ought we to be?” As two of the latest-written books to be included in our New Testament, 1 and 2 Peter carried a special message to encourage believers to hold fast in the faith, to know what they believed and to witness where they were placed.

Since then, this message has become precious to thousands of suffering Christians, including many Africans sold into colonial slavery (see bottom of page). It has encouraged believers that even when life gets hard, God is in control and is with us, using every circumstance for his purposes.

The teaching in these two books can change our attitudes so that we become positive witnesses where God has placed us. It gives new insight into the right priorities for communities of believers in every country and circumstance, inspiring effective living which positively influences the future not only of individual communities but also worldwide.

Similarly, there were occasions in the Old Testament as well as the New which brought messages of encouragement to people in hard times. Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles in Babylon (Jer 29) had a transforming effect upon the captives from Judah. Much of Jesus’ teaching was to prepare the disciples for hard times, just as the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which Paul explores in his letters, were given to build up the believers for a purpose- not just for their own growth.

The Day of the Lord and the end of the age

There have been many times throughout history when people believed that the Day of the Lord, with the return of Christ and the coming judgement on the whole earth, was near or already upon them. The personal experience of famines, disease, natural disasters or wars which can destroy the infrastructures of a country can be catastrophic, and can either shake our faith or lead to the belief that the end of the age has come.

However, the Day of the Lord (spoken of in 2 Pet 3) and the end of the age are not necessarily one and the same. The Day of the Lord will come at the end of time, whilst over the centuries many ages have come to completion.

It is hard to maintain our faith when we see institutions we have created, or put our trust in, swept away by natural disasters such as tsunamis, volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. It is also hard to keep our faith when our country is being overrun by another – particularly if it is by another religion. All these experiences can make us stop and think more deeply about the purpose of life. Trying to survive in a hostile social environment can create problems for all but the strong-hearted and those with a truly solid foundation to their faith.

"The teaching of Jesus is that we should always be living as though he will return at any moment."

But the teaching of Jesus is that we should ALWAYS be living as though he will return at any moment (Matt 25:1-13). It is helpful to know what the Bible says about the end times, but we are warned against trying to predict times and dates. In his speech on the Day of Pentecost Peter quoted the Prophet Joel indicating that he believed we were entering 'the last days' (Acts 2:14-26). 2000 years later we must be nearer the end of all ages now.

But God is never in a hurry and there are other things prophesied in Scripture that have yet to be fulfilled. God has a great love for his creation and especially for those he made in his own image. He longs to see everyone come into a right relationship with himself through repentance (John 14:6). He is, in fact, waiting for us to do our part.

A Future and a Hope

God’s ultimate purposes are for our good! So we are called to look forward, rather than backward, and we need to ensure that we ourselves live ‘holy and godly’ lives (2 Pet 3:11). We should be aiming to be at one with God, understanding his nature and purposes and being willing to do whatever he asks us to do.

  "The longer our Lord delays, the more people can be saved- and he equips us for this task."

Living in a holy and godly way is not subjective and inward looking – it is positively to embrace God’s concern for the ungodly and to share the Good News with others. Passing on the message to those of our own generation who have not yet heard the message and from one generation to the next are essential tasks. Everyone is needed – there is no retirement - the older generation are given a second chance as grandparents are mobilised to reach their grandchildren.

If we are looking forward to a time of righteousness and justice and to the establishing of God’s kingdom, this is all the more reason to be found doing what God wants, and not to be found lacking (Deut 10:12-13). The longer our Lord delays, the more people can be saved – and he equips us for this task.

Relating to Hard Times: 2 Peter 3 in the African American Jubilee Edition¹

I have a copy of the African American version of the Bible and 2 Peter 3 reads just as though it had been written specifically for those who had been taken into slavery and felt hopeless and I repeat this version below. Read it for yourself as though you were a slave in colonial times - knowing that nothing you could do would change the human situation.

My dear friends, this is the second letter I have written to encourage you to do some honest thinking. I don’t want you to forget what God’s prophets said would happen. You must never forget what the holy prophets taught in the past. And you must remember what the apostles told you our Lord and Saviour has commanded us to do.

But first you must realize that in the last days some people won’t think about anything except their own selfish desires. They will make fun of you and say, "Didn’t your Lord promise to come back? Yet the first leaders have already died, and the world hasn’t changed a bit."

They will say this because they want to forget that long ago the heavens and the earth were made at God’s command. The earth came out of water and was made from water. Later it was destroyed by the waters of a mighty flood. But God has commanded the present heavens and earth to remain until the day of judgement. Then they will be set on fire, and ungodly people will be destroyed.

Dear friends, don’t forget that for the Lord one day is the same as a thousand years, and a thousand years is the same as one day. The Lord isn’t slow about keeping his promises, as some people think he is. In fact, God is patient, because he wants everyone to turn from sin and no one to be lost.

The day of the Lord’s return will surprise us like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a loud noise, and the heat will melt the whole universe. Then the earth and everything on it will be seen for what they are.

Everything will be destroyed. So you should serve and honour God by the way you live. You should look forward to the day when God judges everyone, and you should try to make it come soon. On that day the heavens will be destroyed by fire, and everything else will melt in the heat. But God has promised us a new heaven and a new earth, where justice will rule. We are really looking forward to that!

My friends, while you are waiting, you should make certain that the Lord finds you pure, spotless, and living at peace. Don’t forget that the Lord is patient because he wants people to be saved. This is also what our dear friend Paul said when he wrote you with wisdom that God had given him. Paul talks about these same things in all his letters, but part of what he says is hard to understand. Some ignorant and unsteady people even destroy themselves by twisting what he said. They do the same thing with other Scriptures too.

My dear friends, you have been warned ahead of time! So don’t let the errors of evil people lead you down the wrong path and make you lose your balance. Let the wonderful kindness and understanding that come from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ help you to keep on growing. Praise Jesus now and forever! Amen.

Slaves were not in a position to change their situation, but they knew that God could! – and that he would do it in his timing. So they looked forward to that day and adopted the lifestyle that they felt God would have wanted of them.

References

1 African American Jubilee Edition, Contemporary English Version, American Bible Society, 1995.

Below we have re-published Clifford Hill's lead article from the first print edition of Prophecy Today, March/April 1985. Entitled 'Take Off the Graveclothes!', it was a clarion call to the church to rise up and be counted, and is still highly relevant today.

These are exciting days to be a Christian!

We are living in one of the most significant periods in the history of mankind. There are many signs that these are the times that former generations have longed to see – the times of which Jesus and the prophets spoke. The need for clear discernment has never been greater in order that we may rightly interpret the signs of the times and rightly convey the Word of God to our generation.

In a world armed to the teeth with the most incredible weapons of destruction there has never been greater danger facing mankind. Yet with the mounting evidence of spiritual awakening around the world these are also days of limitless opportunity for the Gospel.

Spirit of violence vs the Spirit of God

There appear to be two mighty forces at work in the world today and moving towards a climax of confrontation. The contrast between the two is almost too vivid and blinding to comprehend. A spirit of violence has been loosed into the world; and, the Spirit of God is at work among his people.

The destructive forces of violence are to be seen in every part of the world. Assassination, terrorism, urban guerrilla warfare, revolution, plus 37 actual wars at present in progress are ample evidence of this. The threat of the world being plunged into a nuclear holocaust comes not only from the clash of the giant superpowers but from the smaller nations. The day is in sight when nations such as Libya, Syria, Iran, Pakistan - all experiencing an Islamic fundamentalist revival – will each have their own nuclear weapons (the threat from militant Islam may one day prove to be greater than the threat from atheistic Russian communism). The world is rapidly entering a highly dangerous and unstable period.

"The Holy Spirit is being poured out on people of all nations today just as the prophet Joel foretold and at precisely the right time when the forces of darkness are threatening to overwhelm the world."

At the same time the Spirit of God is at work in the world bringing new life and hope. In nation after nation there is a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit bringing spiritual awakening and revival. Today the church worldwide is growing at a faster rate than at any time since the days of the New Testament church. The church in Africa, south of the Sahara, is growing at a rate of more than 7 million per year. The new birth rate has overtaken the natural birth rate; so that the day is in sight when most of the population of central and southern Africa will be committed Christians. Similar things are happening in Korea, in China and in many other parts of Asia, also in South America and in Central America. Even in Russia and Eastern Europe there is evidence of a fresh move of God.

The Holy Spirit is being poured out on people of all nations today just as the prophet Joel foretold and at precisely the right time when the forces of darkness are threatening to overwhelm the world.

Re-arming the Church

God has entered the battlefield against the principalities and powers! Through a fresh move of the Holy Spirit worldwide, God is re-arming his church for battle. The time is drawing near when the battle of the ages will take place, the battle of which Paul hints in Ephesians 3:10, when through the church God will take on the world rulers of darkness that have for so long been driving mankind.

The word God spoke to Jehoshaphat are a time when Israel was under threat of annihilation is relevant to us today:

"Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. The battle is not yours, but God's." (2 Chron 20:15)

Traditionalism dying

The greatest danger facing us today is that of missing the timing of the Lord through failure to understand the signs of the times and failure to understand what God is saying to us today. While many of the new and younger parts of the church are full of life and vigour and eager response to the Spirit of God, many of the older and more traditional parts of the Body of Christ are showing signs of geriatric decay and hardening of the spiritual arteries.

Right across Europe many of the traditional churches are sleeping peacefully, occasionally stirring to murmur, 'As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be' or are so caught up in the immediacy of institutional organisation and of social programmes that their spiritual eyes are blinded and their energies are diverted into unproductive cul-de-sacs.

The traditional churches with their centuries of scholarship ought to be the eyes and the ears of the church but they are failing to discern the dangers confronting our world today and the biblical significance of the days in which we live.

Prophecy neglected

For centuries there has been a neglect of the ministry of prophecy due in part to the very right and wholesome fear of being misled but also due to the Reformation emphasis upon Scripture as being not only the final authority on the word of God but also as being the final utterance of God, although this is contrary to the teaching of Jesus in John 14-16 on the gift of the Holy Spirit to the church.

Jesus taught that through the Holy Spirit God would continue to communicate with the believers. He said:

"I have much more to say to you all, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth…he will tell you what is yet to come." (John 16:12, 13)

In times of crisis God has always raised up prophets to speak to his people. The task of the prophet is to stand in the council of the Lord and to bring the contemporary word of God to the contemporary world (Jer 23:18, 22).

"God wants his whole church to be a 'prophetic people' to communicate his word to his world in these days of crisis."

Just as God spoke to his people of the old covenant through prophets to give them encouragement, warning or clear guidance in times of crisis, so God is speaking to his people of the new covenant through prophets today. The major task of the prophet is the forthtelling of the word of God. The prophet gives vision, clarity of purpose and understanding to the people of God. He enables the Body to discern the word of God for our times that it may rightly proclaim that word to the world. God wants his whole church to be a 'prophetic people' to communicate his word to his world in these days of crisis.

The Church constricted

The major blockage to the proclamation of the word of God to the contemporary world is the degree to which the world has infiltrated the Western church destroying its simple trust and expectancy and replacing it with all the complexities of institutionalism, unscriptural theology, materialism, secularism and unbelief. These are the graveclothes with which we have encompassed the Body of Christ. These are the constrictions that are imprisoning the word of God today. But the fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit we are seeing today is a worldwide movement. God is longing to renew his church in the West that it may fully accomplish his mighty purposes in this critical period of world history.

The Lord Jesus is weeping over his church today as Jesus wept over the tomb of Lazarus his friend. He wept for the slowness of understanding and unbelief of those whom he loved. "Roll back the stone!" he commanded. Then followed the words that demonstrated his claim to be the resurrection and the life. "Lazarus come forth!" Slowly Lazarus shuffled out of the tomb, his body completely encased in the graveclothes that enwrapped him and impeded his movements. There he stood, filled with the new life given to him by the Lord but unable to exercise it because his body was imprisoned within the tightly wrapped graveclothes. He had already received the precious gift of new life but he was virtually paralysed by the graveclothes.

"Dead tradition, unbelief, sterility and institutionalism have put the Body of Christ in a straight-jacket as binding as the graveclothes around the body of Lazarus."

That is a picture of the Western church. The precious gift of new life in the risen Christ is imprisoned within the Body by dead tradition, by blind unbelief, by sterile scholasticism, by the complexities of institutionalisation that have put the Body of Christ in a straight-jacket as binding as the graveclothes around the body of Lazarus.

Take off the graveclothes!

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead he did not rush forward to help Lazarus or remove the graveclothes from his body. He turned to his friends and said to them, "Take off the graveclothes and let him go!" (John 11:44). The Lord of the church is turning to his people today and saying, "l have already given you the new life in my Spirit, now you must remove the graveclothesl Let my church go into all the world with my word of life."

Let he who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches today.

"Take off the graveclothes! Let my church go!" If we do not hear and heed the word of the Lord today we will miss his timing in this most critical period of world history for 2000 years. Tomorrow may be too late!