Several years ago, the church we were attending was studying the book of Revelation.  When we arrived at Chapter 7, our pastor explained that the text, which is very clear, had been reinterpreted by some Christians due to a doctrine called “Replacement Theology,” or originally, “Supersessionism.” The fruit of that doctrine has been anti-Semitism.

The concept he was describing was familiar to me only in relation to the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  In fact, when they came to my door and showed me Revelation 14, claiming that they were the 144,000 witnesses that it references, I was confused and said to them, “The first mention of the witnesses in Revelation 7 says that they are Jews.  Are you Jewish?”  Aside from that, I had never been aware that other denominations held to that idea.  I’ve never been part of a church that taught that.

I have since discovered that there are many mainstream churches that hold to it, although to differing degrees.  Personally, I think you have to twist the scriptures a great deal to make them agree with that doctrine.  A straightforward reading of the Bible does not get you to that point.

“This doctrine asserts that God is finished with the Jewish people as a special nation, that the Church is the new Israel and has replaced Israel; and therefore, all the promises of restoration and blessing originally given to Israel now apply to the Church and not the Jewish people.”  – Rabbis Loren, Glenn, Jerry and Doug MacLean of Congregation Shema Yisrael

Interestingly, however, this doctrine does not assert that curses or correction given to Israel apply to the Church as well, which should be your first sign that something is off with this idea.

After learning about this, I couldn’t understand how any Bible-believing Christian could hold to this doctrine.  Here are seven reasons why I believe Replacement Theology is not compatible with Scripture and could even be considered blasphemous.

1. God cannot break a promise and He cannot lie.

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob made a covenant with His people that He would not have made if He couldn’t uphold it.  This covenant that He made with Abraham relies on God’s commitment to fulfill His promises, rather than on human obedience.  It is outside of His character to make a promise that He could not keep.  

^“And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.   Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” 

– Genesis 17:7-8

“For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.  And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:

“The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.”

Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.  For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.  For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience.” – Romans 11:25-30

Blasphemy:  To revile God, to hurl insults, to despise, show disrespect toward, to taunt.

Hebrews 6:13 tells us that “When God made His promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for Him to swear by, He swore by Himself,” and verse 18 explains that “It is impossible for God to lie.”

I consider it blasphemy to suggest that God would break His promises, and having done so, consequently have lied to His people.

2. God knows the beginning from the end.

Since He already knew the choices they would make in the future, if the covenant was contingent on their behavior and they needed to earn the promises, He would have said so.  Since He foreknew them, He already knew that some of them would reject Jesus as their Messiah.  

“I say then, has God cast away His people?  Certainly not!  For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.  God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew.” – Romans 11:1-2

God had a habit of warning the Israelites of the consequences of going against His will, because He already knew when that was going to happen.  He would not change His pattern and fail to warn them in this instance if it would result in the covenant being broken.

3. If He won’t keep His promises to His people, why do you believe He will keep His promises to you?

Do you never sin or let God down?  If promises from God are contingent on good behavior and can be broken without warning, then how can we trust God to keep His promises to us?  You are no prize, and neither am I.  We are all sinners in need of forgiveness and grace.

If the Jewish people have been abandoned by their God, then we can be, too.  Either God keeps His promises, or He doesn’t.  You can’t have it both ways.  

4. We have been grafted into the family of God; we have not replaced the original branches.  If we could be grafted into a tree that we did not naturally belong to, why couldn’t they be grafted back in?

We should be making His people jealous for their God, not rejecting those He has not rejected. 

“You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.’  Well said.  Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith.  Do not be haughty, but fear.  For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.  Therefore, consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness.  Otherwise, you also will be cut off.  And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.  For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?” – Romans 11:19-24

In Genesis 22:18, after Abraham does not withhold his beloved son, but trusts God’s plan, God tells him, “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

In Isaiah 49:6, a prophecy tells how God would use Jesus, a Jew, to “…restore the preserved ones of Israel” and “…give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.”

In Matthew 28:19, Jesus commands His followers to “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.”

This is a beautiful reciprocal relationship, where the Gentiles have been blessed by the Savior coming through the Jewish people, and we should be blessing them in return by sharing the truth with them.  How can you make them jealous for their God if, instead of speaking the truth in love, you reject them?

5. If you don’t believe what the biblical prophecies say on this point, why do you believe any of them?  

God inspired the apostle John to write the book of Revelation over 60 years after the crucifixion.  Why then, if God had permanently rejected them after that event, did He tell John to write that Jews would be His special witnesses in the end times?

“Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God.  And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” And I heard the number of those who were sealed.  One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed:

of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand were sealed;

 of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand were sealed.”

– Revelation 7:2-8

Those who believe in Replacement Theology say that God actually meant Christians in this passage.  However, do you notice that God doesn’t just stop at telling you that these are 144,000 of the tribes of the children of Israel?  He breaks them down, tribe by tribe.  He knew that people would misinterpret and misrepresent His words, so He was precise on purpose to make a point.

At the end of the book of Revelation, in chapter 22, verses 18-19, God warns everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, that if he adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written there, and if anyone takes away from the words of this prophecy, God shall take away his place in the Book of Life.  Is rewriting God’s prophecy really a chance that you want to take?

6. If end times prophecies regarding Israel are really about the Church, then why did God miraculously make Israel a nation again, just as he had promised He would, after almost 2,000 years?

 “For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.  As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep.  I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.  I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land.” – Ezekiel 34:11-13 (written during the Babylonian captivity)

“Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you,  and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul,  that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you.  If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you.  Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it.  He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.  And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” – Deuteronomy 30:1-6 (as Israel approached the Promised Land)

I think those of us who were born long after May 14, 1948, can fail to grasp the enormity of the restoration of Israel as a nation.  A few years ago, I read a novel called “Daniel Deronda,” published in 1876.  The main character falls in love with a woman named Mirah and ventures into the Jewish ghetto in London to help her find her lost brother.  He befriends a man named Mordecai, who takes him to a debate club.  The men are debating whether (and how much) they should give up of their Jewishness in order to fit into the society at the time so that their children would be accepted and have an easier life.  Mordecai insists that they should hold on to their religious beliefs and traditions, their style of dress, and they should teach their children Hebrew so they will be prepared to return to their land one day, as God had promised them that they would.

It made me imagine what it would have been like for real Jews during the time this book was written (approximately 70 years before Israel became a nation again) – how hard it must have been to hang on to that long, unfulfilled promise.  I could only see it from the side of the fulfillment.  But God did do it.  Why do we then doubt that if He could do something as miraculous as bringing Israel back from the dead (as he brought His Son back from the dead), that He could fulfill all of His other promises and prophecies as well?

7. Who has the authority to change God’s word?

No one has that authority.  Period.  The end.  This is another example of blasphemy – showing disrespect towards God.

“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.  And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.  For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” – Genesis 3:3-5

God’s words to Adam had been simple and clear:

“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” – Genesis 3:16-17

Satan told Eve to question God’s Word.  He made a simple instruction seem more restrictive than it actually was by adding to it and insinuating that God was keeping more than just one tree from them.  Eve’s response is legalism – she adds to God’s words, too, by saying that they aren’t allowed to touch the tree, either.  We all know how that turned out.

It is dangerous to question the simple, direct words that God has given us and twist them into something different.  If a doctrine or theology is tempting you to do that, I would immediately question the roots of that idea.  Satan is the one who wants you to question God, rather than trust Him.  If the fruit of that idea has led to prejudice, persecution and even genocide, then that is undeniable evidence that it is not from God, but a twisting of His Word.

Replacement Theology has its roots in Rome.  After they decided to become Christians, the priests that were appointed to interpret Scripture to the people were of a pagan background.  This is what led to the worship of statues, which God clearly prohibits.  They were coming from a pagan understanding of the world.

The early church, previous to this, was distinctly (and at one point, exclusively) Jewish.  “The Way” was actually regarded as another Jewish sect, like the Pharisees or Sadducees.  The leaders understood the roots of the religion. They (and Jesus, before His crucifixion) continued to observe the Jewish festivals and the Sabbath on Saturday.

It was these new Gentile priests that did not understand this background who began to re-interpret portions of scripture.

When you read a book, if a passage is portrayed as though it is meant to be taken literally, do you automatically assume it is a metaphor for something else?  No!  You can tell what portions are meant to be metaphor or allegory, and what is meant to be taken literally.  Why, then, would you approach the Bible in a completely different way?  When Jesus tells a parable, it is clear.  God’s words about the Jewish people and His heart toward them are clear, too.

“For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.” -Deuteronomy 7:6

In contrast to the evil fruit grown by Replacement Theology is the good fruit that can be produced by recognizing God’s purpose in grafting our wild branches in.  In Amos 9, God tells us that there will be Gentiles who will follow Him one day, and in Acts 15, James quotes these verses as evidence of God’s plan to unite Jewish and Gentile believers, because “Known to God from eternity are all His works.”

In Ephesians 2, we are reminded that the blood of Christ has made us one, just as the wild branches grafted onto the olive tree become part of the tree, rather than remaining separate plants.  The tree is chosen because its roots are strong.  The branch to be grafted is chosen because of its potential to produce good fruit, but the fruit is changed slowly over time because of the tree it has been grafted onto.

“Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.  And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.  For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.” 

– Ephesians 2:11-18

Death came through the fruit of the tree in the Garden, but life is available through the olive tree referenced in Ephesians – as the Savior of humankind was one of the branches, and His shed blood and sacrifice has offered us the opportunity to be grafted in and have access to salvation.

It is not for us to question who He chose, why He chose them, or what His future plans for them are.  It is only for us to believe what He has told us, obey Him, and trust that His plans are good.