I believe it’s safe to say that every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has their confidence in Christ, and what’s also true is that we have a firm assurance in the validity and accuracy of the Scriptures. With that said, what many people are feeling and saying about Israel amid rising geopolitical tensions, resurgent antisemitism and questions about how Christians should think about the Jewish homeland and the Jewish people must be tested against the Bible.
Just as the church has been tested throughout the ages as to whether or not it would obey God’s Word, so today the church is undergoing a time of purification and separation, not unlike what Jesus prophesied would happen as we enter deeper into the Last Days prior to His appearing.
We all watched as believers, churches and denominations dealt with the COVID pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement, the movement to redefine gender and sexuality, and then the DEI movement. And yet, we’re seeing an even bigger test today—what I would call The Israel Test—to reveal what we really believe about what I regard as clear Biblical teaching. I am, of course, talking about the replacement theology movement that has surfaced yet again.
Replacement theology is nothing new; in fact, from the beginning, Satan has sought to replace God’s Kingdom with his own. It was Satan who visited Jesus in the wilderness and offered Him a replacement—the kingdoms of this world if Jesus would bow down and worship him. The replacement, reproduction, reinvention and redefining tactics of Satan have always been a predictable scheme. Satan has always sought to either twist the Scriptures or to prevent their prophetic fulfillment. Sadly, in many quarters Biblical theology has given way to emotional theology, which is anything but clear.
Simply put, replacement theology teaches that the church has replaced Israel in God’s redemptive plan. Those who believe in replacement theology believe the Jews are no longer God’s chosen people, and that God no longer has a specific future plan for the Jews or the nation of Israel or His Promised Land.
Replacement theology teaches that the promises made to Israel in the Bible are now to be fulfilled in the Christian church, not with Israel. The prophecies in Scripture concerning the blessing and restoration of Israel to the Promised Land are spiritualized, allegorized and reinterpreted into things regarding the church. Major problems exist with this view, such as the continuing existence of the Jewish people throughout the centuries. Specifically, with the revival of the physical, modern state of Israel, which took place in one day, on May 14, 1948, and was recognized by the United Nations, spearheaded by the U.S. under President Harry Truman’s leadership.
If Israel has been condemned by God and there is no future for the Jewish nation, how do we explain the unexplainable, supernatural, Biblical survival of the Jewish people over the past 2,000 years, despite constant attempts by their enemies to destroy them? How do we explain Israel’s reappearance as a nation after being driven to the four corners of the Earth after A.D. 70?
Let’s look at a few examples of what God says about Israel and its future:
“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).
“But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me. Your sons shall make haste; your destroyers and those who laid you waste shall go away from you” (Isaiah 49:14-17).
“For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land” (Ezekiel 36:24).
And then there are the Apostle Paul’s words in Romans 11:1-2: “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. …”
And in Matthew 24:15, Jesus clearly teaches that Israel, and the temple in Jerusalem, will exist at the time of the Great Tribulation. How can this be if there is no Israel?
I believe we are living in the daze of deception, and only God’s Word will bring clarity. That is why I believe it is time for us to take a bold stand.
