This podcast deals with supersessionism and replacement theology, two names for a very dangerous belief system that is foundational to the problem of anti-Semitism within the Church. But what we see from both the Old Testament and New Testament is that the premise of this belief system is an impossibility. So I pray with all my heart that we can see removed from the Church, once and for all, these concepts and these doctrines, and we can begin to walk in oneness with our Jewish brothers and sisters.

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Show Notes: At the root of supersessionism and replacement theology is the concept that the Jews by disobedience broke their covenant with God, and Christians are the recipients of the new covenant. This is an assumption that the Scriptures do not support. It is true that God promised a new covenant to replace a broken covenant and that Yeshua (Jesus) instituted the new covenant at the Last Supper. These truths, however, do not suggest or imply that Christians have replaced the Jews as God’s people.

God sought to replace the bilateral covenant at Sinai with a new unilateral covenant. The covenant at Sinai did not work because at Sinai the children of Israel agreed to follow the Law, something they were unable to do. It is also something that Christians and all humans with human flesh are unable to do. The new covenant that God promised to Judah and Israel is a unilateral covenant, meaning that God does everything. He puts His law in their minds and hearts, fulfilling the requirement of the Law and reaffirming that they are His people.

Therefore, God did not replace the Law, and He did not replace His choosing of Israel. He only replaced the methodology of the covenant itself and how it was formed. God took it from a bilateral covenant into a unilateral covenant. This new covenant now opens the door for everyone to fulfill the Law by faith through grace. The fact that Gentiles can now be included by this grace is wonderful. To twist some Scriptures and say that the failure of a few Jews in the past caused God to reject all Jews and replace them with Gentile Christians is anti-Semitism. It is a form of racism that must be removed from our hearts and from the teachings of the Church.

Key Verses:

• Hebrews 7:26–27. “A high priest … who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices.”
• Hebrews 8:1–2. “We have such a high priest … a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle.”
• Hebrews 8:6–7. “He is also the mediator of a better covenant.”
• Hebrews 8:8–13. “Finding fault with them, He says … ‘I WILL EFFECT A NEW COVENANT.’”
• Exodus 24:3. “The people answered … ‘All the words which the LORD has spoken we will do!’”
• Luke 22:19–20. “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.”
• 1 Corinthians 11:23–26. “This cup is the new covenant in My blood.”
• Jeremiah 31:29–30. “Everyone will die for his own iniquity.”
• Revelation 20:12. “The dead were judged … according to their deeds.”
• Jeremiah 31:31–33. “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it.”
• Jeremiah 31:34. “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
• Jeremiah 31:35–37. “If this fixed order departs … then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel.”

Quotes:

• “He is not rejecting the people nor is He rejecting the Law. He is recognizing that there is a failure in that covenant, and therefore God is fixing it.”
• “That is the significance of a unilateral covenant—God is going to do it. He is going to do that which man cannot do, Jew or Gentile.”
• “Whoever sins, the Lord will deal with that person individually. So that must be clear, and it flies in the face of the whole idea of replacement theology.”

Takeaways:

1. Replacement theology contends that the Jews broke their covenant with God because they failed to fulfill the Law, and therefore God rejected them, replacing them with Christians who have the new covenant. The Scriptures prove that this is false teaching.
2. When Christ instituted the new covenant, He did not do away with the Law or the promises that were given to the people of Israel. The new covenant comes to create in them a heart whereby they can walk in the Law. So clearly, God did not reject the Law nor did He reject His people.
3. God has not said to the Jewish people, “Your ancestors blew it, and therefore all Jews since then have been rejected.” It does not work that way. The Lord deals with each person individually according to his or her deeds.
4. God spoke that just as it is impossible to make day or night cease, it is impossible for Israel to cease from being a nation before Him forever. Very simply, God will never reject His people, which erases the very foundation of replacement theology.