SHOULD 'REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY' REPLACE CHRISTIAN ZIONISM?
By Rev. Ted Pike
28 Jun 07
Many Christians are beginning to realize that international Zionist
control is a monster. They have mistakenly nurtured it, believing
it was the will of God. Increasing numbers of Christians are attracted
to a new alternative: “replacement theology.” It says
God is now and forever done with any national Jewish agenda. Quoting
St. Paul, this doctrine asserts, “Those who are of faith .
. . are the sons of Abraham” (Gal. 3:7).
Replacement theology contends that virtually all Biblical prophecy
was fulfilled spiritually during the life of Jesus or through the
terrible judgments upon the Jews during the destruction of Jerusalem
in 70 A.D. It says the Christian world is no more obligated to assist
Jews and Israel than is anyone else.
Has God really washed His hands of His experiment called Israel?
Were the Bible’s abundant and specific prophecies of judgment
on the nations and national redemption for Israel fulfilled 2,000
years ago?
Storyline of Prophecy
If we read prophetic Scriptures without preconception, an unmistakable
storyline of future events emerges. Here are the high points:
- Christ said Jerusalem and its temple would be leveled. This was
fulfilled by the Romans under Titus in 70 A.D.
- Christ and St. Paul also predicted, by inference, that the Jews
would return and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. Such would
be necessary in order for the Anti-Christ to profane its sanctuary
(abomination of desolation) and to proclaim himself god in the
temple (Matt. 24:15, II Thess. 2:4). Ezekiel also prophesied that
Israel would return, as they have during the past century, in unbelief.
He describes Israel of tomorrow as dominating the world, in wickedness,
with no one able to resist her (Ez. 39:26). We are now experiencing
the latter stages of fulfillment of these prophetic descriptions
of Israel’s
ascent to global power.
- Daniel prophesied that Israel would make a “covenant” with
her false messiah, Anti-Christ (Dan. 11:25). Christ also confirmed
Israel's national acceptance of Anti-Christ (John 5:43). St. John
saw Jerusalem subsequently riding the Beast in dominion of the nations
she has corrupted (Rev. 17). Israel, the archetypal “Great
Harlot,” is drunk with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus
(Rev. 17:1).
- Christ said three events will precede His Second Coming:
a. Jerusalem is surrounded by armies (Luke 21:20).
b. The coming Jewish temple is desecrated by Anti-Christ (Matt.
24:15).
c. The Jews are again exiled to the nations (Luke 21:24).
In Revelation
18 the Beast, rearing on his haunches, throws Israel to the ground.
His invading armies sack Jerusalem (but don’t
level it) (Rev. 18:18). Anti-Christ, in insult to Judaism,
defiles the temple, erecting there an image of himself (Rev.
13:14). Sitting in the temple, he proclaims himself god,
commanding the entire world to worship him and his robotic
image.
- The invading forces of the Gentiles slaughter two thirds of Jews
in Jerusalem and exile the remainder to the nations (Ez. 5:12,
Zech. 13:8). There they endure “great tribulation” for about
three and a half years (Matt. 24:22). The invading Gentiles (including
vengeful Arabs) are ecstatic. Israel had her “time” to
dominate the nations. Now it's the “time of the Gentiles," a
time to exalt in victory, mercilessly exacting revenge upon the
Jews and treading Jerusalem underfoot (Luke 21:24).
Although plagued
by the prophetic “two witnesses” (Rev.
11), the evil inhabitants of the world give themselves to rejoicing
as in the days before the Flood. At last they have thrown off
the cruel oppressions of international Jewish control!
- Christ returns in glory. All believers (including the bodies
of the righteous dead) ascend to meet Him in the sky (I Thess.
4:14-17).
- A beleaguered Jewish “remnant” repents at Christ’s
coming (Zech. 12:10). He protects them but for 45 days rains
judgment (plagues and vials of wrath) on their oppressors, both
globally and in the battle of Armageddon in Israel (Rev. 15, 16,
Dan. 12:11, 12).
- Coming with His resurrected saints, Christ touches down on the
Mount of Olives, splitting it north and south, creating a huge
valley (Zech. 14:4,5).
- Christ spiritually washes, “sprinkles,” the Jewish remnant
as He leads them back to Israel (Ez. 36:25). This is the third and
only divinely sanctioned return to Palestine since Ezra and Nehemiah.
It is legitimate because, unlike the present return, it fulfills
God’s unchanging requirement of obedience.
- Christ brings peace to earth and rules for 1000 years.
Does History
Fit the Replacement Model?
Could most of the above have occurred while Christ was on earth
or during the destruction of Jerusalem? Armies did surround Jerusalem
and the Jews were exiled. But that’s all that might be construed
as fulfillment. Nothing really resembling “the abomination
that makes desolate” happened in 70 A.D. Scripture portrays
the abomination of desolation as a deliberate act by Anti-Christ
to desecrate all things Jewish in the temple at Jerusalem (perhaps
by offering a swine on the temple altar). Unlike Anti-Christ, Titus
respected the Jewish faith and temple and gave strict orders that
it be preserved. Unfortunately, a Roman torch accidentally ignited
the temple curtain, destroying the temple as the result of an accident,
not a deliberate act of desecration.
Accommodating the many specific requirements of prophecy into events
of the first century is clearly impossible. Bible prophecy, far from
being fulfilled, was created to warn and orient the church of the
last days - a church which Christ said would be subject to overwhelming
deception. Sounds like the church today!
Replacement Theology Boasts Against Israel
You may ask: “Even if prophecy was not literally fulfilled
in the first century, what’s wrong with believing that God’s
original covenants of blessing and adoption are spiritually fulfilled
by the church, without need of national Israel?”
The Bible forbids us to make such a boast. There is no greater vaunt against
the Jewish people than that God has abandoned His promise of national restoration
and instead given such blessing and fulfillment to the Gentiles. Paul warned
against such “arrogance” (Rom. 11:18 – NAS) and “conceit” (Rom.
11:20), yet such is precisely the claim made by replacement theology!
Paul argues that Judaism still carries with it a heritage of “adoption
as sons and the glory and the covenant and the giving of the law
and the temple services and the promises” (Rom. 9:4). Granted,
these Jewish vessels, which were once filled with the inspirational “oil” of
the Holy Spirit, are now empty. The house of Israel, which the Spirit
of Christ once inhabited, is now “desolate” (Matt. 23:38).
But Scripture contends that those empty skeletal forms and vessels
still exist in theological reality, awaiting infilling by Christ.
Then a Jewish remnant will repent out of great tribulation and be
grafted back in. Christ had come and gone when Paul wrote the above
verses in Romans. Yet in the clearest language possible he assures
both Gentiles and Jews that national redemption will come to Israel.
Quoting Isaiah 59:20 he says, “all Israel will be saved, just
as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion. He will
remove ungodliness from Jacob."
Conversion of the remnant out of a people whose bitterness against
Christ is unparalleled will, except for the miracle of His atonement,
be the greatest, most astonishing manifestation of divine love, forbearance,
and grace in human history. Yet replacement theology boasts that
God no longer has any such intention. Instead, He lavishes such grace
only on the church. This robs Christ of this great accomplishment
and the glory and honor due Him.
Offending Evangelicals
Many advocates of replacement theology insist that such doctrine
is necessary to strip Zionists of their extremely dangerous and corrupting
power over evangelicals and Christian-oriented nations. Actually,
evangelicals can be more effectively separated from Zionism by proving,
upon authority of the Holy Scriptures, that Jews who revile Christ
are not His chosen people and that Zionism, seizing Palestine in
unbelief, cannot be doing so under divine approval.
Replacement theology, because it assaults the idea of God’s
continuing destiny for Israel (a Biblical idea very dear to evangelicals),
actually offends many more evangelicals than it converts. Such evangelicals
(75,000,000 of them) could become a very powerful voice of restraint
against Jewish supremacism – if they were activated with Biblical
truth and perspective, as well as the whole truth about Judaism.
Those advocating replacement theology usually possess a wealth of
new truth and perspectives on the dangers of Talmudic Judaism. Yet
by throwing out the Biblical teaching of God’s continuing destiny
for Israel, such anti-Zionists effectually destroy the only bridge
they might have to carry new truth to the evangelicals. Result: The
already vast chasm between evangelicals and truth about the Jews
only becomes wider.
In contrast to replacement theology, the National Prayer Network
(www.truthtellers.org) strives to build a bridge of new Biblical
truth to evangelicals. The timbers of this bridge are massive, firmly
established upon the ageless foundational ethics of Scripture – ethics
which proceed from the love, holiness, and justice of God.
Evangelicalism during the 20th century has been led by the Zionists
onto a sleazy substratum of Pharisaic ethics – a belief that
obedience and faith in Christ no longer define a true Jew and that
God no longer requires obedience from the Jewish people before they
can inhabit His holy land. The bridge provided by the National Prayer
Network extends out into the Zionist-created evangelical quicksand,
providing a means by which many can find their way back to Biblical
terra firma.
Return to Biblical Reality
Biblical reality. It’s under such assault from so many quarters
in Christendom today! Liberal Christianity wants to take its scissors
and cut out the many Biblical warnings against homosexuality. Theistic
evolutionists want to negate God’s description of Himself as
fiat Creator of all things. Replacement theology wants to remove
the Bible’s insistence on God’s right to have national
righteousness from the Jews. Zionist Christians want to vaporize
God’s demand that Jews be obedient in order to be His people
and reenter His holy land as a nation.
Underneath such error and even heresy, the Bible, like bedrock,
remains solid and unmoveable. Finding the Biblically balanced middle
way is the great requirement and challenge facing the church. Yet
because of our own self-will and fear of man (as well as saturation-level
Zionist propaganda), it’s incredibly difficult to attain. It’s
time, as never before, to humble ourselves before God and the Bible,
listen to what it really teaches, and do what it says.
Other works by Rev. Ted Pike on this subject:
Watch
Ted Pike's videos: "The Other Israel" and "Zionism and
Christianity: Unholy Alliance" at video.google.com.
Also, read Ted Pike's 345-page overview of Israel, past, present,
and future, Israel: Our Duty, Our Dilemma. This unprecedented book,
ordered by 18,000 pastors in America, is available for $24.90 post
paid at www.truthtellers.org or at the address below.
Rev. Ted Pike is director of the National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative
watch dog organization.
Let the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith teach you how they
have saddled 45 states with hate laws capable of persecuting Christians: http://www.adl.org/99hatecrime/intro.asp.
Learn how ADL took away free speech in Canada and wants to steal
it now in the U.S. Congress. Watch Rev. Ted Pike's Hate
Laws: Making Criminals of Christians at video.google.com. Purchase
this gripping documentary to show at church. Order online at www.truthtellers.org for
$24.90, DVD or VHS, by calling 503-853-3688, or at the address below.
TALK SHOW HOSTS: Interview Rev. Ted Pike on this
topic. Call (503) 631-3808.
National Prayer Network, P.O. Box 828, Clackamas,
OR 97015
