Transcription
Hi everybody, I'm Ron Caner with Tiferet Yeshua Congregation right here in Tel Aviv.
I want to ask the question: Has God rejected the Jewish people? Stick around to the end; I want to send you a free ebook.
There are several theologies that have been developed over the years that actually absolve God of His need to honor His Covenant promises to Israel. Fortunately, God is not bound by bad theology.
The most ancient of these is replacement theology, the idea that the Church is the new Israel and all of God's promises to Israel in the Hebrew Scriptures are now to the Church. Of course, the curses remain with the Jewish people for rejecting Yeshua.
A new, shinier version is called fulfillment theology. In fulfillment theology, the Church doesn't replace Israel; instead, it teaches that all of the promises to Israel in the Old Covenant were already fulfilled in the life of Yeshua. That means, according to one of their top theologians, the promises of the land of Israel no longer refer to God honoring His Covenant with ethnic Israel, but rather the Church possessing the nations. The holy land is now the whole world and no longer the privilege of an ethnic few.
It's an interesting theory, but simply not supported by the Scriptures in any way. While replacement theology and fulfillment theology may differ in some ways, they both have the same misguided root: confusion regarding God's plan for Israel.
The fact that most of the leading voices today for fulfillment theology are also harsh critics of the modern state of Israel should clue us in to the fact that this theology is more embedded in an anti-Israel bias than exegesis—that's a $3 word for Bible study. Some among them call Israel an apartheid state that is guilty of genocide, and their theologies conveniently coincide with their disdain for Israel.
One of their leading voices recently wrote that those who help Israel in any way could soon find themselves standing on trial at a war crimes tribunal. That same one was a friend to the father of modern terrorism, Yasser Arafat, and he lectures against Israel in places like Iran. He once even called Messianic Jews in Israel an abomination.
The justification for this theology goes something like this: If we're going to oppose Israel, then we're going to need a theology that permits it. After all, what do we do with all of those dang promises to the Jewish people? We know that God cannot possibly be with them, so clearly there must be a different meaning to all those verses.
Now, of course, they would never express it like this, but I am convinced that the root of fulfillment theology is an anti-Israel agenda. Replacement theology, while much older, is rooted less in an anti-Israel sentiment but more in anti-Semitism.
You see, in the 2nd century, Judaism was a very aggressive evangelical religion, actively seeking converts. After the Jewish apostles began to preach to the Gentiles, the Christian Church grew rapidly while still honoring her Jewish roots—well, at least in the beginning—without the requirements of circumcision and Torah keeping.
Of course, with the promise of an intimate relationship with God through Yeshua, the Church was far more successful at making converts than the synagogue. Tensions grew between the two groups. Many of the Church fathers had trouble reconciling the promises of reconciliation and blessing to Israel while feeling that Judaism was their enemy.
Until some of them conveniently had a revelation—a revelation that the Church had replaced Israel as God's chosen people. All those promises to Israel are now to the Church, and this new way of seeing the Scriptures fit with their hostility towards the synagogue but completely ignored Paul's warning not to judge the Jewish people for rejecting the Messiah.
Some of the first Church fathers to embrace a theology that one day Adolf Hitler would use to justify the genocide of 6 million Jews were Justin Martyr, who said to a Jew, "The Scriptures are ours, not yours"; Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon, who boldly stated, "Jews are disinherited from the grace of God"; and Tertullian, in his essay brazenly entitled "Against the Jews," announced that God had rejected the Jews in favor of the Christians.
The greatest theologian of the Church fathers, Augustine, said Jews deserve death but were destined to wander the Earth to witness the victory of the Church over the synagogue. John Chrysostom, considered one of the greatest preachers of the 4th century, proclaimed, "It is the duty of all Christians to hate the Jews."
So we must ask ourselves: Has the Church replaced Israel? Has God really rejected the Jews? Paul says, "By no means," and the Hebrew Scriptures back him up.
To Abraham, God said, "I will establish my Covenant as an everlasting Covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give to you as an everlasting possession. To you and your descendants after you, I will be their God."
He confirmed this to Isaac: "For to you and your descendants, I will give you all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring, all the nations of the earth will be blessed."
And to Jacob, He said, "I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are now lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth; all peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I will bring you back to this land."
Hundreds of years later, through Ezekiel, God said, "For I will take you, the Jewish people, out of the nations. I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land."
Friends, that's happened. And through Jeremiah, God said, "Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done," declares the Lord.
So we can choose to believe angry preachers who invented doctrines to disinherit the Jewish people, or we can agree with the word of God that clearly says Gentiles don't replace Israel but become co-heirs with Israel, sharing in the promise of Yeshua the Messiah.
I hope this video has been a blessing to you. To get my free ebook, "The 15 Most Important Facts About the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," just go to ronan.net/15f-facts and make sure the "F" is capitalized.
This video has been brought to you by Tiferet Yeshua Congregation right here in Tel Aviv. For more information, please visit Reach Tel Aviv, and consider becoming a monthly partner with us.
And make sure you subscribe to our new YouTube channel. Thanks so much for watching. Shalom from Tel Aviv!