Replacement Theology Replacement Theology is the teaching that God, who cannot lie, NUMBERS 23:19; HEBREWS 6:18, and who never changes, MALACHI 3:6; JAMES 1:17, has canceled the everlasting covenants that He made with Abraham, GENESIS 12:1 3, Isaac, GENESIS 17:18 21, Jacob, GENESIS 28:10 14, and their descendants forever, GENESIS 17:7 8, and has transferred those to the Church. Replacement Theology (cont d) Replacement Theology is particularly detestable to the Jews because it is the theology that many government and religious leaders have used for over 1700 years to excuse their attempts to exterminate the Jewish vermin from the earth. It says that God who hates divorce, MALACHI 2:16, has divorced His bride, ISAIAH 62:1 5, and has married another, HOSEA 2:19 20. Romans 11:11 In that case, I say, isn't it that they have stumbled with the result that they have permanently fallen away? Heaven forbid! Quite the contrary, it is by means of their stumbling that the deliverance has come to the Gentiles, in order to provoke them to jealousy. 1
Mark 12:1-6 Yeshua began speaking to them in parables. "A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the wine press and built a tower; then he rented it to tenant farmers and left. When harvest time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the crop from the vineyard. But they took him, beat him up and sent him away emptyhanded. So he sent another servant; this one they punched in the head and insulted. He sent another one, and him they killed; and so with many others some they beat up, others they killed. He had still one person left, a son whom he loved; in the end, he sent him to them, saying, 'My son they will respect.' Mark 12:7-12 But the tenants said to each other, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!' So they seized him, killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come, destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others! Haven't you read the passage in the Tanakh that says, 'The very rock which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone! This has come from ADONAI, and in our eyes it is amazing?'" They set about to arrest him, for they recognized that he had told the parable with reference to themselves. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away. Five Keys to Face Value Hermeneutics 1. Accept the meaning of Scripture in the most normal, natural customary sense. 2. Take Scripture in context. 3. Compare Scripture with Scripture. 4. Before truth is realized, all seeming scriptural contradictions must be harmonized. 5. Watch for near/far prophetic applications of Scripture. 2
Accept the Literal Meaning of Scripture Vineyard Mentioned 62X in the Bible = 40X O/T and 22X N/T O/T 40X = 31X literal + 9X figurative N/T 22X = 9X literal + 13X figurative Therefore 40X literally a grape / wine vineyard Take Scripture in Context Mark 11:27-30 They went back into Yerushalayim; and as he was walking in the Temple courts, there came to him the head cohanim, the Torah teachers and the elders; and they said to him, "What s'mikhah do you have that authorizes you to do these things? Who gave you this s'mikhah authorizing you to do them?" Yeshua said to them, "I will ask you just one question: answer me, and I will tell you by what s'mikhah I do these things. The immersion of Yochanan was it from Heaven or from a human source? Answer me." Take Scripture in Context Mark 11:31-33 They discussed it among themselves: "If we say, 'From Heaven,' he will say, 'Then why didn't you believe him?' But if we say, 'From a human source, '" they were afraid of the people, for they all regarded Yochanan as a genuine prophet. So they answered Yeshua, "We don't know." "Then," he replied, "I won't tell you by what s'mikhah I do these things." 3
Mark 12:1-2 Yeshua began speaking to them in parables. "A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the wine press and built a tower; then he rented it to tenant farmers and left. When harvest time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the crop from the vineyard." Compare Scripture with Scripture Mark 12:1; Isaiah 5:1 Yeshua began speaking to them in parables. "A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the wine press and built a tower; then he rented it to tenant farmers and left." I want to sing a song for someone I love, a song about my loved one and his vineyard. My loved one had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. Who Then is the Vineyard? Isaiah 5:7 Now the vineyard of ADONAI Tzva'ot is the house of Isra'el, and the men of Y'hudah are the plant he delighted in. So he expected justice, but look bloodshed! and righteousness, but listen cries of distress! 4
Before truth is realized, all seeming contradictions must be harmonized Characters of The Parable Replacement Theology Owner of the Vineyard Owner s Servants Owner s Son Vineyard Wicked Tenants New Tenants God Prophets Yeshua Kingdom of Heaven Jews Christians Isaiah 27:1-2, 6 On that day ADONAI, with his great, strong, relentless sword, will punish Livyatan the fleeing serpent, the twisting serpent Livyatan; he will slay the sea monster. On that day, a pleasant vineyard sing about it! The time is coming when Ya'akov will take root; Isra'el will bud and flower, and fill the whole world with a harvest. Characters of The Parable Owner of the Vineyard Owner s Servants Owner s Son Vineyard Wicked Tenants New Tenants Replacement Theology God Prophets Yeshua Kingdom of Heaven Jews Christians Contextual Interpretation God Prophets Yeshua Israel Present Religious Authority New Religious Authority 5
But God Deuteronomy 31:8 But ADONAI it is he who will go ahead of you. He will be with you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you, so don't be afraid or downhearted. Prophetic Scriptures Mark 11:27-28 They went back into Yerushalayim; and as he was walking in the Temple courts, there came to him the head cohanim, the Torah teachers and the elders; and they said to him, "What s'mikhah do you have that authorizes you to do these things? Who gave you this s'mikhah authorizing you to do them?" Jeremiah 23:1-4 "Oh no! The shepherds are destroying and scattering the sheep in my pasture!" says ADONAI. Therefore this is what ADONAI, the God of Isra'el, says against the shepherds who shepherd my people: "You have scattered my flock, driven them away and not taken care of them. So I will 'take care of' you because of your evil deeds," says ADONAI. "I myself will gather what remains of my flock from all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their homes, and they will be fruitful and increase their numbers. I will appoint shepherds over them who will shepherd them; then they will no longer be afraid or disgraced; and none will be missing," says ADONAI. 6
Jeremiah 23:5-8 "The days are coming," says ADONAI, "when I will raise a righteous Branch for David. He will reign as king and succeed, he will do what is just and right in the land. In his days Y'hudah will be saved, Isra'el will live in safety, and the name given to him will be ADONAI Tzidkenu [ADONAI our righteousness]. Therefore," says ADONAI, "the day will come when people no longer swear, 'As ADONAI lives, who brought the people of Isra'el out of the land of Egypt,' but, 'As ADONAI lives, who brought the descendants of the house of Isra'el up from the land to the north,' and from all the countries where I drove them. Then they will live in their own land." Matthew 19:28-29 Yeshua said to them, "Yes. I tell you that in the regenerated world, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Isra'el." Everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times more, and he will obtain eternal life. Matthew 28:18 Yeshua came and talked with them. He said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." 7
Quote I think we do not attach enough importance to the restoration of the Jews. But certainly if there is anything promised in the Bible it is this. The day shall yet come when the Jews, who were the first apostles to the Gentiles, the first missionaries to us who were afar off, shall be gathered in again. Until that shall be, the fullness of the church s glory can never come. Matchless benefits to the world are bound up with the restoration of Israel; their gathering shall be as life from the dead. Charles Spurgeon The C.H. Spurgeon Collection, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit I, no.28, 1855 8