Replacement Theology Part One

Replacement Theology The correct name should be Replacement Eschatology, which essentially means replacing Israel with the Church. Once the Jewish apostles passed away, and with the Pauline evangelisation of the Gentiles leading to Gentiles forming the bulk of the Christian population, Jews became hardened to the message of the Gospel. The leadership of the church passed into the hands of converted pagans who became the early church fathers. These Gentile Christian leaders had little knowledge of Old Testament Scriptures and of the place that Israel held in covenant relationship with God. These church fathers adopted the belief that God had annulled His covenant with Israel for the Jewish rejection of Christ (leading to the Cross); with the Christian majority being Gentiles, they soon hardened this belief into the concrete doctrine of Replacement Theology. Influential writers like Augustine publicised the teaching that the Church had taken over the place once occupied by Israel, usurping the blessings Israel once enjoyed and leaving the curses to Israel for their crucifixion of Christ. Israel had forfeited her blessings, her privileges and her destiny: God had rejected Israel forever, and in her place rose the Church formed mostly of Gentile believers. This is how Replacement Theology developed. The story did not stop there. The Roman Catholic church was in power since the days of Constantine in the 4th century for the next thousand plus years until Luther and the Reformers came on to the scene. The Reformers had to war with the Roman Catholics in spreading the doctrine of "Justification by Faith", the core doctrine of the Reformation. The Roman Catholics countered with the Counter-Reformation, and the battle raged on with tongs and hammers, swords and pens. So taken up were the Reformation leadership in this warfare that they had no time to develop other areas of doctrines; they majored in Soteriology or the doctrine of Salvation. So it was that the Reformers just carried down with them into their Reformation doctrines the Replacement Theology that they had imbibed all their lives. The baggage of Replacement Theology was carried into the mainstream beliefs of the Reformation churches. This is why the mainline churches like the Lutherans, the Presbyterians, the other Reformed churches, are all subscribers to Replacement Theology. The Anglicans also hold the same belief that Israel is no more. It took John Nelson Darby in the 1830s to reverse belief in Replacement Theology through the development of Dispensational Eschatology. Darby and other Dispensationalist teachers such as C.I. Schofield taught that Israel and the Church are distinct entities and had separate destinies in the plan of God. Though the Jews had rejected their Messiah and had Christ crucified, God was still in covenantal relationship with Israel: this is the heart of Paul's teaching in Romans chapters 9-11. Paul as the Apostle to the Gentiles maintained that God had NOT forsaken or rejected Israel. Gentiles as the engrafted branches to the "Olive tree" have monopolised membership of the Church, but the original olive branches of Israel are still alive and will be grafted back in the future. God had not rejected Israel for good. The Replacement Theology is essentially eschatological, but it has tremendous implications for the doctrine of Salvation (Soteriology). This is an area I shall deal with at lengthen in another blog.