Conversing on Controversy: Replacement Theology

NOTE: This is the fourth article in my weekly series. To see the others, click the conversing on controversy tag. This would have originally been published on Thursday, but I did a Tebow special.

So...this week we're discussing RC Sproul Jr.'s explanation of replacement theology. Although he doesn't use the term, he admits that people could describe him that way.

What is Replacement Theology?

RC Sproul: The Reformed perspective takes a different tack. It affirms that that Israel which is actually Israel, just as with the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3, applies to those who are in Christ, who trust in His finished work. Though we deny the moniker, this is what our dispensational friends call “replacement theology.” The Reformed, however, see this is as the outworking of the truth of Galatians 3:7- “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.” We who are Reformed do not believe God replaced Israel with the church. We believe instead that there has always been only one people of God, those who believe.
Israel is the sons of Abraham. Those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham. Those who are of faith are therefore Israel. And in turn, those who bless those who are of faith will be blessed, and those who curse those who are of faith will be cursed. It is how we treat the church that matters. What of ethnic Israel? What of that country in the Middle East? Many in the Reformed camp hold out hope that there will be one day a mass conversion of those who are not today the sons of Abraham, that virtually all of Israel will once again become Israel. That said, many of these likewise hold out hope that there will be a mass conversion of Arabs, and Persians, of every tongue and every tribe. All of the promises of God belong to the children of Abraham, those who are of faith, including the promise that through Abraham, all the world will be blessed.

So clearly RC believes that the verses about blessing those who bless Israel apply to believers only.

It must be true, because this is what God says, isn’t it? Well, actually God says this, “I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you; 
 And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).
When God makes a promise we can know that it is certain, and that He will not change. The problem is, however, when we hear Him saying what He did not say. This text does say not that God will bless those who bless Israel, but rather those who bless Abraham, to whom God is speaking. Later, however, in Numbers 24, it gets a little more clear. There Balaam, clearly speaking about the nation of Israel says, “Blessed is he who blesses you, 
 And cursed is he who curses you.”
That should settle the matter, should it not? The difficulty is still, however, answering about whom this promise is made. Does not Paul himself say, “But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel” (Romans 9:6). Here it is all too easy to get confused. What could it mean that not all Israel is of Israel?

So we come to the interpretation of the verses. First, I think that if we go back to the Abrahamic covenant, we see that God made a binding promise on himself. We see clearly that when God made the covenant, it was to Abraham's descendants forever regardless of what Abraham's descendants did. If you read it, it's clear that God was promising to bless them forever. Now, that doesn't mean that God wasn't going to punish Israel. He sends the plague of snakes on them just a few chapters before Israel encounters Balaam. God's promise stands no matter what. I see no reason why God would break a binding, lasting-forever, covenant when the Messiah returns. If anything, we read that God continues to watch over Israel.

The Abrahamic covenant is the basis of all the other theocratic covenants and provides for blessings in three areas:

1. NATIONAL - "I will cause you to become the father of a great nation"
2. PERSONAL - "I will bless you and make you famous, and I will make you a blessing to others"
3. UNIVERSAL -"all the families of the earth will be blessed through you!"

So how does RC and others explain the prophecies about Israel returning to the land. According to people like them, replacement theology states that these promises were 1) fulfilled when Israel returned in the BC era, or 2) transferred to the sons of Abraham (who are only the sons of faith).

So we come to the Galations verse as the crux of the whole matter. However, Sproul uses a KJV translation which uses the word ONLY. This is the key word. The ESV, which many people believe is a better translation says: "Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham."

When looking at the passage in context, Paul is talking about the idea that you have to be circumcised and follow the law to be saved. Basically, you have to be a son of Abraham to be saved. But he responds by saying that anyone who believes in faith come under the Abrahamic covenant. Is he saying that the Jews who are under the national blessing somehow lose their share of the covenant by rejecting God? Did God say that when Israel rejected him earlier?

If we look back at the Old Testament, we see that God says countless times: Israel has rejected me, but I have not rejected Israel. I will restore them and bring them to salvation and to the land. This is why I see no reason why the Abrahamic covenant has shifted to Christians. Instead, it has expanded. The Jews are under God's judgment for rejecting him, but also under a long-term blessing. They are still under God's promises to restore Israel and bring a remnant to salvation.

Read Revelation: It clearly states that God will bring a remnant out of each tribe of Israel. When reading the Bible in context, I think Sproul's interpretation doesn't quite hold up even though I respect his opinion immensely.

Dr. David R. Reagan, founder of Lion and the Lamb Ministries writes:

There is no doubt that God poured out His wrath on the Jewish people in the First Century in response to their rejection of His Son, Jesus, as their Messiah. And there is no doubt they have remained under the discipline of God to this day. But that does not mean they have been rejected by God. God loves the Jewish people, even in their rebellion. In the everlasting Abrahamic Covenant, God told Abraham that He would bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse them (Genesis 12:3). In like manner, He told the prophet Zechariah that he who touches Israel, “touches the apple of His eye” (Zechariah 2:8). Isaiah proclaimed that God could never forget Israel because He has them “inscribed on the palms of His hands” (Isaiah 49:14-16). Jeremiah stated that the Jewish people would exist as a nation forever (Jeremiah 31:36). And prophet after prophet asserted that in the end times, a great remnant of the Jews will be saved when they accept Jesus as their Messiah (Isaiah 10:20-22; Jeremiah 31:1-7, 31-34; Ezekiel 6:8-10; Daniel 12:1; Hosea 2:14-20; Joel 2:31-32; Micah 7:18-20; Zephaniah 3:12-13; and Zechariah 12:10).
“But,” say the Replacement Theologians, “all these promises were annulled by the Jews’ rejection of Jesus as their Messiah.” This assertion explains why chapters 9 through 11 of Romans have been the most ignored and despised chapters of the New Testament throughout Church history. Often, these chapters are simply dismissed as an “irrelevant parenthesis” in the book of Romans. But the truth is that they are anything but that. In these chapters Paul uses the Jewish people as the quintessential example of God’s grace. Despite their history of rebellion against God’s will, and their continuing rebellion, Paul teaches that God still loves them, still has a purpose for them, and is still determined to bring a great remnant of them to salvation in Jesus.

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