The amount of twaddle talked around Replacement Theology and Covenant Theology is hard to believe. Quite a lot is Straw Man arguments, meaning you make up something your opponent is supposed to have said and then knock it down. And there are bizarre statements like “Replacement Theology places all the blessings of Israel on the Church and all the curses are given to the ‘Old Israel’.” Is that just another Straw Man argument, or is there a Coven of Witches somewhere making up rubbish to discredit Christianity?
What others say will not be addressed here, since most of it is not worth addressing. Better just to keep to some simple truths. God has always sought to bless Man that He created, and has never swerved from that intention. The fact that at times He has seen fit to pour out some heavy punishment, the greatest example being Noah’s Flood, in no way alters that. Through the Flood He saved Noah and his family for a fresh start. This is how God works. Men may fail, but God always has another strategy to give us another chance. One such strategy was His choice of the Jews to receive His blessings, to be an example to other men, and ultimately to be a channel of Salvation for all men. This strategy was fulfilled in a Jew called Jesus, and proclaimed clearly to the World by another Jew called Saul/Paul. This strategy involved an awesome Salvation for all Men. The letter to Hebrews asks “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a Salvation?” Notice that this is in the letter to the Hebrews. The Gospel was first for the Jew. Only later was it preached also to Gentiles. But the order is less important than the fact that this Salvation is indeed for all men.
At the present time many Jews are deeply opposed to Christianity. This is a temporary situation, as the Bible makes it clear that at some point the Great Salvation in Christ will not merely be available to Jews as now, but will be embraced by many or all of them. In the meantime, Christians are the ones shouldering the vital work of propagating the Gospel. Given the history, it seems probable that it was God’s original plan for the Jews first and foremost to be doing this. Clearly they are not, and in this sense, at the present time, they have been replaced by Christians. They are potential recipients of the Gospel rather than those preaching it. But as already pointed out, God’s intentions, His love for all He created, do not change. He already has a plan. For Christians all that is required is to demonstrate that love and intention through knowing truth, and passing that truth on to all in the most loving and peaceful way possible.
Synagogue of Satan
Perhaps the main difficulty in all of this is the two warnings in Revelation about those who call themselves Jews, but are not, and are a Synagogue of Satan. These verses receive very little attention, even though many Christians have a strong sense that we are in the End Times, and Revelation is the book that focuses most strongly on that period. The fact that these warnings appear twice, using almost identical language, must be significant. Who is referred to here? Why is this question not a primary source of debate?
There may be a link here to “Replacement Theology”. There is a great push to establish it as something real, and then to demonise it; something which anyone will notice if they Google the term. As of today, even with some fairly determined searching, it was only possible to find a couple of sites that stood against the Replacement Theology Hysteria (RTH). See them here and here. Otherwise, websites seemed to be queueing up to condemn Replacement Theology. Is the debate being massaged in a particular direction? Could the reason be that RTH provides a far more fertile soil for Christian Zionism than certain other questions?
It is in order to repeat our usual advice that serious, unguided, personal reading of the Bible is essential. Unguided, because whoever guides you will have an agenda; it may be a good agenda, or it may be an evil one. The point is, you won’t know unless you steep yourself in Scripture, so that you can use it as the test for every other doctrine and spirit. There are plenty of deceivers coming from every quarter; atheists, judaizers, pagans, Calvinists, and Infant Baptizers; people who prioritise the Old Testament, people who espouse the Talmud, people whose outlook is Koranic. Don’t listen to the Twaddle, or the debate between one twaddler and another. Get soaked in the Scripture.