On "Replacement Theology"

Or: How to mischaracterize someone else's theological position.

My previous post about Ted Cruz’s interview with Tucker Carlson got some attention outside of my usual readership, and that led to a little bit of pushback from people who were not at all impressed with my point of view. I figured it would be good to respond to one comment that was made, because I’ve heard the same kind of comment in similar discussions I’ve been involved in.

My position on the current significance of Israel and the Church is referred to in Dispensationalist circles as “Replacement Theology,” or “Supersessionism.” Basically what these characterizations of this theological understanding assert is that those who reject Dispensationalism believe that the Church has “replaced” or “superseded” Israel. “Replacement theology” has become a pejorative term, and is used to dismiss the position that denies the continued significance of the nation-state of Israel in God’s plan in history.

Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash

The problem (and it’s a big one) is that this characterization of a position that was almost universally accepted in the Church prior to the appearance of Dispensationalism in the Nineteenth Century is entirely inaccurate. When we say that the Church is the Israel of God, we are not saying that the Church replaced Israel in God’s plan, we’re saying that the Church is Israel. The Church is not God’s “Plan B.” It is the continuation of his one unified plan of redemption. Under the Old Covenant, Israel was the Church. Under the New Covenant, the Church is Israel. The Church did not appear for the first time at Pentecost, and neither did it supersede Israel; this is clear from what Paul says in Romans 11:17-18:

“But if some of the branches were broken off, and you [Gentiles], although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree [Israel], do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.”

Clearly we see nothing here about “replacement”; rather, what we see is “grafting in.” Under the Old Covenant, there was one people of God. That people of God was largely, though not exclusively, made up of the physical descendants of Abraham, the Jews, along with those from outside who were “grafted In” themselves - people like Rahab and Ruth, who importantly make appearances in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus.

Under the New Covenant, there remains one people of God. The dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile was broken down, and Christ Jesus created in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, reconciling us both [Jew and Gentile] to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility (Ephesians 2:14-16).

In the Old Testament, Israel is repeatedly referred to as “God’s son.” Now, the apostle Paul says in Galatians 3:26, speaking to Jews and Gentiles, “in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:26-29).

The seed of Abraham, Paul says, is Christ (Galatians 3:16). If we believe in Christ, we are united to him. This means a lot of things (check out Romans 6 for more great stuff!), but among those things it means that we are also the seed of Abraham. The distinction between Jew and Gentile is now meaningless. The old world, in which that distinction divided all of humanity, is gone. The Church, those who belong to Christ, those who are united to him by faith, is the Israel of God.

This means that the history of the Old Testament is our history. It means that the Old Testament people of God are our spiritual forefathers. It means that God’s message for our spiritual forefathers who lived under the Old Covenant is a message meant for us. This is why the apostle Paul can say in 1 Corinthians 10:1-4,

“For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”

God’s people are not divided in two, neither in history nor in the present day. From the beginning of the world to its end, the Son of God continues to gather for himself a people—one people—“one body and one Spirit…, one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).