Refuting Replacement Theology

By Loren Mayer

In a discussion, I was asked for some Bible verses that show that God is not done with Israel. The person asking had a discussion with someone who used scripture to make a case that God was done with Israel, and that today Israel has no special place among the nations. This position is normally associated with a belief that God has replaced Israel with the church and the promises given to Israel have been transferred to the church. This is called Replacement Theology.

It is also typically associated with Amillennialism, which teaches there is no literal 1000 year-long Kingdom. One of the Bible passages defining God’s unbreakable relationship with Israel starts with Jeremiah 31:35.

Jeremiah 31:35 Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the LORD of hosts is his name: 36 “If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the LORD, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.” 37 Thus says the LORD:
“If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the LORD.” ¹

In summary, as long as the sun, moon, and stars rise and set following their orbits through the earth’s skies, God will have Israel as His chosen people. These powerful statements reveal that God’s relationship with Israel is
independent of Israel’s actions. Israel can do nothing to change the orbit of the earth around the sun, the orbit of the moon around the earth, or the formation and propagation of waves in the sea. Does God change his mind?

Malachi 3:6 “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.²

Israel broke her covenants with God. God has every right to reject or destroy Israel. If God were a man, he would be done with Israel and move on. But God says,

Isaiah 55:9 (ESV) For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so
are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
God does not change, whatever Israel does! What does God see for Israel?

Eze 37:11-14 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14 And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.”

We see this prophecy being fulfilled today. There is still much to fulfill, Israel is a work in progress. The Jewish people arose out of the ashes of the Holocaust. Not in history has a sovereign nation been conquered, destroyed,
dispersed throughout the world and nearly wiped out (European Jews) and then come back and become a sovereign nation again, except for Israel.

Today, 77 years later, Israel is considered the 10th most powerful nation in the world. In 1948 she had fewer than 500,000 men, women and children when 30,000,000 Arabs in 5 countries surrounding her promised to utterly destroy her and drive her in to the sea. Israel won that war in 1948 with God’s strong hand, and 2 more (1967 and 1973) wars with similar odds. There are many, many documented miracles which could only come from the hand of God giving Israel those victories.

Why would God fight for a nation he has abandoned, especially when there were essentially zero among those people who believed Jesus was their Messiah and a large percentage were atheists? I have heard that about 5000 Jews in the entire world were Christians in the late 20th century. Today there are hundreds of thousands. There have been more than 1,000,000 hits on the Messianic Jewish website, How I Met Messiah, that details who many, many became believers. God hasn’t changed, and his plan to restore Israel hasn’t changed.

Eze 37:23 describes the work God will do in Israel.

They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their
transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse
them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. ³

Are they doing this as individuals, or as a nation in a specific location, following God? Continuing with

Eze 37:24-28 “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. 25 They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. 27 My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their
midst forevermore.”

Vs 28 is extremely important. It is because of what God does for Israel in the land He gave them through their forefathers that the nations will know that “I am the Lord.” God is in the process of doing that now. He normally
works through human agency and these events take time to develop. Verse 28 tells us that God places His sanctuary in Israel’s midst for how long? Forevermore! It doesn’t sound to me like God is done with Israel.

Eze 36:16-38 gives a history of Israel’s sins and the punishment she received. I will give a very brief summary and comment, but a thorough reading is certainly worthwhile. Israel was dispersed throughout the nations. The nations blasphemed God because of the dispersion of the Jews. They likely believed that the God of the Jews wasn’t strong enough to save them. That belief about God exists today. Most of the world of Islam believes Allah is greater than Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and that they will destroy Israel.

Eze goes on to say that God had concern for His holy name, and that it was not for the sake of the Israelites but to vindicate His great name that He
will take them from the nations and bring them into their own land. Then God says that He will cleanse them, remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh, put His Spirit within them and prosper them. Then the
nations that are left all around them will know that “I am the Lord; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.” Israel still has their heart of
stone. God is still working on that. Those who say God has abandoned Israel or replaced Israel with the church because of Israel’s sins are doing so based on human, not divine, reasoning. God is concerned about his name and
wants all His creation to acknowledge that He is its creator. God is omnipotent, and He is going to work on the Jews until their free will chooses to submit to His divine will and God vindicates His name.

If God is really done (had it) with something, He makes it very clear – look at what He did in Noah’s flood. Nothing is left of the prediluvian world except evidence of a worldwide catastrophe and the biblical account. It can take years, decades, centuries, even millennia to reform cultures, human hearts, bend wills and desires but God knows how to do it and has all the time He needs.

Zechariah 12:10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants ofJerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps
over a firstborn.”⁴

Zech 13:8-9 “In the whole land, declares the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. 9 And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’” ⁵

This refining takes place during the Great Tribulation. All living Israel sees Jesus’ return, repents, and is converted. When Saul (Paul) saw Jesus on the road to Damascus he later described the experience as ‘one born out of due
season’. He experienced what all of Israel still alive will experience at the second coming. But 2/3 of Israel will have died due to the persecutions by the antichrist. The living are changed. Really changed!

No, God is not done with Israel!!

1 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Je 31:35–37). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

2 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Mal 3:6). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

3 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Eze 37:23). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

4 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Zec 12:10). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

5 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Zec 13:8–9). (2016). Crossway Bibles.