Latest / The Immutable Word / EP053 Another Replacement Theologian - Part 2

Transcript

EP053 Another Replacement Theologian - Part 2 · The Immutable Word

0:00
Those commandments given to Moses was so that Israel would be successful and
0:04
fruitful in the land of Canaan.
0:06
The Abrahamic covenant had nothing to do with that. There was no conditions laid on it.
0:11
What most replacement theologians teach is that because the Jews violated the
0:17
Mosaic covenant and broke it, that they automatically abrogated,
0:23
God automatically abrogated both the Abrahamic and the Mosaic covenant.
0:27
The problem is, is they don't understand the nature of the Abrahamic covenant,
0:30
that it's unconditional.
0:31
And of course, the problem is, is whenever you look at the shift to the church
0:36
and the Gentiles, there's so much language that talks about it being temporary.
0:41
That's why when we talked about the mystery, the mystery is that Israel is temporarily
0:46
blinded, blindness in part.
0:50
Welcome back to The Immutable Word. This is Alan and Robert.
0:52
We're back for another episode.
0:54
We are continuing the conversation that we had in our previous episode,
0:58
where we talked about another replacement theologian, which was the name of our episode number 52.
1:04
We only covered the first three of the six arguments, so we're back for another round.
1:10
We're going to be covering the remainder of the arguments, the last three.
1:14
But before we do, I'd like to just do a very, very quick recap on how this was
1:20
inspired in the first place.
1:22
So, following a recent Mysteries episode, that was episode 49 a couple episodes
1:26
ago, a listener commented that
1:28
we should correct our theological stance regarding Israel and the Church.
1:33
He rejected the distinction between the two. And as many Calvinists do,
1:38
Catholics as well, and other supersessionists conflate the Church and Israel.
1:42
So, we had covered the first three, which are main arguments of replacement theology.
1:50
Viewing the church as the new Israel, claiming Israel loses its covenants due
1:56
to unbelief, and interpreting literal land and promises as spiritualized.
2:01
The first one, the church as a new Israel, the first argument,
2:04
the claim that the church permanently replaced ethnic Israel as a primary recipient
2:09
of God's biblical covenants.
2:11
And then the second one that we covered, Israel forfeited the covenants,
2:15
the assertion that Israel's rejection of Christ and failure to keep the law
2:20
annulled their unconditional land promises.
2:23
And then the last, the third, spiritualized fulfillment, where replacing literal
2:28
land prophecies with spiritual interpretations, treating physical promises as
2:34
mere allegories for the church experience.
2:37
So, we did deal with this issue a little while back, episode 14, where we...
2:44
Where we had covered, should Christians support modern-day Israel?
2:48
We really didn't do a deep dive on that one about the specifics around replacement theology.
2:54
The poster in this one, he initially requested clarification on the mystery
2:59
of the blindness of Israel. That was covered in Romans 11.
3:03
And as we anticipated, the direction of this discussion resulted in a brief
3:06
exchange in the comments section.
3:08
And this is where this episode or
3:11
episodes was inspired and we
3:14
dedicate that episode in responding to those arguments so i
3:17
don't think i missed anything i think we're going to cover or go right into
3:20
the last three arguments unless you have anything to add robert no i think we're
3:25
good to go whenever you're ready
3:27
yeah i am ready i've been ready get ready start and go yeah so again And,
3:34
you know, this is based off of some comments we got from a guy that,
3:38
you know, I love dealing with these guys because they always mask themselves.
3:43
Oh, yeah. They come up, you know, as, you know, trying to be,
3:46
you know, oh, you know, your mysteries is really good and so forth.
3:51
But, however, you missed one. Yeah. This is kind of reminds me actually of a
3:55
time I was straight preaching down in San Antonio one time in front of the Alamo.
3:59
And this guy, older guy was sitting there watching us the whole time.
4:03
And he was smiling, you know, and he looked like he was having a good time.
4:07
So I'm thinking, you know, in my mind, I was thinking, oh, you know,
4:10
he's just, just, you know, a good Christian, just kind of a fellow believer.
4:14
So I walked over to him, shook his hand, offered him a track.
4:18
And he's like, no, no, thank you.
4:19
He goes, I appreciate it. He goes, you did an excellent job,
4:22
young man. And he was an older guy.
4:24
I said, oh, thank you. I said, well, are you saved? He goes,
4:26
well, the only thing is you missed one thing. And I said, I did?
4:29
He goes, yeah, you never, you never preached on baptism. That's part of the gospel.
4:34
So, he was a Church of Christ guy there. So, you know, immediately when I heard
4:38
that, I knew what I was dealing with.
4:39
And I said, oh, no, you know, actually, baptism isn't part of the gospel at
4:43
all. Where do you get that from? You know, and he started trying to go to 2 Peter.
4:46
I said, oh, 2 Peter's only a type of the baptism. And we started going back
4:48
and forth. He goes, you have a good day, son. He walked off.
4:52
But, you know, the point is, is like they come up and they're masked.
4:55
They never come off as what they really are.
4:59
To me, that's intellectually dishonest. Just tell people, look,
5:01
I'm Church of Christ. I disagree with you, and I think salvation is part of,
5:06
or baptism is part of salvation. Just come out and say it, man.
5:09
You know, just be honest.
5:10
These guys are armchair theologians. They just want to steal somebody's platform
5:13
to make themselves sound like they know that they're smart enough. It is.
5:17
It kind of reminds me of a bunch of buzzards, you know, hanging around,
5:21
piece of meat, you know, waiting for it to die or something that's on the side of the road dying.
5:24
They're just waiting until it's dead, and then they could feast off of it.
5:28
But that's how Mormons are.
5:30
That's how Muslims are. that's how calvinists are
5:33
that's how church of christ jw's because
5:36
they do not they do not make their own disciples they steal other disciples
5:42
they steal them from baptist churches most of the time you know because you
5:46
got a bunch of baptists that just don't study their bible they don't know enough
5:49
of the difference so when some guy comes around you know and pretends to be.
5:55
Intellectual or more studied than them or can answer their faith in a way that
6:01
the Baptists can't. I mean, they get sucked in, unfortunately.
6:05
Yep. That's why you got to know it. Got to study it and rightly divide.
6:09
So, that'll segue into what we're talking about today. So, we've got three more arguments.
6:15
Yep. So, as you mentioned, you know, we first, what we're doing is covering
6:19
six of the primary arguments that you're going to run across with replacement theologians.
6:26
So, when we say replacement theologian, immediately just say Calvinist.
6:31
Most of them are Calvinists. Catholics, you'll run across them.
6:35
If it's a Catholic that is, I don't want to say well-studied,
6:39
I don't want to give it like a false sense of, you know, some idea that.
6:47
I mean, because there are Catholics, I'm sorry, that do study,
6:50
but they study their religion.
6:52
And just like JW, you study their religion. But so if you come up to a well-educated
6:57
Catholic in that regard, they'll be replacement theologians as well.
7:02
So anyone that promotes the idea of a two-state system in Israel,
7:08
that the Palestinians and Israelis should have a shared state,
7:12
You know, one, they don't really understand the politics or the history of that country, right?
7:19
But when they start coming off as a Christian and arguing that there is no,
7:24
that modern-day Israel is not really biblical Israel, as soon as you hear that kind of language,
7:30
you're dealing with what we call a replacement theologian or a supersessionist.
7:35
Okay, a supersessionist, again, believes that the church replaced Israel.
7:40
So, the first argument we talked about was that the church is the new or true
7:44
Israel. So, we dealt with that, right?
7:47
And then, of course, that Israel forfeited both covenants, both the Abrahamic and the Mosaic.
7:54
But remember, we talked about it is the Mosaic covenant was conditional,
7:58
and that gave them right to access the land and to be fruitful in the land.
8:05
Okay? That's very important to understand.
8:07
That's what the Mosaic covenant allowed. The Abrahamic covenant was the God-given
8:12
right of ownership of the land.
8:15
God told Abraham, I'm going to give you everything you see from the Nile all
8:21
the way to the river Euphrates.
8:23
So that you're talking about, I mean, most, if not almost all of Saudi Arabia,
8:29
including the Middle East and Israel and Palestine, all the way down to the Nile River into Egypt.
8:37
That's the boundary that God gave them. The Jews don't have that.
8:41
What is the perspective of that? So that's a lot of land.
8:44
I mean, we're talking about... Oh, yeah. So if you think about,
8:47
I can't remember the percentage of it, but if you were to look at the land that
8:50
God promised them and what they actually own today, I would probably,
8:55
I venture to say it's probably less than two or 3% of what God promised them.
9:00
That's wild. Yeah, it's very wild. Considering that every single nation or country
9:06
that surrounds them is is arab you know every almost nearly every country in
9:12
the middle east wants to wipe off israel from the face of the map when i was
9:15
in the military station in saudi arabia in riad.
9:20
The we you know when you would go around and you'd
9:23
look at maps like you know you would go down to the the
9:26
markets and stuff and they would have these maps of
9:29
their country israel was never on the map it
9:33
was just a blank spot or it'd be covered like
9:36
in palestine palestine or something you know anyway yeah and
9:39
and so you know some people don't realize that the palestine the
9:42
name palestine was actually a degradation it was a derogatory term labeled on
9:48
that land after the destruction of the temple in 70 a.d by the romans because
9:53
the palestine palestinians or palestine is an amalgamation of the Philistines,
10:01
which was the ancient enemy of Israel.
10:03
So they named it that, and basically after they destroyed the temple,
10:08
drove Israel out, and so forth and so on.
10:10
And of course, you know, hundreds of thousands of Jews were slaughtered.
10:14
And it was like over a three-year, you know, where they were trapped inside
10:18
their city, and they burned it and starved them.
10:20
And it is just horrible. But anyway, Josephus writes about it.
10:24
Anyway, when Rome destroyed Israel and the temple, they basically renamed it Palestina.
10:32
And so— Which was, again, the name of the ancient Christians.
10:36
Against the Jews, right? Yeah.
10:38
So the problem is that the promise that Moses was given was all conditional. Go into the land.
10:45
Obey my covenants. Obey these commandments. You know, here's these laws and
10:50
ordinances I give you. Obey the Sabbath. All that stuff.
10:53
You know, keep the Sabbath. And, you know, every seventh year,
10:57
don't plow the land. Like all those promises or those commandments given to
11:02
Moses was so that Israel would be successful and fruitful in the land of Canaan.
11:08
The Abrahamic covenant had nothing to do with that.
11:11
There was no conditions laid on it. And so what most replacement theologians
11:16
teach is that because the Jews violated the Mosaic Covenant and broke it,
11:24
that they automatically abrogated, God automatically abrogated both the Abrahamic
11:30
and the Mosaic Covenant.
11:32
And so the problem is, is they don't understand the nature of the Abrahamic
11:35
Covenant, that it's unconditional.
11:38
And of course, the problem is, is whenever you look at the shift to the church
11:43
and the Gentiles, there's so much language that talks about it being temporary.
11:48
That's why when we talked about the mystery, the mystery is that Israel is temporarily
11:55
blinded, blindness in part.
11:58
And so, it's not a permanent condition, and there's a time limit,
12:04
because he said, until the time of the Gentiles comes in.
12:09
So, you can't have that kind of language and just completely ignore it,
12:12
but that's what a lot of replacement theologians do.
12:15
And then we talked about the covenants, you know, again, the covenants being
12:18
fulfilled spiritually, so all that promise of the land that God was going to
12:23
give them, when you ask a replacement theologian about that,
12:26
they have to spiritualize it.
12:27
Or they shoot forward into the millennium They go,
12:31
oh, that's a future promise in the millennium They'll finally get it So partially
12:36
we agree with that But the problem is If they acknowledge that they're going
12:42
to physically get the land in the future Then they're acknowledging that there
12:46
still is a future for Israel.
12:49
So it's a very self-refuting theology And the problem is in order to believe
12:56
it You have to spiritualize these verses and you have to make God, you know,
13:02
abrogate and fail and break his promises.
13:05
And here's the problem is if God can break his promise to Israel concerning
13:11
the Abrahamic covenant, then what makes us think that God can't break his promise
13:15
to us for the sealing of the spirit,
13:18
eternal security, forgiveness in Christ?
13:21
You see what I'm saying? As soon as you make God arbitrary, then you have no
13:26
fixed immutable standard.
13:28
Okay? You can't do that. So, that's the problem. So, those three arguments kind
13:32
of, you know, create a pretty bad predicament.
13:35
Of course, we talked about each principle that was violated.
13:38
So, the first one, you know, it violates the principle that there's a distinction
13:42
between Israel and the church.
13:44
The second one, it violates the principle of the unconditional nature of the Abrahamic covenant.
13:50
And of course, the third one violates the literal grammatical historical method of interpretation.
13:56
So, the fourth one is called, you know, we call it the middle wall is broken.
13:59
So, what their argument is, and this is the argument that the guy on the YouTube
14:04
comment mentioned, is that, you know, in Galatians 3.28, Ephesians 2.14,
14:10
that in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, right?
14:13
Basically, I'm paraphrasing it. So, the argument is that In Christ,
14:18
there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, meaning that the separate national
14:24
programs that God had mentioned and promised under Abraham in the Old Testament,
14:30
and then, of course, all throughout the Old Testament, Jeremiah,
14:33
Ezekiel, and on and on and on, where God is constantly promising,
14:37
you know, basically, that there's going to be a future.
14:41
They're basically saying, well, all that was done away in Christ.
14:45
They said that was fulfilled. because there's no longer Jew or Gentile.
14:49
But the problem is when you read Romans chapter 11, verse 24.
14:54
And this is why Romans 9, 10, 11 is so important, because, you know,
14:58
Paul spends the first eight chapters dealing with the believer.
15:02
He's talking about the Gentile believer, the promises we have in Christ,
15:06
salvation by grace through faith, the atonement of the blood of Christ, and so forth and so on.
15:11
Then, of course, the natural question is, well, what about the Jew?
15:14
If God has all these promises for the Gentile, right, then that must mean that
15:21
the Jew is no longer in play.
15:23
And of course, Paul argues that in Romans 9, 10, and 11.
15:27
But in 11, 24, this is what he said. He goes, for thou wert cut out of the olive
15:31
tree, the olive tree being Israel,
15:33
which is wild by nature, and wert graft contrary to nature into good olive tree,
15:40
so you were in a wild olive tree
15:43
so this wild olive tree the gentiles were grafted
15:47
into the good olive tree which was the promises and the line of israel the promises
15:51
in abraham he goes how much more shall these things be which be the natural
15:56
branches be grafted into their own olive tree meaning that he's basically indicating
16:02
there's going to be a time where israel is going to be re-grafted into the tree.
16:08
Again, a future program that's important for dispensationalism.
16:13
One of the things that makes us distinct in our dispensational hermeneutic,
16:17
which just means how you study the Bible, is that there is a future program for Israel.
16:24
There's a future program for the church, and they're distinct.
16:27
They're not one in the same. So, this is what he's saying. he goes
16:31
how much more shall these which be
16:34
the natural branches which is israel be grafted
16:37
into their own olive tree verse 25 and here's
16:40
what he says for i would not brethren that you should be ignorant of
16:43
this mystery what mystery that
16:47
that israel is going to be re-grafted into their own olive tree there's a future
16:51
he says lest you be wise in your own conceits and sometimes sometimes some theologians
16:58
will attack these replacement theologians and say that they're practicing what's
17:02
called Gentile conceit.
17:04
They think they've replaced Israel, which is exactly what they teach, right?
17:09
So, he says, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that what blindness in part
17:14
has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be coming, period.
17:18
So, there is a time frame, there's a limitation to this blindness.
17:22
It is not permanent. It is temporary.
17:26
And so, you know, whenever you read this, and of course, verse 26 is and says,
17:31
and so all Israel shall be saved when, as it is written, there shall come out
17:36
of Zion of the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
17:40
So, you're talking about Jeremiah.
17:42
You're talking about Isaiah. These are passages that are all second advent passages,
17:47
meaning in the future, in the future.
17:49
These were not fulfilled in 70 AD.
17:51
These were not fulfilled when the Roman Catholic Church became a church.
17:56
It's ridiculous, honestly, to believe that. You've got to rip these passages out of context.
18:01
But it says, As it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer,
18:04
and shall turn away ungodliness.
18:06
For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
18:11
Now, here's the problem.
18:12
Let's read this passage, and let's just replace Israel with the church.
18:16
It's a nice little practice.
18:18
So, for I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery,
18:21
lest you should be wise in your own conceits, that blindnessism in part has
18:25
happened to the church, until the fullness of the church be come in.
18:29
And so all the church shall be saved. It is written, there shall come out of
18:33
Zion the deliverer, and shall turn ungodliness from Jacob or the church.
18:37
For this is my covenant unto them, that I will take away their sins.
18:41
As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake.
18:44
As touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sake.
18:48
Wait a minute, so the church is the enemy of the gospel?
18:51
Oh, wait a minute. So the church, their sins shall be taken away in the future.
18:56
I thought their sins are already forgiven in the blood of Christ.
19:00
I thought that we were righteous in Christ, according to Romans 6, 7, and 8.
19:05
There's a problem. You create a doctrinal issue when you equivocate the word
19:10
Israel with the church and you change the meaning of it's no longer.
19:15
And so their argument is this is how they justify modern day Israel.
19:19
Okay. Because they'll argue, well, modern-day Israel is not Israel the Bible.
19:23
Well, I mean, that's speculation. You can't prove that. But that's what they
19:27
say. And only God knows who all the Jews are anyway.
19:31
But here's the key with this. Just because there's no Gentile or Jew in Christ
19:39
does not negate the ethnic and national distinction of Israel.
19:45
That's what people fail to understand. unity inside
19:48
of christ meaning the bible also says
19:51
there's no male or female in christ does that
19:54
mean that there's no male and female distinctions anymore i mean let's take
19:57
this logic to its logical conclusion right i mean if if the if there's no jew
20:02
and gentile in christ which means that erases all ethnic and national distinctions
20:07
and then the bible says there's neither male nor female in christ then there's
20:11
no biological distinctions either right.
20:14
So, why aren't these replacement theologians, why aren't they siding with,
20:18
you know, the LGBTQ crowd or the, you know, the transgender crowd? It's not convenient.
20:24
Yeah. I guess that doesn't fit their little… Their system or theology.
20:29
Their system or theology.
20:30
So, here's the Bible. The Bible says when the church is the one new man regarding
20:35
soteriology or the doctrine of salvation,
20:37
it's, you know, what God is doing is that, you know, while he's dealing with
20:42
the church in a very distinct… administrative way,
20:46
he still resumes his dealing with the nation of Israel after the church age is done.
20:52
That's what he says in verse 25 and 26, when the fullness of the Gentiles become
20:56
in, and so all Israel shall be saved.
21:00
Meaning there is a specific, distinct future plan for Israel.
21:06
So, another problem with this, too, okay, is that God constantly,
21:13
through the writings of Paul, is that he constantly continues to make a distinction about Jews.
21:20
So, let's just play along with their argument.
21:23
Okay, in Christ, there's no more Jew or Gentile. That means he's eradicated the Jews.
21:29
There's no more ethnic and national Jews anymore.
21:32
All the Jews today are fake Jews. They're part of the synagogue of Satan and
21:36
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever they're going to argue, right?
21:38
Okay, let's just go along with that. So there's no more Jews, right? No more Jews.
21:43
So why does in Philippians chapter 3, for example, why does Paul use this language?
21:50
I don't understand why he uses this language if there's no distinction.
21:53
So in Philippians chapter 3, you know, he's talking about, this is why he's in prison as well.
22:00
Let's see. So, Philippians chapter 3, he says this, Finally,
22:06
my brethren, rejoice in the Lord to write the same things unto you.
22:09
To me, indeed, it is not grievous, but for you it is safe.
22:12
Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
22:17
Watch what he says. For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit.
22:25
Circumcision, what does he mean?
22:27
He clarifies it, watch. and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in
22:31
the flesh. So he's talking about the flesh.
22:33
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh.
22:37
If any other man thinketh he has whereof, he might trust in the flesh, I more. Why?
22:42
Watch, circumcised in the eighth day of the stock of Israel,
22:46
of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law,
22:50
a Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness,
22:53
which is in law blameless.
22:55
Why does he continue to make this distinction about Jews? if they no longer exist.
23:01
Why does he say that? Why is he? He's saying, look, if anybody wants to argue
23:05
about benefits in the flesh, I have more on my side than anybody else.
23:12
That's what he says, right? He says, he goes, I'm circumcised the eighth day
23:17
of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, of Hebrew of the Hebrews,
23:21
as touching the law, a Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the church,
23:25
touching the righteousness, which is in the law, blameless.
23:29
Paul says I have more to argue for my physical ethnic national identity as a
23:36
Jew So when he says earlier he says for we are the circumcision in verse 3 which
23:42
worship God in the spirit You know what he just said?
23:45
He says I'm still a physical Jew I just happen to worship God in the spirit because I'm saved.
23:51
So he's making a distinction. He's a saved Jew, as opposed to being a saved Gentile.
23:58
So this argument, it doesn't make sense if you try to argue that there's no
24:03
more distinct Israel anymore.
24:04
There's no national or ethnic Israel.
24:07
Paul constantly, so he doesn't just do it here.
24:10
1 Corinthians 10, and he's writing to a Gentile church, of all things, right?
24:15
1 Corinthians 10, verse 32, he says this.
24:19
He says, give none offense Neither to the Jews,
24:23
Wait a minute I thought they were the church Nor to the Gentiles Nor to the church of God,
24:30
Why does he make a distinction between the Jews, the Gentiles,
24:32
and the church If there's no distinction anymore If there's neither Jew nor
24:36
Gentile in Christ Why does he bring it up?
24:39
Isn't that ridiculous that he keeps making this distinction?
24:42
There must be a distinction Yeah It must be relevant And there's over and over again, Paul does that.
24:49
Paul talks about, in Galatians, he does it again. I think we talked about it
24:53
last time, but, you know, he's telling, he's arguing to Peter because Peter's
24:57
hanging around with a bunch of Gentiles and then these Jews show up from Israel
25:01
or Jerusalem and all of a sudden he separates from them.
25:04
And, but he says this, he says...
25:07
Verse 12, chapter 2, verse 12 of Galatians, For before that certain came from
25:11
James, he did eat with the Gentiles.
25:13
But when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which
25:16
were of the circumcision.
25:18
Again, who's he talking about if there's no distinction?
25:21
You know, why can't he just say with unbelievers? Why does he keep saying the
25:25
circumcision, the circumcision, the circumcision?
25:27
Because he's making a distinction.
25:30
This is the problem. This is why people fail at dispensations is because they
25:34
ignore the distinctions and they want to try to merge everything together.
25:39
And so he says, you know, he goes, and with the other Jews, he goes,
25:43
faring them which were of the circumcision, and the other Jews dissembled likewise with him.
25:49
So there's a bunch of Jewish believers hanging out with Peter and they also
25:52
separate from these Gentiles insomuch that Barnabas was also carried away with their dissimulation.
25:58
But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the
26:02
gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, he says, If thou,
26:06
being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles. Wait a minute.
26:13
Here's a Jew that's living after the manner of Gentiles, and he still calls him a Jew.
26:17
Why didn't he cease to be a Jew? And not as though do the Jews,
26:21
as do the Jews, why compelest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
26:26
Then he says in verse 15, We who are Jews by nature.
26:34
Again, he's making a physical, racial, ethnic distinction that Jews still exist.
26:42
So this idea that just because salvation is through Christ and it's both to
26:48
Jews and Gentiles, like if a Jew wants to get saved and go to heaven today,
26:52
they need to believe on Christ as their Savior, just like you and I.
26:56
But what Paul's writing about in Galatians 3.28, that there's neither Jew nor
27:00
Gentile, What he's basically saying is that when it comes to salvation,
27:05
all the ground at the cross is level.
27:09
There is no more, no difference between the Jew, the Gentile, male or female.
27:15
When you come to the cross, you're
27:16
equally, equally washed in the blood of Christ and become a Christian.
27:20
And this is why it makes sense when you're in Christ, there is no distinction in Christ.
27:24
So, it's about salvation, it's not about replacement of Israel.
27:28
When you read this 15 and these other verses, how do you spiritualize that?
27:36
How do you get around that?
27:37
You don't, but they will. You can't do it. They will.
27:40
But they still try to spiritualize we who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles?
27:45
Oh, they'll probably say something, well, you know, he's phasing it out,
27:49
you know, that those Jews no longer have a place as part of the promises of Abraham.
27:54
They'll come with whatever excuse they want to. But what I'm trying to say is
27:58
that if Paul keeps appealing to Jews as Jews,
28:03
he keeps referring to them in their ethnic racial distinction,
28:08
that means they still exist.
28:11
That means what Paul is writing in Romans 11, 24 through 26 about a future for Israel.
28:17
And so is all Israel shall be saved.
28:20
Then he's indicating that that distinction still exists until a stopping point.
28:26
And that stopping point is the removal of the Gentiles, the Gentile church.
28:31
Once the church is raptured out, God's going to turn his attention back to Israel.
28:34
So, if you follow it to its conclusion, that Paul is conveying that they are
28:41
still relevant, number one.
28:44
Number two, there is a future and there's a distinction.
28:49
The Jews never go away.
28:51
That's it. And that's the position of Calvinists. You know, that would be consistent
28:54
with the passages we read in the last episode in Jeremiah, that you'd have to
28:59
get rid of the sun, moon, and the stars to get rid of Israel.
29:02
See how it's consistent? Yeah. If you study your Bible dispensationally,
29:07
according to the way God said to study it by right division,
29:10
and you maintain those distinctions as God maintains those distinctions,
29:13
your Bible fits like a glove.
29:16
But if you try to mix and match to try to make it fit your theology,
29:21
you're going to create a lot of confusion.
29:23
You're going to create a lot of self-refuting theology and contradictions, period.
29:29
That no matter what system you look at, if it is non-dispensational,
29:35
you are going to create clear, explicit contradictions in the text.
29:40
Because it won't fit. If I have to believe that the church has dissolved Israel
29:45
and Israel no longer exists and all the promises to Israel exist,
29:49
I have to now eradicate 80% of my Old Testament promises regarding the land.
29:55
And then I have to say that these passages in Romans 11 about this future salvation
30:00
of Israel is actually just means the church.
30:04
And then it does not make sense.
30:07
Yeah, you just have to make a huge pass. And what I'm saying is that God is
30:10
very specific with this language.
30:12
When he says Hebrew, he means Hebrew. When he says Pharisee and Jew and Israel,
30:17
he means exactly what he says.
30:19
So, the principle that's violated with this middle wall is broken down between
30:24
the church and Israel or in Christ.
30:30
They violate the difference between soteriological unity, meaning salvation,
30:35
we're unified in Christ, And eschatological distinction,
30:40
meaning that there's a future for Israel, that they are distinct, right?
30:46
The program for Israel is not actively in place, but everything that we see today,
30:53
all the tribulation, the wars, the rumor wars, everything that's going on over
30:58
there is all the setting, the stage is being set for Israel to be in the focus again.
31:06
Once the church is gone, God's going to turn his focus on Israel, period.
31:11
Why would you read in Revelation 12,000 from each tribe being sealed?
31:19
You have to still be around. Yeah, you have to still be around.
31:23
You can't explain it. Again, again. This is why I always encourage people,
31:28
you know, just read your Bible and study it dispensationally because it's the
31:31
only way that it makes sense.
31:34
So, the fifth argument is the Jew is defined inwardly, not ethnically.
31:40
So, this is, we'll read the passage here, but they always run to Romans chapter 2.
31:43
And they go, oh, yeah, but we're talking about the spiritual Jew.
31:47
You know, it's like that weird term, spiritual leadership. Sometimes it pops
31:51
up, the spiritual Jew. Shots fired.
31:54
So, they'll say this, the Jew is defined inwardly, not ethnically.
31:58
So, here's the passage, Romans 2, 28 through 29, it says, And even as they, I'm sorry.
32:07
Romans 2, 28, for he is not a Jew, watch, which is one outwardly. There you go.
32:14
He's not a Jew because of his physical nature.
32:17
Neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh.
32:21
But verse 29, but he is a Jew inwardly, which is, he goes, and circumcision is that of the heart.
32:30
In the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men,
32:35
but of God. Well, there you go. There you go.
32:38
Basically, they're basically arguing is that Romans 2 redefines the Jew,
32:42
that any believer that has now believed on Christ is circumcised in the heart,
32:47
and they are now a spiritual Jew.
32:49
That's their argument. So they, and so the conclusion they come to is that there
32:54
is no more national ethnic Jew again. the church has replaced them because of faith in Christ.
33:01
And this is the argument they make. Here's the problem. Here's the problem.
33:05
There's a little matter of ignoring the entire chapter 2 of Romans.
33:10
What leads Paul to make that statement about the inward Jew?
33:16
Okay. And I'll show you. So if you read Romans 2, just kind of some sections here.
33:21
And of course, he talks about in verse 1, he goes, therefore thou art inexcusable,
33:26
O man, whosoever thou art that judges, for wherein thou judges another,
33:29
thou condemnest thyself.
33:31
For thou that judges doest the same thing. So he's talking about hypocrisy and judgment.
33:35
For we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them
33:38
which commit such things.
33:39
And thinkest thou this, O man, that judges them which do such things and doest
33:44
the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God.
33:45
Again, the hypocrisy of a man judging somebody else.
33:48
Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering,
33:53
knowing not that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.
33:56
But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath
34:00
against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
34:04
who will render to every So what he's basically arguing is that everybody's
34:09
going to be judged according to their works.
34:11
Okay. Then he says, verse six, who will render to every man according to his
34:16
deeds, to them, watch, to them who by patient continuance and well-doing for
34:21
glory and honor and immortality and eternal life.
34:24
So there are those who by patient continuance and well-doing and good work seek
34:29
for glory and honor and they get immortality and eternal life through their righteous works.
34:35
Now that sounds contrary, but Paul is basically making a principle here is that
34:39
those who seek to do the right thing are rewarded. Okay.
34:44
Then verse eight, but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth.
34:51
They do not obey the truth, but they obey unrighteousness and they get what
34:57
indignation and wrath and tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil.
35:02
Watch of the Jew first and also of the Gentile.
35:06
So he's about to make a case that both the Jew and the Gentile are guilty before
35:11
God, but the conditions of their guilt is slightly different.
35:15
He says, verse 10, but glory, honor, and peace to every man that worketh good.
35:20
So, here's the opposite to the Jew first and also the Gentile.
35:24
So, there's wrath, right? There's wrath,
35:28
there's indignation that obey unrighteousness both to the Jew and to the Gentile,
35:33
but there's also glory honor and peace to
35:36
them that work good both to the jew and the gentile so
35:39
what he's doing he's saying the jew and the gentile are on equal grounds the
35:43
basis of the condition of their judgment is based
35:46
off of their good works or their bad works that's what he's saying okay then
35:50
look at verse 11 look and this is where it makes sense for there is no respecter
35:55
of persons with god regarding what obedience right i mean there's but basically
36:01
god is saying I don't care if you're a Jew or Gentile.
36:04
You do right, you'll be rewarded. You do evil, you'll be punished.
36:08
God's not a respecter of persons. He will punish. I always, whenever I'm on
36:12
the street, sometimes I'll preach, God is an equal opportunity punisher.
36:17
He will punish both the good and the bad if they don't accept Christ.
36:22
So verse 12, it says, for as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without law.
36:29
And as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.
36:33
So, do you get the distinct idea that the first 12 verses here,
36:37
he's talking about obedience, doing good versus doing evil?
36:43
Doing good, you get rewarded. Doing evil, you get punished, right?
36:46
Yeah, pretty clear. Okay.
36:48
Then verse 13, for not the hearers of the law are just before God,
36:52
just because you hear it.
36:54
But the doers of the law shall be justified. Oh, it's not just hearing the law.
36:58
Okay. Verse 14, for when the Gentiles, which have not the law,
37:03
do by nature the things contain the law, these having not the law are a law
37:07
unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts,
37:10
their conscience, also bearing witness.
37:13
So the law written in the heart of the Gentile is their conscience.
37:17
But that's not true for the Jew. The Jew was given a very specific set of commandments.
37:22
They were given physical laws that was written in stone, literally.
37:26
Right? But the Jew wasn't. The oracles came to the Jews.
37:30
I mean, the Gentiles weren't. The Gentiles didn't get the oracles.
37:33
They didn't get the prophecies. They didn't get the promises.
37:36
They didn't get the tabernacle. They didn't get any of that stuff. The Jews did.
37:39
But then he says, verse 16, in the day when God will judge the secrets of men
37:44
by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
37:46
Verse 17, here's the argument. Here's where he starts the argument about who
37:51
the spiritual Jew is versus the fleshly Jew.
37:55
Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law,
38:00
and makest thy boast of God, and knowest his will, and approvest the things
38:05
that are more excellent being instructed out of the law, because they have access to the law, right?
38:12
And are confident that thou art thyself art a guide of the blind,
38:18
a light to them which are in darkness,
38:20
an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which has the form of knowledge
38:27
and of the truth and the law.
38:28
Thou therefore, which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?
38:33
Thou preachest a man should not steal. Dost thou steal?
38:37
So, notice he's not arguing that they're not a Jew physically.
38:43
He's arguing about their obedience to the law that was given to them, right?
38:49
Verse 22, thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery,
38:55
dost thou commit adultery?
38:57
Thou that abhorst idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
39:00
Thou that makest thy boast of the law through breaking the law dishonorst thou God?
39:05
For the name of God is blaspheming among the Gentiles through you,
39:10
as it is written, for the circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the law.
39:19
Notice, he says the only profit of your circumcision is if you keep the law.
39:26
It has nothing to do with them not being a Jew.
39:30
It has to do with them profiting in their selection as a Jew.
39:37
They were selected and elected as a nation.
39:40
For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law, but if thou be a breaker.
39:45
Watch what he says. Thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.
39:49
That doesn't mean that the physical circumcision changes.
39:52
It just means the whole principle behind the circumcision. Circumcision is a
39:57
covenant of God between the Jews and God. It was a promise that they would obey God.
40:03
He says, and therefore, if the uncircumcision, the Gentiles,
40:10
keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
40:14
Again, what was the purpose of it? The purpose of the circumcision had to do
40:19
with the promise of God's faithfulness to reward those that obey.
40:24
And shall not the uncircumcision which is by nature
40:27
if it fulfill the law judge thee who by
40:30
the letter of the law and circumcision does transgress the law for he
40:33
is not a Jew which is the one outwardly so he
40:37
his whole argument here in chapter 2
40:40
is that a Jew may think
40:44
that he is right before God because he's born physically a Jew and what Paul
40:50
is arguing no So the reason why you were given the promises and the circumcision
40:58
was because of obedience.
41:00
And if you disobey God, you can't enjoy being a Jew.
41:05
But if you obey God, you can enjoy being a Jew, be given the oracles of God,
41:12
the promises of Abraham, the Mosaic promises, all those things.
41:16
So what he's arguing is not that you are no longer a Jew. He's saying spiritual
41:23
obedience to God starts with the heart.
41:27
It's not just because you're born of Abraham. Just because you're born as a
41:32
Jew doesn't automatically make you saved.
41:35
Just because you're born a Jew doesn't make you right.
41:39
That's what he's basically saying. Because how do you know that?
41:42
Look at chapter 3. What does verse 1 say?
41:44
Look how Paul anticipates the objection. Well, what advantage then hath the Jew?
41:51
Or what profit is there of circumcision then?
41:54
It's almost as if he's arguing with these replacement theologians and say,
41:58
well, then I guess circumcision means nothing and being a Jew means nothing.
42:02
So he says, well, what advantage is there to being a Jew?
42:06
What advantage is there of the circumcision? You know what I mean?
42:09
I mean, because it's all dissolved in Christ anyway, right?
42:11
I mean, all you got to do is obey God now in faith. And so you become a spiritual Jew.
42:17
Of course, that's not what's being said in Romans 22, 28 and 29.
42:21
But he says, what advantage then hath the Jew or what prophet?
42:25
And then look what he says in verse 2, much chiefly, much every way,
42:30
chiefly, because that unto them were what committed the workables of God.
42:37
And he talks about that in Romans 9 as well. He says this in Romans 9.
42:42
He says they were given the oracles of God. But he says this.
42:45
He goes, for I could wish, verse 3, 9, 3, for I could wish that myself were
42:49
a curse from Christ for my brother and my kinsmen according to the flesh. Again, distinction.
42:53
Verse 4. What does he mean by that? Does he mean the church at Thessalonica? No. Who are Israelites?
43:00
To whom pertain it, the adoption, the glory,
43:04
the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises,
43:09
who are the fathers, it's lowercase fathers, that's Abraham,
43:12
Isaac, and Jacob, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came,
43:17
who is over all God blessed forever.
43:19
Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel
43:22
which are Israel. He argues almost the same thing here.
43:25
Just because you're physically born of Abraham doesn't make you the child of promise.
43:29
Isaac was the child of promise, not Ishmael. Because Ishmael is flesh and blood of Abraham, right?
43:35
But does that make him automatically the child of promise?
43:38
No, because this whole chapter has to do about election, who God chooses to elect as a nation.
43:44
And he had Christ come through the line of Isaac, not Ishmael. It's very important.
43:49
So anyway, the point is, is that there's still an advantage to being a Jew.
43:54
Because God has promises that are based. Matter of fact, people skip.
43:58
I've seen an argument that goes, oh, well, you know, God didn't bless Abraham.
44:03
You know, the argument is in Genesis where it says those that bless thee,
44:07
I will bless. Those that curse, they I will curse.
44:09
And they go, oh, well, he doesn't say that anywhere else. And that's the only
44:12
place. Show me another place where he says that after Abraham.
44:15
And actually it's Balak and Balaam.
44:17
When Balak was trying to get Balaam to curse Israel, he said that they were
44:22
blessed and whoever blessed him would bless him, that God will bless him.
44:25
And whoever would curse him, God would curse.
44:27
He says the same thing, but he's talking about the nation of Israel, not Abraham.
44:33
Anyway, it's like somebody once said, a little bit of Bible study will ruin
44:37
a whole lot of preaching.
44:38
So, there you go. So, the argument they make is that the Jew is defined inwardly, not ethnically.
44:46
And so, obviously, if the Jew simply means Christian, then Israel described
44:50
as blinded and enemies and stuff that we read in Romans 11, wouldn't even make sense anymore.
44:55
It'd make a theological contradiction. So, the interpretation,
45:00
again, confuses individual regeneration, this spiritual Jew,
45:05
and national election, but it also ignores the obedience of the heart.
45:10
And that's what God was trying to explain in Romans 2.
45:13
It's not an argument that the Jews no longer exist.
45:17
That's a logical leap. That's what these replacement theologians do.
45:21
They go to Romans 2, and they immediately assume, well, hey,
45:25
there is no more Israel anymore because of Romans 2.
45:27
That a jew has got to be a jew inwardly so what's
45:32
the violation of the principle there the preservation of ethnic identity
45:35
it still exists then of
45:38
course the last argument is that modern israel is secular and therefore illegitimate
45:41
okay the argument that the modern state of israel is a political accident or
45:46
it's a work of man or satan you know because it's founded on unbelief and it
45:50
doesn't exhibit righteousness and of course they're going to appeal to basically
45:54
what every everything Israel does today.
45:57
So, I'm not going to tell you that the modern state of Israel today is absolutely perfectly righteous.
46:02
I'm not going to tell you that. I'm not going to tell you that.
46:04
You can't even say that of the Jews in the Old Testament. Hello.
46:08
I mean, they were literally sacrificing their children unto Molech.
46:12
I mean, they were literally worshiping the, you know, the queen of heaven and baking cakes to her.
46:19
I mean, they were literally worshiping the gods, Remember, we read last time
46:23
that where God said that you, as many cities as you have, you have idols.
46:29
So somebody tries to argue, well, you know, the Jews, you know,
46:32
they're just, they're disobedient.
46:34
They're involved in the pornography industry. They control the world banks.
46:38
They're trying to create a one world government through the Rothschilds and
46:42
all this other stuff and blah, blah, blah, blah. That's what they do.
46:45
What they're trying to basically tell you is that God's word is absolutely true
46:50
because they are one day going to rule the world. So you know what?
46:54
The Jew is indisposed. They have a pre-election in their nature to rule things.
47:00
That's why a Jew can do things with money that a Gentile can't do.
47:04
I always heard that our preacher would say that they were engineered to rule the world.
47:10
And that's why they've had, if you look at history and look at their influence,
47:14
of course, and the things that they do are evil.
47:16
Yes, we recognize that, but the things that they have done in terms of technology
47:22
and advancement, I mean, just time and time again, you can see that,
47:26
but they're just engineered to rule the world, which makes sense for the Bible.
47:30
Yeah, you see this weird dichotomy with the Jew. You see these amazing,
47:35
I mean, when you talk about some of the major inventions, medical inventions,
47:41
intellectual inventions, scientific engineering things, a lot of them are attributed to Jews.
47:47
I mean, it's amazing, right? Yeah. Then when you look at some of the greatest
47:51
curses among mankind, yes, the one world, the bankers, the globalists, the satanic deception,
47:59
the conspiracies, the pornography industry.
48:04
It's like this dichotomy. You see these blessings and you see these cursings
48:08
on them. And you know what?
48:10
Guess what, people? That's exactly what you read in the Bible.
48:14
That's exactly a description of biblical Israel.
48:18
Matter of fact, when you see Israel today, modern-day Israel,
48:22
they virtually act like biblical Israel. And it's consistent.
48:27
You got continuity from the biblical Israel to what you just said today.
48:32
There's nothing different about it.
48:34
Why are we surprised that they act differently?
48:37
It's a poor argument. It's probably the poorest argument to have.
48:40
It's a very poor argument. So, Ezekiel 37, it's interesting because you read
48:44
the Valley of Dry Bones, and you see kind of two-stage resurrection there.
48:50
The first is the gathering of dry bones, which some theologians,
48:55
they teach and commentaries will teach.
48:57
Well, that's Israel gathering in unbelief.
49:00
Now, I believe 1948 was a precursor of the events that will eventually lead
49:06
to the rebuilding of the temple, because that's going to happen.
49:08
We read about that in Daniel and so forth and so on, Daniel 9.
49:13
So, in Ezekiel 37, you see first the gathering of the dry bones.
49:18
And then, of course, God asks Ezekiel, he says, you know, can these bones live?
49:23
And Ezekiel answers and goes, well, thou knowest.
49:26
And, of course, he sees this breath breathe on them.
49:30
And then they're given sinews and muscles and flesh and all this stuff comes
49:35
back on the bones. and they're born as a nation. And guess what God even tells him?
49:40
He says that Israel shall be born as a nation.
49:44
So there will be a rebirth of Israel in its biblical sense, in its fulfillment
49:50
of the second advent and the millennial reign.
49:54
But in order for God to do that, he's got to save a remnant.
49:58
That's what he talks about in Romans 11, as a matter of fact,
50:01
that he's going to save a remnant, a small group.
50:05
So, you know, historically, God's used wicked nations. You had Cyrus,
50:10
right, or Nebuchadnezzar to fulfill prophetic purposes.
50:13
So Israel's current unbelief doesn't negate her prophetic validity, okay?
50:19
That's what people need to really get through their head is that,
50:23
you know, Israel is going to regather and they're going to be in unbelief because,
50:28
yes, they did curse themselves with the blood of Christ.
50:31
When they said, you know, hey, do you want us to crucify your king?
50:34
And they said, we have no king but Caesar.
50:36
Let his blood be upon us and our children. So, the Jews literally cursed themselves
50:41
with the blood of their Messiah.
50:43
But you know what Christ said on the cross? He says, forgive them for they know not what they do.
50:48
And he sends the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts to try to regather first the Jews,
50:54
because they went on a Jewish feast called Pentecost, Acts 2,
50:58
and the disciples went first to Jewish converts and proselytes specifically.
51:05
And they preached about their Messiah. And he even quoted, Peter quoted Joel
51:11
chapter 2, which was a second Advent passage.
51:16
Why is he preaching to just Jews? Matter of fact, the first Gentile to be saved
51:20
in the book of Acts is Acts chapter 8. That's the Ethiopian eunuch.
51:24
And the first, and guess who gets saved right after Acts chapter 8 and Acts
51:28
chapter 9? Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles.
51:31
And then what happens in chapter 10?
51:33
Peter goes to Cornelius, a Gentile, and preaches to him salvation by grace through faith.
51:39
And so you see this, and then of course you get to Acts chapter 15.
51:44
Acts 15 is where they solidify the Pauline gospel, the dispensation of grace,
51:49
and that they don't need to keep works or do any of that for salvation.
51:53
It's literally just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
51:56
The only thing they tell him is you can't eat anything strangled by blood and so forth and so on.
52:01
But then later on, Paul undoes that and says, hey, you can eat whatever you
52:05
want as long as you eat it with thanksgiving and prayer.
52:09
So the point is, is you see this transition through the book of Acts.
52:13
And guess what they do in Acts chapter 7 right before the first Gentile believer
52:19
gets saved? They murder Stephen.
52:21
What is Stephen trying to do? he's trying to preach to the Jews.
52:25
So, what is the entire chapter in chapter 7 about? The history of the Jews.
52:29
He starts telling about Abraham, starts telling about him going into Canaan, starts going through.
52:34
And at the end of his sermon, right before they stoned Stephen,
52:38
he says, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, even as your fathers did.
52:44
So, he indicts the nation of Israel.
52:48
Why? Because in Romans chapter 1, Paul says something very, very important in
52:53
verse 16, or actually it's verse, yeah, Romans 1, 16, he says this,
53:00
For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto
53:03
salvation to everyone that believeth, semicolon, to the Jew first.
53:10
What did God do? When he said on the cross, Father, forgive them for they know
53:15
not what they do, God gave them forgiveness and sent the apostles to preach to them one more time.
53:23
So this is how you divide the Bible as far as the presentation of truth.
53:28
Number one, God came to them as their father in the Old Testament.
53:33
They rejected God through idolatry. And God divorced. He gave a bill of divorcement to Israel. Okay?
53:40
So, but he said in Hosea, and here's again another future promise,
53:45
a distinction about Israel, is that he will bring them back and remarry them.
53:51
That's what he talks about. Hosea, the whole book of Hosea is about that.
53:54
Why would he say that if there's no future? It doesn't make any sense.
53:58
So, wait a minute. If Israel's the church and Israel is a divorced bride,
54:02
but according to Ephesians and Corinthians, the church is a chaste virgin,
54:08
how could they be the same thing?
54:09
They can't and then when were they divorced when was
54:13
the church divorce so what you got to what you got to do you got to be careful
54:15
with the replacement theologian he's like oh no no no don't pay attention to
54:19
the right hand pay attention to the left hand so again it's self-contradictory
54:24
yeah okay so anyway so here's the point god the father they rejected god the
54:29
father in the old testament through idolatry unbelief rebellion wickedness all this stuff right?
54:34
They went into captivity, and of course, their Messiah comes.
54:39
So, God gives them another opportunity with God the Son. What do they do to
54:43
God the Son? They crucify Him.
54:46
So, Jesus Christ says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
54:49
So, He gives them another opportunity. They send God the Spirit.
54:53
And of course, what do they do? By Acts chapter seven, they stone Stephen,
54:57
they kill him. And then guess what?
54:59
God says, okay, you guys are on temporary hold.
55:03
I'm going to blind you temporarily and I'm going to therefore go to the Gentiles.
55:08
And that's exactly what happens. It fits no matter how, whether you like it or not, it fits.
55:14
That is the way. So the whole argument about the modern Israel is secular.
55:19
It's not equivalent to the Bible are people that don't know the Bible. They don't read Israel.
55:24
Please show me where Israel was in belief and in righteousness with God before
55:31
Stephen, by the time of Stephen.
55:34
You're obviously not. You can't find it. So, it's a poor argument. It's a bad argument.
55:39
So, here's the thing. So, what does this all boil down to?
55:42
It comes down to, you know, the logical consequences, right?
55:45
What's the consequences of believing replacement theology?
55:48
So, if the church has permanently replaced Israel, okay, then the literal promises
55:54
of the Bible, you have a bunch of theological contradictions that we run into.
55:58
One, the breakdown of literal interpretation. That's the most immediate consequence
56:02
is that you have to abandon the literal grammatical historical method of study.
56:07
So if Israel is no longer, if it no longer means the physical seed of Jacob,
56:12
then the language becomes fluid. You can define it however you want, right?
56:16
You can force, you're forced to spiritualize or allegorize literally every clear
56:20
geographical and biological term in your Bible, like Zion, Jerusalem.
56:26
Seed, the land of Canaan, and on and on and on.
56:29
You have to spiritualize all those terms, which sets a precedent that can be
56:34
applied to any other doctrine, including the gospel.
56:39
That means that you can redefine the gospel. If you can redefine those terms,
56:42
then why can't you redefine what it means to believe on Christ?
56:46
Why can't you define what it means for what's doctrine and not doctrine?
56:50
Why can't you redefine who Jesus Christ is? Is he really God?
56:54
You see what I mean? You can redefine anything. So people don't understand that's
56:58
an actual slippery slope, because once you start eliminating literal,
57:03
grammatical, historical words from their context, and you make them mean other
57:08
things because your theology says so,
57:11
that basically you've just let every doctrine in the Bible come.
57:16
Fall down that slippery slope as well. Yeah, if you're a Calvinist,
57:20
you're just undermining the truth.
57:21
Yep. So, there's no literal interpretation of Scripture. Then you also have
57:25
the theogratic church problem.
57:27
So, if the church inherits the Old Testament promises, okay,
57:31
of national dominance and military victory over their enemies, right?
57:36
So, everything about like Edom, Moab, Babylon being the enemies and being destroyed by Israel.
57:41
Then the church's mission shifts from the gospel and missionary work to being
57:46
a political militant entity, right?
57:50
I mean, we should adopt all the physical, military, violent promises that were given to Israel.
57:57
So, historically, that logic was lived out to the Crusades and the state-mandated
58:03
religion of the Protestants, because they believed that the church and state should be married,
58:08
that the church should control the military political state.
58:14
Because guess what? When you read the Old Testament, you can't divorce those passages.
58:18
You can divorce them from the church because the church is a separate entity.
58:22
But if you make the church equivalent or a proxy for Israel now,
58:27
then what are you going to do with all those Old Testament military promises?
58:31
You see the problem?
58:34
Then the third thing is, obviously, another consequence of replacement theology
58:40
is the integrity of God's character.
58:41
So if you make all the everlasting promises that God made to the seed of Israel,
58:46
especially with the contingency that you'd have to get rid of the ordinance
58:50
of heaven, the sun, moon, the stars, and then you revoked it because of their failure,
58:55
their disobedience, then that means everything God promised was not immutable.
59:00
It did change. whatever god promised now
59:03
changed because it no longer applies to israel that's exactly what
59:06
a replacement theologian will tell you then that
59:08
suggests that if israel can lose their unconditional promises through
59:11
sin then the believer today could theoretically lose
59:14
their eternal security doing the same thing same disobedience now you can justify
59:19
people losing their salvation now you can justify that the eternal redemption
59:24
and forgiveness through the blood of christ is now malleable and it shifts and
59:29
it's fluid and you can change that definition, right?
59:33
So, that means, again, then those promises that God made can be changed and
59:40
he can back out on his promises and he can be arbitrary.
59:43
You just made God a fatalist. You just made him the God of the Muslims who chooses
59:48
whoever he wants to go to heaven or hell, just like the Calvinist God.
59:52
So again, you're attacking, you know, with this replacement theology,
59:56
a consequence is now you've just undermined and destroyed the integrity of God's character.
1:00:01
Because his promises are no longer promises, right? And then,
1:00:04
of course, you have the problem in the land.
1:00:06
Specific dimensions that are given to the Abrahamic covenant we mentioned in
1:00:09
Genesis 15 are now meaningless. They don't mean what they mean.
1:00:13
If the church is the new Israel, there's no logical reason for a specific piece
1:00:16
of real estate in the Middle East to be relevant, right?
1:00:19
So this turns God's specific oath regarding the land into a vague metaphor for
1:00:25
heaven or the world, rendering the specific boundaries given in Scripture as error or fluff.
1:00:31
Basically, when God says, hey, your boundaries of the land are going to be the
1:00:35
Euphrates River and, you know, the river of Egypt.
1:00:39
Well, oh, that's just spiritual. That doesn't really mean the river of Egypt.
1:00:42
Well, what does it mean then?
1:00:44
Well, you know, it's the river of our lives. It's the river of obedience.
1:00:47
They can make it sound whatever I want. So the problem is, is all those passages
1:00:51
about the land, and there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of promises about
1:00:56
the geography that God promised.
1:00:58
You just have to toss them all out. They mean nothing. anymore.
1:01:02
So, what's supposed to be done with the literal promises? To maintain replacement
1:01:06
theology, this is what you have to do.
1:01:09
You have to re-identify anything claiming to be Israel was just always a type
1:01:13
or shadow of the church. That's it.
1:01:15
The land was a shadow of heaven. This ignores the fact that God made these promises
1:01:18
to Israel while they were still in
1:01:21
a rebellion, and they were still being distinguished from other nations.
1:01:25
Then you have conditionalization, right? Arguing that all of God's everlasting
1:01:29
promises were just conditional, which means salvation is conditional.
1:01:33
Then theological erasure, then viewing the Old Testament as a lower revelation
1:01:38
that is essentially overwritten by the New Testament, rather than the New Testament
1:01:42
being the fulfillment or the revelation of the Old Testament,
1:01:45
then you're basically wiping out everything that was in your Old Testament.
1:01:48
You might as well just toss it.
1:01:50
So here's the thing. If you want to be consistent, the Bible-believing position
1:01:54
avoids all these traps because we do believe there's a distinction between the church and Israel.
1:01:59
The church is a mystery. It's not revealed in the Old Testament.
1:02:03
It's revealed after Christ is resurrected from the dead.
1:02:07
Israel maintains its national identity with a future restoration.
1:02:12
It doesn't mean that every Jew today is going to heaven.
1:02:14
It doesn't mean everything that the state of Israel does today is right in God's eyes.
1:02:19
It just means that they're still the apple of God's eyes. They are still a nation,
1:02:23
even though they're in rebellion.
1:02:25
And the promises still remain literal and they await the millennial fulfillment
1:02:30
where Christ sits on a literal throne in physical Jerusalem.
1:02:35
And there's a number of other doctrines, again, that are confused with replacement theology.
1:02:40
So the bottom line is this, is that in order to believe what that guy on our comment was believing,
1:02:47
you basically have to reinterpret the entire Bible to fit your theology instead
1:02:52
of just reading the Bible for what it plainly says.
1:02:56
And so the problem again is, you know,
1:02:59
any, and this is, and I'll stand by this to the day I die, unless God shows
1:03:03
me differently in the Bible, but the only correct method of interpretation of
1:03:09
scripture is dispensational Bible study.
1:03:11
It is rightly dividing the word of truth.
1:03:15
Once you deviate from that, once you start, It doesn't matter what measurement
1:03:19
of standard deviation it is.
1:03:21
It can be an eighth of a percent.
1:03:23
The problem is, is that angle gets longer and longer, you know,
1:03:28
the more you go down the road and you start to depart from the truth eventually.
1:03:34
So, you know, there's things in the Bible that even people today that are Bible-believing
1:03:38
Baptists that say they rightly divide, they cannot take it.
1:03:43
They cannot take certain things the Bible says about Old Testament salvation
1:03:47
and things like that, and they really struggle with it.
1:03:50
So here's the bottom line is either God said what he meant and meant what he
1:03:55
said, or we can just simply redefine everything God says to fit our theology.
1:04:00
And I don't, I just, I'm going to always trust the former. I'm always just going
1:04:05
to believe that God said exactly what he said. He meant exactly what he meant.
1:04:08
And if I'm wrong, I'd rather go to the judgment seat to saying,
1:04:12
well, God, I believe what you said literally as you said it.
1:04:16
You know what I mean? I'd rather be guilty of that than, than redefining what
1:04:21
God said to fit my personal theology and conviction.
1:04:25
You know, God help us if we do that. But well, anyway, so we're just going to
1:04:29
go ahead and wrap this episode up.
1:04:32
I know Alan's having a little bit of technical difficulty on his side.
1:04:35
But again, if you have any questions, if there's any confusion about this,
1:04:39
you know, and we do encourage people to post and make comments.
1:04:44
We definitely appreciate it.
1:04:45
But if you would also do us a favor, there's one thing that I've been meaning to bring up.
1:04:50
I know that we haven't done it much, but we really want to get the word out.
1:04:55
We want more and more and more listeners, not just because of the numbers,
1:04:58
but we just want to be able to get the truth out to as many people as possible.
1:05:02
If you get a blessing out of the material and you agree with what we're talking
1:05:06
about, or if you think it might help somebody spiritually or increase their faith in the Word of God,
1:05:11
then, you know, like, subscribe, you know, if whatever platform you listen to,
1:05:15
we post, we host on Podbean, but we're on Spotify, you know,
1:05:19
we're on Apple Music, we're on Amazon and YouTube and things like that.
1:05:23
But anywhere you see us, like us, you know, put a like there.
1:05:27
That feeds the algorithm, right? And that'll put our audios and our podcasts
1:05:33
and other streams, and maybe it'll bring some more awareness.
1:05:37
So, you know, anyway, we just want to, you know, I also want to just keep encouraging you.
1:05:41
1 Thessalonians 5.21, the Bible says, prove all things, hold fast that which is good.
1:05:45
And that's the whole point of the Christian is we're stewards of the truth.
1:05:50
We have an obligation, responsibility, truth. So, look, you may not agree with this, but that's okay.
1:05:55
We're always striving for clarity more than we're striving for agreement,
1:05:59
you know, because but we always just want to be sure that everybody knows exactly
1:06:03
what we believe and where we believe or why we believe it. And we always want
1:06:07
to be able to back it up with scripture.
1:06:08
So with that being said, we'll go ahead and close out this episode and we'll be finishing up.
1:06:13
So this is the, you know, another replacement theologian part two.
1:06:17
We're done with that. So we're probably going to launch into,
1:06:19
I think we're going to do a series on why Baptists, and we'll talk about some
1:06:24
of the Baptist distinctives and why, by conviction, by religious conviction, we're Baptists.
1:06:29
And we'll try to give you some biblical reasons for that and back that up.
1:06:33
That's something I'm teaching right now in my college class this semester.
1:06:37
So the material is fresh in my mind, so I figured we'll talk about it.
1:06:41
And hopefully that'll be a blessing as well. And we do want to include and probably
1:06:45
introduce and pull in some more people for testimonies if we can.
1:06:49
So just be on the lookout and we definitely appreciate your guys' prayer and
1:06:53
we just pray that this will be a blessing to y'all. We will talk to you later.