SUPERSESSIONISM:
The Church Has Not Inherited
Israel’s Blessings as God’s Nation
SUPERSESSIONISM:
THE CHURCH HAS NOT INHERITED
ISRAEL’S BLESSINGS AS GOD’S NATION
JAN LILLEBY
Recently I was contacted by a friend and fellow Acts-28 believer in USA, who wanted to know if I had any knowledge of supersessionism; the so-called ‘Replacement Theology’. The idea that the church has taken over the blessings and promises of Israel due to her falling away, in that they did not accept Jesus nationally.
Well, I told my friend that I had been into this type of ‘isms’ twenty years ago. But I would have to read myself up in this thing to be able to get at it now.
So, here I go, trying to follow up his request.
I shall make no in-depth study on this, but will point to the most important Bible proof, showing that the church has not been given or have taken over the promises for Israel.
THE GREETING GABRIEL GAVE MARY
Luke 1: 30-33, NASB,
30 The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God.
31 "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.
32 "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;
33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end." (My emphasize)
This is a Bible prophesy of Jesus to become the future Messiah King, seated on the throne of David (which was in Jerusalem on Zion). And to what nation shall He be the king and ruler? It will of course be Israel: Verse 33, THE HOUSE OF JACOB (Jacob was renamed Israel, as we know); and for how long shall Jesus rule? It will be ruled by Him for one thousand years.
This is very clearly told in Rev. 20:4, NASB,
“Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” (My emphasize)
Here we see that Jesus’ rule as the King in the millennial Kingdom of God in Israel, shall last for one thousand years.
How on God’s green earth can we Christians think that such blessings belongs to us, since Israel fell away from God?
THE NEW LAW OF THE LAND
Reading Isa. 2 we find that the Messiah King shall establish a new law for the new nation of Israel.
This will happen after His Second Advent, which arrives as He will stop the Great Tribulation of seven years.
As we learn of Isa. 2:1-5, NASB, and the new law, we clearly understand that it has to be a set of laws meant for the new nation, Israel.
“1 The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 Now it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it.
3 And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths." For the law will go forth from Zion And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.
5 Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.”
(My emphasize)
In this narrative we are told in the Bible that Israel in the end times shall undergo a stern purging and trial, called mostly for ‘The Great Tribulation’ – by Jesus in Mat. 24:21,22, NASB,
“21 "For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever * will.
22 "Unless those days had been cut short, no * life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.”
Jeremiah 30:7 says the very same, telling of the future ‘time of trouble for Jacob’ – the land of Israel.
This tribulation in Israel is told in many frightening details seen in Revelation, of the plagues of the Seven Seals, Seven Trumpets and Seven Bowls of Wrath. It starts in Rev. 6.
These plagues are the method of God to have the unbelieving Jewry on their knees, so they will seek Jesus Christ. He sends the two witnesses in Rev.11, Moses and Elijah, to prophesy of the coming disasters and telling Israel to start believing on Jesus Christ. They shall prophesy for 1260 days, which is three and a half Jewish calendar years.
In Rev. 19:11-21, NASB, we find Jesus coming on the clouds of heaven with a mighty army of angels, in glory and with punishing fire. He lands in Israel, that is, Jerusalem,
“11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.
12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself.
13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.
14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.
15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine * press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.
16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."
17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, "Come, assemble for the great supper of God,
18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great."
19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.
20 And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.
21 And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.”
He does NOT land in any Gentile nation…near a Christian Mega-Church or things like that. No, He comes down to establish His throne on Zion. In Israel, in Jerusalem.
There is no way that Christendom ever inherited the calling of Israel, nor her blessings and promises. And we never inherited her obligations found in the old covenant, the Law of Moses. Not in the past, not now, and not in the future. That is for sure. In our time Christianity is in great majority, thus consisting of Gentiles. Rom. 2:14 say that ‘Gentiles had NOT the Law (of Moses)’ – so there is no way we can have inherited the blessings/promises/obligations of Israel. The Law was declared by Paul to have been ABOLISHED in its entirety, Eph. 2:14, 15; Col. 13-17. If we have not the Law, then we cannot have the things originally given to Israel. And for crying out loud: We neither have any specific land….such as for instance Palestine! The Church/Christianity is not a nation.
The calling for Israel came with certain conditions, IF Israel held the Law,
Ex. 19:5, 6, NASB,
“5 'Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine;
6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel."
Israel was charged to keep the Law of Moses, and IF they kept it, then they should be His people above all the people on earth. Did they keep it? By no means, NO! They broke the covenant and God punished them severely, as we read the history. Jer. 31:31, 32, NASB,
31 "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD.
Some bewildered heretical Christians cannot just go on saying that we have inherited the calling and blessings of Israel. If so, then we certainly would have to keep all the commandments in the Law. And in our time, all since Paul established the Church-dispensation in 63 CE writing his two epistles Ephesians and Colossians from his jail cell, - we find that Christ KILLED THE LAW, so abolishing it as He died on the cross! Without the Law of Moses, there is NO ISRAEL.
Eph. 2:13-15; Col. 2:13-17 shows the Law is gone forever, and it cannot be copied or overtaken by Christendom. Paul told us that we have the free Grace of God, by faith alone, NO WORKS (of the Law). Neither can Christendom claim to own the Land of Israel. Nowhere in Paul’s church epistles can we find any ‘Land-promises’. But we find promises of the heaven up above – Col. 3:1-4.
Zec. 8:22, 23 NASB, tells of Gentile people who will take hold of the blessings which will be with the new Israel and Jesus as their King, thus they clearly acts as PROSELYTES and not as free independent believers with an own separate calling,
“22 'So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor * of the LORD.'
23 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."
The Gentile world had gotten hold of what Christ did for His nation, and now the whole world headed toward Jerusalem to try to get some of that divine blessing!
If it says of the Jews that ‘God is with the Jews’ – it must be in the meaning of special blessings, not commonly available to the entire world. I suspect we are talking of miraculous cure of sicknesses. Maybe Jesus will heal seriously ill patients suffering from cancer and things like that? This type of narrative seem very probable.
Paul referred to the power which was upon the apostles in his time, in Heb. 6:5, NASB, which also was to come in the age of the Millennia,
“…and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,”
So, conclusively, I can only point to the idea of supersessionism as false. The church-dispensation has by no means inherited or taken over the special blessings/promises originally given to Israel. One cannot just claim ‘blessings’ – for we see in the Law that it came with conditional ordinances. If you did not keep Sabbath, such a person would be punished with death! It was ‘Do this’ and it was ‘Don’t do that’ – off and on all the time. You can eat this, but you cannot eat that. Peter had a sensible word regarding the keeping of ordinances, Acts 15:5-11, NASB, in regard to the ordinance of circumcision,
5 But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, "It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses."
6 The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter.
7 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brethren *, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe.
8 "And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us;
9 and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.
10 "Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? (My emphasize)
11 "But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are."
Peter says straight forward that it is a heavy burden to place upon a Gentile believer the ordinances of the Law. This is still true. If anyone thinks Christendom has inherited Israel’s calling and blessings, then know this: The ordinances goes with that calling! You cannot sift out these ordinances, demanding just blessings. You have to take it all, except that which the apostles agreed to not lay upon Gentiles. So then we see that it is not possible that God let Christendom inherit Israel’s calling. It’s a ‘No Go’.
Be aware that this dispute in Acts 15 was of the circumcision only. However we find that the apostles agreed upon telling the Gentile converts to abstain from certain foods, as well as stay off blood.
Acts 15:28-29, NASB,
“28 "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials:
29 that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell."
Jesus is described as the coming Messiah King for Israel, and NOT for the church.
For the church, Paul gave the Lord one particular title, which is ‘The Head of His Body’. Jesus is the Chief, the Head of His Body, Eph. 1:22, 23, NASB,
“22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,
23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
To the future nation of Israel, after the Great Tribulation is over, He shall come as their KING.
But to the Church, here and now, Jesus is the HEAD.
A nation can have a KING, but a congregation of saints, like us, the Church, we cannot have a king, but we have a HEAD.
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