Replacement Theology Refuted

by Jerry Huerta

copyright 2019

Let me preface the beginning of this post with an article that conveys the foundation of replacement theology (RT).

Cottrell used replacement theology (a.k.a. supersessionism)10 to explain the abortive predictions about Israel’s future glory and to argue for the concept of conditional prophecy. For instance: “The promises and predictions given through the Old Testament prophets originally applied to literal Israel and were to have been fulfilled to them on the condition that they obey God and remain loyal to Him.”11 Note Cottrell’s careful wording in his explanation of this line of reasoning: “God’s promises to Israel were all conditional.”12 Subtle but noteworthy! Here the word “promises” stands in for prophecy and predictions, and the adjective “conditional” is hiding at the end of the sentence rather than directly preceding “promises.”[1]

There are numerous fallacious conclusions that are drawn from the presupposition that the prophecies to Israel, the biological descendants of Jacob, were conditional. One of these conclusions is that the church inherits “heaven” at Christ’s return. I will return to posit on this false conclusion but first the presupposition that the prophecies to Israel were conditional must be shown to be a falsehood.

RT’s foundation is constructed upon references such as the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy 28 and the book of Jonah, which superficially sustains the view of conditional prophecy. Jonah, in particular, is used in maintaining the conditionality of prophecy but, as stated, this is only based on a superficial analysis of Jonah. The superficiality stems from the oversight that God’s influence overcame Johan’s carnal desire to disobey God, which ultimately led to Johan’s obedience. God’s influence over Johan’s volition substantiates compatibilism as opposed to libertarian free will, and the presumption of conditional prophecy is built upon libertarian free will; but God is in control of man, man does not control God’s will. The recognition of the compatibilist’s grounds in analyzing the book of Jonah substantiates the discernment that Nineveh’s repentance was also due to God’s moving against the carnal nature of the collective body of Nineveh to disobey; the NT is clear enough that the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God; it is at enmity with God.       

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Romans 8:5-7 KJV   

Due to the fall of man, the minds of the Ninevites were undoubtedly carnal, after the flesh, incapable of repentance. An analysis of true weight must come to the conclusion that God’s influence overcame the carnal desires of the body of Ninevites and caused them to repent. Furthermore, the compatibilist rendition does not negate moral responsibility as the NT also affirms that, due to the fall of man, man’s volition fell into bondage to his carnal nature and cannot resist sinning but in being cognizant of his sinful acts he is made morally responsible.    

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Romans 7:19-23 ESV

Paul goes on to affirm that the only deliverance from the bondage of the carnal mind is Christ or, in essence, the provision of the New Covenant where God will put His laws into the minds, and write them on their hearts of the chosen who become a party to Israel’s New Covenant. The book of Jonah or the conditions of the Mosaic Covenant is of no true aid to RT’s false presupposition that the prophecies to Israel that they would inherit the land forever were conditional. The conditional blessings of the Mosaic covenant were merely a schoolmaster to teach the children of Israel the lesson Paul conveys in Romans 9.     

What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory---even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? Romans 9:22-24 ESV

Many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 22: 14)! The conditional blessings of the Mosaic covenant were ephemeral and not the basis of the promise to Abraham that he and his descendants would inherit the land forever; the promise to Abraham and his descendants was unconditional and could not be annulled by the Mosaic covenant because it was in Christ that it would be fulfilled.  

This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Galatians 3:17-19 ESV

There was no failure of God’s chosen elect at the first advent, and as a result, it is foolish for RT to base its presupposition of conditionality of Israel’s promise to the land on the failures of the vessels fit for destruction. RT is blind to the evidence that Judah’s fall and exile was prophesied in Zechariah 10 and 11, which substantiates the assessment that the ministration of the Kingdom of God was taken from Judah and given to Ephraim, the nation that bears the fruit in Matthew 21:43, with the gentiles fulfilling the fruit. The weightier analysis of Jonah and the conditions of Deuteronomy 28 maintain the clear evidence that the “Jerusalem which is above” is the Zion in Isaiah, Ephraim, that is illustrated as being raised by the Servant Christ and to whom Christ draws the gentiles.

But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me…. The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been? Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. Isaiah 49:14, 20-23 KJV

Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee…. The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 60:5, 14 KJV

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified…. But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves…. And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD hath blessed. Isaiah 61:3, 6, 9 KJV

Zion is clearly Ephraim, who in the last days, as one of the sons of Joseph, Jacob prophecies “from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel” Christ.

But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Hebrews 12:22-24 KJV

Since the gentiles are heirs to Abraham’s covenant in Christ (Galatians 3:29) then they inherit the land and not heaven. Again, references to the contrary are based only on a superficial analysis.

[1]https://www.andrews.edu/library/car/cardigital/Periodicals/Adventist_Today_Online/2017/2017_04.pdf

This post is a postscript to the book above, which is available here.