This is why I can never believe in Replacement Theology… Part 3
- Ron Cantor
- 8 hours ago
- 4 min read
We ended last week’s blog by explaining how it did appear to anyone watching in the middle of the second century that God had rejected Israel. In 70 CE, the temple was destroyed. In 132, Rome put down another Jewish revolt. Jerusalem was rebuilt into a Roman city with a temple dedicated to Jupiter. The Gentile believers in Yeshua greatly outnumbered the Jewish believers at this time.
The Parting of the Ways
Scholars refer to this schism between the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers as the parting of the ways. The parting of the ways was not a clean break on a single date but rather a gradual process shaped by multiple events and debates over religious identity, law, and tradition.
Most would say it began around 70 AD with the destruction of the Temple and the re-creation of Judaism from a sacrificial religion to something based on the teachings of the rabbis. Torah observance and adherence to traditions were emphasized above the need for Temple sacrifices. The ending of the parting of the ways would be when Rome became a Christian empire in the early 300s.
Over time, Jewish believers in Jesus became marginalized within Judaism, and Gentile Christians established a new religious identity increasingly separate from Jewish customs. By the end of the fourth century, “Christianity” and “Judaism” functioned largely as two distinct religious traditions with separate institutions, theologies, and communal identities.
Judiasm-less Christianity
With Judaism and Christianity being distinct traditions, Christian Fathers, such as Jerome, looked down upon the Jews. Many saw them as cursed. They have no country. They lost their capital and the Temple. Christians began to persecute Jews. In the late fourth century, John Chrysostom, often referred to as the “Golden Mouth” preacher, spoke of his hatred for the synagogue and the Jews.
So put yourself in their place. Maybe you too would have believed that God was finished with Israel. The Church is the new Israel. The promises that once belonged to the physical children of Abraham now belong to his spiritual kids. It sure looked that way.
In fact, you might’ve been able to convince me in the year 500 CE or 1000 CE. Maybe all those promises about the restoration of Israel referred to the growing Church. But then something happened that would change everything.
The Prophets
If a prophet of God said 100 years ago that on September 11, 2001 the World Trade Center in New York City would be attacked and destroyed, you would assume that that was a prophecy from God. They didn’t even know what the World Trade Center was. The Hebrew prophets of old prophesy in unison that the Jewish people would be scattered from their homeland but brought back in the End Times. There are many passages. Let’s just look at two:
“Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock’” (Jer 3:10).
“For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land” (Ezek 36:24).
In the late 1800s, Jewish people began to flood back into Israel. They bought land and built homes. They developed farms and created an economy. Hebrew became the national language (even before there was a nation). In 1948, the Jewish State was born when they declared independence. The United States was the first nation to recognize her, and the rest is history.
So in the same way that you may have thought with the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem that God had rejected Israel, how could anyone not see prophecy coming to fulfillment before their eyes in 1948? God would supernaturally protect Israel through many wars. After the Six-Day War, Jerusalem was recovered, and the Israeli flag was flown above Jerusalem for the first time since statehood.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, over one million Russian Jews came to the Land of Israel. This is a fulfillment of prophecy. Jeremiah 16 speaks about a day when there will be an exodus of Jews from the land north of Israel that would overshadow the exodus from Egypt. How could Jeremiah know 2500 years ago about this mass exodus from the former Soviet Union? Of course, he could not unless God himself revealed it.
I Would Believe in Replacement Theology But...
But Israel is a nation. The Jewish people have returned. Tens of thousands of Jewish people have put their hope in Yeshua as Messiah and continue to live as Jews. Congregations of these Jewish believers flourish around the world, with over 300 in Israel. Contributions from this tiny Middle Eastern nation bless the whole world. We grow roses in the desert and have dairy farms below the Dead Sea. The nation has produced a series of impossibles. In fact, without the hand of God, her restoration was impossible. This is why I can never believe in Replacement Theology… I just don’t have that much faith.
