The Fruits Of Replacement Theology - A Church Against Israel
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A few days ago UK researchers announced that 17 skeletons belonging to Jews were found at the bottom of a medieval well in Norwich, England. The Jews were murdered in a pogrom or had been forced to commit suicide rather than submit to demands for conversion to Christianity.
The bodies date back to the 12th or 13th Centuries, at a time when Jewish people faced killings, banishment and persecution throughout all Europe. Those 17 Jews were killed because of �replacement theology,� the most ancient Christian calumny arguing that because of their denial of the divinity of Christ, the Jews have forfeited God�s promises to them which have been transferred to the Church.
Some 10 centuries later, global Christian forums are reviving this theological demonology against the heirs of those 17 Jews: the Jews of the State of Israel. The World Council of Churches, an ecumenical Christian body based in Gen�ve and boasting 590 million worshipers, just ended a four-day conference in the Greek city of Volos. Not a single word of criticism was uttered there against the Islamists who are persecuting Arabs who believe in Jesus.
Lutherans arrived to Volos from the United States, Catholics and Protestants from Bethlehem and Nazareth, Orthodox Christians from Greece and Russia, lecturers from Beirut and Copts from Egypt. The conference declared the Jewish State �a sin� and �occupying power,� accused Israelis of �dehumanizing� the Palestinians, theologically dismantled the �choseness� of the Jewish people and called for �resistance� as a Christian duty.
The conference denied 3,000 years of Jewish life in the land stretching between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, took sides against the very presence of Israel, likened the defensive barrier that has blocked terrorism to �apartheid,� attacked Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria invoking the name of God and conceptually dismissed the Jewish state, imagining it to be a mixture � Islamic, Christian and perhaps a bit Jewish. It even legitimized terrorism when it talked about the �thousands of prisoners who languish in Israeli jails,� proclaiming that �resistance to the evil of occupation is a Christian�s right and duty.�
In the last few months we have seen a radical and dangerous increase of attacks on Israel by the Protestant and Catholic churches. While the US is home to many Christian supporters of Israel, the groups more closely linked to global public opinion, European bureaucracy, the media industry, the United Nations and various legal forums are all violently anti-Israel and anti-Jewish. They are paving the way for a new Jewish bloodbath by the theological exclusion of Israel�s Jews from the family of nations.
The patriarch of the Antioch Church, the Catholic Melkite Gregory III Laham, proclaimed that there is a �Zionist conspiracy against Islam,� reviving old conspiracy theories that led to infamous pogroms. In Antwerp, once called �the Belgian Jerusalem,� a highly respected and government-funded Catholic school, the College of the Sacred Heart, just hosted a �Palestine Day� replete with anti-Semitic references and activities for youngsters. One stall at the event was titled �Throw the soldiers into the sea,� allowing children to throw replicas of Jewish and Israeli soldiers into two large tanks.
The most influential international Catholic peace movement, Pax Christi, just promoted a boycott of Israel�s goods �in the name of love.� The most hated Israeli product includes Ahava, the famous Israeli cosmetics company, whose shop in Covent Garden, London, has just been closed by the company after years of demonstrations. Strangely, Ahava body lotion tubes have been chosen as a satanic symbol of Jewish colonialism.
Today, most of the divestment campaign against Israel is driven by Christian groups such as the Dutch Interchurch Organization and the Irish Catholic group Troicar�, both funded by the EU. The United Church of Canada, a very popular and mainstream Christian denomination, just voted to boycott six companies (Caterpillar, Motorola, Ahava, Veolia, Elbit Systems and Chapters/Indigo) and South African bishop Desmond Tutu convinced the University of Johannesburg to severe all its links with Israeli fellows.
Last year the Methodist Church of Britain voted to boycott Israeli-produced goods and services from Judea and Samaria. The catholic Pax Christi is also leading the campaign glorifying Mordechai Vanunu, Israel�s nuclear whistleblower who had converted to Christianity. La Civilt� Cattolica, the Vatican magazine reviewed by the Holy See secretary of state before publication, in January opened with a shocking editorial on Palestinian refugees. Adopting the Islamist propagandist word �Nakba,� just recently invoked by Arab mobs to breach Israel�s borders, the paper declared that the refugees are a consequence of �ethnic cleansing� by Israel and that �the Zionists were cleverly able to exploit the Western sense of guilt for the Shoah to lay the foundations of their own state.� Indeed, Ahmadinejad�s rhetoric is alarmingly similar.
Israel�s relationship with the Vatican is different from Jerusalem�s relationship with Albania or Luxembourg for example, because the Catholic Church has more than one billion adherents and a global moral authority. At the Rome synod, Archbishop Cyrille Salim Bustros, a cleric chosen by Pope Ratzinger to draft the synod�s 44 final propositions, denied the Jewish people�s biblical right to the Promised Land. �We Christians cannot speak about the Promised Land for the Jewish people. There is no longer a chosen people�, Bustros said, reviving the �replacement theology.�
Edmond Farhat, a Maronite Apostolic Nuncio, who is a sort of Vatican�s ambassador, described Israel�s place in the Middle East in terms of a rejected �foreign implant� that which has no specialists �capable of healing it.� Elsewhere, the current Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, named by Pope Ratzinger to represent the Catholic community in Israel and the West Bank, is sponsoring an appeal against the �Judaization of Jerusalem.� Indeed, at this time, new anti-Israel policies by the most powerful Christian groups are breathing new life into Medieval doctrine that demonized Jews for hundreds of years.
The latest excavations in England suggest the Jews were thrown down the well together, head first, the kids after the parents. Five of them had a DNA sequence suggesting they were likely to be members of a single Jewish family. Some 10 centuries later, five Jews from the same Israeli family, the Fogels of Itamar, were slaughtered in their own beds. A famous Italian priest, Mario Cornioli, wrote immediately after the massacre in a subliminal justification of the killings: �What is Itamar? An illegal Israeli colony built on stolen land.�The replacement calumny has changed its language, yet it still marks a death sentence for the Jewish people: Israelis, like Lucifer, were God�s chosen but were cast out for their rebellious and evil ways, and now deserve to be obliterated from the so-called �Holy Land,� the argument goes. From Norwich to Itamar, the Jewish martyrs are an everlasting and heroic stain in this horrible, theological blood libel.
1. When the Lord, your God, brings you into the land to to which you are coming to possess it, He will cast away many nations from before you: the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivvites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful that you.
2. And the Lord, your God, will deliver them to you, and you shall smite them. You shall utterly destroy them; neither shall you make a covenant with them, nor be gracious to them.
3. You shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughter to his son, and you shall not take his daughter for your son.
4. For he will turn away your son from following Me, and they will worship the gods of others, and the wrath of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you. - Deuteronomy 7
�We Christians cannot speak about the Promised Land for the Jewish people. There is no longer a chosen people�, Bustros said, reviving the �replacement theology.�
Sadly, many born-again Christians believe that the Jews are no longer God's chosen people, including some on this site.
For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. -Zechariah 2:8
No, Israel is just that, Israel. The idea that the church has replaced Israel, that we are the ones who are to fulfill the promises given to Israel, has been the basis for extreme cruelty towards the Jews for centuries. It was the basis for the crusades, which ironically was supposed to free the promised land, starting with the killing of many Jews.
If you believe that the church is now Israel, then how do you deal with Romans 11, which promises that the Jews (as a people) will come back to God. How do you deal with all of the prophecies concerning Israel in the end times, do you allegorize them and say that they really speak of the church.
Besides, the real point of the article is about the old hatred towards the Jews by the so called church, who persecuted them because of their rejection of Christ as the Messiah.
I believe the scriptures teach that G-d is faithful to Israel and the church did not replace Israel, like many denominations teach.
Referring to Romans 11, which we have discussed in another thread here, the Gentiles are grafted into the olive tree, Partakest of the root - The ingrafted limb would derive nourishment from the root as much as though it were a natural branch of the tree. The Gentiles derived now the benefit of Abraham's faith and holy labors, and of the promises made to him and to his seed, which means we as gentile christians are granted the same promises of Israel (not replacing them,as replacement theology teaches) just like the original branches (Jews), however, not all gentiles and jews are included in these promises, it is G-d's soverign choice. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy, etc. - The words of God to Moses, Exodus 33:19, show that God has a right to dispense his blessings as he pleases; for, after he had declared that he would spare the Jews of old, and continue them in the relation of his peculiar people, when they had deserved to have been cut off for their idolatry, he said: I will make all my goodness pass before thee; and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy; and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. As if he had said: I will make such a display of my perfections as shall convince you that my nature is kind and beneficent; but know, that I am a debtor to none of my creatures. My benefits and blessings are merely from my own good will: nor can any people, much less a rebellious people, challenge them as their due in justice or equity. And therefore I now spare the Jews; not because either you, who intercede for them or they themselves have any claim upon my favor, but of my own free and sovereign grace I choose to show them mercy and compassion. I will give my salvation in my own way and on my own terms. He that believeth on my Son Jesus shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned. This is God's ultimate design; this purpose he will never change; and this he has fully declared in the everlasting Gospel. This is the grand decree of reprobation and election.
I consider it an honor and a blessing to be an adopted child of G-d, and while some of the Jews rejected Messiah, they will come to the knowledge of Yeshua as Messiah in the latter days, after the times of the gentiles are fulfilled. I believe we are to support Israel and as the churches and nations turn against them, G-d turns against them.
"I will bless those who bless Israel, and curse those who curse Israel" Gen. 12:3
But The New covenant is NOT after the Flesh. CHRIST put an end to The carnal in himself.
The Crusades were just a bunch of crazy angry people, led by masons/warlocks, running around killing everryone in the name of GOD and "purity"(not spiritual purity mind you), even though the Gospels/epistels of the NT say our fights are no longer CARNAL...its ALL spiritual.
ANY time a human, who calls themselves a follower of Yehushuah, A Follower Of Christ Jesus, Yet Kills, automaticaly negates the Name in who the claim to follow. (Vengence is HIS...and not HIS through US)
The New covenant IN Jesus, is precisely that, IN. abiding IN him, and you cant abide, unless you obey(Jesus said so) And what did he say? DENY SELF, pick up cross, Follow ME. If we constatnly busy ourself with spreading HIS name, and HIS gospel(the REAL one, of holyness, and repentance, and denial of the self nature, relyign totaly on the Almighty) then we wont have tiem for ANYTHING else. Especially not carnal wars, adn fights and what have you.
So since the New Covenant is Spiritual, the carnal passed away. EVERYTHING after the flesh passed away. That include BLESSINGS. ALL blessings are spiritual and in Christ. Does that mean we should all be poor? no. Thats not what i mean at all. But ALL thigns promised, are SPIRITUAL now...The PHYSICAL in the OT was a pictrue of the SPIRITUAL in JESUS. Its pretty simple.
We are to be led by the SPIRIT. and the SPIRIT is NOT goign to lead one to o ANYTHIGN n the flesh. Those LED by the SPIRIT Of God, THEY are SOns of GOD. Its pretty exact wording. PRince of God, WE are Princes of GOd IN christ Jesus. And we are NOT to harm a single soul. EVER. We are to live at peace with ALL men(witch is REALLY rare in any christian no matter there theology)
If A Follower of Christ REALLY care about the Jewish people, they NEED to witness TO them. they need to be tellig nthem About There messiah. THAT is how and truly the ONLY way to truly bless the Jewish people.
ISRAEL is IN christ. The Bible is pretty clear that the OT was a picture, of US in Christ. CHRIST is eternal but the LAW was temprerary. The LAW is NOW fullfilled in the SPirit. if you WALK by the spirit, THEN the law is fullfilled. You are doign the law, becasue you are IN abiding IN resting IN the only man to do ALL of the law 100% Perfectly JEsus. Now HIS spirit fullfills the LAW IN you and through YOU IF we abide. JEsus said ALL of the LAW is in two thigns,
Love the LORD your GOD with all, your heart, soul, and strength(Which hardly anyone truly does daily...me included...but he woke me up to the NEED of this) that doesnt mean love him with 98.9% of yourself and then on thursday afternoon love the TV more..or even YOUr wife...
AND Love your nighbor as yourself, cant do one without the other.
And THAT is only completed by Walkign IN the spirit. And THAT is eternal.
SO THAT is the LAW of Israel. Matthew is CLEAR that verse i posted is CLEAR that JESUS is The Prince of GOd(Israel) and we ar sons IN him. the Gentiles were GRAFTED IN, (no longer havign to be circumsised inthe flesh...But now through the Spirit, circumsised of the HEART) And ISRAEL is saved IN christ JEsus as well
Paul said, HE was proof that All israel will be saved. So if HE was proof that all israel will be saved....then that means ISRAEL was beign saved in HIS time.
Anyway, Israel, is NO longer after the flesh. Salvation is NOlonger after the flesh. The Scriptures dont say its not after the flesh "for this dispensation and then it will go back to being after the flesh" NO! thats mans twisting of scripture. EVERYTHING is after the SPIRIT, we no longer know Chrst after the flesh, but after the spirit. The letter kills ut the Spirit gives life. it is ALL the Holy spirit of The Most high, Yet people will still rather have the carnal nature. They love it, because it feels good to the flesh, which we need to be crusifying.
No more flesh. Which means as a whole. For ever. We are at Heavenly Jerusalem, MOUNT Sion, NOW (Hebrews 12:22) Its in the SPIRIT. We worship in SPIRIT AND TRUTH...yet the majority of "Christians" still want to worship in the flesh. Which would be in vain. (in vain they worship me but there hearts are far from me)
Anyway...my WHOLE point. Way to much leanign on the arm of flesh, adn not enough leaning on GOD, and being led by HIS spirit. (me included, but God has been wakeing me up to this FACT, this TRUTH) To put our minds on the news, adn keeping our hearts and minds on whats coing on in the WORLD to try and keep an eye on Prophesy, it is takign our minds OFF of heavenly thigns(Colossians 3:2) and on to Earthly. and its taking our eyes off of Christ, and seeking FIRST the kingdom of GOD. And then we fall into the trap of having al our hearts focus on the carnal, happenigns of the WORLD but Jesus said HIS kingdom is not of this World. IF we are AT MT. Sion NOW...then lets keep our hearts adn minds there.
Ok, I guess ill stop my tangent. Trully ask the Most high about these thigns. May the Lord Jesus bless you.
Jews ARE still God's chosen people - not superior (as the Lord Himself says) to us gentiles to whom the way is now also open - but chosen for a purpose.
God will deal with Israel as He sees fit, but He has vowed never to forsake them and that stands true today even. Isaiah 49:15 confirms this.
I also long for Jews and Christians to be reconciled - I doubt it'll happen in my lifetime 'cos there's people on both sides who won't accept the other - but Isaiah 49:22 says it will happen. There's gonna be people in both camps who're going to have to swallow an awful lot of pride...
IN CHRIST there is no difference. that is what the scriptures say. No Jew or Gentile in Christ because GOD is NOT a respector of PERsons. we are ALL equal in JESUS. and that is the ONLY way to thefather now. That is it.
final and eternal, Christs Blood.
The LAW is the SPIRIT. Those led by the SPIRIT of GOD, THEY Are Sons of GOD.
Isaiah 49:22 is talkign about GODS standard that he wil set up.
That is the Gospel, in Christ Jesus. Christ is the standard.
God is NO respector of persons. we must ALL meet Gentiles and Jews, must meet at the Cross.
So very true DKJ...and RKF...Yes ! we are all the Sons & Daughters of Yashua / Christ Jesus in Spirit...Jew and Gentile and All equal at the foot of the cross...:yay:...xo
