Tuesday, 3 March 2015

Replacement Theology as Blocks and Stones Part Two

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I am in the middle of answering this question ...

Question: Is it correct to divide the Word of God to develop teachings on how Replacement theology serves as blocks and stones as mentioned in Isaiah 57:13-16 or Isaiah 62:10-12, which need to be removed so that the not yet believing Jews could see Yeshua and be able to seriously consider whether or not he is their own promised son of David, the Messiah?

That kind of idea, that the Church has replaced the Jewish people and the Jewish people are not elect was the foundation of anti-Semitism in the historic Christian church. I'm not saying that Replacement theology necessarily led to anti-Semitism, I'm saying that Replacement theology is that false theology without which anti-Semitism in the Church would have been possible.

If the Church had embraced that the Jewish people were still elect, and they had shown love and mercy, and to provoke them to jealousy in a positive loving way - not in a demeaning way which the Church interpreted as a way to keep them down, to shame them and embarrass them to bring them to the Lord.

But instead as you read what Paul said, to show mercy and love. If the Church had seen the Jewish people as still elect, and the people without whom they would never enter their fulfilled destiny in the return of the Lord, then the Church would have had a serving attitude to the Jewish people.

If the Church had historically had a serving attitude toward the Jewish people anti-Semitism would have been impossible in the Western world. Replacement theology is more than stones on the pathway and stumbling blocks. I mean, it is that but it is much more. It is a foundation for a whole false theological system that made anti-Semitism possible. Of course that becomes a huge stumbling block for the Jewish people.