Replacement theology, that claims that the church has replaced national Israel, is false.
Paul absolutely destroys the claim God has rejected and is done with the nation of The Israel:
Rom 11:1I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
Rom 11:2God hath not cast away his peoplewhich he foreknew.
.
In
Romans 11, Paul not only says God is not through with the nation of Israel, he wrote that gentiles who believe (the church) are GRAFTED IN to their new covenant, by faith.
In other words, the church has no covenant - National Israel has the new covenant - and if Christians become spiritual Israel, it’s only because of being grafted in as a wild Olive Branch among the natural Olive Branches to the Olive tree of Israel, and not because they replaced national Israel.
Rom 11:17And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
Rom 11:24For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree:how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?
Jesus was sent in the beginning only to national Israel, and told the apostles He sent out, to go not into any gentile city, but only to the Jews, and Jesus identities the National Jewish people as the HOUSE of Israel
Mat 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into anycity of the Samaritans enter ye not:
Mat 10:6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the HOUSE of Israel.
Mat 10:7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
And the new covenant is to be with the HOUSE of Israel - with national Jews, not with so-called spiritual Jews:
Hebrews 8:7For if that first covenanthad been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
Heb 8:8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a NEW covenant with the HOUSE of Israel and with the house of Judah:
BTW,
Hebrews 9says the
Jeremiah 31new covenant with the HOUSE of Israel, took effect at Jesus’ death.
I said all that to prove that the bones Ezekiel saw come to life is the nation Israel:
Ezekiel 37:11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole HOUSE of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
More proof it’s the dry bones coming to life is about the rebirth of the nation of Israel is found on the same page:
Ezekiel 37:12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, AND BRING YOU INTO THE LAND OF ISRAEL
Eze 37:13 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,
Eze 37:14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, AND I SHALL PLACE YOU IN YOUR OWN LAND: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it,and performed it,saith the LORD.
BTW the dry bones of the House of Israel came to life in 1948 when Israel became a nation again, in 1948.
It’s not spiritual Israel Jesus comes to when He returns to Mount Olive in
Zechariah 14:5, and saves Jerusalem from destruction, then reigns forever from Jerusalem on the throne of David.
It’s not any so called spiritual Israel that god gathers from all over the world, back to the land God dispersed them from.
If the church has replaced Israel, then
Romans 11is nonsensically saying that salvation has come to the gentile church, to make the gentile church jealous:
Rom 11:11I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
If Christians are now Israel, then since most of Israel is in unbelief and ungodly until they see ‘ the deliver come out of Zion’, then the church is ungodly and in unbelief until the return of Jesus, and He turns them away from ungodliness. Per
Romans 11.
And it’s not so called spiritual Israel that is in the new covenant Jesus now mediates, that took effect at His death per
Hebrews 9, but the promised new covenant with the HOUSE of Israel and the HOUSE of Judah, per
Jeremiah 31.
Hebrews 8, 9, and 10 make it very clear that the
Jeremiah 31new covenant is the one that took effect when Jesus died, and
Romans 11makes it very clear that salvation only came to us gentiles to make Israel jealous, and that we are the wild Olive tree branches that are grafted in among the natural branches to the Israel olive tree, with Jesus as the roots of the tree. (Their covenant).
Thus we are not so-called spiritual Israel, and have not replaced the natural branches, nor is there a church covenant, but only a House of Israel and House of Judah new covenant that we gentiles are joined to by faith.
God dispersed and punished Israel for their sins several times, but always said the punishment was not permanent, and that their final destiny will be to be brought back to their land, and God will remain with them, not for their sake , BUT FOR HIS:
The word of the LORD came to me:
Eze 36:17“Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their ways before me were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity.
Eze 36:18So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it.
Eze 36:19I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. In accordance with their ways and their deeds I judged them.
Eze 36:20But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that people said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, and yet they had to go out of his land.’
Eze 36:21But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.
Ezekiel 36:22“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.
Eze 36:23And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name,which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.
Eze 36:24I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.
Eze 36:25I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
Eze 36:26And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Eze 36:27And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Eze 36:28You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.