REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY

Inside View Mar/Apr 2024

October 7, 2023, was a wake-up call for many Christians unfamiliar with Israel’s role in God’s plan of redemption. Those who think God has…

Facing Replacement Theology

Have the blessings God promised to the Chosen People of Israel been redirected to all believers in the church? Will the…

Inside View Jul/Aug 2022

Have you heard that Jesus was the first Palestinian? Perhaps you’ve heard Jesus was the great-grandfather of the Palestinian people or, more shocking…

Coming Home

For millennia, the Jewish people have held a hope in their hearts, a dream embodied in the Israeli national anthem, “Hatikvah.” That dream is “to be a free nation…

The Confusion Cure

I once heard a preacher say if you summed up the Bible in a few words, those words would be from a garden (Gen. 1—2) to a city (Rev. 21—22) with a cross in between…

Inside View Sep/Oct 2020

The Bible teaches that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Prov. 1:7). It also warns us not to be wise in our own eyes but to fear God (3:7)…

Israel & the Church

We believe the unconditional covenant God made with Abraham is still in force today, and God will not cancel it. God made the unconditional covenant with Abram (Abraham), recorded in Genesis 15…

Who is a Jew?

For centuries, Jewish people have been asking themselves, “Who is a Jew?” Today a new wrinkle has developed, and it involves Christians…

Jewish World Update Sep/Oct 2018

“You are the ammunition for Hamas’s guns; you are the warheads for its missiles,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told the UN General Assembly when it recently condemned Israel for…

Inside View May/Jun 2018

Nowadays, trying to discern between truth and fake news is a full-time job. Such is also the case with the distinction between Israel and the church. I believe God’s Word clearly teaches Israel is not the church, and the church is not Israel…

Understanding the Kingdom

The topic of the Kingdom of God dominates Jesus’ teaching in the Gospels. Yet throughout church history, an amazing disunity has characterized the interpretation of…

How to Spell Blessing: Israel

We live in a world of widespread redefinition. Some people view the practice as a positive modification to an old, outdated understanding of certain terms and practices, while others…

Icon of an open Bible. The Berean Box.

Q: What does the phrase Israel of God mean?

Israel of God refers to Jewish people who received Christ as their Savior and consequently belong to the church. It does not refer to the entire church. The phrase appears in Galatians 6: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision…

The Great Invalidation

“Next year in Jerusalem!” As they have since the Jewish people were scattered around the world in AD 70, these words will ring out on the evening of April 10 at the close of Passover seders everywhere. Yet, if the United Nations…

Israel in the News Mar/Apr 2017

Following the UN Security Council’s vote condemning Israel’s presence in eastern Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed his resolve by going to the Western Wall to light the second candle of…

Still Dreaming

To some, it may have seemed like an odd pairing. But not to Natan Sharansky. As he sat with Martin Luther King III on a Sunday morning in Jerusalem, he felt like they were colleagues sharing the same goals Being with King in Israel…

Inside View Sep/Oct 2016

It is common to cross paths with Christians who don’t believe the Jewish people today are God’s Chosen People. They fail to see how Israel fits into God’s plan for this world…

The Sense of Plain Sense

Another way in which I was subjected to the attitude of Replacement Theology was through the teaching that all of the Old Testament had been nailed to the…

Inside View May/Jun 2016

Jewish people often ask us, “How long have there been Christians who support Israel?” Over the years, we have come to appreciate their question because Christians, more than any other group, have persecuted and tortured the Jews for two millennia…

Antique fountain pen on parchment.

From the Editor May/Jun 2015

Many years ago I had a wonderful friend who truly loved Jewish people. She was a devout Christian who had come to Christ later in life from a Greek Orthodox background and…

Israel: Forever a Fact

On the cusp of a national election, the air is filled with promises. But when the election cycle ends and the ballots are tallied, we learn which promises have a shot at being kept…

Dr. Ateek’s Rose-Colored Glasses

Naim Ateek is not a large man. He is slender, around 5 feet 7 inches tall, with white hair and a self-effacing, gentle look about him. He is not loud or aggressive, and he would…

Pushing the Anti-Israel Agenda

The “empire” is dying, according to Phyllis Bennis. When Bennis says “empire,” she is not referring to the massive Roman Empire that once ruled Europe and the Middle East…

Evangelicals Against Israel

A mere decade ago, Christian Zionism was seen as an emerging force in American politics. As if out of nowhere, a block of 50 million to 100 million friends of Israel were poised to…

What Christian Anti-Zionists Teach

Christian anti-Zionism is gaining strength both in America and abroad. Its teaching turns the world against Israel as God’s Chosen People, casts Israel as the aggressor rather than the victim…

Inside View Nov/Dec 2013

Every time I visit Israel, I see the modern miracle of the Jewish people. No other nation has ever been exiled and returned to its homeland to become a nation again. First the Jewish people returned…

Inside View Sep/Oct 2013

Israel’s enemies are at it again. The latest attack comes from the Church of Scotland in its document The inheritance of Abraham? A report on the ‘promised land,’ which refutes Israel’s…

Silhouette of man speaking.

Ties That Bind

Have we forgotten, or pushed out of mind, a phrase often quoted and fondly embraced in other days? I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse…

The New Anti-Semitism

Since the birth of modern Israel in 1948, a new form of anti-Semitism has emerged. Rather than attacking the Jewish people directly, it claims to oppose only Zionism…

Jesus the ‘Palestinian’

In some Christian circles, the theological justification for gaining freedom from Israeli “occupation” is Christian Palestinianism, a form of liberation theology that emphasizes…

10 Errors of Christian Palestinianism

What’s wrong with Christian Palestinianism? A great deal. Here are 10 of its most obvious errors: 1. It blames Israel for much of the conflict between Israel and the Arabs…

Palestinian Liberation Theology

Scripture says people of all ethnicities become one in the body of Christ. Sadly, a new doctrine is building a wall between brothers, rather than tearing one down.

The Facts and Flaws of Covenant Theology Conclusion

What does God say about Israel’s future? If the New Testament teaches ethnic Israel has a future, then Replacement Theology is untrue. While on Earth, Jesus established that He was premillennial…

The Facts and Flaws of Covenant Theology Part Three

If Replacement Theology is true, then certainly God has an opinion about it—one He states clearly and teaches visibly in Scripture. Conversely, if it is not plainly taught, then Replacement Theology…

The Facts and Flaws of Covenant Theology Part Two

Covenant Theology is the dominant theological system of most mainline Protestant churches and maintains that God has replaced the Jewish people with the church. On the basis of two or three “covenants”…

Silhouette of man speaking.

The Plague That Will Not Go Away

A grisly discovery was made in Norwich, England, recently. Seventeen Jewish skeletons, apparently from the same family, were found at the bottom of a medieval well. Archaeologists theorize  the Jews were forced down…

The Facts and Flaws of Covenant Theology Part One

Covenant Theology is the dominant theological system of most mainline Protestant churches. It is a system of theology that interprets the Bible’s philosophy of history through the lens of two or three…

Silhouette of man speaking.

Connecting the Dots

Nehemiah had his work cut out for him. God had promised to return the Jewish people to their land after their captivity in Babylon. And true to His Word, God brought Nehemiah…

We Answer to a Higher Authority

Christian Zionists have a deep commitment to Israel. Learn what motivates their love and how they are perceived by the Jewish community.

Israel in the News Sep/Oct 2009

“Our goal has never been peace,” a Fatah official admitted on Palestinian Authority (PA) TV. “Peace is a means; the goal is Palestine,” meaning the conquest of Israel. “It has been said…

Imperishable Remnants

There was never a time when all of Israel rebelled against God. A remnant has always been faithful. Today twin remnants form a marvelous union of grace.

The Trouble with Preterism

Has all prophecy been fulfilled? Preterists say yes, God has done it all. Such skewed theology is not only bad for Israel, it’s bad for the church as well.

From Bill Sutter’s Desk May/Jun 2008

Widespread “Israel at 60” celebrations in Jewish communities this year are reminders of the certainty of God’s promises to the Jewish people. Christians who have been participating in these events realize they are expressing…

Men Who Believed

Replacement Theology, which strips Israel of God’s promises, has been around a long time. But in every generation, there also have been men who believed, long before 1948, in Israel’s national restoration.

Silhouette of man speaking.

Religion and Politics: Who’s in the Game

An interesting contest seems to be heating up as the world paves a road to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The religious left has felt compelled to issue a series…

Two Great Days, Two Great Doctrines

If you’re interested in learning the exact differences between Israel and the church, this amazing outline is just what the doctor ordered.

At the Beginning

Some people don’t believe the church began at Pentecost. But it certainly did. And its birth is the result of a single, major event that changed history forever.

The EC and Israel

Historically, church saints have looked to God to take them up to meet the Lord in the air at any moment (1 Th. 4). Furthermore, said theologian David L. Larsen, “Neither John…

From Bill Sutter’s Desk May/Jun 2007

Reports from many areas of our worldwide ministry indicate a resurgence of an errant teaching best described as Replacement Theology. Deviating from a literal interpretation of God’s prophetic Word, Replacement…

It’s All or Nothing

In 1960 Christian entertainer Pat Boone wrote lyrics for the theme song of a movie based on Leon Uris’s popular novel Exodus. Exodus told the epic story of the Jewish…

The Importance of a Literal Interpretation

Hermeneutics is the art and science of interpretation. When most readers open a newspaper or book, they assume the author intends for them to understand what he is saying. They also instinctively…

Beyond the Veil to the Future

The definitive New Testament chapter on the identification of Israel and the prophetic destiny and relationship of Christians to the Jewish people is chapter 11 of the book of Romans. God spelled…

The ‘Main Thing’ is Israel

My youngest daughter has just completed her sophomore year at a secular university. It took her almost the entire two years to find a church where she could worship that did not consider…

The Roots of Replacement Theology

What in the world happened to make Christians believe they are the “new Israel”? The answer does not flatter the early church.

Who is Israel?

To whom does the term Israel refer? Many Christians today claim the word Israel in the Bible refers to the church because the church, they say, has replaced Israel in God’s…

The Essentials of Dispensationalism

What makes a dispensationalist? Dr. Charles Ryrie, former president of Philadelphia Biblical University, professor emeritus at Dallas Theological Seminary, and author of more than 30 books, answers this question in a newly…

For the Glory of God

You don’t need to be a theologian to understand Dispensationalism. You only need to grasp some of the important points explained here.

Bulldozing Caterpillar

The Church of England’s vote to divest from companies doing business in Israel is causing a stir, even among Anglicans. But it has made a few things crystal clear.

The Anti-Nazi Voice of Courage

The Lord always has His remnant. In the evil days of King Ahab, He had Elijah and 7,000 people “whose knees have not bowed to Baal” (1 Ki. 19:18). And in the evill…

New or Déj à Vu?

Europe is again becoming a dangerous place for Jewish people. It’s the same old anti-Semitism, but with a slightly new and frightening twist.

The MBB’s ‘Dirty Little Secret’

It was a meeting like the hundreds of others we have experienced over the course of twenty years. My brother Emir was gently debating another Arabic Christian…

Presbyterians Come Out of the Closet

Yes, it is true that the Presbyterian Church (USA) manhandled Israel at its 216th General Assembly last summer. Not that the denomination has been soft on…

Backlash

When the hierarchy of the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) declared that it wanted to send a “strong message” to the international community to convey…

Defining Differences

Premillennialism: The prefix pre means “before.” Premillennialism is the view that Christ will return to earth before the Millennium or Kingdom of God. He will establish a literal, political Kingdom of God on earth…

From Bill Sutter’s Desk May/Jun 2003

Many Jewish people assume that, as Bible-believing Christians, we direct our attention to the New Testament to the exclusion of the Old Testament. They are unaware that our keen interest in studying the Bible…

From Bill Sutter’s Desk Nov/Dec 2002

The leader of a Jewish organization recently asked me about the puzzling lack of support for Israel within mainline Protestant denominations. I explained that the root of the problem is theological. A significant and disturbing development…

The Zion Connection: The Biblical Mandate

When God called Abram to leave Ur of the Chaldees, He was demanding that he strip himself of his identity. Abram was to leave all that made him who he was—his family, his possessions, and the land that he had known as…

Combating Anti-Semitism in the Church

There is nothing new in the current outburst of global anti-Semitism. It has been around for many centuries. In fact, it had its beginnings with Satan after God called the Jews to be a people…

Christian Reconstructionism

During the 1960s a new movement began within the sphere of Reformed or Covenant Theology. That movement has been called by three different names: Reconstructionism (because it advocates the reconstruction of society)…

The Major Issues Related to The New Covenant

In the previous article it was noted that, although the Old Testament promised the New Covenant specifically to the literal nation of Israel, the Church also has a relationship to the New Covenant…

The High Priest Covenant of The Savior

The streets of Jerusalem were deserted. A quiet hush had fallen over the city which on other days was bustling with activity. Families had gathered in their homes to commemorate the Passover.