The Other Replacement Theology

 by Brian Hennessy

It is becoming clear to many Christians that God is bringing forth a fresh revelation today concerning the identity of all those called to be members of the body of Messiah. I’d like to share this understanding with you that has blossomed forth with jaw-dropping realization in my own spirit.

Most Christians are now painfully aware that the church has long promoted a false teaching regarding the Jewish people known as replacement theology. With the rise of a Gentile majority in the early church, the new non-Jewish leadership began to assume that God had created a new Israel. In their minds, this new Israel marked a distinct discontinuation from the old Israel with its promises to Abraham and his natural seed. As Galatians 3:16 declares, Jesus was the promised Seed. So it was assumed that everything started anew with Him – and everything that came before was now history.

This meant any claim by the Jews to a continuing covenant relationship with God outside of Jesus was now invalid. Under this theology the church had now replaced the Jews as God’s only people. And as we know, this view became a root cause of anti-Semitism among the “Christian” nations, which today has turned its hatred towards the modern state of Israel.

Enter Christian Zionism

Eventually, more and more Christians saw that the Scriptures taught that the Jews had not been rejected by God for their unbelief and had not been replaced by the Church as the new Israel. That “they were beloved for the sake of the fathers, for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom. 11:28,29).   And that although they had been hardened towards the gospel, it was only temporary until the “fullness of the Gentiles had come in” (Rom. 11:25). Then they would be spiritually reawakened as we are seeing today with the birth of the Messianic Jewish movement.

What’s more, it was finally understood by many (who became known as Christian Zionists) that all the original promises to Abraham and his physical offspring were still in effect. Especially the many prophecies that call for a divine restoration of the nation of Israel in the last days.  Indeed the apostle Peter tells us in Acts 3:20, 21 that Jesus won’t return until that restoration is complete. But what did that restoration include? Over and over it was prophesied that the descendants of both houses of the scattered nation – the House of Judah and the House of Israel - would be gathered out from among the nations where they had gone and reunited as one nation in the land under Messiah. The two-stick prophecy of Ezekiel 37:15-28, which declares the two tribes of the southern kingdom (Judah) will be rejoined to the ten tribes of the northern kingdom (Israel/Ephraim), is perhaps the highest expression of that promise.

Time to Rethink Some Things

Now here is the problem. Although replacement theology is quickly denounced by most Christians when applied to the descendants of the House of Judah (the Jews), it is unwittingly embraced when it is applied to the descendants of the other house, the House of Israel. Think about it. When we say that Gentiles grafted into the Israel of God through faith in Jesus (Romans 11) represent the descendants of the northern Kingdom of Israel (Ephraim), aren’t we saying those Gentiles have replaced the actual physical offspring to whom the promises were made?  If we affirm that the Jews today are the biological descendants of the House of Judah and no one can take their place, why do we switch gears and say God has replaced the descendants of the House of Israel with Gentiles who are NOT actually physical descendants. Would God keep His promise to one house and not the other? That doesn’t make any sense. Nor does it say much about God’s ability or willingness to keep His word.

Can we Gentile believers actually be the physical descendants of the House of Israel? Why not? The northern kingdom of the House of Israel was exiled for its idolatry in 721 BC and declared through the prophet Hosea to be “Lo-ammi - not My people” (Hosea 1:9). They melted into the nations and were never heard from again. But God would have no problem knowing who they were and where in the world they went. Then in the fullness of time He sent Jesus with the Gospel to go into all the nations to search for His lost sheep. Jesus Himself said, “no one can come to Me unless the Father draws him” (John  6:44).  So the Father simply drew to Him all those scattered descendants of Abraham He had chosen before the world began.

New Testament Clues

It’s true the New Testament doesn’t come right out and say we Gentiles are the long lost descendants of the ten tribes of the northern kingdom.  But the Holy Spirit left enough clues so that at the proper time it could be revealed. Much the way Joseph hid his biological connection from his brothers until the time came to reveal himself.

For example, in Romans 9:25, Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, quotes Hosea’s prophetic promise of restoration spoken specifically to the descendants of the northern kingdom and applied it to the Gentile believers. Saying, “I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people.’” Again in Ephesians 2:13,14, where he describes those Gentiles and Jews in Jesus as becoming “one new man,” he identifies the Gentiles as those who “were far off” and the Jews as those who “were near.” Referring to Isaiah 57:19. Jews have traditionally understood that they were the ones who “were near,” and the banished northern kingdom descendants as the ones who “were far.” And James starts his whole Epistle by addressing the Church as “the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad.”  The clues are everywhere, once you start looking for them.

How exciting it is to realize God’s promise to Abraham that he would become "the father of many Gentiles” (Gen 17:4) could literally be fulfilled in us non-Jews through our faith in Jesus.