No one is arguing that the Church has magically become Israel, rather;
this is confirming the apostolic testimony that the Church is the believing
remnant within Israel and which has existed from the time of Moses at
the Exodus, until today.
The Church did not replace or become Israel, The Church always was
Israel. True Israel was always the believing remnant. According to Scripture:
1) Jewish followers of Christ are ethnic Israelis.
2) Gentile followers of Christ become spiritual Israelites, by faith.
3) Jewish and Gentile followers of Christ are the Church.
We know from Ephesians 2:11-18, that ethnicity counts for nothing.
And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
Acts 2:47
And if you be in Christ, then you are
Abraham’s seed. Galatians 3:29
At Mt. Sinai, God said Israel was the kingly
priesthood, the holy nation, the peculiar people of God. Exodus 19:5-7
Now: Peter claims that the Christians are this very
people: You [Christians] are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people…Which in
time past were not a people, but are now the people of God. 1 Peter
2:9-10
Also, Israel was known as the circumcision; Ephesians 2:11. For that was their physical mark of
distinction. Paul explicitly says that
unbelieving Jews were a false circumcision, and states that the Christians
are the true circumcision: Beware of
the false circumcision; for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the
Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:2-3
Nothing has been REPLACED.
The first members of the body of Christ were all obedient Israelites.
They, and ONLY they, were obedient Israel, and they went out and taught
that all the followers of Jesus were the sons of Abraham by their faith.
Those who teach, in contrast, that there is a separate destiny for the Jews
and the Church, are teaching in opposition to the Prophets and Apostles.
The “church” is, AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN, Israel and is Israelite in
its origin:
Acts 7:38This is that Moses, who said to the children
of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your
brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. This is he, [Jesus] that was in
the church in the wilderness with the angel which spoke to him on Mount Sinai,
and with our fathers
Acts 2:47
And the Lord added to the church daily
such as should be saved.
Note: that this church exists prior to any gentile inclusion, the Israel
of God.
The real wrong replacement theology is the one that combines the believing remnant
Messianic Jews with the unbelieving wicked ones, as all of Jewish Israel who,
according to the ‘rapture to heaven’ of the Church theory, are the people who remain
on earth while they sit up in heaven.
Ref; Parousia, Post Forum
The Prophetic Word 