Understanding The Word

The Church and Israel

The Church vs. Israel (Replacement theology)

Before we can understand what the purpose of the Rapture is, we must first understand the difference between the Church (Bride and Body of Christ) and Israel…as there are false teachings regarding this and state that The Church has replaced Israel….a word of warning….whoever believes this and whoever teaches this….is a false teacher or believing in a false doctrine and they do not read/know the Bible, or rightly divide the Word of God; as I will explain more below.

What is replacement theology?

“It is the belief that the Mosiac Covenant was replaced with a new covenant and that the Church is the new people of God. It is the view that the Church is the new (or True) Israel that has permanently replaced Israel in God’s eyes and heart, and is also referred sometimes as Supersessionism.”

Beliefs of the replacement theory

• Christians should not exalt or claim that Israel/Jews are God’s Chosen people.
• That the progressive revelation of Scripture states that God only has The Church
• You are not to apply the Old testament prophecies to Israel , because Jesus, Peter, and Paul redirected the belief of the covenants of promise and they are directly to the Church.
• That Israel claiming Palestine is incorrect and unjust
• Because the Jews rejected Christ Israel was cast off and forfeited their position as the Chosen ones of God.
• The belief that allegorization (the searching of hidden meanings in scripture) is the true understanding of all scripture and thus is the correct way to interpret the Bible.

First and foremost-

If The Church replaced Israel….where in scripture does it state this? There isn’t any….as the one verse people who teach this believe is Hebrews 8:13

“In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.”

The old covenant was the Law….the new covenant is salvation/ redemption in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It is the Grace of forgiveness of all your sins if you but believe.

The Church

“And I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 18:17

The Church never existed until Christs’ time….this verse was a prelude to a Church that Jesus was going to create and the need of this Church was because the Jews refused Jesus as their messiah….So He was going to create a Church to include anyone who accepts He is Christ to be joined to the Church and become a part of the Body of Christ because they are one and the same. 

Jesus would be the Head of the Body(church) but it could not happen before His Ascension, so the Church did not exist until Acts 2: 1-4 at Pentecost…..as this was when the Holy Spirit was given and Jesus could only give the Holy Spirit after He ascended…..

Why would we (The Church and Body of Christ) be referred to as fellow Heirs if we replaced Israel?

“to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow Heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel.” Ephesians 3:6

Bride of Christ

Saved believers (The Church) are the Bride of Christ….and because we are the Bride we are expecting our Groom (Jesus) to come and get us before the Wedding (in heaven)….

If Jesus is the head and savior of the Body and The Church is the body….would Jesus subject His bride to Judgement and Wrath?  A beating of torture and heartbreak…..when He has already taken that upon His physical body for us?  When He took the Judgement for us already? 

Would He subject His body to Satan and the world to force His Bride and Body to even be around to choose the Mark that is coming?  People who do not understand the Tribulation period will claim yes…..Jesus would subject His body and Bride to such a horrendous time on earth because He has before….

(Also, if when we receive Jesus as our Savior and we are all then parts of the Body of Christ….to imply that only those who are working for Christ go in a Pre-tribulation Rapture is then stating that the body is dismembered or disfigured….and this cannot be so for Christ is the perfection of the Body, to imply otherwise is making statement that we are not all saved the same which can be (and in some instances is) translated as many ways to heaven…… and this is an impossibility, as there is only one way to be saved and that is believing the Gospel.)

“For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.” Ephesians 5:29-30

They do not understand Jesus…..I am not saying they are not saved….I am saying they cannot see Jesus for the loving, faithful, fair, and merciful Lord He is….people who believe that Jesus would place His Church into the time of wrath and Judgement are under the snare of a lie (and we should know who is the father of lies) because they cannot and refuse to see the truth…..

Thank the Good Lord that unbelief in the rapture is not a salvation issue but a reward and faith issue….How Merciful , Just, and Graceful He is not to make that a criteria….and yes…there will be many people who will be taken in the Rapture, clinging to this world…….

WE ARE ALL ONE BODY, ONE CHURCH, and ONE Bride…..if we are truly saved. 

Israel, Daniel, and Revelation

If The Church replaced Israel; what is the purpose of the prophecies of Daniel?  We all should know about the weeks of years that consist of 70 weeks or 490 years where only 483 have been completed and that leaves 7 years (Great Tribulation) to be fulfilled. 

“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” Daniel 9:24

Has this verse happened?  No…very easily to explain…’to make an end of sins’…..Israel is still sinning and in unbelief; ‘to bring in everlasting righteousness’…..this is Jesus and He has not reconciled with Israel yet as everlasting means for all eternity.  So you can rationally see this verse was a prophecy that is yet to come to pass.

If God in His sovereignty knew that the Church would be created one day and replace Israel……why then did He give a vision to Daniel regarding the latter days and tell Him to seal up the prophecy until the end?

“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and from, and knowledge shall be increased.” Daniel 12:4

The end of……what?  You see, if the Church replaced Israel….there is no need for the Tribulation/Judgement and the church would go on and on…..and on…in other words, there would be no ending;  The Bible if from start to finish and  the Revelation to John from Christ is the ending of the beginning…

In essence; people who believe that the Book of Revelation has either already happened or should not be in the bible are people who are leaving the Bible with an open ending…..God was clear…He gave us a beginning, a middle , and an ending….to negate or completely take the ending out of scripture is very dangerous and it is making claim that God will allow humans to continue on….and in all honesty…they are not believing in the word (Jesus) at all….

“And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the Holy City, and from the things which are written in this book.” Revelation 22:19

Even in the Old Testament….( Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, etc.) God told the end from the start and if there is an end He would explain it….and if He explained it in detail and you refuse it….what does that say about your belief and faith?

According to this theory, there would be no need to have an ending if Israel is no longer part of the picture….. and that is why you have people who are not looking for Christ….you have people thinking we will be here forever and forever going on to live as humans….and sinning….

“Now I come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people (Israel) in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.” Daniel 10:14

Part of Daniels vision is about Israel in days to come….and these verses are about the Antichrist that will come and claim to be God….

“And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, not the desire of women, not regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.” Daniel 11:36-37

To make claim that the whole Book of Daniel is in reaction to the Greek King Anticohus IV Epiphanes is a complete lack of interpretation and study of the Book of Daniel and disregard to the understanding of what God meant……Anyone who reads and studies the Bible thru the Holy Spirit knows that the majority of Daniel and Revelation goes hand in hand.  (Especially today for we are seeing it all play out in front of us.)

These visions of Daniel and the Book of Revelation is plainly about a type of latter days/ end time implication…..and it has plainly not happened in all of History so it is easy (if you but look) to understand that these are prophecies of what is to come; and if it is to come then it stands to reason that God is not done with Israel at all and, that there is a break in time where God put His program for Israel on hold before going back to dealing with Israel and complete the end of the Age of Grace and The Tribulation period before the Millennial Kingdom.

In this break is the Church age of Grace….which is a period of time where all, no matter lineage, ethnicity, beliefs, traditions, etc.  CAN choose to believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior and become a fellow heir in the Body of Christ.

*I need to point out that only the church at this time will have glorified bodies…the rest of the saints of the old testament and the tribulation saints will get their glorified bodies when Jesus comes back to earth to bring all into the millennial kingdom.*

What is the purpose of the Book of Revelation?

It is to bring Israel to acceptance of Jesus Christ as their Messiah and the world to the knowledge and acceptance of God.  If all of this happened centuries ago we would already be living with Christ in eternity for it has already passed 1000 years and Satan would be in the Lake of Fire and there would be no more Sin…..Since we know that is not true for we are still on the earth…and evil and sin are running rampant….then the conclusion can only be that this prophecy is just now beginning to unfold:

The Book of Revelation is the Ending of the Whole Book (Bible); the story of all creation, of all things within the universe….

Purpose of the Rapture

The sole purpose of a Pre-Tribulational Rapture is to ensure a rescue and escape for all those that are saved and sealed with the Holy Spirit are taken out of Satan’s way so that the fulfillment of all prophecies and promises God foretold to mankind can come to a culmination for the next part of human History as it is a step in the process of bringing all things under God’s sovereignty for the beginning of all eternity.

Know the Time

When you read the Bible the majority of it is regarding Israel and the rest is regarding the Church and Church age….It is imperative if you read and study the bible that you understand the different time frames/ dispensations of the Bible for that explains even more the difference in what age we are in and why it is called the Church Age and why the Great Tribulation is called a Time of Jacob’s trouble.

If you do not understand the different times or dispensations of the bible…you can get confused…even though it is not hard to understand the difference in the Old testament and the New testament so why would it be hard to understand the different eras of a timeframe that God installed?

Why make the bible hard to understand if not under or listening to demonic influences?  People will make claim until we are gone that people like me are the ones who are wrong….that’s fine…because it’s not me they have a problem with but scripture and therefore God’s message.

“If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me that mystery; (as I wrote afore in a few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel.” Ephesians 3:3-6

We will all soon know anyway and people who do not listen to God….will not be willing to hear His servants who are trying to teach, edify, and rebuke (as needed)……as we were warned also in scripture……

Other questions are:

If The Church replaced Israel, why and how did Israel become a nation for what would be the purpose of it today?  Why, and how, are the Jews still persevering today, why did they not become obsolete because they were few in number? Why would God promise them they would be His chosen….if He was to break that promise? What then is the purpose in the Book of Revelation as it relates to God choosing 144,000 Jewish young men to be ministers for Him? Why do we see Israel all in the news today along with them becoming a very wealthy nation to make other nations envious?  Such a small nation should be easily able to be conquered, but it hasn’t been…..Hmmm.

So many people don’t seem to understand prophecies and therefore make claim it is either too hard to really understand so they speculate to the point of making interpretations of men instead of from the Holy Spirit….or they make claim verses mean something they actually don’t in order to go along with certain beliefs and misunderstandings so they don’t have to admit they don’t know or are uncertain.

It seems that the people who believe the Church replaced Israel are the same people who believe that the Book of Revelation has already happened…..In essence, it honestly makes no sense at all….for there is no historical fact that proves otherwise; and as we can see today….the prophecies of Revelations is coming to pass now….so if they are wrong in that then is stands to reason they are wrong in their assumption that the Church replaced Israel.

Listen and Understand

If we are but willing to do research, study and pray….would there be such problems within the Church today?  If we but listen to what the Holy Spirit teaches us….would we argue what God meant?  If we understand how Fair and Merciful our Father is…..would we really lack the faith in His love for us?  If we realize that to want to be a part of the Tribulation…so you can die or teach people God’s word…only makes you self- righteous…..

If people would stop mocking and telling others that to want to escape what is to come is a cowards way out….maybe those same people would realize that those of us who want to escape understand how bad it really could get….

“For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe. These things command and teach. Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.” 1 Timothy 4:10-13

To Be Continued…...