Awaken Bible Prophecy Update 10-25-23 – The Dangers of Replacement Theology: And Now Stew Peters

The more I interacted with folks responding to my recent Commentary about Mike Adams and Natural News with their hostility to Israel based on Replacement Theology’s (false) doctrine, that led to a lot of additional thought on my part, and the realization that I needed to take one more stab at this topic, even though I initially had no intention of doing so.

Although most of the comments to this post were quite positive, one person took me to task for engaging in “tit for tat”, i.e. encouraging back and forth discussion of these issues among believers.  Names are being named and perhaps some folks don’t like that fact.  When I personally do that, I try to have two or more witnesses, e.g. video evidence of someone making his position clear, or a written article outlining his stand.

For too long the church has been silent in this nation on political, cultural, and social issues.  Where has that gotten us with an unbelieving world?  Worse, the church has been silent about the heresies within.  We’ve perhaps heard some pastors speak who weren’t preaching true Biblical doctrine, and what did we do?  If anyone wrote about this or discussed it in a video, the general vague approach was to say, “there is a pastor I heard” say such and such, or “I’m aware of a certain pastor who has done” this or that.  Frankly, that’s not useful to allow them to remain anonymous.

When those who are in a position of authority in the church, or those in public life who are professed Christians, go off the deep end and spout non-Biblical ideas, or declare certain “truths” that are Biblical falsehoods, or effectively curse Israel, can we really remain vague in these final days about who these people are and what they’re saying?

Today we’ll consider some deeper issues of Replacement Theology which is all too prevalent in Christendom.  What are some other aspects of this position that we don’t normally think about?  How does God view Israel?  Can Christians take an opposing stand against Israel by supporting groups like the “Palestinians” and Hamas without consequences?  What is a potential bottom-line danger for someone born-again to oppose God by effectively cursing Israel?

Transcript:

The more I interacted with folks responding to my recent Commentary about Mike Adams and Natural News with their hostility to Israel based on Replacement Theology’s (false) doctrine, that led to a lot of additional thought on my part, and the realization that I needed to take one more stab at this topic, even though I initially had no intention of doing so.

Although most of the comments to this post were quite positive, one person took me to task for engaging in “tit for tat”, i.e. encouraging back and forth discussion of these issues among believers.  Names are being named and perhaps some folks don’t like that fact.  When I personally do that, I try to have two or more witnesses, e.g. video evidence of someone making his position clear, or a written article outlining his stand.

For too long the church has been silent in this nation on political, cultural, and social issues.  Where has that gotten us with an unbelieving world?  Worse, the church has been silent about the heresies within.  We’ve perhaps heard some pastors speak who weren’t preaching true Biblical doctrine, and what did we do?  If anyone wrote about this or discussed it in a video, the general vague approach was to say, “there is a pastor I heard” say such and such, or “I’m aware of a certain pastor who has done” this or that.  Frankly, that’s not useful to allow them to remain anonymous.

When those who are in a position of authority in the church, or those in public life who are professed Christians, go off the deep end and spout non-Biblical ideas, or declare certain “truths” that are Biblical falsehoods, or effectively curse Israel, can we really remain vague in these final days about who these people are and what they’re saying?

Today we’ll consider some deeper issues of Replacement Theology which is all too prevalent in Christendom.  What are some other aspects of this position that we don’t normally think about?  How does God view Israel?  Can Christians take an opposing stand against Israel by supporting groups like the “Palestinians” and Hamas without consequences?  What is a potential bottom-line danger for someone born-again to oppose God by effectively cursing Israel?

We’ll explore all this shortly.  First, let’s pray and read from God’s Word.

<PRAY>

Scripture

Romans 8:23-25 – Our Blessed Hope

Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

The Dangers of Replacement Theology: And Now Stew Peters

• The church is lukewarm enough as it is.
• Should we encourage that further by not alerting people in the pews, if at all possible, that they may be following someone who is leading them into error?
• My reach on this little blog is miniscule.
• I’m personally not going to have much of an impact getting this truth out.
• However, if what I say resonates, perhaps that will encourage some of you to go forward in the same vein.
• I’ve taken the personal position that I’m going to speak boldly as to how I believe God is leading me.
• That has gotten me canceled from several venues in the last several years, but so be it.
• The Lord did not call us to be milquetoasts – timid little church mice that hide in our corner so the big, bad cat can’t eat us.

• There isn’t much time left.
• If we’re to make an impact on someone – anyone! – we need to do it quickly.
• Pastor Jack Hibbs preached a terrific message on Sunday, October15 about Israel.
• The link is in my transcript as long as YouTube keeps it up.
• He spoke several truths that are uncomfortable for many people, but he didn’t care.
• The truth is the truth, and it must be spoken.
• That’s pretty much been my modus operandi.
• Where that leads in this world, I have no idea.
• But I do know that Jesus commanded us to be bold in our faith.
• I’m doing my best.

• To that end I tried once more this last week with members of my own family.
• One purports to be Christian but attends an Episcopal church that promotes Black Lives Matter, so you know how doctrinally polluted that is.
• The others are secular in varying degrees.
• I sent the Jack Hibbs video to them all and encouraged them to watch, with the offer to discuss the issues about Israel that come out in the message.
• Unfortunately – not surprisingly – I’ve gotten no response.
• My family – like many of yours – has no desire to know the things of God.

• Several commenters to my Mike Adams discussion pointed out that Stew Peters has been showing his true colors in this same respect lately.
• I hate that this is true.
• Just like with Mike Adams, I’ve much appreciated a lot of the material Stew has brought forth, and the platform he’s given to truth tellers regarding COVID, child sex trafficking, and other issues of concern.

• I asked the person first mentioning this if he was able to find Stew making statements regarding Israel and Replacement Theology.
• He found the videos and passed them on.
• There are two that I will share here and discuss briefly.

• The first video with Stew Peters is his definitive statement about Israel and the church, i.e. his position on Replacement Theology.
• If you go to the link in my Transcript at about the 7:15 minute mark, you’ll hear what he says directly:

“Some Christians will say we have a duty to support Israel due to the Bible, but that’s not the case either.  For two thousand years Christians understood that the church is the new Israel, the successor to the kingdom of David and Solomon.  It’s not just some secular state that calls itself Israel.  And let’s emphasize that: secular.”

• He goes on in that vein to the effect that Israel is nothing special and Christians have no duty to it.
• That sounds like Brad Cummings who I discussed last week.
• Brad said that the Jews in Israel are NOT God’s Chosen People.
• The problem is that Stew, Brad, Mike, and far too many others have is that they misread the Bible as to God’s relationship to Israel and ours as Christian believers – if they read it all.
• Here is the Apostle Paul’s position in Romans 11: 1,17-22,28-32 in this regard:

I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means!

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.

As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.

• What should be the Christian stand on Israel?
• Love them and be not proud.
• Be kind to them or pay the consequences.
• Note that God threatens in his severity to cut off those who do not continue in His kindness toward them.
• What might that mean?
• We’ll return to this question later.

• The second Stew Peters video at the 5:30 minute mark is a discussion about Israel.
• Stew reads an email from Pastor Mike Montgomery of Calvary Chapel, Red Wing, MN

• Mike asks Stew to stop hating on Israel and rebukes him for essentially stumping for Hamas.
• Stew has a guest – a Catholic academic called Dr. Michael Jones – who says this isn’t about hating Israel, it’s about the rule of law.
• Jones questions if Israel has a pass on civilized behavior.
• He states that there isn’t one thing the Palestinians have done that Israel hasn’t already done to them.
• He considers Gaza a prison camp.
• Regarding Hamas, he says, “Don’t pretend that this is an unprovoked attack. They’ve been provoked for years, and for years the Israelis have treated them as less and less human.”
• Note that there is no reference to what the Bible says or what God’s perspective on all this is.
• Nor is there any pushback from Stew that this position is one that far-left radicals take – one that is approved by the mainstream media that Stew despises

• Stew: Where does the problem lie with pastors like Mike Montgomery?

• Jones:

“The problem lies with the Scofield Bible.  Christian Zionist groups are reading the Scofield Bible and they take all those promises out of context . . .  This is a group of Polish thugs [referring to the Jewish people] who came in after WW2 and used the Holocaust to steal the land from Palestine.  There’s no DNA or theological connection with the Jews and Israel.  There is no theological justification whatsoever” for Israel’s claim on the land.

• Jones goes on in this same way for many minutes, and it’s clear he has a bone to pick with Israel.
• A Google search on Dr. Michael E. Jones shows him to have a noted dislike – to put it mildly – for Israel.
• In a not very complimentary Times of Israel blog commentary about Jones, the author states:

Jones says that the Catholic church must oppose Jewish power and the institutions that wield it, which he characterizes as “The Synagogue of Satan.” To break this power, the Catholic church must seek their conversion.

• If you’ve read or listened to my recent posting titled Prophetic Markers in Israel’s War, this will sound really familiar about Catholicism’s designs on Israel that I’ve speculated about.

• The sad aspect of all this is that people in alternative media who many of us have relied upon for news outside the mainstream, and who have served us fairly well in this regard, are expressing theological perspectives that contrast significantly with what many of us hold to be true.

• They have taken the position of accusers.
• Here’s what the Bible says about this in Psalm 109:15-20:

Let them [the wicked] be before the Lord continually,
that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth!

For he did not remember to show kindness,
but pursued the poor and needy
and the brokenhearted, to put them to death.
He loved to curse; let curses come upon him!
He did not delight in blessing; may it be far from him!
He clothed himself with cursing as his coat;
may it soak into his body like water,
like oil into his bones!
May it be like a garment that he wraps around him,
like a belt that he puts on every day!
May this be the reward of my accusers from the Lord,
of those who speak evil against my life!

• You may recall in Job 1-2 that Satan walked to and fro in the earth seeking whom he might accuse.
• He settled on Job – a righteous man – so as to destroy him.

• Remember also what Jesus said about Satan in John 8:44 that he is the father of lies.

• More directly, John hears the following concerning Satan in Revelation 12:10:

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

• Based on this, some questions we have to ask concerning those who accuse Israel unjustly are:
• Why are they emulating The Accuser?
• Are they taking the side of God or coming against Him in their accusations against Israel?
• Why are they so hard-hearted toward Israel?

• Now, in how I discuss this, I very much want to do so in love, and not be harsh.
• On the other hand, facts and truth are often disconcerting and can come across as unkind or unloving.
• I’ll do my best to retain the virtues Christ would have me do.

• There are four main points I want to make in this discussion.
• They are:

1. God’s love for Israel and the Jews
2. God’s perspective on the Jewish people in relation to the rest of the world
3. The Biblical, historical view of what God had required of Israel concerning her enemies
4. The dangers of Replacement Theology to a professing – presumably born-again – Christian

1. God’s love for Israel and the Jews

• We need a little background here.
• There’s this thinking within much of the Christian community – primarily those with a post-Tribulation Rapture or a-millennial belief that God has no further use for Israel.
• This has led to Replacement Theology, which we’ll discuss more shortly.

• Christians holding this belief say that God has forsaken Israel and given the church the position within His kingdom that Israel previously held.
• To textually counter this falsehood, here are a few Scriptures regarding Israel:

1 Kings 10:9

Blessed be the Lord your God who delighted in you to set you on the throne of Israel; because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness.”

Deuteronomy 10:15

Yet on your fathers did the Lord set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day.

Psalm 87:2

The Lord loves the gates of Zion
More than all the other dwelling places of Jacob.

• Here are some verses about the Jewish people:

Deuteronomy 14:2

For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Psalm 105:8-11

He has remembered His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded to a thousand generations,
The covenant which He made with Abraham,
And His oath to Isaac.
Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute,
To Israel as an everlasting covenant,
Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
As the portion of your inheritance,”

Isaiah 44:21

“Remember these things, O Jacob,
And Israel, for you are My servant;
I have formed you, you are My servant,
O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me.

• To all the Replacement Theology people, I ask you this:
• How do you rationalize the church taking the place of Israel given these very Words from God?
• These prove unequivocably that God loves Israel and the Jews.
• And I’m not even going to quote the many prophetic statements concerning God’s ultimate plans for Israel, which are voluminous.

2. God’s perspective on the Jewish people in relation to the rest of the world

• In Deuteronomy 7:7, we learn an interesting prophetic fact about Israel:

It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples,

• God’s love for Israel had nothing to do with who or what they were from the beginning.
• In fact, God chose Abram – a pagan and a Gentile from the land of Ur in Babylonia – to be the ultimate patriarch of the Jewish people.
• They started off as a people group with zero Jews.
• Abraham was not a Jew, yet in the sovereign calling of God, he and his descendants became the Jewish people.
• God not only called the Jews out of nothing, but He designated the land of Canaan for their possession.
• The land is God’s land, and He gave the title deed to Israel forever.
• More than that, God put His Name on Jerusalem in the midst of Israel to cement that claim.
• Note 2 Kings 21:4 to this effect:

And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem will I put my name.”

• If God’s Name is on a place, no one else can take it away.

• Since Israel is deemed by God to have been little in His sight, His choosing of this land and the people is important prophetically.
• Because of Satan’s hatred toward God and Israel, this has resulted in the nation being surrounded by those who likewise hate the God of the Bible and His sacred possession.

• We could say that because of this, Israel is the least of nations.
• It’s the runt of the litter, which is picked on and bullied by the nations which surround it and by all the rest of the world.
• We have only to consider all the United Nations resolutions that have been decreed against Israel compared to other nations.
• Just since 2015 the UN has condemned Israel 140 times for so-called human rights violations, whereas it has called out all other of the 194 nations combined 68 times since then.

• Consider the Words of Jesus in His discussion of the Judgment of Nations that immediately follows the Tribulation.

• Also known as the Judgment of Sheep and Goats, Jesus says in Matthew 25:40:

And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

• Who is the least of these that Jesus is speaking about?
• During the Great Tribulation in the persecution of the Jews after Antichrist has desecrated the temple and declared that he is god, those peoples who care for the Jews, naturally along with Christians, widows and orphans, are considered sheep.
• Those who hate and harm them are called goats.
• Are not nations comprised of people?
• That being the case, those individuals exhibiting love for the least of the brethren of Jesus – the Jews, Christian, widows, and orphans – will be wonderfully surprised.
• Those who disdain the Jews, Christians, and the disadvantaged will be told the following by Jesus in Matthew 25:41:

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

• My questions about this are:
• Do you think that this penalty for hating the Chosen People of God will be executed only after the Tribulation has begun?
• Or, might this description and judgment also apply to those prior to the Tribulation who have come against God’s covenant people?

3. The Biblical, historical view of what God had required of Israel concerning her enemies

• When we read the Old Testament, we see a very interesting fact about what God commands His people Israel to do in relation to their enemies.
• We also see what He does all by Himself.

• Consider Psalm 107:10-16 (a psalm of and from Israel, by the way) as a sort of template for this discussion:

Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
prisoners in affliction and in irons,
for they had rebelled against the words of God,
and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor;
they fell down, with none to help.
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
and burst their bonds apart.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
For he shatters the doors of bronze
and cuts in two the bars of iron.

• These verses speak of God’s people who are under great pressure from their enemies.
• They cry out to God, and what does He do?
• In a dramatic fashion, He delivers His people.

• Deliverance from oppression of her enemies: this is the way God responds when Israel is sorely set upon.
• To give you a couple examples and what resulted, consider the account of Gideon.
• Israel is under the thumb of the Midianites during the time of Judges.
• Of course, this is a period of great apostasy on Israel’s part, yet God inevitably brings the people freedom.

• God purposefully keeps Gideon’s army to a very few – just 300 men.
• In the non-battle that follows, God causes Israel’s enemies to turn on each other.
• Gideon’s army then pursues the Midianites and 120,000 of them are killed according to Judges 8:10.
• 120,000 men.

• This victory, by the way, is also referenced in Psalm 83 – so perhaps there’s a direct connection to today, if indeed we’re at the brink of the Psalm 83 War.

• Let’s also, for example, think about Joshua’s campaign in the land of Canaan that God has given His people to become the nation of Israel.
• Joshua begins at Jericho.

• The pre-incarnate Jesus appears to Joshua as the Commander of the Army of the Lord (Joshua 5:14).
• Apparently in the dialog that follows, God gives Joshua his orders concerning the fate of the people of Jericho.

• Once the wall around the city has fallen, Israel’s soldiers rush in, and look what happens per Joshua 6:21:

Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.

• The only people spared are Rahab and her family.
• The rest of the inhabitants of the city: its governing rulers, soldiers, and every civilian – man, woman, child – are killed.
• Why?
• Because God commanded the Israelites to do so.
• Civilians killed by the thousands.

• We don’t know the numbers, but this was a large city.
• God required it because of the bloodline contamination these people would have brought into Israel if they’d been allowed to live.
• They likely had descendants from the Nephilim, and God could not allow that DNA to continue.
• He required a pure blood line, and Jericho didn’t have it.

• So here we have two instances where the armies of Israel are directed by God to kill huge numbers of people, even civilians so as to do the will of God.

• There’s one more instance I’ll direct your attention to.
• In 2 Kings 19 and Isaiah 37, we learn the account of the invasion of Assyria against Israel prior to the time that God intends to allow Judah to be overrun and destroyed.
• This hostile army has surrounded Jerusalem, and all is hopeless.
• But God . . .

• In 2 Kings 19:35 and the parallel passage in Isaiah 37:36, here is what happened:

And the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.

• How many did God Himself kill of the enemy?
• 185,000 men.
• These were God’s own creation, people whom He would certainly desire that none perish but have eternal life.
• But look at this.
• He – God – took their lives and effectively relegated all to hell.
• Why?
• Because they had come against His land and His children Israel.

• These numbers of dead – those killed in combat – are beyond the scope of what we can even comprehend.
• Yet, it is God who directs His people to act and approves of them destroying so many people.

• I bring this to your attention because of the clamor today about civilian casualties, or even Hamas terrorist casualties.
• The world wants proportionality.
• Israel is only allowed to kill x number of Hamas in relation to the number of Israeli causalities.
• If this was carried out in actual practice, then Israel would be allowed to rape, brutalize, and kill the same number of Palestinian civilians that Hamas did to her innocent civilians.
• But Israel doesn’t act in that same ruthless manner.
• She has always attempted to minimize civilian deaths to the peril of her own soldiers.

• Just a thought about proportionality . . .
• None of Gideon’s 300 men were killed, but if they had been, what proportion would we be looking at based on 120,000 troops?
• It would be 1 Israel death for every 400 of the enemy.
• Or, to take it further, how do we even calculate this number for when God destroyed the Assyrian army?
• There were 0 Jewish deaths to 185,000 of the enemy.
• Maybe those screaming for equity in this matter should reconsider.

• What if . . . what if . . .  Israel really does do what Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened, i.e. to completely destroy Hamas?
• We have no idea how many of them there are, nor do we know how many civilians might also perish in the process.
• What we do know is that there is adequate Biblical proof for God requiring His people to fully and completely destroy Israel’s enemies, even at the cost of innocent lives.

• As an aside, we also have the Scriptural description of the coming Ezekiel’s War.
• In this conflict, God destroys massive numbers of enemy troops.
• Not only that, but He rains down hail and lightning among the coastlands, i.e. those nations which supported this invasion.
• Do you think that all the civilians in that heavenly assault will be spared?
• I don’t think so.

• What I’m saying is that this current war plus the one to come will result in many deaths that the world will decry – yet God requires Israel to do what He decrees must be done so as to accomplish His will.

4. The dangers of Replacement Theology to a professing – presumably born-again – Christian

• This is the topic that a lot of folks will struggle with or immediately dismiss, but hear me out.

• I’ve previously questioned the pre-Tribulation Rapture position that Salvation = Rapture.
• I’ve argued that there’s no textual evidence for this.
• On the other hand, there’s a lot of evidence in both the OT and NT regarding the consequences of deliberate, persistent sin, which are presented throughout Scripture, many such instances using if-then language.
• We call this sin-affirming condition among Christians hyper-grace.
• There are many in the church who believe that those who are born-again can commit any type of sin with no cost.
• Most of the pre-Trib Rapture community agrees in the sense that such sinful believers will be Raptured along with everyone else.
• In other words, loss of Rapture privilege would not be one of the consequences for hyper-grace sinners.

• I’ve strongly suggested that since this is a heart condition – not an issue of works – those who fall into this category of continual, intentional sin may find that there is a penalty for living in disobedience against the commands of Jesus Christ.

• Maybe you don’t agree with that premise.
• However, what if we take it a step further?
• What if we examine this idea in relation to how a professing Christian – one for all intents and purposes is born-again – but one who effectively curses Israel, will fare in the Rapture?
• Let’s see if that changes your perspective.

• Basically, the Christian we’re referring to believes in Replacement Theology.
• I don’t think very many pre-Tribbers hold to this false doctrine.
• I would also venture to say that Replacement Theology is most prevalent within the Reformed church movement, plus, of course, the mainstream denominations and Catholicism.
• My guess is that in mainstream Christianity and in the Catholic church, we’ll find a lot fewer truly saved people than in Reformed churches.
• On the other hand, I have the sense that many evangelical churches have also adopted Replacement Theology in recent years.

• We have the absolute promise of God in Genesis 12:3 regarding Israel:

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

• We also have the intriguing study that Bill Koenig did in his book titled Eye to Eye.
• The premise is that America has consistently seen God’s hand act against us as we’ve attempted to divide the land of Israel.
• That idea goes right along with God’s declaration that anyone who blesses Israel will be blessed, while the one who curses Israel will be cursed.

• Most of us have not thought about what Jesus said in this context, but perhaps we need to re-examine His intent in Matthew 7:21-23:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

• What if Jesus – among other things – is referring to those who call themselves His own, i.e. born-again, yet they’ve cursed Israel by siding with her enemies and accused her unjustly?
• Might these people find themselves crying to the Lord and pleading their case with all the good works they did?
• Yet, because they didn’t feed His sheep Israel, He says He never knew them.

• How about when Jesus recounted the parable of the house built on the rock versus that built on sand?
• Just before He describes this, He says in Luke 6:43-46:

“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”

• Since Jesus is God, did He not tell us about the danger of cursing Israel?
• Does this very fact cause a person to bear bad fruit?
• Such people who hold to Replacement Theology like Stew Peters and Mike Adams have certainly proved that they are speaking evil out of the abundance of their hearts as they take Satan’s side in accusing Israel.

• I ask you:
• Might this create a significant problem for the many Christians supporting, not just the “Palestinian cause”, but also effectively Hamas, while at the same time condemning Israel for her “inhumane” acts – that have been manufactured out of whole cloth?

• Then we add to the poison pottage, the dismissal – by these same Christians – the sound doctrine of the pre-Tribulation Rapture.
• They hate Israel and have cursed her, earning God’s curse upon them.
• They reject that the true church is destined by God to be removed from the world prior to the Tribulation because they’ve changed God’s Word to make the church Israel.
• Thus, in their view, believers will go through the Tribulation.
• And they discount the severity of what the Word of God says regarding how horrific that time period will actually be.

• Might this be the perfect storm of consequences that God – in His mercy – allows them to indeed go into the Tribulation?
• What do you mean by “in His mercy”, Gary?

• How about this?
• Maybe these people who hate Israel would otherwise be condemned to hell immediately?

• In Matthew 25:29-30 Jesus finishes up speaking about the worthless servant.
• He says:

‘For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

• Why was the servant worthless?
• Because he miscalculated the character of his master.
• As a result, he was disobedient in action because of the evil in his heart.

• What if Jesus in His mercy allows such a servant to enter the Tribulation in the hope that he will learn what Jesus expects concerning “the least of these” whom He loves?
• What if Jesus gives such believers, who have previously cursed Israel, the opportunity to redeem their hearts by loving and caring for God’s Chosen People?
• If they exhibit the love of Christ in this matter, they live with Him forever.
• If they choose to continue in their wicked ways toward Israel and the Jews, their punishment is just since they rejected Jesus along with His people.

• I ask you again: Does this perspective possibly shed a different light on the idea of Salvation = Rapture?

• One more thing regarding the Rapture and the delay we’ve all noticed to date . . .
• I’ve speculated that God still wants to get the church off the fence between the world and His kingdom.
• My suggestion has been that the church will see much more persecution, so that the suffering causes people to choose between God and submission to the world.

• Here’s another thought . . .
• What if this war against Israel is an important factor that God is using to see if the Laodiceans will either go hot or cold?
• In this case, cold would mean they make their true colors shown by accusing and cursing Israel.
• Hot would mean they’ve come over to God’s side in regard to His perspective on Israel.

• We’re certainly seeing this kind of schism in the church, aren’t we?

• Obviously, I don’t know what God’s plans are in this regard.
• I do hope and pray that I’m a man after God’s own heart.
• As such, I try to fully obey the Lord.
• I fail like everyone else.
• But the one big thing I’ve learned in my many readings of God’s Word front to back is that He loves Israel, and He has a plan to redeem the Jewish people.
• Christian believers are commanded to pray for our enemies and for the peace of Jerusalem.
• We are to love as Christ has loved.
• If we disobey the Lord – particularly in regard to Israel – we will suffer the consequences just as every nation and person has before us experienced severe reactions from God for this sin.

• I think there is significant danger to the believer for refusing to mirror God’s heart for Israel.
• Replacement Theology, with its coupling to post-Trib and a-millennial beliefs, may very possibly result in a lot of Christians NOT being Raptured.
• That could be their penalty for despising the Word of God plus, in effect, in their pride desiring to prove themselves worthy by toughing it out in those seven years.

• Maybe I’m wrong.
• Praise God if I am!
• But I wouldn’t want to be one of these Replacement Theology believers and test God’s patience concerning His beloved Israel.