Hebrew Roots Movement vs Replacement Theology – where is the truth?

Can I still eat bacon, BBQ pork ribs, prawns and lobster? 🙂

Here are some thoughts I’ve pulled together from the word and various sources.

Most of you know that Replacement Theology claims the Church has replaced Israel in God’s plan due to Israel’s rejection of the Messiah. Where Replacement Theology (also know as continuation theology) claims the only place for Israel is as part of the Church, some in the Hebrew Roots movement assert that the only place for the Church is as part of Israel.

So how do we sort out this mess?

Very simple!
We need to see the whole word of God and especially the trajectory of scripture from the old to new testaments.

TL:DR They are both wrong!

The truth is we need to recognise there is much to be learned about our Christian faith by studying the Old Testament, and especially the commandments and traditions surrounding the Feasts of Israel. We also must not come back under law (read Galatians and Hebrews) again which is anti faith alone and grace alone.

While extreme Hebrew Roots appears to teach that because of the Lord’s death, obedience to the Law is a privilege and not a requirement, a number of its teachers seem to be going well beyond that. They claim that in fact Torah observance is a requirement for all believers. Some have also abandoned the Greek based New Testament in favour of translations from Aramaic texts, due to alleged errors in the Greek based texts. They say those who call the Lord by His English name (Jesus) are actually worshipping a pagan god, which according to them makes traditional Christianity a pagan religion. They want us to believe that the *only* acceptable name for the Son of God is Yeshua (His name in Hebrew), and the only acceptable way to worship Him is by obeying the Torah and observing the Feasts of Israel. There as those that saw we should only eat kosher food.

Replacement theology (a.k.a. Continuation theology) is the teaching that the Christian Church has replaced national Israel regarding the plan, purpose, and promises of God.
“For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; 26 and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will remove ungodliness from Jacob,’” (Romans 11:25-26).
Some replacement theologians would teach that any mention of “Israel” after Acts, chapter 2 (Pentecost), would be referring to the Christian Church, but the above Scripture cannot be used to support that idea. In fact, it plainly contradicts it. Obviously, God is not done with Israel. The text tells us that God has hardened Israel, but it also tells that disheartening is temporary.

One of the favourite tactics used by people on both ends of the spectrum who can’t find support for their beliefs in the Bible is to say it wasn’t translated correctly. And yet the best scholars of each generation have poured over the ancient manuscripts to give us the most accurate translations possible. There are about 5,600 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in existence, and cross checking has shown their consistency to be over 99%. In other words all these ancient Greek manuscripts essentially say the same thing. For additional support there are 19,000 early manuscripts in other languages. This exceeds the manuscript base for any other ancient book by a very wide margin.

Most reasonable people would agree that for all practical purposes our New Testament is an accurate rendering of these early manuscripts.
Therefore the only conclusions we can draw are that either:
1) all these scholars have somehow committed identical mistakes in their translation efforts, or
2) they’ve all participated in a massive conspiracy to mislead us that has spanned 2,000 years, or
3) the people who say the Bible is translated incorrectly because it doesn’t support their position are wrong.

But even more importantly, neither Replacement Theology nor Hebrew Roots seems to recognize that Israel and the Church are uniquely different and that both have roles in the fulfilment of end times prophecies that are mutually exclusive.

Ps Barry Manuel has published a couple of excellent documents on the extreme Hebrew Roots teachings. Message me for copies.

So where does that leave us:
1) We support Israel and recognise it’s divine purposes especially in these end times; we also learn from Israel and the Old Testament.

2) We understand the work of the Cross as being complete, and that we access His grace by faith.
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God

3) We can eat bacon and prawns as we are not under Mosaic law 🙂
Galatians 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Also: Refer to Acts 15 and the Council of Jerusalem.

Just some thoughts to bring the truth of the word central to our thinking. This debate is not new.

In the earliest days of the Church there were those among the Jewish believers who insisted that the only path to salvation for Gentiles was to first put themselves under the laws and practices of Judaism. The council of Jerusalem put that idea to naught and authorized Gentiles to be received directly into Christianity. Still the “Judaizers” followed Paul from city to city trying to undo what he had done. Later, Gentiles who called themselves Christian forced whole communities of Jews to convert to Christianity upon pain of death. Both of these efforts were thought by their proponents to be pleasing to God, but in the end we can see that neither was.

That’s because when God looks into our future it’s not Jews and Gentiles He sees. It’s both Israel and the Church. Each has its unique origin and each has its unique destiny. Whether it’s called Replacement Theology or Hebrew Roots, or anything in between, the idea of making either one a part of the other is man made and cannot be supported in Scripture.

Also: Romans 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in.