Israel and the Church

"... the main teachings of the Bible are to be taken literally, but they [covenant theologians] make an exception with Bible prophecy. This is to be spiritualized or taken in a non-literal way. There is no room for a literal rebirth of Israel in their system. All the prophecies about the blessings of regathered Israel in the Promised Land are “spiritualized” into the Church’s blessings and their ultimate entering into Heaven ... Covenant theology is also known as “replacement theology” since they seek to replace Israel with the Church. Actually, if the distinctive Pauline doctrines of the Mystery and Dispensation of Grace had been better understood, the covenant theologians would not have had to resort to this kind of replacement idea. The Church is the result of the Dispensation of the Grace of God which is a divine, temporary, interruption of Israel’s prophesied program. Therefore, the Church is distinct and separate from Israel. Perhaps we should not be too hard on the early covenant theologians. In the history of the church, the early reformers brought the Church out of the dark ages by re-emphasizing the Word of God and striving to make it available to the masses. They stood for the key teachings of the Scriptures but Israel was kind of a riddle. The old land of Israel had no Jews and everywhere the Gospel of Christ was preached, it was resisted by them. Surely God did not mean that literal Israel would be restored to their literal land. History and experience were against it. Israel, in the Bible, was God’s people, and now God’s people are the Church. Therefore, the Church must be spiritual Israel. It seemed a reasonable conclusion for them. Fortunately, the past one hundred years has seen an unparalleled interest in the study of Bible prophecy and the distinctive truths of the Mystery through Paul’s writings. These two together form a powerful and illuminating system of dispensationalism that explains why Israel is spiritually dead today, and how we can take the prophecies of the Bible literally. Unfortunately, for the “replacement” Christians, covenant theology had been deeply ingrained for centuries before the new light of understanding came. It is now a part of their religious tradition and has been codified in many confessions of their churches. This has caused many to either misrepresent dispensational truth or to denounce it as a recent heresy. The debate continues to this day.”

K. Lawson