The Root of Replacement Theology — House of David Ministries

I remember the day so clearly, sitting on my living room couch and holding an Old King James Bible in my hand. I was determined to discover the truth about what was in it. I believed in the one true God of Israel. So I said to Him, “I need to know the truth.” I had no concept of the Holy Spirit speaking to me, but somehow asking God to show me His truth made sense. As I started to read the book of Matthew, the story came to life, and remarkably, the old English language with remarkable clarity.

I continued reading the bible for many weeks until one day the Lord stopped me at this verse: “Surely they are My people, Children who will not lie. So He became their Savior” (Isaiah 63:8). I now understood the gospel. God chose to become our savior, born in the flesh, to die on the cross for our sins. I had to surrender my will to Him and accept the truth that Christ was the only path to salvation. However, I still had other questions about Christianity, such as why the church reflected so little of its Jewish heritage?

The Lord led me to read several historical books that explained the conditions that created the chasm between Judaism and Christianity. I was struggling with the Gentile expression of Christianity. There seemed to be intentionality about sanitizing the church from anything Hebraic or Jewish. But what was the origin and root of this behavior?

Simply labeling all this behavior as anti-Semitic seemed to oversimplify the issue. Were all people that hateful towards Jews? Many Christians I knew had never even met a Jewish person. So why would they hate them? Or maybe there was a degree of ignorance that was part of the problem? As much of the church, I learned, had not been adequately taught about Israel or the Jewish people, this seemed to be the more likely culprit.

Maybe there was a deeper spiritual issue, a wound in our soul that has clouded our identity of who we are in the Lord? Perhaps this stemmed from mankind’s sinful and fallen condition from the Garden of Eden? I understood that actions are driven by motivation. So, what was the root of this motivation?

Some scholars correlate the church’s separation from the Jewish people to the Nicene Creed, written at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. This took place during the early formation of what we call the “Roman Catholic Church.”

But I discovered an earlier root of separation goes back much farther. I found the same rejection pattern in the Coptic Church established in Egypt and northeast Africa around 42 A.D. The Assyrian Church (originally called the “church of the east”) originating in the first century. And the Greek Orthodox Church also established in the first century, descending from churches founded in the Balkans and the Middle East.

These three denominations predated the formation of the Roman Catholic Church by several hundred years. The history is more complicated than outlined here, but I intend to show that the separation began long before the Roman Catholic Church came to fruition. The Apostle Paul warned about this looming separation in the book of Romans. And unfortunately, there is a chronology of this division solidifying itself in an early church writing by Tertullian, titled, “An Answer to the Jews.”

Tertullian was born in Carthage in North Africa around 150 A.D. Penning most of his works in Latin. He composed apologetic writings to the Romans and other essays in which he defended Orthodox Christianity.[i] Tertullian is considered one of the fathers of Christianity and is the most often quoted writer of the pre-Nicene church.

In the first several paragraphs of this narrative, we begin to understand how “supersessionism,” which is also called “replacement theology,” entered the church. First, we need to understand what replacement theology is?

Replacement theology teaches that all of God’s covenants and their promises have been stripped from Israel and given to the Gentiles. This because of Israel’s rebellion against God and their rejection of the Messiah. And now the predominantly Gentile Church has replaced Israel as God’s chosen people—a new Israel.

This theology often leads to a spiritualization of the Old and New Testament prophesies regarding the Jewish people. It supports amillennial theology, which teaches that we are now living in the one-thousand-year reign of Christ, where there is no rapture of the Church and no future promises for the nation of Israel.

These theologians believe that Israel was a temporary plan, a type or picture of God’s better plan—the church. And they take the writings of the New Testament out of context. For example, where it says, “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5), they falsely presume that God has replaced Israel with the church.

And yet, they ignore God’s eternal covenant promises with the Jewish people and the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For example, where the Lord declared, “Thus says the Lord: ‘If My covenant is not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, then I will cast away the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, so that I will not take any of his descendants to be rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will cause their captives to return, and will have mercy on them’” (Jeremiah 33:25-26, NKJV).[ii]

They also cite scripture about God’s issuance of a bill of divorce to Israel. Yet, they ignore or spiritualize the dozens of prophecies that point to God’s future redemptive plans for Israel. These include God’s elimination of Israel’s divorce certificate. As it is written: “Where is the certificate of your mother’s divorce, Whom I have put away?” (Isaiah 50:1).

Replacement theology, what I also call “ignorance theology,” has been the single most damaging false teaching to enter the church and has severed the Gentile Christians from their biblical foundation and a spiritual fountainhead. It has also isolated the Jewish people from the love of Christ and God’s message of salvation.

Rather than share the good news of the gospel and provoke them to jealousy, replacement theology has sadly fueled a root of hatred and anti-Semitism by Gentile Christians that have been kept ill-informed of scripture through blind church leaders. I pray the Lord removes this blindness and theological ignorance and restores the church to her proper foundation and understanding of God’s prophetic plans for Israel and the Jewish people. Therefore, let us analyze the writings of Tertullian so we can understand his thought process and the root of replacement theology.

Tertullian’s narrative originates from a dispute between two people who were passionately reasoning and articulating their differences. It was incredibly intense and most likely a vicious fight between a proselyte convert to Judaism and a Gentile Christian. The battle was so hostile that Tertullian says the truth became clouded. In other words, their fight became personal. It was no longer a civil discussion about discovering God’s truth—iron sharpening iron.

So, what were these two men fighting over? Let us find out.

Tertullian writes:

“It happened very recently a dispute was held between a Christian and a Jewish proselyte. Alternately with contentious cable they each spun out the day until evening. By the opposing din, moreover, of some partisans of the individuals, truth began to be overcast by a sort of cloud…” “For the occasion, indeed, of claiming Divine grace even for the Gentiles derived a pre-eminent fitness from this fact, that the man who set up to vindicate God’s Law as his own was of the Gentiles, and not a Jew “of the stock of the Israelites (Tertullian).”

Sadly, these men were fighting to demonstrate that the other person was not worthy of God’s grace (emphasis added). They were also arguing whether the Gentiles were subject to God’s Mosaic Law as an additional requirement for salvation.

Tertullian points out that the man arguing the Law on behalf of the Gentiles was indeed himself a Gentile convert to Judaism—a proselyte. This is plausible as the rabbis historically never forced Judaism on anyone and probably held little if any relations with anyone outside of their tight-knit circles, especially Christians.

The Jewish people consider themselves separate and distinct, set apart by the Lord from all other nations. The rabbis teach that the Mosaic Law was exclusively given to the Jewish people and the nation of Israel, and the seven Noahide laws given to Noah after the flood pertains to the Gentiles.

Tertullian now adds his conclusion to the argument:

“Although we have God Himself as an adequate engager and faithful promiser, in that He promised to Abraham that “in his seed should be blest all nations of the earth;” and that out of the womb of Rebecca “two peoples and two nations were about to proceed,”—of course those of the Jews, that is, of Israel; and of the Gentiles, that is ours. Each, then, was called a people and a nation; lest, from the nuncupative appellation, any should dare to claim for himself the privilege of grace. For God ordained “two peoples and two nations” as about to proceed out of the womb of one woman (Tertullian).”

Tertullian believes that God intended to create two distinct people groups—Israel, who remains subject to God’s Mosaic Law, and the Gentiles (comprising the church), who are subject only to God’s grace.

Why is this a problem? Simply because it does not align with scripture. We are all are saved through faith by grace in Christ, both Jew and Gentile; as it is written, “But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we [Jews] shall be saved in the same manner as they [Gentiles]” (Acts 15:11).

There are not two separate paths to salvation, one through the Mosaic Law and the other through Christ’s atoning works on the cross. As the Lord declared in the Old Testament, “One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you” (Exodus 12:49). Christ is the only way to eternal life, and Yeshua affirmed, “No one comes to the Father except through [Him]” (John 14:6).

We also need to remember what Paul wrote to the church in Rome regarding the now equal and unified relationship between the Jewish people and the Gentiles. He said, “If some of the branches [Israel] were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree [Gentiles], were grafted in among them [Israel], and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you” (Romans 11:17-18).

Paul makes two compelling statements regarding the Gentiles. First, he says they have been grafted in amongst Israel—who are the natural branches. And second, he warns the Gentiles not to boast or become prideful (arrogant) against Abraham’s natural descendants.

Tertullian is responding to what he perceives as Israel’s pride against the Gentiles. In other words, their separateness, and unique qualities he perceives they hold under the Law of Moses. His response, however, only demonstrates his pride, what I call “the pride of the Gentiles.” In doing so, he has become blind to the truth and has falsely declared the church and Israel, by God’s plan, were to be two separate entities. As Paul warned, Tertullian has somehow become “wise in his own opinion.”[iii]

Tertullian has become more resonant with this false narrative by saying:

“For this fact—that Gentiles are admissible to God’s Law—is enough to prevent Israel from priding himself on the notion that “the Gentiles are accounted as a little drop of a bucket, or else as “dust out of a threshing-floor.” “Accordingly, since the people or nation of the Jews is anterior in time, and “greater” through the grace of primary favor in the Law, whereas ours is understood to be “less” in the age of times, as having in the last era of the world attained the knowledge of divine mercy: beyond doubt, through the edict of the divine utterance, the prior and “greater” people—that is, the Jewish—must necessarily serve the “less;” and the “less” people—that is, the Christian—overcome the “greater” (Tertullian).

Tertullian perceives that Israel’s pride under the Mosaic Law has relegated the Gentiles to “a little drop of a bucket,” or as “dust out of a threshing-floor.” He equates Israel’s response to God’s sanctification laws—which under the Old Covenant, left the Gentiles out of God’s plan of salvation—as Jewish pride. And he challenges God’s sovereign election of Israel. The wall of separation established under the Law of Moses and its enmity with the Gentiles was indeed real. However, this wall would be torn down once Christ fulfilled the law of atonement by offering His sinless body as a sacrifice for all humanity—to both Jew and Gentile.

Paul addressed the removal of this separation when he said:

“Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands—that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

“For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity” (Ephesians 2:11-16).

The argument that started between two Gentiles has now somehow concluded with damnation for all Israel. This sounds like what we hear in the news today, “blame the Jews, they killed Jesus; they are the cause of all the world’s conflict, etc.”

Tertullian’s response is likely from his fear and insecurity caused by a wound in his soul. This wound came at the fall of mankind and has left us with an identity crisis about who we are. Our fall from the Garden of Eden and subsequent separation from God has left us orphaned in a fallen world. And orphaned children tend to have an identity complex because we desperately want to know who our father is?

I realize this is an exegesis from scripture, but psychology can sometimes help explain outward behavior. As I heard one pastor tell me: “So, are we Gentiles, second-class citizens in the Kingdom,” suggesting the Gentiles are lower-class citizens to the Jews in God’s Kingdom?” Of course not. We are all co-heirs in Christ and sons and daughters of God. There is now equality of both Jew and Gentile, as Paul said, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him” (Romans 10:12). Tertullian, who was a Christian, should have understood the scriptures.

Tertullian’s distaste for Israel is really about sibling rivalry. He desperately seeks his own identity in God the Father without associating with the nation of Israel or the Jewish people. In essence, he refuses to accept Israel’s election as God’s firstborn child or is trying to steal the honor and right of his elder brother. Paul reminded the church in Rome: “Glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 2:10).

While it is clear there is now equality between Jew and Gentile in terms of our salvation, the Jewish people will always remain God’s firstborn. As the Lord declared: “Israel is My son, My firstborn” (Exodus 4:22). Firstborn implies that God has many other children, and He loves them equally. However, with the firstborn right of inheritance comes a special honor that God will never take away or give to another. Tertullian has refused to allow himself to be grafted into Israel and sadly has turned the tables upside down regarding Israel’s election.

Paul made this point abundantly clear when he said, “Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:28-29). It was Israel’s responsibility to share the good news of the gospel and the message of salvation with the Gentiles. As it was foretold, “I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the Gentiles” (Isaiah 42:6).

This scripture refers to Yeshua, but it also translates Yeshua’s commission to the Jewish people, to carry His light, His truth, and covenant to the nations. Paul used this scripture to affirm his ministry to the Gentile. As a Jewish man, he understood this calling was irrevocable and has never changed for the Jewish people. Are you not thankful that God does not revoke His calling on our lives in our brief moments of sin and rebellion? I certainly am.

Tertullian sees Israel—the firstborn and older son—as somehow greater or superior to the Gentiles. Rather than embrace his unique place in the Kingdom of God, Tertullian is attempting to self-affirm his sonship by declaring that God had a better plan. And yet scripture is clear that God always had a singular plan for both Israel and the Gentiles. As it is written, “Many nations [Gentiles] shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you” (Zechariah 2:11).

Jesus said, “Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:16). The God of Israel has called the Gentiles by His name. As the Lord declared, “And all the Gentiles who are called by My name, Says the Lord who does this thing” (Amos 9:2). And Paul affirmed this when he said, “Whom he also called, not only from the Jews but from the Gentiles as well” (Romans 9:24).

Regarding God’s name, it is mentioned over two-hundred times in scripture that He is called the “God of Israel.” And yet, He is not exclusively the God of the Jewish people; as it is written, “Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles?” (Romans 3:9). Yes, He is the God of the whole earth, but He is called “the God of Israel.” And the Gentiles have been joined to the God of Israel and grafted into His people.

Being joined to Israel does not, however, require the Gentiles to become Jewish. Paul repeatedly made this distinction, saying: “Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed [Jew and Gentile], not only to those who are of the law [the Jewish people], but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham [the Gentiles], who is the father of us all as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations” (Romans 4:16-17).

Paul articulated and distinguished that there are natural descendants of Abraham, who are the Jewish people. And there are wild olive trees, the Gentiles, who have been grafted into Israel contrary to nature. The nations are joined to the Lord, and for that part, are also bound to Israel, affirming Paul’s words, when he said: “You have been grafted in amongst them.”

The Lord declared: “Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you” (Zechariah 2:11). And since the covenants were made with Israel, the nations can only be joined to the Lord through her.

When Yeshua said He had other sheep that He would bring into this fold, He intended to bring the Gentiles to Himself and join them with Israel. And He affirmed there would only be one flock and one shepherd. Therefore, there are only one people of God, and this one people is called “the church” (in Greek ecclesia and Hebrew kahal), or more accurately called the “great assembly.” And this one assembly who are a new creation in Christ is comprised of every nation, will sing a new song to the God of Israel. We will sing a new song to the God of Israel; as it is written, “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).

In contrast, Tertullian mistakenly believes that since Israel rejected her Messiah, God’s divine mercy has left Israel and has fallen upon the Gentiles. He thinks the Gentiles have become the new Israel, the church, and he believes the church was always God’s plan, and Israel was a temporary dispensation. This manifestation of jealousy is an outward expression of hatred towards the Jewish people, and the behavior that perpetuates this hatred is called anti-Semitism.

A demonic spirit fuels this hatred, and in large part, is driving the age-old conflict between Israel and her older siblings—Ishmael and Esau. As it is written, “One people shall be stronger than the other, And the older shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23).

We see an example of this resentment illustrated in the parable of the prodigal son. Yeshua said:

“Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’ “But he was angry and would not go in” (Luke 15:25-28).

This hatred comes straight from the pit of hell and is Satan’s attempt to use our woundedness and weakness of man’s soul and flesh and our pride to divide the kingdom of God.

Tertullian’s last nail in his coffin of false theology is his declaration that Israel, being the greater, will eventually be overcome by the lesser (Gentile) Christian. Instead of Israel ultimately becoming the fulfillment of God’s plan in His earthly kingdom where the nations would be joined to her, the church comprising mainly Gentiles replaces Israel. And Israel becomes subservient rather than equal to the Gentile church.

Tertullian refuses to embrace the truth of scripture, as Paul said, “that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6). Paul clarifies in Romans 11 and Ephesians 2 that the Gentiles have been grafted in amongst Israel to become “one new man” in Christ with them.

We all require the blood of Yeshua to atone for our sin, and we are all adopted children, brought back into a relationship with our heavenly Father through the blood of Christ. The Gentiles now receive the same blessings and promises as Israel. These include the gift of salvation and the responsibility of sharing this message of salvation with the world. Yet, the Jewish people will always remain God’s firstborn.

Because of Israel’s transgression and unbelief in her Messiah, the Gentiles have been grafted into the covenant promises made with Israel so they would provoke Israel to jealousy. Sadly, Tertullian is holding to a demonic lie—that the church has supplanted Israel as God’s chosen people. Rather than provoking Israel to salvation in their Messiah, the Gentile church through the centuries has mostly ignored, and worse, persecuted the Jewish people. And therefore, during all my early years in the church, I could not connect with the Gentile expression of Christianity.

It was not because the songs or worship styles were different, or even for any lack of Jewish observances, such as the Passover or the Sabbath. But only because of the spirit of replacement theology that has continued to infect the church. Many Gentiles Christians have attempted to usurp the place of God’s firstborn and steal their spiritual identity. The result has been the continual indoctrination of supersessionism into theological seminary students and their resulting church teachings.[iv]

The children of Israel are the rightful heirs to God’s covenants and promises, not by any works of the flesh, but only by their faith in Christ. And God’s promises to Israel are irrevocable, meaning they are still in effect. Yet, because Israel rejected both her Messiah and her calling to bring God’s salvation message to the nations, the Lord has turned (for a season) to the Gentiles and given them the mantle and responsibility for completing the great commission. This commission, not to the exclusion, but entirely with the inclusion of God’s remnant of Jewish believers, that we together as “one new man” in Christ Yeshua would labor together to provoke Israel to jealousy.

This would bring the full number of Gentile believers into the Kingdom of God and bring resurrection life to the church and the whole earth, thereby ushering in the return of the Lord and the Millennial Kingdom. As Yeshua declared, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). We, the church, one new man in Christ, comprised of every tongue, tribe, nation, and people are that witness.

[i] History of the Early Church. Tertullian Contender For God.
[ii] All Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Bible (NKJV) unless otherwise noted, Thomas Nelson Inc., 1982.
[iii] Romans 11:25.
[iv] Greater than 70-percent of the top 25-largest denominations in the United States hold to a confirmed theology of supersessionism. Based on U.S. Membership Denominational Ranking: Largest 25 Denominations/Communions–2004 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches.