Sluice Box Adventures

Believing Bible Study in the 21st century

Termites in the Wall, Or Replacement Theology (or Supersessionism)

Psalms 12:6-7 "The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever."

1 Thessalonians 2:13 "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe."


Replacement Theology

Termites in the Wall, Or Replacement Theology (or Supersessionism)

Old Paths Baptist Mission © 2019 Richard St.James


I. The Promise by God for the Restoration of the House of Israel


We will read in the book of Ezekiel chapter twenty, verse thirty-three through verse forty-four:

[33] “As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you:”

[34] “And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.”

[35] “And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.”

[36] “Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD.”

[37] “And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant:”

[38] “And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.”

[39] “As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.”

[40] “For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things.”

[41] “I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen.”

[42] “And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers.”

[43] “And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed.”

[44] “And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for my name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.”

We begin here: Life and Peace.

What does mankind want more than anything else?

He wants to live and never die.

And what else does man want?

He wants peace … and safety … and no war.

Mankind wants to live in peace and safety! [Further than that, he wants to live in peace and in safety without God.]

“For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” [1 Thessalonians 5:3]

We have been here before.

See this in the book of Genesis chapter eleven, verse six: “And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” [Genesis 11:6]

Imaginations run wild when all the people get together. [The United Nations] This is not good!

History has a way of repeating itself, and men never learn from history.

Notice: This portrays a very sad commentary about the state of the heart of all mankind.

When God sees the people coming together as one he knows that all restraints have been removed.

This focus in the imaginations of all the people is to obtain a one-world kingdom [an utopia] free from the control and remembrance of God.

In order to achieve this goal they must rid the world of three things:

1. The True BIBLE

2. The Believers in Jesus Christ

3. The Nation of Israel

Happiness came to many people when God testified through his prophet Ezekiel this following declaration: “And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.” [Ezekiel 36:19]

Say it this way. The nations of the world were happy for the destruction of this nation.

Question: Is Israel therefore forever cast away? Are they done? Is Israel ever to be a nation among the nations of the world again? Is what happened in 1948 with the reestablishment of the nation of Israel legitimate?

Well, what does God say about this thing?

Now, never mind what the nations of the world are saying! Never mind what the religions of the world are saying! It only matters what God says. What is God’s opinion?

If we dare believe by faith the word of God, which was given to the prophet Elijah, we can find out just what God has in mind for the nation of Israel now and in the future.

Now we have God’s mind revealed through the word of God given to the apostle in the book of Romans [in chapter eleven].


 II. The New Testament saints of Rome are told about the future restoration of the House of Israel


Open your Bible to the Epistle to the Romans, chapter one, verse one: “To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.” [Romans 1:7]

This epistle is addressed to the “saints” … to the “beloved of God” in Rome. The “apostle to the Gentiles”, Paul [an Israelite], will reveal who God’s people are [in Romans 11:1].

Next turn to chapter eleven, verse one: “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.” [Romans 11:1]

Who are these people?

Who are God’s people?

The answer is coming!

We have here a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin telling us, through the Holy Ghost, that God has not cast away his people.

Who are these people?

According to the Bible, God’s people are the people of Israel. Exodus 18:1, 1 Kings 8:66, 2 Chronicles 7:10, and Psalm 135:12 establish a positive identification of who these people are in Romans chapter eleven.

Why, this thing is as plain as the nose on your face! You couldn’t miss it!!!

Look with me in the Scripture:

Exodus 18:1: “… for Israel his people, and that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt.”

1 Kings 8:66: “… and for Israel his people.”

2 Chronicles 7:10: “… the LORD had shewed unto David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people.”

Psalm 135:12: “And gave their land for an heritage, an heritage unto Israel his people.”

As a precursor to the time of Jacob’s trouble, there is seen through the eyes of faith a beautiful picture of the salvation of THE LORD that occurs in a valley … the valley of decision [Joel 3:14]. [See Jeremiah 30:7: “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.”]

Israel will be saved!!!

Note: Sometimes it takes a valley in life to deal with some things in order to settle some other things.

Be cognitive of this also: Jacob’s trouble is also called the Great Tribulation, which it is called in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. [See for this cross reference in Revelation, chapter seven, verse fourteen.]

Back to our text in Romans chapter eleven: We thus read here [starting with verse two]: “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, [vs. 3] Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.”

 [This Scripture here harks back to the Scripture found in the Bible in First Kings, chapter nineteen. See 1 Kings 19:14.]

Verse four: “But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.” [See 1 Kings 19:18.]

Do you see that? God had a remnant in Elijah’s day. He had “reserved” them to himself. Now, get a grip on that!

Now for verse five: “Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.”

This shows that God was actively involved with Israel at the time this epistle to the Romans was written [even when they had already rejected their Messiah].

Verse six: “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.”

Now here is the thing that befuddles the religionist … G-R-A-C-E: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” [Ephesians 2:8]

It is the grace of God rather than the works of man. It trips man up every time. It is the goodness of God, not the goodness of man.

There is no goodness in man apart from the work of God in the human heart. Romans 3:12: “They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

Romans eleven, verse seven: “What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded” [Romans 11:7].

There you have it. God is intimately involved with Israel. He was in the past, he is in the present, and he will be in the future as we shall see.

Now we come to verse eight through verse fifteen. Here God is revealing by his Spirit through his servant Paul that what has happened to Israel is for our benefit – the Gentiles’.  I will explain.

Verse eight: “(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.”

Today the nation of Israel is still asleep!

What we see in the Middle East today is a people being gathered from all the quarters of the earth all the while still spiritually asleep, and they will be asleep till the times of the Gentiles are “fulfilled” [see Luke 21:24.]

Verses nine and ten: “And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.”

Those eyes have now been darkened for nearly two thousand years.

Verse eleven: “I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.”

Their disobedience has become our opportunity.

On with verses twelve and thirteen: “Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:”

The end goal is the “fulness” for Israel … the salvation of Israel through the intervening event of the Gentiles receiving salvation.

That was Paul’s motive. You will see this in the next verse.

Verse fourteen: “If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.”

Thus, the salvation of Israel is the goal!!! Keep your eye on the ball! Israel will need to cry first. They will cry to the LORD in a future day as the BOOK foretells: They will cry!

Lamentations 2:18: “Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.” Notice this Israel is the apple of his eye.

And again in Zechariah 2:8: “For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.”

Now we come back again to the book of Romans, chapter eleven, verse fifteen: “For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?”

Note this: They were cast away only for a time so that the world would have time to receive the reconciliation [through the blood atonement of Jesus Christ]: “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” [2 Corinthians 5:19]


Next  3. The Olive Tree

Top