NT Framework - Replacement Theology is simply wrong

Replacement Theology is simply wrong. How can they get it so wrong to not understand the difference between the Wife of the Father and the Bride of Christ for example?

More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com 

This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

Transcript

Upper Room Mysteries Introduced

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.

Church And Israel Distinguished

Nations Versus One Global Body

Covenants To Israel, Benefits To Church

Time Calendar Or People Schedule

Growing To Christ’s Full Stature

Spiritual Temple, Not Buildings

SPEAKER_01 0:10

And these new truths that we've just seen here in John 13 through 17, the upper room, are the mysteries in the Old Testament, things that had never been revealed in the history of the world. Like praying in Jesus' name, like this particular ministry of the Holy Spirit, this idea that He's going to come for believers and take them to the Father's house. These are all new truths. These were mysteries in the Old Testament. And the church, of course, is never mentioned in the Old Testament. Now, a lot of theologians will say, oh, well, yes, it is. Israel is the church in the wilderness. And there's a lot of problems with all that. But the church and Israel are not the same. Okay? Israel and the church are different. Let me show you some of the things that are different. Israel was a nation. Right? I mean, just like Nigeria is a nation. And America is a nation. It was a nation. But see, the church is not a nation. The church is a group of people that's composed of people from every nation on earth. And the Bible says this over and over. Every tongue, tongue, tribe, you know, and nation, you know, you know, nation on earth. That's who we are composed of. We're not a nation. We don't have a constitution for the church, you know, that we all follow. We don't have police for the church, you know, or things like that. We don't pay taxes to the church. Well, some churches they do, you know, whatever. But disciples of Christ, remember how they used to like make you give your bank account numbers and stuff like that? Anyway. Some churches treat it this way, but the church is not a nation. Okay, it's a group of people composed of those from all nations. Second, Israel had covenants. Okay? The Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant, the new covenant, those are all made with Israel. The church doesn't have any covenants. Not one covenant is made with the church. I mean, you could say, well, yeah, the Noahic covenant. Well, that's for everybody. That's for all mankind. And all animalkind. So even the animals have that covenant. But my point here is that they're not the covenant, we're not the covenant people of God. God made unconditional covenants to Israel. The church has no covenants, but guess what? We get to benefit from their covenants. Ephesians 3 tells us this. We become co-partakers of the promises in Christ relating to Israel's covenants. We get to benefit from their covenants. But we're not taking over their covenants. We just get to benefit from their covenants. Third, Israel was on a time calendar. They had Sabbaths, Sabbath days, feast days, you know, Pentecost, Passover, and so forth, special years like the year of Jubilee. Does the church have any of that? No, we don't have any of that. We don't have any of that. We're not on a time calendar system like Israel was. We are on a people schedule. If somebody says, well, when is Christ going to come back for the church? When is the rapture going to happen? I'm just going to say, well, I have no idea, I mean. Whenever. Whenever what? And if you push me, you say, whenever what? I'm going to say, well, whenever the last person who he has deemed to be a member of the church believes, then he'll come back. There's some hint of this in Ephesians 4. That the church has to go from immaturity to maturity because the church is the body and Christ is the head, right? And just like little babies, it's so funny. You look at little babies. I mean, if you really think about it, their head is just gigantic compared to their bodies. If I put my hands over my head, I mean, I can get way over my head, I can even wrap my arms over my head. Try to get a baby's arms to go over its head. It's kind of like this. The reason is because the head is so super developed. And the body has to grow into proportion to the head. And it's the same thing with the body of Christ. Jesus Christ was totally complete in his resurrection body on the day of his resurrection. But the church that began on the day of Pentecost has to grow to maturity up to the full stature of Jesus Christ. That's a verse. That's a verse in Ephesians 4. It says that we must grow up to the full stature of Jesus Christ. So there's this idea that the last person who's to be a member of the church in God's mind, when they believe, that's when he'll come forth. Why? Because the body will have reached the full stature of Christ. There's no reason to keep it going on. He's going to finish that and then take care of other things. But so we're not on a time calendar, we're on a people schedule. Who is it that's going to believe? And are you going to be the one that evangelizes them? I mean, you could be. I don't know. There's going to be one last person, right? There's got to be. At that person, the body will be complete. But this is very different from Israel. Fourth thing, Israel had a physical temple. Always had a physical temple. Right? You've got the tabernacle in the wilderness, then you've got the Solomonic temple, then that was destroyed. You've got the Zerebbel's temple, expanded by the Hashmoneeans, expanded by Herod the Great at the time of Christ. It was destroyed in AD 70. Right? Now we don't have physical temples. The church is a spiritual temple. It's a spiritual temple. Church never has physical temples. This building is just a building. Just like any other building. Like the school, the public school down there that teaches heresy. It's just a building, just like that. It's the people that are the true temple. We are the place where the world is to meet God. We are to be holy. It's not a holy place. We are to be the epitome of holiness. Right? Fifth, Israel had the Spirit with them in the prophets, priests, and kings, right? It's the only place that he was with them. So he abided among Israel in those individuals who were in those three offices. But the church, every individual believer has the spirit indwelling them. Romans 8, 9. If you don't have the Spirit, you don't belong to Him. Simple as that, right? So that's a difference between the church and Israel. Here's another one. Israel is composed of believers and unbelievers. In the Old Testament, we've got the remnant, we've got the non-remnant. Remember the story of Elijah? Elijah's like, I'm the only one, Lord. I'm the only believer in all Israel. And God says, get over yourself. I've got 7,000 who've never bowed the knee to Baal. We have 7,000 plus you. 7,000 and one, Elijah, get over yourself. There's always a believing remnant. And there was always a non-remnant. Those are the unbelievers in Israel. So Israel is a nation composed of believers and unbelievers. It's still that way today. There's a very small proportion of Jews today are believers in Jesus as the Messiah, but here's one amongst us, right? So they're here, they exist. But in the church, it's believers only. There's no concept of the church as being, you know, believers and unbelievers. If someone is here in this room and you're not a believer, you're not a member of the church. You can be in this building, but you're not a member of the church. The church is composed only of believers. So that's a difference with Israel. Sixth or seventh there. Israel is the wife of Yahweh. You know that terminology from the Old Testament? Hosea uses it all the way through. That God, the Father, Yahweh, took to himself, Israel, as his wife. And then you get the story there of Hosea and his wife Gomer and what she did, and that's a representation of what Israel did to him. She went and played the prostitute, and that's what Israel did by going after idols, right? God's saying, You're being unfaithful. Yahweh's saying, You've been an unfaithful wife. Okay, but he still loves her and he wins her back, right? That's a story of Israel's things to come still. He's going to win them back. But the church, the church is not the wife of Yahweh. We're the bride of Christ. See, there's two different members of the Trinity going on there. Wife of Yahweh, that's a reference to the Father. Bride of Christ, that's a reference to the Son. These aren't the same. Israel and the church are not the same. You can't just blend the Father and the Son. You can't, ew, it's all just the same thing. You can't do that. I mean, words have meaning. We should let them mean what they say.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.