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Replacement Theology: "Those Darned Jews"
"After decades of successful rapprochement.... a long-discredited theological aberration is threatening to open a new rupture between Christians and Jews - in the service of Islam. Replacement theology is, in brief, the idea that Christians are the true inheritors of God's Old Testament promises to Israel"
The salience of "replacement theology" has grown to the point that Christian Reconstructionist theologian Gary Demar has written an extensive article trying to defuse the controversial theological issue....
"Replacement Theology" holds that Jews are not actually Jews. Christians are !
Here is DeMar's take on the subject.
This discussion has not yet extended much beyond Christian circles. In that light, here's a bit of background:
"APPENDIX C: Replacement Theology
An important aspect of the Latter Rain, and all of the Kingdom/Dominion type theologies (including Roman Catholicism), is they have decided that whenever the Bible says ''Israel'' it ''really means'' the church: they believe Israel has been permanantly set aside by God and its place has been given to the church, which has inherited every promise God made to Israel as a nation."
Despite the apologetics of Gary DeMar and others, many Jewish leaders are now asking : despite the support of the Christian right for Israel, is the relationship American Jews have has with the Christian right and the Christian nationalist movement a faustian bargain ?
As Rabbi Stuart Federow, spiritual leader of Shaar Hashalom in Houston, writes [ in Jews On First ] :
What bothers me most about the Christian Right is not their agenda for what they consider to be the End Of Days, ultimately our mass conversion. This part of their eschatology is no less unBiblical than the rest of their Christian theology.
What bothers me is their most recent response to the Jewish community. Members of the Jewish community were objecting to now Supreme Court Justice Alito's appointment....Members of the Christian Right began to make statements threatening withdrawal of support for the State Of Israel, if the Jewish community did not silence these objections....
That is blackmail!
That kind of idea will be heard more and more in the years to come from the Christian Right. But what worries me most, is that there are, indeed, Jews, whose Israel-Uber-Alles approach means they will succumb to this blackmail for fear of losing Christian Right support for Israel.
Bridge Strategy Evangelism:
This leads me to write about another fear I have. There is a missionary technique called Bridge Strategy Evangelism.....
....What are the standards for acceptance by the Jewish community? So long as one apologizes for the Holocaust, promises it won't happen again, memorializes in annual services our beloved Jewish dead, then they can circulate freely in honored positions among the Jews? So long as one supports the State Of Israel, or donates money to Israel, or leads large tours to Israel, they can be honored speakers to our Jewish community, even as they might be giving money to organizations that missionize us? Where is the line that if a member of the Christian Right crosses (no pun intended!), he or she becomes unwelcome in the Jewish Community, despite their apparent support of Israel and memorializing of the Holocaust?? Is there such a line that they cannot cross?
There is a name given to someone, usually women, who are willing to ignore morals and ethics for the sake of some gain, usually monetary gain. However that is an apt description of what the Jewish community does, every time we look the other way when members of the Christian Right support Christian organizations that missionize Jews, pervert our rituals by Christologizing them, and support the sides of social issues that we are against, for the sake of their memorializing the Holocaust or supporting the State of Israel! It is prostituting ourselves, purely and simply!
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