In a previous post I gave links to sermons about Romans 9-11 by David Pawson. Here is another about the same chapters by Peter Tsukahira.
In the sermon he points out that this generation is the first since Paul’s time that is in a position to understand the situation Paul was addressing in his letter to believers in Rome. We live in a generation that can easily view these chapters literally.
Unfortunately, most Christians today miss the point because of their adherence to historical traditions and theologies. Those traditions were established in a time when the logical approach was to allegorise Paul’s references to Israel because to the natural eye Israel had ceased to exist. Replacement Theology was the result of that allegorical approach.
Romans 9-11
Personally I thought he was heading off track about halfway through by talking about revival around the world, but that was only a brief interruption. Others may not find that section to be a problem.
3 comments:
Perhaps the above gives a clear demonstration of the weaknesses of both man’s logic and the dangers of clinging to man’s tradition instead of accepting the clear message of scripture – even when that clear message doesn’t seem to make sense at a particular time and under certain circumstances.
With Israel apparently out of the picture after the first century AD, how could Christians view Paul’s claims about Israel in Romans 9-11? What about his claim that God had not rejected Israel? The evidence seemed to point to the fact that He HAD rejected natural Israel since they no longer existed as a recognisable nation. The “logical” approach was to apply all of those promises regarding Israel to the church – surely the church must now be Israel in God’s eyes. The church must be a NEW or SPIRITUAL Israel.
This interpretation became dominant in many areas of the church, but a minority took Paul literally and expected to see Israel return to their land as promised by most of the OT prophets.
Of course, history proved that minority to be right as God’s word was fulfilled literally, with Israel being returned to the land of their ancestors from all the nations. And the world saw Isaiah 66:8 fulfilled in 1948.
After that point there is absolutely NO reason for “spiritualising” the identity of Israel. When scripture speaks of Israel it means Israel and not anyone else.
There is clearly no excuse for clinging to the “logical” and “traditional” interpretations that arose throughout history prior to 1948. Surely it is time to take God at His word and not manipulate it to suit man’s own prejudices and purposes.
Thanks for the link. The Pawson one was excellent, I look forward to hearing this one as well.
Hi Kevin,
This one is not as indepth as the Pawson study, but it gave me some insight into some reasons for the rise of replacement theology which in turn altered the church's understanding of Romans and particularly these chapters.
This section of scripture has been picked to pieces to provide proof texts for so many doctrines and yet few actually address what the WHOLE section is really saying.
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