Debunking Replacement Theology: Church & Israel, Separate
Welcome to part 9 of the series, Debunking Replacement Theology.
The church is not the nation Israel. Members of the church are to rule and reign with Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself makes it very clear, the church and Israel are different. The followers of Christ will judge Israel.
Matthew 19:28 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, in the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
2 Timothy 2:12a if we endure, we will also reign with him…
The reminder of ruling with Christ is the last message He gives to the churches in the book of Revelation.
Revelation 3:21 He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
The church will even judge angels as well as the world. Paul explains this in his first letter to the body of believers in Corinth.
1 Corinthians 6:2-3 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life?
Until these things happen, our destination as a member of the church is one of two places. Obviously, believers in Christ who are alive are on earth. If we die before the Lord comes for His bride, then we go to be with Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
Members of the body of Christ who have physically died are said to be “asleep”. Sleeping is not an eternal state. At some point, we get up and awake. A physically dead body is resting. The soul and spirit are with the Lord as noted in the verse from 2 Corinthians. Bodily death is not eternal. A section in 1 Thessalonians 4 captures the concept of sleep and order of events for members of the body of Christ. This section is addressed to the church, not Israel. Notice, the letter is written to those “in Jesus”. Israel was not and currently is not “in Jesus”.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
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This series is an excerpt from the book, Rapture the Bride Redeemed.
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