Did the Church Replace Israel?

“From the Nile to the Euphrates” (Gen 15:18). The land God gave to his people included today’s Palestine, Jordan, parts of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. “It would be fine if they took it all,” said U. S. Ambassador to Israel and Baptist minister, Mike Huckabee.

There is more to the Abrahamic covenant than just this family and just that land. As will become clear from the rest of Genesis and from the New Testament, Abram knew that the earthly land of Canaan was just a picture of heaven itself (Heb 11:10). Likewise, he came to understand that the key to becoming a vast nation was a single son. From the one, special boy of Abram, the blessings would flow to the nations, who is Jesus Christ (Gal 3:7–9). By faith in Christ, we become the heirs of these ancient promises.

When Peter stood up at Pentecost, his audience was entirely Jewish. What did they hear when he declared that “the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself” (Acts 2:39)? What they heard would have immediately governed their covenant practice […]

Everyone is moving to Florida. Everywhere I look there are new roads, new subdivisions, new buildings piercing the sky. New everything. Several years ago, my oldest son and I sat and marveled as we watched construction workers scaling up and down a building using several stories of scaffolding […]