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Within Christianity, the widely held traditional view has been that the Jews' rejection of Jesus meant that they were then cast aside as God's people, being replaced by the Gentile church, or “Spiritual Israel.” In this line of reasoning, the Jewish failure to recognize Christ the first time He came amounted to God's total rejection of the Jews. Therefore, the reasoning goes, the Gentiles have now replaced the Jews as the apple of God’s eye. Holding this belief is called “replacement theology.”

Of course, this theology glosses over the fact that the first Christians were actually circumcised Jews who continued to observe at least some aspects of the Mosaic Law. Jesus and His disciples were all Jewish. Although the sacrificing of animals for the forgiveness of sins was done away with, these early Jewish Christians still observed the Feasts and other like observances in the Law of Moses.

 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Heaven and earth must pass away, but one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, until all be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so to do, he shall in no wise be saved in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach these commandments of the law until it be fulfilled, the same shall be called great, and shall be saved in the kingdom of heaven.  [Matthew 5:19-21]

 The early Jewish believers and their religious system did, however, undergo a tremendous metamorphosis because of the teachings of Christ and the arrival of the Holy Spirit. His disciples would no longer conform to a religious system that had previously laid claim to the prideful position of being the chosen people merely because of their race. As John the Baptist proclaimed, “God is able of these stones to raise up children into Abraham,”[1] thereby signifying that God could raise up a people both to do His work and inherit His promises if needed. To be a son of Abraham is to walk in the faithfulness of Abraham who was called a friend of God.

Christ’s disciples no longer adhered to a religious system that presumed to hold the sole priesthood authority because of tradition or lineage alone. Jesus picked simple men, working class men and sinners, to be His disciples. None of them held a priesthood card or had official papers authorizing them as ministers. The judgmental attitudes and self-righteousness of a race was to be replaced by the love of God in their hearts.  

But Jesus did not come to start a new religion. He came to reveal to mankind the true meaning of the Law. He showed His followers that God was not angry and unapproachable, but a Father full of grace and a willingness to forgive. Christ came with a call for all of mankind, both Jew and Gentile, to enter into a new and living relationship with His Father. In this transformation from Law to Grace, a much brighter picture emerged. 

In the past twenty years or so, there has been a great resurgence of the understanding that the early New Testament church was, indeed, Jewish. The first 120 believers who gathered in the Upper Room were all Jews. Peter preached repentance to the Jews gathered from all nations at the Feast of Pentecost (First Fruits). This brought the number of followers of Jesus Christ to approximately 3120, all Jews by birth or conversion. The Gospel did not even go to the Gentiles during the first ten years of the Church’s existence after the resurrection of Christ. Paul confirms this when he said: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”[2]  In contrast to this, the Doctrine and Covenants tells us that in the last days the gospel will “go forth unto the ends of the earth, unto the Gentiles first, and then…unto the Jews,”[3] thus fulfilling the prophecy that the “last shall be first, and the first last.”[4]

A closer look at the New Testament reveals a new understanding of the transition that took place as the gospel of grace spread from the early Jewish believers to the Gentiles. Rather than finding support for replacement theology, what we find instead is a transformation.

As an apostle to the Gentiles, Paul acted as a bridge in this transition. He did not see the Gentiles and Jews in an “either/or” situation.  Rather, he prophetically foretold the boasting of the Gentiles that would come in time and be at the core of replacement theology.  Paul gave admonition to those who embraced or taught such wrongful thinking—a thinking that served as the early seeds of this erroneous doctrine. He admonished the Gentiles, saying, “Boast not against the branches, for thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.”[5]

Rather than the idea of “replacement” being at the core of these changes in history, the transformation in the Church served the purpose of God in preserving the natural fruit and saving His vineyard. Through messengers of change (prophets and angels), God prunes religious systems to engraft new life into that which is dying.

In Paul's epistle to the Romans, he speaks of a mystery regarding Israel and the Gentiles.[6] Like a tree that is severely cut back, the Jews were cut back nearly to the root so that only a remnant remained. (Long before this event, the northern tribes of Israel were also cut back when Assyria scattered them to the four winds.) The Gentiles were like new branches grafted into the tree of Israel, serving the purpose of helping to maintain the strength of its root. By doing this, God breathed new life into His Church. In this pruning, the more corrupt parts of the tree of Israel were destroyed, but many of these “natural branches” were merely taken and grafted into other trees in His vineyard, which is the world. God did this so that He could preserve them for a later time when they could be grafted back in to the original tree. This is the scattering of Israel among the Gentile nations revealed in the parable of Zenos.[7]

The prophetic picture that Paul gave of this scenario was not one of the Gentiles replacing the Jewish roots. But, rather, the Gentiles were meant to help preserve the Jewish roots. They would function to preserve and bring forth the Jewish record (The Bible) to the lost tribes of Israel. The roots of Israel were never removed. They are still there. 

Speaking to the Gentiles, Paul warns them against boasting: “For if thou boast, thou wilt say, The branches were broken off, that we might be grafted in.”[8]  The boasting that Paul describes here is at the core of Gentile Replacement Theology. Paul called such boasting conceit and referred to those who think this way as being ignorant of God’s plan.

 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.  And then all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob ... [Romans11:25-26]

 God has not replaced Israel and never will abandon His covenant people. Though at times He has forsaken them for a time in response to their sin, yet He has also spoken through the voice of the prophets that He will return, forgive, and gather them in. He will be their God, and they will be His people.

For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. [Isaiah 54:7]

 As Paul suggests in this mystery, the blindness and falling away of Israel will not last forever. It will be only “until the fullness of the Gentiles come in.”[9] But what is the fullness of the Gentiles?

Many of us have been taught to believe that the fullness of the Gentiles represents the fullness of their iniquity, but this is not scripturally sound. Although the Scriptures do warn of what will happen to the Gentiles if they should reject the fullness of His gospel, this is actually a quite separate and distinct event, not associated with the fullness of the Gentiles.

In fact, everywhere in the Scriptures that it mentions the fullness of the Gentiles, the context of the wording portrays a very positive event—one where the Gentiles bless Israel. Here is an example of one such scripture:

 And I command you that ye shall write these sayings, after I am gone, that if it so be that my people at Jerusalem, they who have seen me, and been with me in my ministry, do not ask the Father in my name, that they may receive a knowledge of you by the Holy Ghost, and also of the other tribes whom they know not of, That these sayings which ye shall write, shall be kept, and shall be manifested unto the Gentiles, that through the fullness of the Gentiles, the remnant of their seed who shall be scattered forth upon the face of the earth, because of their unbelief, may be brought in, or may be brought to a knowledge of me, their Redeemer. And then will I gather them in from the four quarters of the earth; and then will I fulfill the covenant which the Father hath made unto all the people of the house of Israel.  [RLDS Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 7:27-29]

 Quite simply, the fullness of the Gentiles is the time when the Gentiles reach the height of their spiritual potential and can go no further without coming to knowledge of the greater truths hid up in Israel. The Reformation and Protestant movements were inspired by a move of the Holy Spirit among the Gentiles to begin the process of restoring certain truths. They would also stir up revival and great interest in the Scriptures, including the writings of the prophets. This religious stirring among the Gentiles served as the ground work for the coming restoration through the prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. This work of restoration is on-going and will not cease until the tribes are gathered to Zion and the whole house of Israel is restored once again.  I’ll write more of the role of the Gentiles versus the role of Israel later in the book.

There are yet two more forms of replacement theology that aren’t generally recognized as such but fall under that general category:

 1.      Among some Messianic Christians, there is a tendency to become so engrossed in their Jewishness that pride can enter in. Their ways of doing and believing are thought of as being superior, or more scripturally correct than other Christians. Some have even come to think of themselves, in effect, as the “replacement” for Gentile Christianity. While Gentile Replacement Theology believes that the branches have replaced the roots, some overzealous Messianic Christians have a form of replacement theology whereby their roots think to replace the branches. Both the root and the branches are important to God’s plan.

 2.      There are many among the Restoration Movement, those who trace their roots back to the prophetic work of Joseph Smith, Jr., who think and act as though they are the whole tree. Many believe they have replaced both the Jew and Gentile as “Spiritual Israel.” They have not considered the other tribes or the role of the Gentiles as being spiritually significant. Replacement theology in whatever form it takes has one common fatal flaw—conceit.[10]

 At the very best, the Latter-Day Saints can only lay claim to being one tribe out of twelve. However, some continue to hold very tightly to the precept that they are the only ones with authority and the only ones who can grant it—evidently working on the assumption that God cannot give authority to whom He will, whether we have performed the work He called us to do or not. We should all be very careful of such a conceit. God likewise gave the true authority of priesthood to the Jews in their early history. Later, John the Baptist was ordained by the hand of an angel. The Jews, who had once held the exclusive authority of the priesthood, were constantly trying to figure out “by what authority” John and Jesus ministered.

We believe that God will never take the priesthood from the earth again, but that does not mean He cannot take it from us and give it to another. God reserves the right and privilege to give His authority to whomever He wills at any time He so chooses. There will be those in these last days who will have official papers to prove their authority, but in truth, will wield no power and thereby show themselves to be lacking in authority. And there will be those who will have no official documentation of their authority, but those with discernment will know as the Spirit of God will bear witness of their authority as being genuine.

Paul spoke of the mystery of the root and branches to counteract the conceitedness of replacement thinking. Being self-centered puts one in a precarious position. If one’s sense of self-importance is predicated[11] by another's failure, for example, that conceit will eventually lead the person into the same position as the one he thought he had replaced. The same conditions, which caused the first group to fail, will certainly come upon any who take such a position.  Looking at the failure of another in order to bolster one’s own worth is a sure road to spiritual catastrophe.

The Latter Day Saint movement needs to understand that the Gentiles did not fail. The great Reformation movement that began with Martin Luther and others was a movement initiated by God’s Spirit. It was supported through the efforts of men who had a love for the truth. Most Protestant denominations that exist today had their origins in a restored truth that was released at some time upon the earth by the Holy Spirit. The problem was that in time, many of these movements became denominations by boxing in those truths—erecting walls and barriers against further light and truth. When this happened, they then ceased to grow and became a dead form. They had taken a truth and—instead of growing further with it, line upon line, precept upon precept—they turned that truth into an idol. The truth often becomes distorted in the process. However, this series of successive changes (or reformations) regarding the spiritual understanding of mankind about God and His word was steadily leading up to the restoration of all things, which began through the work of the prophet Joseph Smith, Jr.

Please note that I say “the restoration of all things” began through Joseph Smith, Jr. It is not yet completed.

Has the Restoration Movement, like the movements before it, ceased to grow and instead become yet another denomination—a dead monument to the past? In the early days of the movement, many inspired hymns were written and sung by the Saints. While these hymns are beautiful and should be sung today, are we not also told to sing unto God a new song?[12] There should be just as many inspired songs written today as there were in the early days of the Restoration.  In those early days, many revelations were received from God. If we are the body of Christ today, we should continue to receive many timely and reliable prophetic words.

God is not just a God of the past or some distant future. He is a God of today. I believe part of the trouble is that we have turned the word “restoration” into a noun rather than a verb. The Restoration was never meant to just become another denomination—like the churches before it—but, rather, an act that God continues to perform in our lives and in the lives of others; the Restoration Movement is that great and marvelous work that continues to build momentum, restoring righteousness and building the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven. If, as the Restoration Movement, we are not progressing in harmony with the movement of God’s Spirit, then we are no longer working within the framework of what He is doing. God never stops moving—even if we do.

Many Restoration Saints today think of themselves as Gentiles.  But if you are reading this book, the Spirit of God may well have had a hand in placing this book in your hands. You may be a literal descendant of a tribe of Israel, and now is the time for your heritage to be awakened within you. Many Americans who are of European descent, especially those who have ancestors from the British Isles, are of the tribe of Ephraim by blood. Though many individuals have lineal roots in Israel, in order for them to be fully restored, they must be awakened to knowledge regarding their tribal identity and have their hearts turned again to the promises made to their fathers. If you are a member of a tribe of Israel, there is a rich spiritual inheritance awaiting you. (Those persons who are not aware of a direct lineage to Israel are equally invited to join the House of Israel in the restoration of all things through Jesus Christ by embracing His full gospel, which will be the basis for the formation of the Kingdom of God on earth.)