Ezk. 37
3Then He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones come to life?”
“O Lord GOD,” I replied, “only You know.”
4And He said to me, “Prophesy concerning these bones and tell them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5This is what the Lord GOD says to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you will come to life. 6I will attach tendons to you and make flesh grow upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath within you so that you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”
Romans 11
“The Deliverer will come from Zion;
He will remove godlessness from Jacob.
27And this is My covenant with them
when I take away their sins.
And Romans 11 gives the answer, the remnant of Jews. Otherwise you're a proponent of Replacement Theology, which is false and led to the Holocaust.
ThereRoseaLam, invoking the tragedy of the Holocaust to brand my position as "Replacement Theology" is a serious and inaccurate charge. It completely misrepresents what I have written.
As I stated clearly in my previous post,
the Church does not replace Israel. Replacement theology requires a system where one distinct group of people takes the place of another distinct group of people. I reject that completely. My position is that the Church is the
clarification of who Israel has always been according to God's electing grace. The Olive Tree is one tree, with one root, and one continuous body of the elect.
Let’s return to the text of Scripture you provided, because both Ezekiel 37 and Romans 11 completely vindicate this position:
1. Ezekiel 37: The Ultimate Picture of Immediate Regeneration
You quote the vision of the Dry Bones. This is a beautiful text, but look closely at what it actually illustrates. It describes a valley of dry, scattered bones that are completely dead.
- The Condition: The bones cannot lift a finger, make a choice, or cooperate to bring themselves back to life. They are helpless.
- The Action: God commands the prophet to preach, and God sovereignly causes breath (Ruach—the Spirit) to enter them. God says, "I will put my spirit in you, and ye shall live" (Ezk. 37:14).
This is the Old Testament picture of
Immediate Regeneration. God does not look at a political, secular nation and reward them. He takes those who are spiritually dead and monergistically breathes life into them by His Spirit. The "Dry Bones" are not a description of a secular geopolitical state formed by human politics in 1948. It is a description of God sovereignly quickening His elect remnant and making them alive in Christ.
2. Romans 11:26–27: Who is "Jacob"?
You quote Romans 11:26:
"The Deliverer will come from Zion; He will remove godlessness from Jacob. And this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins."
You then state that this promise belongs to "the remnant of Jews."
I completely agree with you! That is exactly my point. The covenant belongs strictly to the elect remnant of Israel, who are preserved by grace.
But notice what the text says the Deliverer does: He
takes away their sins.
- The political, secular nation of Israel today does not have its sins taken away, because they remain in an active rejection of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
- Paul explicitly states in Romans 11:5, "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace."
The "Jacob" whose sins are taken away is the elect remnant of natural Israel, who, along with the wild branches (Gentiles) grafted into that exact same tree, form the unified Israel of God.
The Real Distinction
The issue is not "Replacement Theology." The issue is whether God’s covenant promises are fulfilled in a physical bloodline or a spiritual election.
If the promises apply to a physical nation regardless of faith, then God is covenanting with people who die in their sins. But if the promises apply to the
remnant according to the election of grace, then Ezekiel 37 and Romans 11 make perfect sense. God sovereignly breathes life into the dry bones of His elect, removes ungodliness from them, takes away their sins, and gathers them into His eternal kingdom.
My position doesn't erase ethnic Jews; it honors the true, believing remnant of Israel by refusing to confuse them with a secular, political government. Amen!
is foreshadow of Jesus, who take away sins.
. Jesus says that, we should listen.
