In March, Tucker Carlson sat down with Pastor Andrew Isker for a conversation that showcased how aggressively replacement theology is reasserting itself in conservative Christianity. Isker didn’t mince words: Jesus has replaced Israel as God’s chosen people. “The old Covenant, it’s done, it’s over,” he declared, insisting that God has eliminated all distinctions between Jews and Gentiles. According to Isker, every physical promise God made to the Hebrew people now belongs spiritually to the church. The sacrificial system? Just symbols pointing to Christian worship.
Replacement theology has always been embedded in Christianity, but it’s gaining serious ground again. More churches embrace the idea that Jews have no special status before God. More conservative voices suggest that modern Jews are just another ethnic group with no divine mission. The movement is strengthening exactly when it should be weakening under the weight of fulfilled prophecy.
The timing of this revival is very strange. Over the last 75 years, the modern state of Israel has miraculously proven, time and time again, that God is fulfilling His promises to the physical people of Israel. The Jewish people have returned to their ancient homeland after two millennia of exile. They have rebuilt their nation against impossible odds. They have made the desert bloom and transformed a backwater Ottoman province into a technological powerhouse. Dozens of biblical prophecies about the ingathering of exiles have been fulfilled in our lifetime. The evidence for God’s continued covenant with Israel has never been more overwhelming. So why are we witnessing this resurgence of a theology that declares the Jews spiritually dead and replaced?
The Sages provide the key to understanding this phenomenon through their teaching about the stages of human history: “This world is to endure for 6,000 years: 2,000 years of chaos, 2,000 years of Torah, and 2,000 years of redemption.” When God selected Abraham, the era of chaos ended and the era of Torah began. This transition marked a fundamental shift in how God relates to humanity, establishing a new covenant that would guide the world toward its ultimate destiny.
This transition to a new era was permanent: “Bar Kappara taught: Anyone who calls Abraham ‘Abram’ violates a positive commandment, as it says ‘and your name shall be Abraham.’ Rabbi Eliezer says: He violates a negative commandment, as it says ‘your name shall no longer be called Abram.'” The law forbids reverting to Abraham’s original name because once God found him worthy to inaugurate a new stage in human history, there could be no retreat. The world emerged from two thousand years of chaos and entered the era of Torah through Abraham’s covenant.
Though these transitions are clearly good for humanity, opposition always arises when God moves the world into a new phase. When God wanted to create man, the angels opposed it. When man was created, the serpent, the most developed creature until that moment, immediately challenged him. This pattern repeats at every decisive stage of history. An opponent always emerges who represents the old world order and refuses to accept the new reality.
When Isaac was chosen over Ishmael, the elder brother could not accept his displacement. The Sages record their debate: “Isaac and Ishmael were arguing with each other. One said, ‘I am more beloved because I was circumcised at thirteen years old,’ and the other said, ‘I am more beloved because I was circumcised at eight days old.’ Ishmael said to him: ‘I am more beloved because I had the ability to refuse but I did not refuse.’ At that moment Isaac said: ‘Would that God had revealed Himself to me and told me to cut off one of my limbs, and I would not hesitate at all—And God tested Abraham.'” Through the binding of Isaac, Isaac proved why God had chosen him over his brother.
The question remains: why does opposition intensify precisely when God’s plan becomes most evident? The answer comes down to human nature. Each transition to a new historical stage necessarily disqualifies the alternatives that came before. Those who are displaced naturally harbor deep resentment and mount increasingly desperate challenges to the new order.
When Abraham stepped onto the world stage as God’s messenger, his very existence invalidated the way of life of millions of pagans. His monotheism exposed their idols as powerless fabrications. His covenant with God demonstrated that their gods were mere inventions. When Isaac was chosen, Ishmael was by definition rejected. The older brother’s claims to spiritual superiority were definitively refuted. The “old guard” naturally pushed back against these divine decisions, and their opposition intensified as the new reality became more established.
The same dynamic explains today’s resurgence of replacement theology. When the State of Israel was established in 1948, the world entered a new era of history. And as Israel miraculously flourishes despite incessant efforts to destroy it, as it repeatedly demonstrates that the Jewish people are not a “dead” nation replaced by Christianity but remain God’s chosen people with a unique mission on earth, the adherents of replacement theology dig in their heels even more fiercely. Against all logic, ignoring the literally fulfilled prophecies before their eyes, they continue claiming that Jews are just another nation like Belgium or Bulgaria.
The resurgence of replacement theology represents the death throes of a discredited worldview. Like Ishmael arguing with Isaac, like the serpent challenging Adam, the old guard refuses to accept that God has moved history into a new phase. The more clearly God’s faithfulness to Israel becomes evident, the more desperately they cling to their supersessionist fantasies. They cannot bear to admit that their theology has been exposed as false by the unfolding of biblical prophecy in real time.
But this opposition will not endure forever. The day will come when even the blindest among the nations will see that Israel is God’s chosen nation.
Until then, we can expect the Andrew Iskers and Tucker Carlsons of the world to rage against the rise of Israel. But we must not be discouraged. They, like the serpent and Ishmael before them, will not win this fight.
