OPINION:
Carrie Prejean Boller, the former beauty contestant who was removed last month from the Trump administration’s Religious Liberty Commission, recently said the following on “The Tucker Carlson Show”: “For 2,000 years, [replacement theology] is what the early church fathers taught. [The church is] the new Israel, we are the spiritual semites. [The patriarchs] would literally be rolling in their graves if they thought that we were being told that 1948 Israel is some biblical prophecy fulfillment. I asked my priest [about this], and he said nobody has ever taught that.”
Aside from the fact that Ms. Prejean Boller doesn’t seem to know her own Catholic tradition very well (and that she is apparently unaware that Pope Benedict officially acknowledged Israel as the “Jewish homeland” and Pope Francis later added that the modern “state of Israel has every right to exist in safety”), let’s consider what she says about the church fathers.
Let’s go to the earliest records we have concerning what the patriarchs actually said about Israel.
In the 10th century B.C., Ethan the Ezrahite said the following in the Book of Psalms: “My [i.e., God’s] covenant with him shall endure. … If his sons abandon my instructions … if they dishonor my statutes and do not keep my commands, then I will call their rebellion to account with the rod. … But I will not withdraw my faithful love from him or betray my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or change what my lips have said. Once and for all, I have sworn an oath by my holiness; I will not lie to David. His offspring will continue forever.” (Psalm 89)
About 300 years later, the Prophet Jeremiah added this: “The Lord says: The one who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of moon and stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea and makes its waves roar, the Lord of Armies is his name: If the fixed order departs before me — this is the Lord’s declaration — only then will Israel’s descendants cease to be a nation forever.” (Jeremiah 31)
If you fast-forward another 650 years, you will find that St. Paul is equally clear: “So, what advantage does a Jew have? Considerable in every way. First, they were entrusted with the very words of God. What then? If some are unfaithful, will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? Absolutely not. Let God be true, even though everyone is a liar.” (Romans 3)
Lest we miss his point, the apostle then doubles down and warns early Christians (and all of us thereafter) not to “boast against the Jews” because “you [i.e., Christians] do not sustain the root, but the root [i.e., the Jews] sustains you.” (Romans 11)
Yes, the “earliest church fathers” were very clear. God’s covenant with Israel is everlasting and will never be revoked, and the writer of the book of Hebrews tells us why. God guaranteed his promise to Israel by swearing on the highest authority possible: himself.
“For when God made a promise to Abraham, since He could swear by none greater, He swore by Himself …” (Hebrews 6). Because God is immutable and unchanging, his promises stand forever. His word never fails.
Those in the antisemitic “replacement theology” camp, such as Ms. Prejean Boller, Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson, will predictably respond by saying, “But the New Testament book of Galatians says that being a Jew by birth means nothing. We are saved by faith. Genetics has nothing to do with it.”
Of course, all true Christians know this is true. Jesus is the “only way, truth, and life, and no one comes to the Father but through him.” (John 14:6) Yes, the Bible is clear: No one is saved outside of confession and repentance at the foot of the cross. One’s bloodline has nothing to do with it.
Two things can be true at the same time. The fact that salvation is only through Jesus doesn’t mean that God’s promise to the descendants of Abraham to have their own land is null and void. Nothing in the Bible suggests that his covenant to preserve the Jews as his chosen people has been changed or replaced.
On one hand, we are talking about salvation. On the other, we’re talking about a nation. Both can be true. One doesn’t negate the other.
Believing that the God who will keep his covenant with Abraham is the same God who will keep his promise to you is foundational to our confidence and security as believers in Christ. The same God who gave his word to the Jews is the same God who gives his word to us when he tells us that “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
Trusting that God keeps his promises is Christianity 101 and has been for 2,000 years.
• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host. He is the author of “Not a Day Care: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth” (Regnery). He can be reached at epiper@dreverettpiper.com.
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