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I know that what I am writing in my blog today will cause some people discomfort. Others will become angry and still others will choose to stop reading my blogs and articles.
Yet, knowing that there is a danger of the above happening, it is my hope that most who read this blog all the way through will see the truth in what I am writing and align themselves with that truth and, by doing so, rightly align themselves with the covenants of G-D.
There are things that people say, which when said, make statements that are unintended, such as when someone uses the phrase “The West Bank” when describing Judea and Samaria. They may not intend to be anti-Israel in their use of the phrase, but just by using the phrase “The West Bank” they are being anti-Israel because the phrase “The West Bank” geographically attributes ownership of Judea and Samaria to Jordan because the land is on the West side of the Jordan River.
In this same manner, many quote Scripture in a way that is unintentionally anti-Israel and anti-Semitic.
While I know that the vast majority of those who will be reading this blog would say that they reject antisemitism in all of its forms, and while I know that most of those who believe in Yeshua understand and fully believe that G-D has made eternal covenants with the descendants of Abraham known today as the Jewish people, they also know that included in the covenants that G-D made with Israel is the covenant promise that the land of Israel was given to Abraham and his descendants eternally.
Yet, these same believers who would shout their absolute belief in these covenant promises will without knowing it quote and proclaim misappropriate Scriptures out of their context. By doing so, they at best water down G-D’s covenant promises, and at worst reject those promises altogether.
These verses, out of context, feed the headwaters that flow into the divergent streams of a form of antisemitism known as replacement theology. It’s a doctrine that stands in complete opposition to G-D’s promise to Abraham, a promise that didn’t end with the birth, life, death and resurrection of Yeshua.
One such verse quoted and misappropriated in such a way is 2 Chronicles 7:14.
“When My people, over whom My Name is called, humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
This verse, while being a wonderful verse which demonstrates the power of humility, prayer and repentance, is often quoted today by preachers and Bible teachers as they point out the sins of America (or other nations). They call their congregations and students to a place of repentance before G-D in hopes that G-D will forgive their sins and heal their land.
Before I go on, I want to make it very clear that I believe that the only hope for G-D’s blessings to be upon the USA (or any other country) is humility, prayer and repentance.
However, the words of 2 Chronicles 7:14 were given specifically by G-D to Solomon, the people it was speaking to and about were the people of Israel and the land spoken about was the physical land of Israel.
We know this is true because the next verses tell us this:
“Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house so that My name may be there forever. My eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually.”
We also know that these words are directed at the people of Israel and the land of Israel because what G-D says in 2 Chronicles 7:20 would be the result of failure to pray and turn from their sins.
“… then I will uproot them from My land which I gave them, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight. I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.”
You may have read this far and are wondering what does this have to do with hidden antisemitism and replacement theology? The answer is that when these verses and others like them are misappropriated, as if they can be applied directly to believers in the USA (or any other country), these promises are removed from their roots in the covenant promises of G-D made to Israel and made about the land of Israel.
They are either expanded to include either the Jewish people and “the church, the spiritual Israel,” or even worse, replace the Jewish people with “the church, spiritual Israel.” It also changes or expands the covenant promise of the Promised Land to include Israel and all other countries, or even worse, replaces Israel with a “New Israel.”
While on the surface, some might see this as a minor thing not to be concerned about. But the reality is that misappropriation and misapplication of Scripture is immensely spiritually dangerous. This is because no one has the right to adjust, or expand, G-D’s covenant promises. In 2 Chronicles, G-D was speaking directly to and about the people of Israel and directly about the land of Israel.
To directly quote these words as if they directly apply to people in the USA (or any other country) is to demonstrate knowingly or unknowingly changing and adding to G-D’s Word, and participating in implicit or direct replacement theology and antisemitism.
This isn’t to say that G-D won’t hear the prayers of those in the USA (or any other country) and forgive them and heal their land. But that is because of G-D’s character and the many verses in which He promised to be faithful to forgive those who repent, and not because of a promise G-D made to King Solomon in 2 Chronicles.
In other words, G-D’s forgiveness is not a zero sum game in which the only way you can be forgiven is to take the promise of forgiveness made to someone else. Or said another way, we don’t have to apply G-D’s promises made to someone else or someplace else to ourselves in order to be forgiven and blessed.
G-D made plenty of promises that, in their proper context, were made to me and you.
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Eric Tokajer is the author of “Overcoming Fearlessness,” “What If Everything You Were Taught About the Ten Commandments Was Wrong?,” “With Me in Paradise,” “Transient Singularity,” “OY! How Did I Get Here?: Thirty-One Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before Entering Ministry,” “#ManWisdom: With Eric Tokajer,” “Jesus Is to Christianity as Pasta Is to Italians” and “Galatians in Context.”
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