Paul tells us Israel has “fallen,” become blinded, and is set aside by God during this age of “the Gentiles.”

“Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. ¹¹ I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their (Israel’s) fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. ²⁵For 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 (temporarily) is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. (Romans 11:10-11, 25)

But, Israel is not forever forsaken by God. The Lord will ultimately fulfill every prophecy and promise concerning the coming Kingdom of Heaven to come to earth, in which the believers of Israel will co-reign with Christ from the New Jerusalem (Rev. 5:10, 20:6).

Consider the first two of three major and specific reasons why “Replacement Theology / Covenant Theology / Supersessionism” is not the correct conclusion for the honest Bible student.

1. Jeremiah 31:31-34 tells is Israel’s Fall from Their Calling is NOT Permanent.

The Holy Spirit moved the Prophet Jeremiah to write this regarding Israel’s future:

“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: ³² Not according to the (Old) covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

 ³³ But this shall be the (New) covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jer. 31:33-34).

Here the Bible is clear that Israel’s dispersion and captivity is only temporary, and to ultimately be followed by forgiveness and cleansing for sin under a ‘New Covenant.’ God Himself will restore Israel one day. Verses 35-36 goes on to tell us the only way God would ever completely do away with the nation Israel is if the ordinances of the heavens (such as the law of universal gravitation) departed. Before God could even cast off Israel forever, the entire universe would have to fall apart, and the Bible says that will never happen.

Yes, God would be most certainly justified in destroying Israel for her constant rebellion and idolatry, opposing Him, but He cannot break His Word to her (“It is impossible for God to lie;” Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18). He is bound by His covenants to never forsake Israel. Today, during this Gentile age God is not focusing upon Israel as He is upon “the body of Christ,” but the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul says Israel has a “hope” (Acts 28:20, Rom. 11:26). Despite Israel’s unfaithfulness, her God is faithful (cf. 2Tim. 2:13).

2. Romans 11:25-32 tells is Israel’s Fall from Their Calling is NOT Permanent.

On this side of Calvary’s cross, as opposed to when Jeremiah wrote, The Apostle Paul tells us God is not through with the nation Israel. The Holy Spirit moved Paul to write regarding Israel’s future:

“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 (temporarily) is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. ²⁶And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: ²⁷this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. ²⁸As concerning the (grace) gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father’s sakes. ²⁹For the gifts (favor) and calling of God are without repentance (He will not change His mind).” (Rom. 11:25-29).

Paul says Israel is currently “fallen,” “cast away” and “blind” spiritually (Rom. 11:10-11, 15, 25), but after today’s “dispensation of the Grace of God” is complete, he affirms that “all Israel will be saved” (v26). Prophecy will be fulfilled with Israel, God cannot revoke His Word to them: “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom. 11:29). While today God is operating our grace program that was “kept secret since the world began” (Rom. 16:25) as revealed to Paul for us, what He spoke of Israel’s prophetic program (Acts 3:21) is only temporarily suspended.

So clearly, the “body of Christ” has not been given Israel’s promises; they still belong to Israel and will be fulfilled. We must remember that program in which Israel’s promises belong is only currently suspended; while the intervening grace-program in which we live today simply involves a very different set of promises and doctrine.

The nation Israel, which God intended to use to evangelize the world, is currently set aside. Today, the Gentile (non-Jewish) world is hearing God’s Word through the ministry of the Apostle Paul and his thirteen epistles of Romans through Philemon, apart from fallen Israel (see Rom. 11:10-13). Today, Israel’s prophetic program is still temporarily suspended. Today Israel’s kingdom is remains postponed, their Messiah has not yet returned at His Second Coming to bring in their long-sought kingdom. Paul, quoting Isaiah 59:20-21 in Rom. 11:26-27, writes that God will one day take away Israel’s sins, per the “New Covenant.” Israel’s Apostle, Peter, writes this referring to Israel in the restoration; “(Israel) in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God…” (1 Peter 2:10)

Paul wrote to the Ephesians concerning “time past,” while God had made the distinction between the nation Israel who was in favor and the Gentiles who were not in favor, before Paul’s Gentile “gospel of grace.”

“Wherefore, remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; ¹²That at that time ye (Gentiles) were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: ³ But now in Christ… ye who were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:11-13)

Paul refers to “time past,” which includes the “Old Testament,” the four Gospels, and the first nine chapters of Acts. Note in Ephesians 2:13, Paul goes onto say;

“But now in Christ Jesus ye (Gentiles) who sometimes were far off are (now) made nigh by the blood of Christ.”

Dispensational Bible study enables us to “rightly divide” the “time past” that concerned Israel from the “but now” that concerns “the body of Christ.”

Before Paul and “the dispensation of the Grace of God” (which is the “but now,”), God dealt with mankind on the basis on Jew ‘above’ the Gentile (Exo. 19:5). In the “But now,” today, God makes no distinction between Jew and Gentile, “for all (believers) are one in Christ” (cf. 1Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:28).

So, God has changed the program: this dispensational change occurred with the conversion of the Apostle Paul who was converted by Jesus from heaven as seen in in Acts 9. Those who don’t understand this change usually end up embracing “Replacement Theology.”