Televangelist Gets it Wrong
Gary Hamrick’s Sermon – Click Here
A friend who opposes Replacement Theology presented the preceding video as evidence that Replacement Theology is the wrong way for a Christian to look at the relationship between Christians and Jews. He’s mistaken. What follows is a direct refutation of Hamrick’s points using scripture, proving that Replacement Theology is the only appropriate way to view the relationship between Christians and Jews.
Throughout his sermon, Gary Hamrick ignores relevant scripture and mischaracterizes the scripture he quotes. The relevant New Testament scripture teaching Replacement Theology is located in Hebrews and Galatians:
Hebrews 8:13 NASB: “When He said, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.”
It was made very clear that only those who are in Christ enjoy the New Covenant. The Old Covenant is gone—it’s been superseded.
Galatians 3:29 NASB: “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.”
Replacement Theology is real. Jews are no longer God’s Chosen People simply by being born Jews. Jesus tells us:
John 14:6 NASB: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.'”
Jews are welcome in the New Covenant, but they must accept Christ. Perpetuating the myth that Jews are still God’s Chosen People condemns them to eternal damnation.
Hamrick discusses Martin Luther and blames him and the Catholics for the Crusades. The Crusades were in response to Muslim incursions into Europe. Jews, Muslims, and Christians died. The Muslims initiated the conflict; the victims were everywhere and of every faith. Today, Palestinians are dying at the hands of the Jews. None of this is relevant.
The Crusades, along with all previous and subsequent wars, are irrelevant. There are and will be wars. They result from the fall of man, not from Replacement Theology.
Hamrick recites scripture from Romans 9, 10, 11:
Romans 9: 1-6 NASB:
1 I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, 5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. 6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.
Romans 10:1-4 NASB:
1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. 2 For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. 3 For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Romans 11:1-6 NASB:
1 I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 “Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.” 4 But what is the divine response to him? “I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5 In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.
Hamrick’s recitation is pointless. It asserts the truth that everyone, including the Jews, can be saved through grace. Being saved through grace has nothing to do with the position he claims Jews have as God’s Chosen People. Regardless of who you are, Jew or Gentile, you’re saved by grace and ONLY by grace. He acknowledges this Biblical Truth but concurrently impugns it by assigning some special status to the Jews.
Scripture tells us that two-thirds of Jews will die in the tribulation.
Zechariah 13:8-9 NASB: “8 And it will come about in all the land,” Declares the LORD, “That two parts in it will be cut off and perish; But the third will be left in it. 9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, Refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ And they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.'”
If Hamrick’s correct, why will 66% of God’s Chosen People be slaughtered in the Tribulation? This proves that the only Jews who survive are those who, like Gentiles, have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. This alone refutes Hamrick’s “Chosen People” claim. The Jews may be saved if they join their brothers and sisters in Christ; otherwise, they perish.
Everything in the New Testament supports Replacement Theology. To refute Replacement Theology, Hamrick goes to Deuteronomy and Genesis:
Deuteronomy 7:6, NASB: “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”
Genesis 12:3, NASB: “And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
No one denies Old Testament scripture. It’s what Jews are foolishly counting on to save them from eternal damnation. It won’t work. Christians know it’s been revoked in Hebrews.
Once again:
Hebrews 8:13 NASB: “When He said, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.”
It was made very clear that only those who are in Christ enjoy the New Covenant.
Galatians 3:29 NASB: “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.”
Even Jesus himself rejects the Jews. Jesus refers to the Jewish religious leaders as a “brood of vipers” in two instances in the Gospels:
1. In Matthew 12:34 NASB: Jesus says: “You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.”
2. In Matthew 23:33 NASB: Jesus says: “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?”
Would Jesus talk to God’s Chosen People this way?
Anyone, including the Jews, who rejects the Son, also rejects the Father; therefore, they are the AntiChrist:
1 John 2:22-23 NASB: “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.”
We hope the Jews eventually accept the gift of salvation. Until they do, we Christians should concern ourselves with not being unequally yoked to Jews or any other non-believers.
2 Corinthians 6:14, NASB: Paul says: “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?”
Feeding into the Jewish delusion that they are still God’s Chosen People only delays their salvation.
Right now, the Jews that we’re unequally yoked with regularly Blaspheme our Lord and Savior from the highest levels of the United States Government.
Example One Example Two Example Three Example Four
We SHOULD NOT encourage, honor, or extol these people. We should regard them with no special privilege or consideration. We do as Jesus taught in Matthew and Mark. He told the disciples to “shake the dust off their sandals” when they were rejected while evangelizing in the villages.
The only thing we should be doing with Jews is evangelizing to them. We should NOT help them slaughter other non-believers as they are currently doing in the Middle East. Hamrick wants us to view Israel as a special case, permitting them to pursue their Palestinian pogrom. He’s wrong. We should send them only Missionaries, not Munitions.