There's another related issue to the Poway Shooting. I have
detected a resurgence of Replacement Theology talk. This reminds me of Hal
Lindsey's 1990 'The Road to Holocaust' which contains the subtitle: Unchecked the Dominion Theology movement
among Christians could lead us – and Israel – to disaster....
It's a lie with a hint of truth.
Dominion Theology was still new to the scene in 1990 and the
older Evangelicals were a bit shocked by it and especially its extreme
Theonomic manifestations. In reality the differences between the Dominionists
and Evangelicals were not that great but the new Dominionism presented a very
powerful holistic message which seriously challenged the latent Fundamentalist
tendencies some Evangelicals still possessed.
But for Lindsey being a Dispensationalist guru, he and others
like him were startled by the shift in Kingdom doctrine. For them the Kingdom
is Premillennial and all about the Jews during Christ's 1000 year reign from
the city of Jerusalem. Dominion Theology relocates the Kingdom to the present
(which is correct) but incorrectly makes it into a cultural and civilisational
paradigm. This struck men like Lindsey as wrong even though practically
speaking they had already been thinking in terms of America as being 'the'
Christian nation or as the closest thing to it before the Parousia. But
remember for them the Church Age is merely a parenthesis that ends with the
Pre-Tribulational Rapture. Once that happens, it's back to God's Plan A – The Jewish People and their
Nation.
Dominionism is inherently opposed to the schema and certainly
the practical world rejecting apocalyptic ethics associated with Premillennialism
and yet Dispensational Evangelicals have since the post-war period been
schizophrenic... on the one hand looking for the Rapture and embracing an
Apocalyptic vision and yet at the same time committed to American Right-wing
politics and social involvement. In the end the practical advantages of
embracing a consistent (yet still wrong) system such as Dominionism won the
day. The inconsistencies surrounding Premillennialism were abandoned or ignored
and still are to this day.
The old Apocalypticism of Fundamentalism had already been
deeply wounded by post-war Evangelicalism, but by the 1990's it was practically
speaking all but dead.
Subsequently Dominionism won the day even in places like
Dallas Theological Seminary and today it has become the orthodox position among
Evangelicals. Again the fact that it is actually inconsistent with
Dispensational Premillennialism is a point that has been sidestepped. The
eschatology of the Dispensational mainstream has been retained... the schema of
the Left Behind books... but the foundations which establish it have actually
been destroyed and abandoned. Everyone now functions as if they're
Postmillennial and for those masses of Evangelicals that are less than fully
engaged, the theology of Dominion provides a convenient cloak to their
worldliness. The pursuit of money and social status are certainly valid, even
acts of piety under this system. Remember this system needs Christians to be
movers and shakers, cultural influencers. The poor and downtrodden, those
living as pilgrims, those following the New Testament, can never be good
Dominionists.
It's a point I've often made but there is an inherent
'prosperity' gospel in Dominion theology and though many seem shocked by the
over-the-top manifestations of it that have come out of the Charismatic
movement... they shouldn't be. It's a close cousin to them.
Returning to the questions surrounding the synagogue shooter,
Lindsey argued that by shifting the Kingdom promises away from the Jews (and
Zionist Israel which he erroneously believes to be the fulfillment of
prophecy)... there's a risk of Anti-Semitism. He blames Anti-Semitism and the
roots for the Holocaust on the replacement theology (so-called) that came about
under Roman Catholicism in the Middle Ages. This theology posits (rightly) that
the Church inherited the promises of Israel and therefore the Jews are no longer
God's chosen people. It also follows (correctly) that they have no claim to
their Levantine heritage. So while Non-Dispensationalist Evangelicals, Confessionalists
and many Catholics do not believe the Zionist State is Divinely sanctioned or
the fulfillment of prophecy, on a practical level being Right-wing American
nationalists they tend to support the Tel-Aviv regime on a geopolitical basis. That's
hardly Anti-Semitic. This support has only increased in light of Likud's Right-wing
policies... policies deeply and zealously supported by contemporary
Dispensationalists.
Replacement is a somewhat unfortunate term but I'm even
willing to embrace it, though the concept is really about continuity and
expansion. Sorry Hal Lindsey, it's what the Bible teaches. Lindsey's problem is
that he rejects the authority of the Apostles and insists their teachings do
not interpret the Old Testament, rather the Old Testament defines and
interprets the teachings of the Apostles. It is quite literally a Judaized and
Judaizing theology... fundamentally similar to some of the errors of Theonomy.
Jews today have no special status as Jews. They have an old
and now obsolete covenant connection but what they really need to do in order
to become one of God's people is to convert to Christianity. This is at the
core of Paul's discussion in Romans and particularly in Romans 11.
Now Lindsey, and this is being repeated in light of Poway,
argues that such 'replacement' views lead to Anti-Semitism and he can indeed
point to history and Roman Catholic persecution and pogroms and of course
Martin Luther's views and the Holocaust. I'm not among those who try to defend
Luther and I don't defend pogrom inducing Crusaders and the Inquisition either.
Their views and actions were heretical and evil as are those who defend them.
But the problem wasn't some notion of 'Replacement' theology.
The problem was and is Sacralism, it's the confusion of nations, politics and
culture with the Kingdom of Christ. Nations and politics mean swords and
therefore it's no surprise that such swords are used to do wicked things.
Sacralism seeks a monolithic and even monistic social structure... society is
the Kingdom after all under that model... and Jews and heretics (and Biblical
Christians) had (and still have) no place in it and this leads to persecution.
Once again, the shooter's apparent doctrine has nothing to do with Two Kingdom
theology, but was instead motivated by a Sacralist motivated concern for a
monist societal construct. Dominionism is but a modern variant of Sacralism and
it's not hard to imagine an already perverted theology morphing into overt and
radical political violence. The equations are all there, they just have to be
worked out and acted upon or synthesised either with some kind of revolutionary
theory or a notion of deed-propaganda as seen in anarchism. From what I gather
the shooter was motivated by some kind of revolutionary Kinist view... a
violent overtly racist variety of Theonomy.
Reformed Covenant Theology doesn't necessarily lead to
Anti-Semitism. I'm sorry to see this ignorant argument once more making the
rounds. Sacralism has always had the potential to generate Anti-Semitism and
yet truth be told many Postmillennialists have an understanding of Romans 11
that looks for a mass conversion of the Jews to take place before Christ
returns. Some secularists see this as inherently Anti-Semitic but in reality it
has (at least historically) led to support for the Jews... even while eschewing
the extreme political theology of Dispensationalism and its mandated Zionist
state.
Lindsey like virtually all Evangelicals actually holds to a
form of Sacralism. Why aren't they Anti-Semitic? Their Dispensationalism has
led them to a superstitious reverence and practical deification of the Jewish
people. That said, their views are not all that divergent from the
now-Dominionist mainstream.
Some of Lindsey's critiques of Dominionism were valid but his
own errors and misunderstandings make a mess of the argument and he comes to
the wrong conclusions. His mis-read of the theology and of Church History did a
lot of damage and generated a lot of confusion in the latter decades of the 20th
century. I hate to see such ideas return.