Kim Riddlebarger raises this question as he writes, “If dispensationalists are correct about this, redemptive history moves forward (from type and shadow to fulfillment and reality) until the so-called tribulation when Gentile Christians are removed from the earth in the Rapture. Then, in one gigantic redemptive-historical U-turn, God’s greater purposes now return to the same Old Testament types and shadows which existed before the coming of Christ, which pointed to him, and which in his death and resurrection he has already fulfilled! The one man is divided, the barrier is re-erected, those brought near are far off again, peace is replaced by division, and the abolition of the commandments comes to an end. In other words, we return to the Old Testament redemptive economy. Really? Is what Jesus came to accomplish but a mere temporary state of affairs anticipating a return to types and shadows?”

Without a shred of Scriptural evidence, the Dispensationalist assumes that national Israel, as a part of God's economy, was temporarily set aside because of her sins, but that when she repents at the Second Coming of Christ, God will reestablish the Levitical economy under David who will be resurrected and will rule as a provincial king under the great King, Christ. This theory is known as the "Postponement Theory.”

The above theory is without Scriptural foundation. God, in the person of the Messiah, sounded the death knell of typical Israel. It was not her sin that marked the end of Jewish particularism and Mosaic particularism. The Advent of the Messiah fulfilled the shadows and symbolism of the Old Covenant and its particularism and established the New Covenant universalism. Typical or literal Israel, was destined to give place to the holy universal people of God, becoming “One New Man in Christ (Eph. 2:15).  All before Christ was preliminary or temporary and awaited its true fulfillment in Him under the New Covenant.

The whole Mosaic economy involving a promised land, a holy city, an earthly temple, a tribal priesthood, a kingly family and tribal nation, with its elaborate system of fleshly ordinances, ended not because of Israel's sin, but because it had served its purpose – delivering the Messiah to the world!

Sam Storms was right when he said, “Believing Gentiles do not "replace” anyone as recipients of God’s covenant promise. No believing Jew in any age has been either displaced or replaced by a believing Gentile. Rather, believing Gentiles have been admitted into the commonwealth of Israel to share equally in the promised blessings, the two (believing Jew and believing Gentile) now comprising "one new man" (Ephesians 2:15-17). The "Israel of God" (Gal. 6:16), therefore, in and for whom the promises were and are being fulfilled, consists of believing Jews and Gentiles, the natural and unnatural branches in the one olive tree of God (Romans 11).”

Christopher Wright states that, "In all of this, then, it is not a case of abolishing and “replacing” the realities of Israel and the Old Testament, but of taking them up into a greater reality in the Messiah. Christ does not deprive the believing Jew of anything that belonged to Israel as God's people; nor does he give to the believing Gentile anything less than the full covenantal blessing and promise that was Israels. On the contrary, we share together in all of it and more - in him, and forever.”

Samuel E. Waldron gives an excellent illustration of the people of God being one “New Man” in Christ: “As the butterfly surpasses the caterpillar from which it emerges, so the Church as the New Israel surpasses the Old Israel. The butterfly does not exactly replace the caterpillar. It is the caterpillar in a new phase of existence. In the same way, to speak of the Church replacing Israel is to forget that the Church is Israel in a newly reformed and expanded phase of existence. In a word, terminology like replacement theology or supersessionism disguises the biblical fact that the Church is really the continuation of Israel.”

The Church does not replace Israel but takes up and perpetuates in itself the believing remnant within the nation as a whole. The "true Israel" of God, which in the Old Testament was comprised of all ethnic Jews who were circumcised in heart, finds its New Testament expression in the Church, now comprised of all believing ethnic Jews and all believing ethnic Gentiles. Or, to use Paul’s imagery from Romans 11, the one Olive Tree = True Israel = the Church in which are both natural (Jewish) branches and unnatural (Gentile) branches, but in all cases believing branches!

Professor G.K. Beale observes: “Christ is the true Israel, and as true Israel, he represents the Church as the continuation of true Israel from the Old Testament. Christ came to do what Israel should have done but failed to do. Those who identify by faith with Christ, whether Jew or gentile, become identified with him and his identity as true eschatological Israel.” (Eschatological = “the last, or final”-W.T.)

Dudley Hall, in his excellent book “Glad to Be Left Behind” says, "Some will point out that there are several prophecies in the Old Testament predicting a restoration of Israel. First, I think you'll find that none of these promises are to an unbelieving nation.

"Secondly, all those promises are fulfilled in the Israel of God, made up of new covenant believers. Jesus was more than even the prophets expected. He more than fulfilled their expectations. The hope of restoration was super-abundantly fulfilled with the resurrection from the dead and the reconstituted people of God. This new people didn't need a temple, for they were themselves the vessels in whom God dwells. They didn’t need a restored sacrifice because the final sacrifice had been accepted by God. They didn't need a new city, for they were the salt and light of the world.”

“They didn't need the return to Torah for they now had the word of God written in their hearts. They didn't need a new political entity; they were citizens of the Kingdom of God that had its source in Heaven and its expression on earth. They were no longer limited to a small piece of real estate on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. They had been commissioned to subdue the earth with the power of agape love. Read Hebrews 8:7-13.

"The confusion over the identity of the people of God is a distraction coming from the deceiver. The powers of evil hate the Church and seek to diffuse it anyway possible. Since the final Seed of woman has defeated the devil, the only weapons he has are deception and distraction. The Church is where God’s peace reigns, where sins are removed, and distinctions are not divisions. It is certainly not Plan B in God's purposes. It's the only way God planned to fulfill His promise to Abram that his Seed would bless the whole world. (Read Ephesians 3:20-21).

We aren’t going to make any theological U-turns. God is never going to live in another box in a temple of any kind. Never will another sacrifice of an animal be offered that has God’s stamp of approval on it. The Messiah has come, lived, died, arose, and ascended victoriously. As the reward for his sufferings, He has been seated on His throne with ultimate authority and will not get up to make a U-turn! The journey is forward, marching from victory unto victory by the power of the Spirit of God, through the “One People of God” who are heralding the gospel of the kingdom of heaven for the glory of the King!

And that’s all I got to say about this – for now!