A few days ago, I came in contact with a FB post, the content of which was touted as “A very good hermeneutical approach to scripture.” The content was an article published by a ministry called The Bible in Context, which is a subset of Philippians 19:1 Ministries, which is dedicated to exposing error and false teachers in today’s church. This particular article was exposing the very real error termed Replacement Theology that proposes the idea of Church has replaced Israel in God’s plan. It’s a quite lengthy article that can be read online here.

As I am wont to do on occasion, I decided to review the article to see if it was as good as it was said to be. There is some value in the article, however some of its claims might be questionable. For instance, the author states, right at the top that:

“Replacement theology, such as covenant theology, tries desperately to ignore the normal biblical usage of the terms, dispersion and Gentile in order to somehow prove that the church is Israel. Which you will see that the church is NOT Israel!”

I know of no serious covenantal theologian who claims that Israel replaced Israel. I found quite a few resources that claim just the opposite, such as:

“Oftentimes you’ll hear people say, “Covenant theology is replacement theology because it says that Israel was replaced by the church.” Well, that’s not an accurate depiction of covenant theology. Covenant theology isn’t replacement theology, it’s fulfillment theology. There’s promise and fulfillment. The promises of God to Israel are fulfilled in both the Jews and the Gentiles being part of the one people of God in the purposes of God’s redemption.”

What are some misconceptions about covenant theology? | Reformed Theological Seminary (rts.edu)

I also know of no covenantal theologian who would dare say, as the author did:

“This sort of boasting and prideful attitude comes in when professing Christians say the Jews are beyond salvation or that God is finished with the Jews. This boasting is found within “covenant theology” within which it is believed that the church is the new Israel and has replaced Israel.”

The author also states:

“Dispersion, or the diaspora was a term used by Greek speaking Jews, to refer to Jewish people who are scattered throughout the nations and not in their homeland Israel. Some have taught, such as John MacArthur, in his commentary, that because Peter did not use the definite article with diaspora that he was not addressing Jews in his salutation.”

What MacArthur actually says about the diaspora in his introduction to 1 Peter and in 1 Peter 1:1:

the Dispersion. With the Greek definite article, dispersion is sometimes a technical term for the scattering of the Jews from Israel throughout the world (Joh_7:35; Jas_1:1). But here, without the article, it is used in a non-technical sense referring to spiritual pilgrims, aliens to the earth, whether Jews or Gentiles (cf. 1Pe_1:17; 1Pe_2:11), i.e., the church.

The author’s claim that MacArthur stated that Peter was not addressing the Jews is false. MacArthur explained two uses of the term diaspora and that 1 Peter was speaking to “spiritual pilgrims” of all sorts from different places, which is apparent in the text.

Finally, the author concludes with:

“This is a very large subject and one that’s not going to be discussed at length in the parameters of a single teaching or post. I did not intentionally leave out passages or ignore other passages used as “evidence” for replacement theology. The intention was to focus on 1 Peter 2:9-10 with some added context. . .If this offends your theological position then brother or sister I tell you in love, change your theology.”

He seems to be telling us that everything he says is what we should believe.

The author writes small booklet sized teachings. I checked out the ministry (Philippians 1:9), and the ‘Online Bible College’ ($$$$) it advertises (as much as I could find). Advertising the Bible college, its founder Patrick O’Brien asks:

“Feeling frustrated and overwhelmed by all the “experts” and supposed sound teachings that contradict other supposed sound teachings?”

Then he claims to have studied the Bible for himself and basically claims to have THE truth, his mission is to expose false teaching, and you can join his college. He offers a free mini course to encourage you to enroll in his Bible college, which he proudly claims is:

“The most comprehensive Bible college for growing in a knowledge of God’s Word, for growing deeper in your relationship with God, for finding community and for learning how to rightly define what you believe to be able to share the truth with others.”

I could find no other background information about Patrick O’Brien

He also claims that the purpose of his ministry is to expose what he has identified as “error”, whether or not his error declarations have merit when carefully examined.

The “Beliefs” section for the ministry is sound for the most part, although scripture references could have been included with each topic. There are also additional statements concerning the purposes of the ministry.

Having said all that, you might call it a word of caution.

Online Sources:

Become A Mature Student Of God’s Word (philippians19.org)

Enroll – Philippians 1:9 Ministries (philippians19.org)

Statement of Faith – Philippians 1:9 Ministries (philippians19.org)