What does Tribe teach about replacement theology?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on replacement theology is direct and unambiguous. Brian Hunter names it plainly as the idea that the church has replaced Israel and that God is finished with the Jewish people, and he calls it a big load of horse pucky. The foundation he returns to is Zechariah 8:2, where God says his love for Mount Zion is passionate and strong and that he is consumed with passion for Jerusalem. That verse, alongside the covenant promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 12, is where Brian says a Christian's posture toward Israel has to start. Scripture, not other sources, should be shaping how the congregation thinks about this.
The case against replacement theology runs through Romans 11 and Ezekiel 16 as well. Romans 11:24 uses the image of being grafted into a cultivated olive tree, which makes Israel and the church genuinely family rather than one replacing the other. Ezekiel 16 goes further, showing that God's choice of Israel was never based on anything intrinsically special about her to begin with. She was abandoned at birth, unwanted, and God chose her anyway. Brian is careful here: if there was nothing Israel earned that drew God's attention in the first place, the logic that the church could somehow perform better and inherit her place does not hold. The covenant was never transactional.
Brian also pushes the congregation toward humility on this. He says, "The story of Israel is our story. We should have an attitude of extreme humility towards Israel." The same pattern in Ezekiel, a people passed by, spoken over, and pulled out of nothing, plays out in every human heart. God does not choose anyone because they deserve it. That shared story is part of why indifference toward Israel is not a neutral position for someone who loves God.
Taught from Zechariah 8:2 · Romans 11:24 · Ezekiel 16:1-15 · Genesis 12:1-3 · Zechariah 8:3
“Apart from god's sovereign hand, Israel stands no chance of living.”
From My Love for Israel Is Passionate and Strong
The passage taught · Ezekiel 16:1-15
1 Again Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
2 “Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations;
3 and say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh to Jerusalem: “Your origin and your birth is of the land of the Canaanite. An Amorite was your father, and your mother was a Hittite.
4 As for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut. You weren’t washed in water to cleanse you. You weren’t salted at all, nor swaddled at all.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- March 4, 2024 My Love for Israel Is Passionate and Strong Brian Hunter sets aside his planned message to lead Tribe Church in an honest conversation about Israel, the October 7 attacks, and why Christians are called to care.
- March 3, 2024 Our Relationship With Israel Brian Hunter leads Tribe Church through an open conversation about why Christians should care about Israel, drawing from Zechariah, Ezekiel, and Romans to ground the discussion in scripture.
Mentioned along the way
- August 21, 2023 Pack Your Bags Brian Hunter opens a three-week journey into God's heart for Israel, reading Genesis, Ezekiel, Hosea, and Romans 11 together as a congregation in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.