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WHAT IS COVENANT/REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY? Generally speaking, covenant theology is the belief that the church is the fulfillment of God's Old Testament covenant promises to Israel. Covenant theology is often called "replacement" theology, because it promotes the belief that God's national promises to Israel are no longer valid since the gentiles have been graffed in with the Jews into the one body of the church (Rom. 11:17-36; Gal. 3:28; Eph. 2:11-22). The problem with this is a simple failure to distinguish between what is national, what is spiritual, what is individual, and what is corporate. Jews, as individuals, may receive Christ and be born again today and become members of Christ's body, the church. Paul is a good example. But Israel is also still a NATION corporately and will experience the new birth upon receiving Christ in the Great Tribulation (Isa. 66:7-8; Rom. 11:26). Isaiah 66:8 specifically says that a NATION will be BORN at once. Ezekiel 37:1-14 says this will happen after a time of apparent death, yet before the Gog/Magog invasion of Ezekiel 38. In other words, God's promise to Abraham does have a spiritual fulfillment in the church (Gal. 3:28-29), but it also has a fulfillment with Israel as a NATION, since God promised to make Abraham "a great nation" (Gen. 12:2). Sound dispensational teaching acknowledges the spiritual application of Jews being blessed individually today by receiving Christ, but it also respects God's literal promises to Israel as a nation. That is, not all of God's Jewish promises have been fulfilled in the church. Some are NATIONAL promises that concern Israel reforming as a nation in 1948 and then growing and prospering as a nation over the past several decades and then eventually being reconciled to God in the great tribulation (Hos. 2:14-16; Rev. 12:6, 14-16). Finally, Israel becomes "the head" of all nations in Christ's coming kingdom (Deu. 28:13; Isa. 2:1-4; Mat. 19:28). Covenant theology adherents generally replace Israel with the church by spiritualizing these national promises. They argue that their views are more "fulfillment" theology than replacement theology, but in the end, Israel is robbed of many of her literal, national promises, so the "replacement" label is largely correct.