READING TIME: 2-4 MINUTES
January 27, 2020
Galatians 6:16, Part 2
WHY GALATIANS 6:16 IS A KEY VERSE
One of the verses that is a major battleground between these two different views is Galatians 6:16. You must understand how to properly interpret this viewpoint because if you get into a discussion with many Reformed theologians, they will bring up this verse. Even many Muslims have picked up the Galatians 6:16 argument because they don’t like our belief either, that there’s a future for Israel.
In the NIV and NLT’s translations of Galatians 6:16, they equate the phrase with “Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule” with the “Israel of God.” According to these translations, this verse only refers to one group. To back up a bit, when Paul wrote “Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule,” he was referring to salvation by faith alone in Christ alone which he had stressed in his 1st missionary journey in Acts13-14. After he finished this journey, he returned to Antioch (located at the northern tip of Israel), and he wrote the book of Galatians within 6-12 months to the church in southern Galatian he had evangelized in this 1st missionary journey. In this letter, he warned these Gentile believers against legalism.
THE ENTIRE DEBATE OF GALATIANS 6:16 OVER ONE WORD?
The entire debate in Galatians 6:16 is over the Greek word kai, either translated “and” or “even” in the NLT and NIV. The NLT and NIV imply that the Gentile churches are “the Israel of God.” Replacement theologians love this verse because if you look at these translations, it seems that the church is Israel, meaning the church has replaced Israel.
Galatians 6:16: “Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule–to the Israel of God” (NIV).
The “hyphen” in the above NIV translation is a translation of the aforementioned Greek word kai. The most common way to translate this Greek word is “and.”
KEY REFORMED THEOLOGIANS QUOTES ABOUT REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY
Kenneth Gentry is a key Reformed and Replacement theologian. Look at what he says about Galatians 6:16. “That is, we believe in the unfolding plan of God in history, the Christian Church is the very fruition of the redemptive purpose of God. As such, the multi-racial, international Church of Jesus Christ supersedes racial, national Israel as the focus of the kingdom of God.”
R. C. Sproul, Jr., the son of popular American author and Presbyterian minister R. C. Sproul (1939-2017), championed the amillennial cause with his much-publicized statement: “We believe that the Church is essentially Israel. We believe that the answer to, ‘What about the Jews?’ is ‘Here we are’” (R. C. Sproul Jr., Tabletalk magazine (December 1998), 2).
Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum responded to Sproul’s outlandish statement with this piercing reply: “Too bad you were not declaring this on the streets of Berlin around 1941” (this Statement was confirmed in private correspondence Andrew Robinson had with Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum).
John Calvin (1509-1564), who, in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, maligned the premillennialists of his day with a lot of disdain: “In short, either such persons are utterly ignorant of everything divine or they are trying by a devious malice to bring to nought all the grace of God and power of Christ . . . Even a blind man can see what stupid nonsense these people talk . . . (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. and indexed by Ford Lewis Battles, Vol. 3 (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster, 1960), Book 3, Chapter 25, Para 5).
THE NASB AND NKJV TRANSLATED GALATIANS 6:16 CORRECTLY
In my opinion, the NASB and the NKJV translate more accurately Galatians 6:16.
“And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God” (NASB).
“And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God” (NKJV).
If these translations are correct, and I think they are, “the Israel of God” are Hebrew Christians and shouldn’t be equated with the church but they are a subset of the church/a category within the church.
Tomorrow in Part 3 I’ll discuss 10 arguments why the NASB and the NKJV are correct in how they translated Galatians 6:16.
