Earlier this year during my regular bible study, I read through Jeremiah, and then continued reading other books. This time something kept prodding me to go back to Jeremiah. I kept thinking about a phrase I had read in chapter 33, “Considerest thou not what this people have spoken…”. It is found in verses 24-26. You should read it…

24 Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the Lord hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.

25 Thus saith the Lord; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;

26 Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.

I went back to this passage, and then back to chapter 30 and read through 35 several times,but there was something about what he says here that was not only puzzling, but also disturbing! You see, what “this people” are saying is really the very definition of Replacement Theology. My problem was that he doesn’t really define a definite group of people here, only that someone says that God is done with Israel, “God’s people”! The two families he mentions are the southern kingdom of Judah, and the northern kingdom of Israel. Collectively they are all Israel, but this was written when they were separated into two nations.

After going through this several times I decided to go back to the beginning and read the whole book again.

You know, often we skip over introductory remarks; usually we just expect flowery introductions, you know “to my friend, I hope you are doing well, etc.”! This time I noticed something in chapter 1 verse 5 that changed my view of Jeremiah;

4 Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

The word here that is translated as “unto the nations” is לַגּוֹיִ֖ם “leGoyim” or “to the nations” which is where we get the word “Gentiles”!

The books of Jeremiah were intended for the Gentiles from the beginning! They are often about Israel, but their intended audience is everyone else! If you are non-Jewish, then Jeremiah is your prophet, and what he wrote about concerns you! The little book of Lamentations is also by Jeremiah, and it also has some startling statements about the Gentiles!

I already knew about God’s command to the Gentiles in 31:10, but now I realized the statement in 33:24-26 is directly related to this command:

10 Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.

The word “nations” here is also גּוֹיִ֖ם “Goyim”! This is a command to the Gentile nations about what God wants them to say! His indictment in chapter 33:24-26 is directed to people who have this command, who call themselves Christians, and yet refuse to obey it!

At the time that Jeremiah wrote this the Gentiles were almost universally Pagans, and Jeremiah was not able to take his message much farther than Egypt before he died! Jeremiah’s book containing God’s command, however, eventually made its way to the Gentile nations of the world, after the cross of Jesus Christ, and the founding of the Christian Church!

The eschatology (End Times Teachings) of the early Church were entirely Pre-Millennial, Dispensationalist, until one Augustine of Hippo came along in the 300s! With his allegorical interpretation of the bible’s End Times prophecies the church began to teach that the Church replaces Israel in God’s plan!

Today the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and most of the Protestant denominations teach that God is done with Israel, and that the Church replaces Israel in God’s plan!

You could summarize what they say with the statement from verse 24 “The two families which the Lord hath chosen, he hath even cast them off.”

That’s right, the majority of professing “Christians” in the world deny that God has a place for Israel in His plan! Notice who He calls “my people” in this passage: “thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.” That’s right, Israel!

But if the people He is referring to are Christians shouldn’t He call them “my people” also? He should, if they are Born Again Christians, but He doesn’t, does He? He calls them “this people”!

If “this people” had the Holy Spirit within them, they would not make this statement, and instead they would say “He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.” in obedience to the Lord’s command! There is a small group who does say this; the dispensationalists. They are not a denomination but are scattered among the denominations, and they are the only group who do say this!

A strange coincidence I noticed is that this is not the only place where “this people” add to Scripture; in their teachings about Salvation these same groups say that Salvation is by “grace, plus works” and thereby make the same error that ancient (and modern) Israel made; thinking that they can earn a place in Heaven by doing good works!

Oh, yes, many Reformed Churches also say that you can lose your Salvation by sinning, or if you sin you never were saved to begin with! So to them sin trumps God’s grace!

So, where do they get the idea that God is done with Israel? Well, it’s not from the bible; this is a demonic teaching! That’s right, this teaching is a doctrine of devils!

There is another place where Jeremiah speaks of this same group of people; in chapter 50. Chapters 48 and 49 are an End Times indictment against Moab, Ammon, and Edom, Israel’s closest relatives among the Gentiles, and then chapter 50 is an End Times indictment against Babylon. This Babylon is the Modern Babylon of Revelation 17, and we can see her destruction in verse 3 and in Revelation 17:16-17.

I don’t want to focus on verse 3 today, but you should read the whole passage:

1 The word that the Lord spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.

2 Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.

3 For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.

4 In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Lord their God.

5 They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.

6 My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.

7 All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice, even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.

So, here in verse 7 Jeremiah is quoting Israel’s enemies in the same context as the End Times Babylon! Make no mistake, Babylon the Harlot is a group of Churches who claim to be Christians, and at the same time preach doctrines of devils! Characteristically these doctrines of devils are called names like Preterism, Amillennialism, and Post-Millennialism!

I grew up in a Church that was very confused in its Eschatology and we had Dispensationalists as well as Amillennialists teaching at the same Church! Sometimes it was the pastor, and other times it was Sunday School teachers. As a young Christian it was very confusing!

Dispensationalism has rules, the rules of Literal, Formal, Grammatical Hermeneutics, which are not hard to understand, but the Allegorical method of bible interpretation has no rules, and is very confusing! Just remember that God is not the Author of confusion!

For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. I Corinthians 14:33

Over the last 1,990, or so, years many once sound Christian Churches have morphed into the Harlot of Babylon, mixing biblical doctrine with doctrines of devils! One telltale sign that you are in a Harlot Church is if your pastor says that God is done with the nation of Israel! If he does, leave! Get out while you can! Run!