Is it Really “All About Them?” – Fighting for Real Estate – Part #33

“Deific Appropriation, The Jews Believe They’re the Center of God’s Plan ” (Romans 10:3)

By Richard Allen – August 17, 2026

Philipp the Evangelist and the Ethiopian Eunich

During the late 1990’s, Christians rejoiced in singing a new praise song: “Heart of Worship,” written by Matt Redman. For many of us – sick of the ‘me-centered and narcissistic’ gospel songs and worship music that spoke of God like a ‘love-sick teenager’ –  this song was a breath of fresh air. The chorus loudly proclaimed: 

“We’re coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about You, it’s all about You, Jesus”

Ours was a generation of believers who’d been coddled with a ‘man-centered’ Gospel, a Gospel that began and ended with: “God loves me, and has a wonderful plan for my life.”  This song lifted our attention from ourselves and each other, and compelled us to look ‘heavenward,’ to Him (Jesus) who lived and died for our pardon.  Focusing on ourselves, and thinking that Church worship was ‘all about us, and our felt needs’ – is a sad chapter in the history of Evangelicalism. Scripture tells us:

“Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:4). 

And while there are 300+ Old Testament prophecies which were fulfilled by Jesus, (with many of them quoted in the New Testament), you would think that it would be hard for those who ascribe to Judaism, not also to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. There are several reasons for this – including Isaiah’s warning centuries earlier: “God has blinded their hearts” (Isaiah 6:9-10). When dialoguing with unbelieving Jews – especially those who are vehemently opposed to any claim that Jesus is the ‘Suffering Servant’ – many claim these 300 Old Testament passages were not talking about a specific man, (least of all the ‘man Jesus’), but rather ‘the passages spoke of National Israel: the true Suffering Servant.’  

Dispensationalists and Zionists accuse those who believe in the New Covenant as teaching ‘Replacement Theology,’ that is, a theological system that replaces Natural-Physical Israel with the Church of Jesus Christ. Truth is, the Real Replacement Theology is: ‘Replacing Jesus Christ’ as the central figure and focus of God’s eternal plan – with a carnal-fleshly purpose for the physical descendants of Abraham, ‘Natural Israel.’ While the term ‘Replacement Theology’ sounds scholarly and negative at the same time – it’s an incorrect way of thinking about the ‘People of God.’ A better analogy would be to say: ‘Adult Israel’ (made up of those who are truly the Children of Abraham according to Romans 2:29, now grafted together with the faithful remnant of Israelites) – Replaced Disobedient, Unfaithful Adolescent Israel after the Flesh.  This was accomplished by God the Father sending His Son Jesus to “break down the middle wall of partition that kept Jew and Gentile separate” (Ephesians 2:14). And then ‘pouring out His Spirit’ to write His Laws on our hearts through the New Birth and change us all into one ‘New Man,’ that is, an Adult Worshipper worshiping in ‘Spirit and in Truth” (John 4:23).

This was God’s ‘only purpose’ from the start in Genesis 3:15, promising that the “seed of the woman would crush the head of the seed of the serpent.” The calling of Abraham and the creation of the physical People of Israel was the means to an end of ‘bringing the Messiah, Jesus into the world’ to:

“Make known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ  as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in him” (Ephesians 1:9-10).

Jesus was always God’s central plan! His eternal purpose was never to make a ‘physical-carnal people’ – ‘without the Spirit,’ a carnal kingdom on earth – for a short 1,000-year period – only to have them ‘fail once again!’ This is why Jesus had to correct the disciples on the road to Emmaus. As Jews, they had the Christ and His mission all wrong:

“But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive.  Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.” And he said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:21-27).

For those who view the Christ of the Old Testament through ‘carnal-physical-perspective,’ when confronted with Isaiah’s marvelous prophecy of a ‘Suffering, Crucified Servant’ in Chapter 53, Jewish detractors contradict “Heart of Worship” song above, changing the song chorus to say: ‘Isaiah 53 IS ALL ABOUT US!’ Here’s Isaiah 53 as you read it – you judge if Isaiah is talking about the Nation of Israel or Jesus, the Suffering Savior?  Look at my bolded text:

“Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?  For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.  By oppression and judgment, he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.  Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:1-12).

The sad thing is, Christians who have ‘swallowed the Dispensational fairy tales,’ believe the same things that the Jews of Jesus’ day believed – and still profess today!  Looking at Isaiah 53, there is no more specific passage in the Old Testament about this one – whom God calls the ‘Servant.’ There is a series of prophetic narratives (songs) that Isaiah repeatedly revisits throughout his Book.  It’s clear to any thinking student of Scripture, that the prophet Isaiah can’t be talking about the National Israel when he speaks to the Jewish people of the “Servant upon whom the Lord had laid the iniquity of us all.” Or when he spoke of one who “was cut off from the land of the living and stricken for the transgression of my people.” Isaiah was not schizophrenic, so he was clearly talking about another man – not a nation. When he says that this Servant had “done no violence”’ nor was “deceit found in his mouth” Isaiah could not have been talking about the physical descendants of Israel!  Honest scholars are well aware that this person, referred to as ‘The Servant’ had been prophesied throughout the Book of Isaiah. In fact, the structure of the latter half of Isaiah is made up of ‘Four prophetic songs.’ Here is an outline of those Four Servant Songs compiled by Google AI:

The Four Servant Songs of Isaiah

• Isaiah 42:1–9: Introduces the chosen Servant whom God upholds, stating He will bring justice and act as a light to the nations.

• Isaiah 49:1–13: Features the Servant speaking about His call from birth to restore the people of Israel  and serve as salvation to the ends of the earth.

• Isaiah 50:4–11: Describes the resilient obedience of the Servant who willingly submits to suffering and abuse without rebelling.

• Isaiah 52:13–53:12: The famous "Suffering Servant" passage describing a figure who is despised, pierced, and crushed for the transgressions of others, bearing punishment to bring peace and healing. [ https://www.google.com/search?q=What%20does%20Isaiah%20say%20about%20%22The%20Servant%3F%22]

This ‘it’s all about Me’ belief system that fallen Israel practiced in Jesus’ day – they still practice today, along with many Christian Zionists!  In the Gospels, it reached a crescendo in John Chapter 11 after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead:

“Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, ‘What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.’ But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.’ He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for  the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad” (John 11:45-52).

You would think that these ‘Conservative Bible-believing Jews’ would have been amazed that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. You’d also think that their curiosity would have compelled them to ‘find out who Jesus was.’ Sadly, their response was to ‘circle their wagons’ to protect themselves from Roman interference or further domination. The council of the 70 (the Sanhedrin) arrogantly boasted that Jesus’ drawing attention to them would bring about Roman destruction of ‘Their Place’ and ‘Their Nation!’ How sad, the Jewish people were meant to be God’s People, His own sacred possession. This ‘IT’S ALL ABOUT ME’ attitude kept them from seeing Jesus for who he was. But it was also ‘Deific Appropriation,’ that is, ‘wanting to be God and take His Glory unto themselves!’  ‘Their place’ was clearly a reference to the Temple – which gave them importance and power. Did they really believe they were to provide to Jehovah God ‘sacrifices forever?’ Their understanding of God was so skewed that they could never imagine God ‘bringing an end to the transgression’ (Daniel 9:27).  Instead of Judaism being the journey of Pilgrims moving toward God, their broken understanding made ‘Israel the end goal of all things.’  In their minds, IT WAS ALL ABOUT THEM!

Soli Deo Gloria!