diff --git a/config/src/main/java/com/typesafe/config/ConfigFactory.java b/config/src/main/java/com/typesafe/config/ConfigFactory.java
index fa718e640..d519d0c22 100644
--- a/config/src/main/java/com/typesafe/config/ConfigFactory.java
+++ b/config/src/main/java/com/typesafe/config/ConfigFactory.java
@@ -1123,13 +1123,9 @@ public static java.util.Optional<Config> parseApplicationReplacement(ClassLoader
      * if none was specified.
      */
     public static java.util.Optional<Config> parseApplicationReplacement(ConfigParseOptions parseOptions) {
+        ensureClassLoader(parseOptions, "parseApplicationReplacement");
         ClassLoader loader = parseOptions.getClassLoader();
 
-        if (loader == null)
-            throw new ConfigException.BugOrBroken(
-                "ClassLoader should have been set here; bug in ConfigFactory. "
-                    + "(You can probably work around this bug by passing in a class loader or calling currentThread().setContextClassLoader() though.)");
-
         int specified = 0;
 
         // override application.conf with config.file, config.resource,