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Supersessionism

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Supersessionism (also called Replacement theology by some, e.g. Messianic Jews, Nazarenes) is a controversial and anti-Semitic Christian belief that Christianity is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, and therefore that Jews who deny that Jesus is the Messiah fall short of their calling as God's chosen people.

Thus, according to supersessionism, the Jews are either no longer considered to be God's chosen people, or their proper calling is frustrated pending their acceptance of Jesus as the promised Messiah. Most proponents of Replacement Theology claim that God has reneged on his covenants with Israel, divorced her, and given the blessings He had promised to her in those covenants to the Church, His "Plan B."

Critics of a complete replacement theory, the first alternative just mentioned, might reason that the chosenness of the Christian believers in the Messiah is attached (an engrafting) into the promises made to Israel. This perspective mostly comes from the idea that all Christians are 'in Christ' and are therefore beneficiaries of the promises to Abraham because Jesus (Christ) is a descendant of Abraham (being a Jew). If the Jews can be rejected, then the chosenness of the Church is thereby also reversed since the basis for a Christian being Chosen is in a Jew being Chosen (Jesus). However, if the election of the Christian Church is not reversible, then neither is the election of Israel, which is its basis.

The traditional form of supersessionism does not theorize a replacement; instead it argues that Israel has been superseded only in the sense that the Church has been entrusted with the fulfillment of the promises of which Jewish Israel is the trustee. This belief was first expressed by the heretic Marcion of Sinope, which has served not only as the explanation for why believers in Christ should not become Jews (pejoratively called Judaizing or Jewish Christians, the issue was addressed at the Council of Jerusalem), but is also the rationale for attempting the conversion of Jews to Christianity. However, over the past several centuries a growing number of Christians began to support Restorationism and Dispensationalism which gained strength in the twentieth century as the dominant theology of mainline Protestant evangelicals, especially in the US.

Several liberal Protestant groups have formally renounced supersessionism, and affirm that Jews, and perhaps other non-Christians, have a valid way to find God within their own faith, which according to many breaks from mainstream Protestant teaching (for example sola fide). In addition, many fundamentalist Dispensational Christian groups, including conservative Evangelical Protestants and Anabaptists, have renounced replacement theology, though these groups still hold that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to God (citing usually John 14:6). Other conservative and fundamentalist Christian groups hold supersessionism to be valid; debate continues over replacement theories.

Roman Catholicism

In the 20th century, certain hierarchs of the Roman Catholic Church issued a number of theological position papers which appear to reject this concept outright, and affirm that the Torah is a valid path for Jews and Jewish proselytes to achieve salvation, that their covenant with God is still valid, and that the Jews of modern times are a direct unbroken continuation of the ancient Children of Israel. This view is not accepted by all Catholic theologians, and it is rejected outright by traditional Catholics though it has been reaffirmed several times by various Catholic hierarchs. The Catholic Church no longer proclaims Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus, subtly shifting, in the teaching of Pope John Paul II, to the axiom "Extra Ecclesiam Sine Salus"- that is, that although the presence of the Church in the world makes salvation possible, membership of the Church is by no means required in order for individuals to be saved. The Catholic Church recently affirmed the necessity of Jesus for salvation in the declaration Dominus Jesus. However, although salvation comes from Christ, the teaching of the Church expressed in the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium is that those "who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience" may achieve salvation.

Furthermore, another Vatican II document Nostra Aetate, as well as the repeated comments of Pope John Paul II, clearly repudiates supersessionism by insisting that the divine covenant which constitutes Israel as a nation remains permanently in force.

Restorationism

Restorationism is the belief of some Christians in a large scale end times conversion of Jews to Christianity. Dispensational Conservative Christian groups reject supersessionism and hold that at a future time God will return his focus to the Jewish nation, whence a national conversion will take place where all or almost all Jews will miraculously convert to Christianity, citing the book of Romans chapter 11 and verse 26 which literally says:

And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: (KJV)

Many also believe that these are either the literal or symbolic number of Jews spoken of as the 144 000 from the tribes of Israel in the Book of Revelation. Such ideas are often used in support of Christian Zionism.

Others dispensationalists hold that it does not say every Israelite shall be saved (in Romans 11:26); the nation as a whole will be saved, just like the nation as a whole committed the unpardonable sin. It will still be up to individuals to accept the Gospel of the Kingdom or reject it, but the nation as a whole will be blessed because of its leadership. This happened several times in the Old Testament: when Israel had a good king, it was blessed; when evil kings ruled over Israel and promoted idolatry, the nation was cursed and foreign invaders attacked them. In the future, all Israel will be saved from these curses and foreign invaders.

Covenant Theology

Covenant theology, a dominant theological schema within historical Calvinism, has as one of its core teachings the idea that the Old Testament nation of Israel is ultimately representative of the historical Christian church. It holds that God's original purpose was to create for himself one covenant people, which was to be found in the people of Israel in the years before Christ, and in the international church in the years after Christ. Adherents of this view cite Romans 9:6ff, 11:1-7 to substantiate their belief that only the elect of both covenants are God's chosen people — that even prior to Christ, not all who belonged to the nation of Israel were "children of the promise". So while unbelieving Jews are still considered "blessed" (because they have the Old Testament) they are, in the end, no different from unbelieving Gentiles in their position before God.

Relevant New Testament passages

  • John 1:11-13 [Jesus] came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
  • Romans 2:28-29 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
  • Romans 9:6-8 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.
  • Romans 11:1-6 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? "Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life." But what is God's reply to him? "I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.
  • Romans 11:26 So all Israel will be saved
  • Galatians 3:29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.
  • Revelation 3:9 Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not, but lie - behold, I will make them come and bow down at your feet and they will learn that I have loved you.

See also

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