Christianity: Details about 'Supersessionism'
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Supersessionism (also negatively called Replacement theology by some, e.g. Messianic Jews, Nazarenes) is the traditional Christian belief that Christianity is the fulfillment of Old Testament Judaism, 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. 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 benefactors 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 The traditional form of supersessionism does not theorize a replacement; instead it argues that Israel has been superseded only in the sense that the Church has been entrusted with the fulfillment of the promises of which Jewish Israel is the trustee. All Western Christian sects and denominations have held some version of this belief, first expressed by 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 CatholicismIn 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 still proclaims Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus, and recently affirmed the necessity of Jesus for salvation in the declaration Dominus Jesus. However, although salvation comes from faith in Christ and in the Catholic church from having the sacraments administered, 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. RestorationismRestorationism is the belief of some Christians in a large scale end times conversion of Jewish people 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: "..so all Israel will be saved.." (NIV) 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. Covenant TheologyCovenant 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 visible people of Israel in the years before Christ, and to be found in the visible church in the years after Christ. Because of Christ's central role in keeping God's side of the Covenant, most Calvinists would argue that the Jewish people is no longer considered the "people of God" since they do not accept Jesus as the Messiah. So while the 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
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