[wmfights]

Justin Martyr (A.D. 100–165) is important in the history of supersessionism because he was the first Christian writer to explicitly identify the church as “Israel.”

It's hard not to notice that this radical view emerged after the Apostolic Era ended.

[wmfights]

Dispensational Caucus ping

If you would like to be added to this ping list please mail me.

[HarleyD]

It didn't just emerged after the apostles. It is in the scriptures and was the teaching of the church. The church doesn't "replace" Israel. Rather the church IS Israel. Justin Martyr simply happened to be the first to write about what everyone knew was the teaching of scripture and of the church.

We are saved by grace through faith just like our father Abraham. We will dine with our father Abraham. We were aliens from God's chosen nation but now we are made part of that chosen nation through Christ. As Paul writes:

Eph 2:12-13 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

Our nation is not here.

[.45 Long Colt]

Here is what the Apostle Paul had to say:

“For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
—Romans 2:28-29

[Salvation]

This view is put forth by non-Catholics.

http://www.theologicalstudies.org/about/statement-of-faith

[Cicero]

I think “supersession” is the wrong term.

The Church did not replace or supersede the Jews. The Church fulfilled God’s covenant with the Jews, and fulfilled many of the signs and prophecies in the Old Testament.

Numerous times in the Old Testament, God says that His Covenant with Israel is forever. And St. Paul repeats that same promise in one of his Epistles.

Many early Christians thought that the Jews would just fade away, after God made his new Covenant with His Church. But they did not, and I think a fair consideration of history reveals that God still keeps His first Covenant with those Jews who keep the faith.

[impactplayer]

Many of the Jews Jesus referred to did say “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” before they died, and they were counted as remnant - the 144,000 present at the wedding feast.

[one Lord one faith one baptism]

Justin Martyr was not the first Christian writer to identify the Church as Israel, that honor belongs to Paul:

Galatians 6:16 “peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God”

earlier in Galatians 3:29, we find “and if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise”.

[Lee N. Field]

Justin Martyr (A.D. 100–165) is important in the history of supersessionism because he was the first Christian writer to explicitly identify the church as “Israel.”[1] Justin declared, “For the true spiritual Israel, and descendants of Judah, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham . . . are we who have been led to God through this crucified Christ.”

There's Paul, too.

[Jan_Sobieski]

If God did not keep his covenant with the Jews, why should he keep it with the Church? The Church's adoption of Homosexual marriage, false teachers, false prophets, and other abominations certainly disqualifies us?

Hosea chapter 1 shows that God used the Jews rejection of the Messiah to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles. We are grafted in to believing Israel. However this does not supercede his covenant with the Jews, who will again become "His" people (Hosea chapter 1) and be grafted into the believing remnant.

The "time of the gentiles" is at its end. He will again turn his face back to Israel, whom he has gathered from the 4 corners of the earth. I hope that the Rapture is the event that kicks this off.

Question: for my replacement theology friends. If the New Covenant nullifies the biblical promises made to the children of Israel, including the Abrahamic Covenant, the Land Covenant, and the Davidic Covenant, why would God honor the covenant with the Church given the great apostasy of our day?

[cloudmountain]

I’ve read about him. Wonderful read.

[boatbums]

It's hard not to notice that this radical view emerged after the Apostolic Era ended.

If the Apostles Peter and Paul didn't advocate for what Justin Martyr asserted, I find it hard to believe it was what God meant to teach AFTER their death. God is NOT done with the nation of Israel. He declared:

This is what the Lord says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord Almighty is his name:
“Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares the Lord, “will Israel ever cease being a nation before me.” declares the Lord.

This is what the Lord says: “Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done,” (Jeremiah 31:35-37)

God is not a man that He should lie.