'''~~Supersessionism~~Replacement theology''' (sometimes referred to as '''~~replacement theology~~supersessionism''' by its ~~critics~~adherents) is a belief that [[Christianity]] or [[Elagabalism]] or [[Islam]] is the ~~fulfillment~~ true and rightful and continuation of the ~~[[Old Testament]]~~Jewish Scriptures, and that [[Jews]] who deny that [[Jesus]] is the [[Messiah]] (or the Muhammed is the final Prophet, superseding Moses) are not being faithful to the revelation that ~~[[Tetragrammaton|~~God]] has given them, and they therefore fall short of their calling as his [[chosen people]]. This view holds that ~~[[race|~~racial]] and ~~[[ethnicity|~~ethnic]] divisions and boundaries are ~~ended in Jesus Christ~~no longer exist, and faith in Jesus (or Muhammed) unites all peoples into one new body, which is God’s new chosen people.

==The doctrine==

The first view holds that Jews are no longer chosen based on ethnicity, but that God sent is working to reconcile sinful people irrespective of Jews and Gentiles.

The second and more common form of supersessionism does not on its own terms theorize a replacement. Instead it argues that unbelieving Israel has been superseded only in the sense that the church or ''Ummah'' has been entrusted with the fulfillment of the promises of which Israel has been the trustee. The Jews have been and are forever the chosen trustee of the [[covenant (biblical)|covenants]], the [[Torah|Law]], and the promises of blessing and salvation, and the lineage of the Messiah, and yet many of the Jews have rejected Jesus as the Messiah. On the other hand, the ~~church receives the promised Messiah~~ faithful are defined not on the basis of ethnicity but through faith in identity of the Christ or final Prophet, and thus consists of any Jews and any Gentiles who profess that faith.

This belief has served as the explanation for why Christians need not adhere to some laws that are seen as only for the people of God before Christ (for instance, [[circumcision]] and adherence to the Jewish dietary laws, which were addressed at the [[Council of Jerusalem]]), and it is also the rationale for urging the conversion of Jews to Christianity.

==~~Variations~~Christian Doctrine==

Different branches of Christianity have further variations on the doctrine.

[[Covenant theology]], a dominant theological schema within the [[Reformed churches]], has as one of its core teachings the idea that the covenant with the [[Old Testament]] nation of Israel is continued in the historical Christian church, and that most prophetic reference to a promised exaltation of Israel is fulfilled in the ascension of Jesus and in the Christian Church, and otherwise will be fulfilled in the endless age after Christ's return and the resurrection of the dead. 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. Jesus Christ, not Palestine or Jerusalem, and Immanuel not the people of Israel is the focal point of covenant theology.

===Restorationism===Some Christians have a belief called "Jewish Restorationism ~~is the belief of some Christians~~ " concerning the [[end times]] when they believe that certain [[Old Testament]] prophecies concerning Israel will be fulfilled in their return to their ancestral home, and ultimately in a large-scale conversion of the Jews to Christianity. Many conservative Christian groups anticipate a future time, when 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 [[Epistle to the Romans|Romans]] 11:26a: "And so all Israel will be saved."<ref name="Hodge" />

Usually those who hold this view note that it does not say every individual Jew will be saved but that the nation as a whole will be saved, just like the nation as a whole supposedly committed the [[unpardonable sin]]. It will still be up to individuals to accept the [[Gospel|Gospel of the Kingdom]] or reject it, but the nation as a whole will be blessed, perhaps in the sense that its representative leadership is blessed.

Like the dispensationalists, some supersessionists commonly anticipate a momentous future conversion to the church of the Jews on the basis of Romans 11, especially verse 26. Dispensationalism's distinctive difference from the common view of this "mystery" (as St. Paul calls it) is in its idea that the church is primarily intended for the salvation of the Gentiles, and that the Jews have a separate destiny that cannot be fulfilled in the church age. In the dispensationalist scheme, the Jewish restoration and acceptance of Christ will be as a people distinct from the Christian Church (which by that time will have ceased to exist on the earth, having been removed by a miracle called the [[rapture]]). Most dispensationalists believe that 144,000 from the tribes of Israel, spoken of in the [[Book of Revelation]], are either the literal or symbolic number of ethnic Jews who will be followers of Christ during the [[Great Tribulation]]. In the meantime, dispensationalists typically hold that the promise "I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse" (Genesis 12:3) has abiding reference to the Jewish people and the modern, political state of Israel. Such ideas are often used in support of [[Christian Zionism]]. Yet most non-Dispensationalists have held throughout church history, that the salvation of Israel is not postponed until the [[Second Coming of Christ]] as Dispensationalists speculate, but rather, as the Apostle Peter stated in Acts 2:36-39, the salvation of Israel has been occurring, and continues to occur throughout the New Testament harvest period, and will be complete at the second coming.

==~~Objections~~=Some groups have renounced supersessionism===

Several [[Liberal Christianity|liberal]] [[Protestantism|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. The doctrine has also lost strength among [[twentieth century]] [[Protestant]] [[evangelical]]s, especially in the [[United States|U.S.]], through the influence of dispensationalism, which posits that the Jews will inherit the promises concerning the Messiah in a future restoration (see [[#Restorationism|"Restorationism"]] above) and in the meantime are the subject of God's favor as a people under the same terms that applied to them prior to the coming of the Messiah. Some few groups assert a theory that their group is the chosen people rather than those who are called Jews, and in so doing, these groups emphatically reject supersessionism by adopting the identity of true Israel so that the Jewish people are in some cases regarded as false Israel (see, for example, [[Anglo-Israelism]] and [[Christian Identity]]).

Supersessionists see their view as a theology of fulfillment, but from the standpoint of Judaism and other critics, it is reviled as a theology of replacement. Yet according to supersessionism, no ethnic Jew who truly believes the Gospel is ever replaced, any unbelieving Jew (like [[Judas Iscariot]] or [[Ahab]]) was never truly part of God's chosen people because he or she had never followed God, and a person's race alone does not merit God's favor.

===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."

*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."

==~~Islam~~Islamic Doctrine==1. At Makkah the Quran generally addressed the mushrik Quraish who were ignorant of Islam, but at Al- Madinah it was also concerned with the Jews who were acquainted with the creed of the Unity of Allah, Prophethood, Revelation, the Hereafter and angels. They also professed to believe in the law which was revealed by Allah to their Prophet Moses (Allah's peace be upon him), and in principle, their way was the same (Islam) that was being taught by Prophet Muhammad (Allah's peace be upon him). But they had strayed away from it during the centuries of degeneration and had adopted many un- Islamic creeds, rites and customs of which there was no mention and for which there was no sanction in the Torah. Not only this : they had tampered with the Torah by inserting their own explanations and interpretations into its text. They had distorted even that part of the Word of God which had remained intact in their Scriptures and taken out of it the real spirit of true religion and were now clinging to a lifeless frame of rituals. Consequently their beliefs, their morals and their conduct had gone to the lowest depths of degeneration. The pity is that they were not only satisfied with their condition but loved to cling to it. Besides this, they had no intention or inclination to accept any kind of reform. So they became bitter enemies of those who came to teach them the Right Way and did their worst to defeat every such effort. Though they were originally Muslims, they had swerved from the real Islam and made innovations and alterations in it and had fallen victims to hair splitting and sectarianism. They had forgotten and forsaken Allah and begun to serve mammon. So much so that they had even given up their original name "Muslim" and adopted the name "Jew" instead, and made religion the sole monopoly of the children of Israel. This was their religious condition when the Holy Prophet went to Al-Madinah and invited the Jews to the true religion.<ref>Syed Abu-Ala' Maududi's Chapter Introductions to the Qur'an</ref>

==References==

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