While Augustine's view of supersessionism may have blunted some of the persecution Jews suffered, the underlying belief that Jerusalem should be under Christian control has not changed.
we are Israel, the seed of Abraham. . . . Let therefore no Christian consider himself alien to the name of Israel.”
Who is the "true circumcision"?
Have you read through the root post from the recent thread The Church and Israel in the New Testament?
wmfights, you would do well to read lee’s tag line.
Augustine was completely faithful to the Word of God.
I just looked up Supersessionism — Replacement Theology???
I don’t think St. Augustine would have had anything to do with this idea.
Sounds heretical to me.
"In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." (Heb 8:13 KJV)
Note that the old covenant was "ready to vanish away" about 2000 years ago. And we know from the words of Hebrews 9:15-20 that the new covenant is just another name for the new testament.
To render DCT even less credible, all touted old testament (OT) references are far from convincing. For example, a common OT reference claimed to support DCT is Deuteronomy 30:1-6. The problem with that passage, for Israel, is highlighted:
"And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, And shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." (Deu 30:1-6 KJV)
This passage was fulfilled after the Babylonian Captivity; but Israel did not remain faithful, nor did it seem that God expected them to. There was this dire warning later in the chapter:
"See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." (Deu 30:15-20 KJV)
In the next chapter, Moses gave the most dire warning of all:
"For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord; and how much more after my death? Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them. For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands." (Deu 31:27-29 KJV)
So, instead of enjoying the blessings of Jesus Christ and his kingdom, they were cursed: all but a faithful remnant, and maybe a few others.
The next chapter (ch. 32) contains the Song of Moses, mentioned in Revelation 15:3. It is also unfavorable for Israel:
"They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation." (Deu 32:5 KJV)
This is the conclusion to the Song of Moses:
"For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people." (Deu 32:40-43 KJV)
In the last verse, you can see why those in the Revelation were singing the Song of Moses: their blood was avenged by the destruction of Jerusalem (which was also the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 28.)
And who are his people? St Augustine explains in "A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter:"
40. . . “They shall all know me,”[Jer. xxxi. 34] He says,—“All,” the house of Israel and house of Judah. “All,” however, “are not Israel which are of Israel,”[Rom. ix. 6] but they only to whom it is said in “the psalm concerning the morning aid”[See title of Ps. xxii] (that is, concerning the new refreshing light, meaning that of the new testament), “All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him; and fear Him, all ye the seed of Israel.”[Ps. xxii. 23] All the seed, without exception, even the entire seed of the promise and of the called, but only of those who are the called according to His purpose.[Rom. viii. 28] “For whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified.”[Rom. viii. 30] “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed: not to that only which is of the law,”—that is, which comes from the Old Testament into the New,—“but to that also which is of faith,” which was indeed prior to the law, even “the faith of Abraham,”—meaning those who imitate the faith of Abraham,—“who is the father of us all; as it is written, I have made thee the father of many nations.”[Rom. iv. 16, 17] Now all these predestinated, called, justified, glorified ones, shall know God by the grace of the new testament, from the least to the greatest of them.
51. . . By faith, therefore, in Jesus Christ we obtain salvation,—both in so far as it is begun within us in reality, and in so far as its perfection is waited for in hope; “for whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” [Rom. x. 13; Joel ii. 32]
This is the Joel reference:
"And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call." (Joel 2:32 KJV)
Note that Joel includes both paths to salvation that Augustine mentioned: 1) being called by the Lord; and 2) calling upon the name of the Lord. Those are the only paths to salvation: the only way anyone will become one of "His People."
Philip