Was the Apostle Paul a supersessionist?

[BukiRob]

I’ll answer my own question and let others challenge it if they wish. It would be “Yes, but of the ‘soft’ or partial variety, particularly in view of his statement in Rom11:25,28” [For I would not wish brethren that you be ignorant of this mystery so as to become wise in your own conceits - that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the complement of the Gentiles has come in... Israel may still be enemies for the gospel’s sake but is (nevertheless) beloved by Yahweh for the sake of her ancestors]. I raise this question in the context of a book I have recently published - “The Fellowship of the Secret”. That writing was a result of a prophecy I received concerning the re-integration of churches that separated from each other at the Reformation but in the context of this forum also refers to the reconciliation of the Jewish fathers of the Faith with their Christian brethren, both reconciliations being made possible by a mutual acknowledgement of error. On Jewry’s part that was a failure to recognise the claims of the Nazarine Prophet and what the apostles subsequently taught about Him, whilst on the Church’s part it has been a failure to grasp what Paul was intimating in Ephesians3:8-11 concerning the “fellowship (or dispensation) of the secret” which I have come to understand is referring to the Church and gospel age, the nature of both having been hidden from previous generations (Rom16:25), even from the heavenly authorities themselves (Eph3:10 strictly Greek). This would support a literal reading of Rom11:11,12 &15, namely that fullness of salvation (through a mystical participation with Christ - Col1:26,27) had only been extended to the Gentiles as a result of Jewish disobedience. That has radical implications to overall providence (which I am raising in the "controversial theology forum) but it also challenges traditional “hard” replacement theology, i.e. the understanding that all the promises to the nation of Israel (God’s firstborn son – Ex4:22) have been superseded and made null and void by the establishment of the Church. My webpage [http://www.richardbarkerauthor.info.] explains in more detail what I’m intimating here - Happy to discuss the Jewish/RT aspects on this thread.

2 Peter 3:14-16 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.


Whenever we study Paul's writings the very FIRST thing we MUST do in order to prevent error is STOP. We have to look at WHO Paul is speaking too. We have to look at the CULTURE into which he is speaking and we have to FIRST AND FOREMOST understand that Paul is a born again Pharisee. Paul calls himself that so ANY attempt to state or suggest that he was not is ERROR.

The issue that many gentile writers have with writing about Paul is the fail to do ALL of these things. In many cases they fail to do ANY of them. This leads to doctrinal error some of which leads to teaching directly against scripture.

#1 Messiah and his words ARE GREATER THAN PAUL. So, if one ends up with a doctrine that in ANY WAY conflicts with what Yeshua said and taught we can know that we are misinterpreting Paul