The mainstream view of Israel among some Christians could lead to another Holocaust, an Anglican priest warned in a lecture last week.

Rev. Gerald McDermott called this group “supersessionists” in a talk delivered in the Hoynak room March 30, titled “How My Mind Has Changed on Israel.”

Supersessionism, McDermott explained, is the view that Jesus “superseded” the old covenant and is the only salvation of all people. McDermott was hosted by the theology and history departments, with support from the Davenant Institute, the Hillsdale Jewish Mishpacha, and the Chaplain’s Office.

“It is no wonder that when my Jewish friends hear the words ‘gospel,’ ‘Jesus,’ ‘church,’ or ‘Christianity,’ they start smelling the fumes of Auschwitz,” McDermott said. “Supersessionism taught that God is done with the Jews because they’re stiff-necked and stubborn. The next cause which followed logically was, ‘Well, we should be done with the Jews, too.’ This was inculcated in European minds and hearts, and it influenced the philosophers, who were tremendously antisemitic.”

The ideas of those philosophers, McDermott said, led to tragedy.

“Martin Luther wrote ‘On the Jews and Their Lies,’ which recommended that Christians attack synagogues, and Adolf Hitler purposely had it published in the millions and spread around Germany to convince the Lutherans in the north and Catholics in the south that they should support his anti-Jewish laws and eventually his Holocaust,” McDermott said.

McDermott explained supersessionism as replacement theology.

“So once upon a time, I was a supersessionist,” he said “It’s also called replacement theology. According to Christian supersessionists, the Old Testament God cares only about a little people called the Jews in a little land called Israel, but Jesus cares about the whole world. They believe that when most of Jewish Israel failed to embrace their Messiah in Jesus, then God transferred the covenant to the Gentile church, which then became the new Israel.”

McDermott said it took him years to realize Jesus did not fully fulfill the covenant. 

“Not everything was fulfilled after the resurrection of Jesus and His ascension to the right hand of the Father in heaven,” McDermott said. 

For example, the land promise of God to Abraham — “to your offspring I give this land” — remains unfulfilled, according to McDermott.

“Contrary to what I was told by my professors and what I read in most Christian theologians and Christian New Testament scholars, the land promise shows up explicitly in the New Testament,” McDermott said. “Jesus predicted that Jerusalem would continue to be trampled upon by the Gentiles until the end of the times of the Gentiles. And that’s Luke 21.”

McDermott said this promise is relevant amid rising antisemitism.

“The massive Nazi-like antisemitism exploding around the world is motivating more and more Jews to return to the land of Israel,” he said. “The land is intrinsic to the covenant, and you can’t separate God and his progeny, Abraham, from the land itself.”

McDermott said as a new Christian Zionist, he believes the Bible guarantees them this protection.

“New Christian Zionism says that the return of Jews to the land in massive numbers, starting in the late 18th century, is a fulfillment of biblical prophecies,” McDermott said. “Because recent history has proven that the Jews need a state to protect them, we would say it’s an obligation of natural law for us Christians to support the State of Israel.”

When attendees disagreed with him, McDermott said “welcome to the club.” Assistant Professor of History Jason Gehrke belongs to that club.

“The talk exemplified a kind of pro-Israel rhetoric that counterintuitively undermines reasonable support for the U.S.-Israel alliance and reasonable opposition to bigoted attacks on Jewish people,” Gehrke told The Collegian in an email. “The speaker represented a false dichotomy: Christian Zionism or Nazism. But those alternatives are neither normatively Christian nor normatively Jewish.”

Hillsdale Professor of Theology Mickey Mattox helped organize the talk.

“It was wonderful to see such a good turnout, from students and faculty, and to hear so many probing questions after the talk,” Mattox said. “I agreed to help arrange this event in part to enable our students to engage in free and respectful discussion of the situation of modern-day Israel from the perspective of Christian faith and theology, and then to think it through for themselves.”

Mattox said he also disagrees with McDermott, instead favoring Jewish theologian David Novak, who argues both Jews and Christians fall under supersessionism.

“To be sure, this leaves Christians and Jews in a somewhat unresolved and thus uncomfortable situation,” Mattox said. “But that discomfort reflects an honest and charitable assessment of the status quo. As we live out that reality, we should all ‘Pray for the peace of Israel; they shall prosper that love thee,’ from Psalms 122:6.”

First-year graduate student Paul Marselus said he appreciated the opportunity to hear from an expert on Zionism, and said it’s an important issue on the political right.

“It’s important for Hillsdale students to encounter this topic, because what one believes about this issue profoundly impacts his biblical exegesis and interpretation of historical and current political events,” Marselus said.

Professor of History Wilfred McClay, who invited McDermott to speak, said in an email he was impressed by their questions.

“I’ve never been prouder of our students than watching them engage McDermott with the utmost grace and civility, and when they sought to challenge him, doing so with utmost respect and substance,” McClay said.

McClay said he invited McDermott so that Hillsdale students could enjoy a learning opportunity.

“Since his interpretation would appear to challenge some of the key claims of Christianity — e.g., that salvation is possible only through faith in Christ — it is naturally of concern to our students, and I wanted them to have a chance to hear McDermott and judge the plausibility of his claims,” McClay said.