Vatican II’s Framework That the Church Is the “New Israel”

The first of two articles I'm sharing on the heresy of Christian Zionism. The Catholic Church is Israel, plain and simple. No ifs, ands, or buts!

From Crisis

By Matthew A. Tsakanikas, STD

With the rise of Christian Zionism, it is important to revisit the true understanding of the Church's relationship to the Jewish people and nation.

If one wished to represent the official ecumenism that the documents of Vatican II established, then the framework in which questions regarding the Jewish people and God’s covenants should be discussed is Lumen Gentium’s ecclesiology and use of “subsistit in.” Lumen Gentium is the title of Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. In that dogmatic constitution, the kingdom of God is the kingdom of Christ which is now present in mystery: “The Church, or, in other words, the kingdom of Christ now present in mystery, grows visibly through the power of God in the world” (LG 3.1).

Even though the Church is the “kingdom of Christ which is now present in mystery,” its mystery and fullness shines where there is no sin even as it encompasses members on earth still being cleansed and freed from sin (cf. Ephesians 5:26-27). Calling the Catholic Church the “kingdom of Christ now present in mystery” does not mean there are not elements of the kingdom in communities that are not fully Catholic. However, those elements belong to the Catholic Church and not to the separated communities formally considered, that is, qua separated. The elements are therefore Catholic even if others do not understand that which they hold.

Separated from unity within the Church, the elements are life-giving only if, somehow, they are allowed to impel toward unity and charity for God (grace) through living-faith in Christ (cf. Summa Theologiae II-II, 2.7) which only the Church makes possible. The Latin word-choice of subsistit in allowed a participatory understanding of the kingdom while making the Catholic Church the prime analogate, in relation to which the participation of all other analogates must be understood. She is the prime analogate precisely because there is no other subsistence of the kingdom of Christ on earth than the Catholic Church, the “the universal sacrament of salvation” (LG 48.2).

In paragraph 8.2 of Lumen Gentium, the participatory language was given:

This Church constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in [subsistit in] the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him, although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure. These elements, as gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling toward catholic unity.

A note from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2007 clarified the language of “subsists,” or in Latin, “subsistit”:

It is possible, according to Catholic doctrine, to affirm correctly that the Church of Christ is present and operative in the churches and ecclesial Communities not yet fully in communion with the Catholic Church, on account of the elements of sanctification and truth that are present in them. Nevertheless, the word “subsists” can only be attributed to the Catholic Church alone precisely because it refers to the mark of unity that we profess in the symbols of the faith (I believe…in the “one” Church); and this “one” Church subsists in the Catholic Church.

The one true Church is and remains the Catholic Church. The doctrine never changed. The “subsists” language was simply explaining how “elements” of the Church can be found in separated communities. For instance, Catholics don’t baptize people who were already baptized properly in Protestant communities because baptism is an element that belongs to the Catholic Church and not the separated community qua separated. All valid baptisms are Catholic even if they were done illicitly and willingly outside the assembly of Catholics.

The Church is the kingdom of Christ (the Messiah) on earth in mystery, and because the kingdom of Christ became the “new Israel,” then the Church superseded Israel by recapitulation (cf. Ephesians 1:10) and not simple replacement. The Church communicates the fullness of participation in the true Jerusalem which is from above and this is part of its sacramental mystery. 

“The Jerusalem above is free and she is our mother” (Galatians 4:26; cf. Hebrews 12:22 and Revelation 21:2). “Old” Israel (according to the flesh) bore the preparatory image of the Church that was to come down from Heaven but which was not yet the true participation in the true heavenly tent and heavenly mystery (cf. Hebrews 8-10). The Church of Christ on earth is now the visible assembly and bearer of that mystery, bearer of the Sacrament which gives access to the true heavenly tent and sanctuary (cf. Hebrews 10:19-22).

Following upon 8.2 and “subsistit in,” Lumen Gentium 9.3 explained the recapitulation of Israel this way: 

Israel according to the flesh, which wandered as an exile in the desert, was already called the Church [assembly] of God. So likewise the new Israel which while living in this present age goes in search of a future and abiding city is called the Church [assembly] of Christ. [emphasis added]

There is only one true Israel (prime analogate), and one presently belongs to that Israel insofar as one belongs to the Church of Christ.

So what about “Old” Israel—according to the flesh? Does it have no value now? Of course it has value as being in potency to accepting Jesus Christ and so is “related [ordinantur] in various ways to the people of God” (LG 16.1), and it “remains most dear to God.” Notice it does not say they remained the people of God but are “related in various ways” because “the Church is the new people of God” (Nostra Aetate 4.6) via the New Covenant. 

The order of potency to true union with Christ is listed in Lumen Gentium 16. Even though it is outside of the New Covenant, and in a broken covenant for which the Second Temple Sanhedrin bears responsibility (and not all Jews), Israel according to the flesh still bears (among the many elements proper to the Catholic plenitude) the law and the prophets which testify to the coming of the Christ. Those elements of faith have been taken up into God’s Israel, the Church of Christ (cf. Galatians 6:16) and so are a shared element of faith which are read in the liturgies of both households. They impel both households to accept Jesus Christ before He returns in glory.

Israel according to the flesh remains a witness to the promises of God given to our common Second Temple forefathers before the advent of Christ. During Second Temple Judaism, the ceremonies were prefigurements of what became intrinsic principles of sanctification in the “better promises” (Hebrews 8:6) and “better sacrifices” (Hebrews 9:23) of Christ. The elements and ceremonial laws of Second Temple Judaism always and only had value because Christ was the “telos of the law” (Romans 10:4). 

Nevertheless, those elements and ceremonies apart from faith in Christ, and now acceptance of His Church, are not life-giving. “For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin” (Hebrews 10:4). What was not life-giving became “obsolete” (Hebrews 8:13): the civil and ceremonial laws of Second Temple Judaism, which ended in A.D 70. What was life-giving continues and is found now only in the Catholic Church for which Israel according to the flesh is destined.

Due to misrepresentations of the declaration Nostra Aetate, this Vatican II framework of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) needs further explanation. It is a framework which can address more recent theological errors on questions concerning the political state of Israel and the relation of Jews to God’s covenant in Christ. According to the 1985 Synod of Bishops, the pastoral declaration Nostra Aetate is subject to the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church for the proper interpretation and doctrinal understanding of the pastoral declaration. Nostra Aetate must conform to Lumen Gentium.

The framework of Lumen Gentium rejects any dual-covenant hypotheses because they misrepresent the meaning of the “gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). Nostra Aetate never taught covenants are not reformable (cf. Hebrews 9:10) or that promises could not be made better (cf. Hebrews 8:6). The Church rejects the idea that the covenant of Moses is still salvific for Jews apart from acceptance of the covenant of Jesus Christ. The Church rejects theological Zionism which proposes the ongoing divine right of Israel according to the flesh to sole dominion over the former lands of biblical Israel (cf. the condemnation of Christian Zionism by the Council of Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem).

A Vatican II framework (cf. Lumen Gentium) does not reject the claims of Jews—who lawfully live in the former British Mandated Palestine—to be the political state of Israel. Afterall, the political state is not considered the biblical state. Acceptance of the state of Israel and diplomatic relations were given by the Vatican only in accord with international law as defined by the United Nations from 1948 until recently. The United Nations is not the Bible. 

Diplomatic relations by the Vatican with Israel were never seen by the Vatican as acceptance of theological claims to the land, known as theological Zionism (cf. Benedict XVI 2018). Catholics do not accept divine right claims of Israel according to the flesh over former biblical lands. Divine right claims are a matter of theology and would be against Catholic theology and doctrine (cf. Benedict XVI 2018). The Church is the “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) and rejects theological Zionism.

Nations, like the political state of Israel, are accepted by the Vatican only in accord with what can be called natural rights and not state claims to divine rights (or mandates to biblical lands). Modern Israeli claims of divine rights to Palestinian territories are false and violate the rights of others, especially Palestinians. Natural rights presuppose responsibilities as clarified by the Geneva Conventions. Catholics hope the political state of Israel—first accepted by the United States in 1948—will operate in accord with the U.N. as a member state and stop violating the Geneva Conventions.

The political state of Israel is subject to the moral natural law and has no divine mandate. While the Vatican actually has a divine mandate for the “governance” of souls, it makes no claim of divine mandate to a specific plot of land, not even earthly Jerusalem, not even what was donated by Roman emperors. Those are earthly legal matters. The Vatican hopes for the realization of a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians (cf. Pope Leo XIV). The Vatican has recommended this for decades to protect Palestinian rights. The Vatican recognizes the state of Palestine and its lawful territories.