The New Heresy in Our Midst

Against Dispensationalism

The normal format of this Substack Publication is changed for this particular article. As a Roman Catholic I simply cannot continue to consume this nonstop stream of wishy wash theology that is blowing around in the mainstream circles of American Thought. And despite what many people think, whether that be that they think this is a political only issue, or (If you are an American Protestant) you are simply not willing to entertain the theological implications of this discourse.

The issue at hand that I am referring to is Dispensationalism and the Jewish State of Israel.

The New Heresy in Our Midst

“Catholics are Hamas-Supporting terrorists.” These are not the words of atheists or militant secularists, but of self-described “Bible-believing” American Evangelical Protestants.

This came after the Israeli Defense Forces bombed the only Catholic Church in Gaza. According to these Zionist heretics, to mourn that attack is to oppose God’s chosen people.

One Evangelical Pastor on X -who talks more about the Jewish State than about Christ- who has over 200,000 followers said this on the day of the attack:

“Hamas and the Vatican are in bed together. They both lied about the church destruction and the deaths in order to drive a wedge between Israel and the Biblical Christians that stand with them.”

And:

“There is NO genocide happening in Gaza but THERE IS ONE happening in Syria. All you wanna be influencers that are pedaling propaganda against Israel but silent on this are fake, sold out, lying agents of Islam.”

Apparently the death of three Palestinian Catholics, the destruction of the parish church, and the wounding of their priest is an invented “wedge” by the Vatican and Hamas to separate Israel and Biblical Christians -read: Protestant Dispensationalist heretics.

This rhetoric was once considered by most people as fringe, but is now common, run of the mill, Sunday sermon material in any American Protestant Church where Dispensationist Theology reigns supreme.

However, the Catholic Church that preserved the scriptures, canonized the Bible, and upheld the moral law for two millennia is now slandered as anti-Christ for refusing to worship a secular nation-state. But it is not Roman Catholics, or Holy Mother Church which has gone astray. It is they who have committed the heresy- and in many cases, outright apostasy.

What is Dispensationalism? The Heresy in Brief

Dispensationalism is a 19th-century Protestant innovation, first developed by John Nelson Darby and later popularized through the Scofield Reference Bible. It posits that God has two separate plans for humanity: one for the Jews and one for the Church. In this schema, the Jews remain God's "chosen people," and the Church is a kind of temporary insertion until the Jews return to prominence in the end times.

According to Dispensationalists, the modern State of Israel is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy, and Christian support for Israel is not just political but theological. This theology has infiltrated Evangelical Christianity so thoroughly that opposition to the State of Israel—even in its acts of injustice and violence—is viewed as opposition to God Himself.

This heresy is explicitly condemned by the Catholic Church.

Christ, however, -in and through the Church- teaches that there is only one covenant, fulfilled in Christ. There is no separate plan of salvation for the Jews. As Pope Pius XII wrote in Mystici Corporis Christi:

"And first of all, by the death of our Redeemer, the New Testament took the place of the Old Law which had been abolished; then the Law of Christ together with its mysteries, institutions, and sacred rites was ratified for the whole world..."

Likewise, The Council of Trent in and through the Roman Catechism explicitly teaches that the Old Covenant has ceased to have salvific effect. Christ is the fulfillment of all the prophecy of the Old Testament, not merely a placeholder. To deny this is to deny the very heart of the message of Christ Himself.

The Church’s Ancient and Constant Opposition to the Jewish Error

The error of exalting ethnic Israel above Christ is not at all new. Christ Himself rebuked the Jews who rejected Him:

“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.” (St. John 8:44)

And:

“The Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it.” (Matthew 21:43)

Christ Himself says these very words. He says He will give his regnal mandate to a “nation producing fruits”. It implies directly that the Jews had become fruitless. That it was the faithlessness of the Jewish people that was intertwined with the timing with which Christ came.

St. Paul, though he loved his kinsmen in the flesh, wrote without illusion:

“As regards the gospel they (the Jews) are enemies of God for your sake. But as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.” (Epistle to the Romans 11:28)

And to the Hebrews:

“In Speaking of a new covenant, he has made the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” (Epistle to the Hebrews 8:13)

The Old Covenant has passed away. God Himself has made it known to us.

The Church Fathers Against the Jews

We should look also to the closest successors of Christ’s Apostles the Early Church Fathers who did not mince words when it came to the Jews, who since the time of Christ it had been widely known were not the same Jews of their forefathers in faith, and their godlessness was clear to all.

St. John Chrysostom:

“The synagogue is worse than a brothel; it is the den of scoundrels and the repair of wild beasts... the temple of demons devoted to idolatrous cults... a criminal assembly of Jews... a place of meeting for the assassins of Christ.”

His Homilies Against the Jews are a fiery defense of the truth that Judaism, once fulfilled in Christ, has become a dead religion.

St. Augustine:

Augustine recognized the Jews as having a role in salvation history, but only as witnesses to the truth of the Church. He explicitly taught they are preserved in dispersion, not as a blessing but as a living testimony to their error.

St. Justin Martyr:

In Dialogue with Trypho, he states:

"The true spiritual Israel are we who have been led to God through this crucified Christ."

St. Irenaeus of Lyons:

He taught that the promises made to the patriarchs are fulfilled in Christ and His Church, not in the carnal descendants of Abraham.

The Church’s Historical Position on the Jewish Nation

From the earliest days, the Church understood that with the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D., the Old Law was definitively ended. There would be no return to animal sacrifice, no restoration of the Mosaic economy.

When Theodor Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, met Pope Pius X in 1904 to ask for Catholic support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, the Pope famously responded:

“The Jews have not recognized our Lord; therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people.”

He added:

“If you come to Palestine and settle your people there, we are ready to help. But we cannot sanction it. The soil of Jerusalem, if it were not always sacred, has been sanctified by the life of Jesus Christ."

Even after the founding of the Israeli state in 1948, the Vatican did not recognize it diplomatically until 1993—and even then, with grave reservations. The Church has repeatedly denounced injustices against both Palestinian Christians and Muslims.

The Church has thus closed the case on an ethnic Jewish state in the Levant.

Simply put it must also be stated that the Jewish people have no right be it ethnically or religiously to the Holy Land. The Holy Land truly can only belong to the People of Christ. For the Holy Land is only Holy because it was sanctified by the footsteps of Our Lord, His Blessed Mother, and His Apostles. The Holy Land belongs to the Custody of His Church.

Dispensationalism and American Protestant Delusion

Dispensationalism is not merely bad theology; it is practical apostasy. It teaches that the Divine Plan centers not on Christ and the Church which He established, but on an ethnic Israel and a secular state.

This Theology leads Protestants to:

• Celebrate the rebuilding of the Temple and resumption of animal sacrifices.

• Justify the killing of Christian Civilians (Catholic, Coptic, and Orthodox) in Gaza as a divine act.

• Call the Catholic Church the enemy of God for not supporting Israeli militarism.

This is not the religion of Christ. This is the religion of the Antichrist.

“They will put you out of the synagogues; indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.” (St. John 16:2)

The True Israel

Catholic Theology does not replace Israel. It fulfills it. The Church is the continuation and perfection of Israel.

The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is the only true Israel which exists and will exist until the end of time.

As St. Paul writes:

“Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God.” (Epistle to the Galatians 6:16)

“There is neither Jew nor Greek … for you are all one in Christi Jesus.” (Epistle to the Galatians 3:28)

“If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Epistle to the Galatians 3:29)

It is baptism, and the blood of Christ, not of animals, that makes one a child of Abraham.

Genesis 12: A Verse Abused

“Christian” Zionists frequently cite Genesis 12:3:

“I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

But this verse refers to Abraham and is fulfilled in Christ. St. Paul clarifies:

“Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘and to offspring,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ.” (Epistle to the Galatians 3:16)

To “bless Abraham” today means to honor Christ and His Church, not the modern state of Israel. Those who bless the Church are blessed; those who curse Her are cursed.

In Conclusion: Chose Christ, Not the Synagogue

Dispensationalism is a theological lie, born of Protestant rebellion and ending in apostasy. It replaces the Cross with the Israeli flag, the Church with a state, and Christ with the carnal descendants of Abraham.

Catholics must reject this worship of the Golden Calf committed by so many Evangelical Protestants in the United States today.

The Catholic Church is the true Israel. To her belong the promises, the fulfillment, the covenant, and the glory.

To cling to the Jews as though they were still the chosen people is to deny the Gospel. Catholics must reject Protestant Zionism completely and bear witness to the truth:

“Salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22) — yes, because Christ came from them. But now "salvation is in no one else" (Acts 4:12) but Jesus Christ.

Let us pray also for the faithless Jews: that Almighty God may remove the veil from their hearts; so that they too may acknowledge Jesus Christ our Lord.

Almighty and eternal God, who dost not exclude from Thy mercy even Jewish faithlessness: hear our prayers, which we offer for the blindness of that people; that acknowledging the light of thy Truth, which is Christ, they may be delivered from their darkness. Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(From the Good Friday Prayer for the Conversion of the Jews)

Suggested Further Reading:

• Mystici Corporis Christi (Pope Pius XII)

  • Reading this will also help in the dispelling of Modernist ideas about ecclesiology.

• Dialogue with Trypho (St. Justin Martyr)

• Homilies Against the Jews (St. John Chrysostom)

• Epistle to the Romans 9-11

• Epistle to the Galatians 3

• Roman Catechism on the Old Law