old covenant
No Jesus, No Hope. Jews and the Old Covenant
02 16 , 18:04 Filed in: Theology
These days we hear a lot of discussions, debates, and even outright attacks on Catholic truth. One of these truths is the unchangeable defined teaching of the revocation of the covenant of the Jews with God. In other words, those claim Judaism as their faith and by extension deny the Apostolic Catholic faith cannot hope for salvation (I am not referring to those who are innocently ignorant) . No doubt, many that read this statement may be offended and even recoil at its implications and unfortunately many of those that disagree with this statement claim to be Catholic. But how is it that this covenant is now invalid? Aren't the Jews the “chosen people” of God? How is it that they are not to partake in eternity in heaven? To find the answer to these questions, we must start with holy scripture.
In the Old Testament, God made a covenant with Abraham of which He promised to bless his decedents with an eternal dwelling place. This covenant was based off of faith and therefore God fulfilled this covenant through the new covenant with His only Begotten Son, Jesus [1]. We also know from the Gospel according to John and in the First Epistle of John that no one may obtain the Father without the Son [2,3]. We even have Jesus Himself making it abundantly clear that those that deny Him, Jesus will also deny before the Father [4]. Jesus also cleared the air regarding unbelief in stating that those that deny Him as the Son of God is already condemned [5]. Some would say that this would be enough to settle the matter about the Jew's old covenant but of course even our Lord said that the Church would always be assailed by Satan even though it cannot be destroyed. And so some have misquoted Romans 11:29 saying the Jews are still among the chosen since God has not withdrawn the “gifts and calling of God”. The response to this is yes, it is true. God has not withdrawn his gifts from among the Jews nor has he stopped calling for their repentance. Especially when they denied His only Son and continue to do so, yes, he still loves them but without their conversion they cannot be saved. So therefore there are those that are severely misguided or maybe even resentful of the Church's history and lean on recent pastoral teachings for the sake of peace between different religions. These pastoral teachings, though well meaning, can have disastrous results if not first sealed with Apostolic teaching. For example, the Council of Florence (1438-1445) infallibly decreed that,
" It firmly believes, professes, and teaches that the matter pertaining to the law of the Old Testament, of the Mosaic law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments, because they were established to signify something in the future, although they were suited to the divine worship at that time, after our Lord's coming had been signified by them, ceased, and the sacraments of the New Testament began; and that whoever, even after the passion, placed hope in these matters of the law and submitted himself to them as necessary for salvation, as if faith in Christ could not save without them, sinned mortally. Read More...