What The Catholic Church Teaches About The Jews – Part 9
Jewish Converts Are Christians, Not Jews, And Cannot Revert
The Catholic Church had many councils regarding how to handle the Jews, in the middle ages.
Moreover, the Popes issued many papal bulls regarding how to handle the Jews, in the middle ages.
These councils and bulls dealt with topics like being a Jewish Christian and other issues.
Once you profess Christ Jesus, and are baptized in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, you are born again as a Christian.
What Does The Bible Say Regarding Christian Jews?
The Bible says you cannot go back to being a Jew again because there are no Jews in Christ.
Acts of Apostles 15:6-11
In the Bible, St. Peter says:
And the apostles and ancients assembled to consider of this matter. And when there had been much disputing, Peter, rising up, said to them: Men, brethren, you know, that in former days God made choice among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, who knoweth the hearts, gave testimony, giving unto them the Holy Ghost, as well as to us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why tempt you God to put a yoke upon the necks of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?
But by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we believe to be saved, in like manner as they also.
Acts of Apostles 15:6-11
Romans 7:4
Also, in the Bible, St. Paul says:
Therefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law, by the body of Christ; that you may belong to another, who is risen again from the dead, that we may bring forth fruit to God.
Romans 7:4
Romans 10:12-13
St. Paul also says:
For there is no distinction of the Jew and the Greek: for the same is Lord over all, rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.
Romans 10:12-13
1 Corinthians 9:20-21
St. Paul says he isn’t under the old law (because it is no more) and says he is in the law of Christ:
And I became to the Jews, a Jew, that I might gain the Jews: To them that are under the law, as if I were under the law, (whereas myself was not under the law,) that I might gain them that were under the law. To them that were without the law, as if I were without the law, (whereas I was not without the law of God, but was in the law of Christ,) that I might gain them that were without the law.
1 Corinthians 9:20-21
Galatians 2:11-14
St. Paul also admonishes the first Pope, St. Peter, in Antioch for treating Jewish and Gentile Christians differently!
But when Cephas was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that some came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them who were of the circumcision. And to his dissimulation the rest of the Jews consented, so that Barnabas also was led by them into that dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly unto the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all: If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of the Gentiles, and not as the Jews do, how dost thou compel the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
Galatians 2:11-14
Galatians 2:16
And St. Paul condemned anyone (especially the Galatians) for believing that they could be justified through the works of the Old Law:
But knowing that man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ; we also believe in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: because by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
Galatians 2:16
Galatians 3:26-29
Moreover, St. Paul says:
For you are all the children of God by faith, in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek: there is neither bond nor free: there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ’s, then are you the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.
Galatians 3:26-29
Galatians 5:2-10
Also, St. Paul says:
Behold, I Paul tell you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man circumcising himself, that he is a debtor to the whole law. You are made void of Christ, you who are justified in the law: you are fallen from grace. For we in spirit, by faith, wait for the hope of justice. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision: but faith that worketh by charity.
You did run well, who hath hindered you, that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion is not from him that calleth you. A little leaven corrupteth the whole lump. I have confidence in you in the Lord: that you will not be of another mind: but he that troubleth you, shall bear the judgment, whosoever he be.
Galatians 5:2-10
Galatians 6:12-15
St. Paul then continues:
For as many as desire to please in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer the persecution of the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised, keep the law; but they will have you to be circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
Galatians 6:12-15
Ephesians 2:14-15
Christ also made Jews and Gentiles one under the New Covenant, rending the Old Covenant obsolete:
For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and breaking down the middle wall of partition, the enmities in his flesh: Making void the law of commandments contained in decrees; that He might make the two in himself into one new man, making peace;
Ephesians 2:14-15
Hebrews 7:11-12
St. Paul also says the new priesthood of Christ necessarily abrogates the old law and creates a new law of Christ:
If then perfection was by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchisedech, and not be called according to the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being translated, it is necessary that a translation also be made of the law.
Hebrews 7:11-12
Hebrews 9:15-17
Moreover, Christ’s death abrogated the Old Testament and ushered in the New Testament:
And therefore He is the mediator of the new testament: that by means of his death, for the redemption of those transgressions, which were under the former testament, they that are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where there is a testament, the death of the testator must of necessity come in. For a testament is of force, after men are dead: otherwise it is as yet of no strength, whilst the testator liveth.
Hebrews 9:15-17
Hebrews 10:11-18
There is no need for the sacrifices of the old law of Moses because the Sacrifice of Christ began the New Testament and paid for all sins:
And every priest indeed standeth daily ministering, and often offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man offering one sacrifice for sins, for ever sitteth on the right hand of God, From henceforth expecting, until his enemies be made his footstool. For by one oblation he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. And the Holy Ghost also doth testify this to us. For after that he said:
And this is the testament which I will make unto them after those days, saith the Lord. I will give my laws in their hearts, and on their minds will I write them: And their sins and iniquities I will remember no more. Now where there is a remission of these, there is no more an oblation for sin.
Hebrews 10:11-18
Thus, St. Paul makes it crystal clear in the New Testament that the Old Covenant is no more.
What Does The Magisterium Say Regarding Christian Jews?
Thus, in keeping with these Biblical verses, the Second Council of Nicaea, convened in 787 AD, says:
Since some of those who come from the religion of the Hebrews mistakenly think to make a mockery of Christ who is God, pretending to become Christians, but denying Christ in private by both secretly continuing to observe the sabbath and maintaining other Jewish practices, we decree that they shall not be received to communion or at prayer or into the church, but rather let them openly be Hebrews according to their own religion; they should not baptize their children or buy, or enter into possession of, a slave. But if one of them makes his conversion with a sincere faith and heart, and pronounces his confession wholeheartedly, disclosing their practices and objects in the hope that others may be refuted and corrected, such a person should be welcomed and baptized along with his children, and care should be taken that they abandon Hebrew practices. However if they are not of this sort, they should certainly not be welcomed.
Second Council of Nicaea, Canon 8
Moreover, continuing this tradition, the Fourth Lateran Council, in 1215 AD, says:
Jewish converts may not retain their old rite
Certain people who have come voluntarily to the waters of sacred baptism, as we learnt, do not wholly cast off the old person in order to put on the new more perfectly. For, in keeping remnants of their former rite, they upset the decorum of the Christian religion by such a mixing. Since it is written, cursed is he who enters the land by two paths, and a garment that is woven from linen and wool together should not be put on, we therefore decree that such people shall be wholly prevented by the prelates of churches from observing their old rite, so that those who freely offered themselves to the Christian religion may be kept to its observance by a salutary and necessary coercion. For it is a lesser evil not to know the Lord’s way than to go back on it after having known it.
Fourth Lateran Council, Canon 70
Pope Gregory IX, a couple decades later, also said:
We therefore command that each and every one of you to have all the excesses of the Jews completely repressed… forbidding them to discuss in any way concerning their faith or rites with Christians. In this matter calling to your aid the help of the civil power, inflicting upon Christians, who offer opposition, due ecclesiastical punishment…
Bull. Rom. Pont., III, 497.
Later, Popes John XXII, Sixtus IV, and others condemned reversion.
Also, Popes Paul III and Clement XI allowed Jewish converts to keep their property, but prohibited them from being around Jews.
Therefore, in a Catholic State there are no “Jewish Christians” or “Messianic Jews”.
Once you are a Christian, you can no longer identify as Jew, and thus, must give up your former ethno-religion.
You may be a Semitic Hebrew by race (although many Jews are a mixed Semitic/European race), but your Jewishness in both cultural and religious practices has to be gone, once you convert to Christianity.
This is what both Scripture and the Church teaches. Your love of Christ begs for your obedience.
In conclusion, I will leave you with this quote from Our Lord:
