January 16, 2010

  • Question 212 – Mr. Shea and the Jews

    Mr. Sungenis,

    Mark Shea put this response on his blog regarding how we are to relate to the Jews. Would you mind commenting on it. It just doesn’t sound right to me.

    John D.


    "Some Jewish people believe he is the Son of God. But most Jews don’t. However, even though they don’t believe in him (often because Christians have been very mean to them), God is still faithful to the covenant (that means "agreement") he made with them and he promises that one day they will realize that Jesus is who he says he is. That’s why they are still his special people today, because God keeps his promises. Till then, we are to love our Jewish friends because they are sort of like our Older Brothers and Sisters since they were the first to hear the word of God." http://catholicexchange.com/2009/12/23/114758/

    R. Sungenis: John, Mr. Shea has some things right but most things wrong. Yes, some Jewish people believe Jesus is the Son of God, but most don’t. Granted, there even may be some Jews who don’t accept Jesus because “Christians have been very mean to them.” That goes without saying. But I suggest that Mr. Shea should be a little more introspective here, since his blog is full of “mean” statements about many other people, many of whom, I can imagine, that don’t become Catholic because of Mr. Shea’s mean-spiritedness. You don’t have to look far on Mr. Shea’s blog to find some slanderous and sarcastic statement about some group or individual.

    As for the statement “God is still faithful to the covenant he made with them,” we need to back up a bit here. If Mr. Shea is referring to the Mosaic covenant, the answer is no, since that covenant has been legally revoked. If Mr. Shea disagrees, then tell him to explain these passages: Hebrews 7:18; 8:1-13; 10:9; Col 2:14-15; Eph 2:15; 2Cor 3:6-14.

    If Mr. Shea is referring to the Abrahamic covenant that began in Genesis 12, well, that covenant was made with all the nations, not just the Jews. St. Paul says so in Galatians 3:6-8. So where are the Jews distinguished as the exclusive group for whom God is waiting to fulfill his covenant? There is no such verse in Scripture.

    Second, where does Scripture say that “he promises that one day they will realize that Jesus is who he says he is”? I don’t know of any such verse in Scripture. God doesn’t make such promises, because salvation is a matter of man’s free will. That is precisely why Paul says in Romans 11:23: “IF they continue not in unbelief, God is able to graft them in again.” The word “IF” is the most important wod in that whole chapter. It doesn’t say: “God promises to graft in all the Jews now or in the future.”

    Yes, God is faithful to his covenant, but his covenant doesn’t guarantee salvation. His covenant OFFERS salvation to the Jew, just like it does for everyone else in the world. The Jew isn’t special just because he is Jewish. The New Testament repudiates that idea (cf. Romans 1:16-17; 2:9-10; Gal 3:28: Eph 2:14-15). But Mr. Shea seems to think that the Jews are guaranteed salvation just because they are Jews.

    When Romans 11:29 says “The gifts and call of God are irrevocable,” it is saying that the gift of salvation and the call to salvation will never be taken away, but it does not GUARANTEE that a vast majority of Jews will respond to that gift and call. In fact, the idea that the Jews are guaranteed salvation verges on heresy, because Scripture simply doesn’t teach it. If Mr. Shea believes otherwise, then tell him to show us the passages in Scripture that guarantees that all or even most of the Jews will be saved. It is as simple as that.

    You will also notice what Mr. Shea implies from this erroneous view of guaranteed salvation. He says “That’s why they are still his special people today.” In other words, because God is put in the position of being required to save all or most of the Jews of the future, then the Jews of today are, ipso facto, “special people.” Why? Apparently, just because they are Jews they are “special people”? Where does the Scripture teach such a notion? Where does it call them a “special people,” whatever Mr. Shea means by that ambiguous term in the first place? The only “special people” Scripture knows of is the Church. That is why St. Peter took the very verse that was once applied to the Jewish people in the Old Testament and now applies it to the Church alone, which is composed of Jews and Gentiles. You can read it for yourself in 1Peter 2:9-10: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

    In fact, this new “special people” of 1 Peter 2:9-10 is sharply contrasted to the Jewish people of the Old Covenant, since the previous verse says: “‘A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.’ They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.” It was the Jews who stumbled over the stone, Jesus Christ.

    In the end, the Jews are not special now nor will they be special in the future. Teaching otherwise is little more than spiritual racism. When a Jew converts to Christ, then, and only then, does he become “special.” End of story. Mr. Shea can be as nice to Jews all he wants and nobody will stop him, but when he bases his niceness on the idea that Jews are “special people” just because they are Jews, then he is teaching spiritual racism.