Response to Rocks for Brains who posted a Comment August 21 and today is August 24

Thanks for writing R4B. You’ve raised some important points and I’ve been wanting to answer them in some depth, so I’m posting this as an essay in its own right. 

Rocks for Brains wrote on August 21, 2017 at 8:30 AM
What a bunch of useless handwringing!
When Christ said he had come not to abolish the Old Covenant but rather to Fulfill it, it wasn't as complicated a statement as we make it today.
If, by some act, I suddenly pay off my mortgage, have I abolished it? No. Can the bank come after me for money now that I no longer make monthly payments? No, it has been fulfilled.

Why do we allow ourselves to be dragged into questions about the Khazars on the one hand and arguments about matrilineal bloodlines on the other? Remember Our Lord's remarks to those who asserted privilege because they were Sperma (seed of) Abraham? I can make followers out of the Rocks!
Regardless of the ethnic background, once the waters of baptism are poured over your head, you are no longer a Jew. Since the Gospel of John and especially the destruction of the Temple, a jew is a religious construct; a denier of Christ. In temples around the world, you can believe in anything so long as you reject HE who stands neck deep in burning excrement.

The straight line in history is: Abraham-Moses-Jesus-The Church. Today's Jews are a detour. They didn't continue believing as they always had.. ignoring the Christ. They responded and became the first Protestants.

An Préachán:
My response: You mention "hand-wringing". Hand-wringing? As in “Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you…”? (Matt 27:37) Or St Paul’s “For I wished myself to be an anathema from Christ, for my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh,” (Romans 9:3)

Now, that’s what I'd call hand-wringing!

If Our Lord was upset over the Jews, and Saul of Tarsus as well, we're allowed to be, too.

As for the mortgage bit you discuss, salvation as paying off a mortgage, that sounds quite Protestant: "Jesus paid for our sins so we have a free ticket to ride to Heaven and don’t have to do anything but accept it. Everything has been done and paid off for us." Historical Christianity teaches that the Gospel is about Transformation in Christ, Theosis, the divinization of the human race, for all those willing to “take on Christ”. 2 Peter 1:4 “By whom he hath given us most great and precious promises: that by these you may be made partakers of the divine nature: flying the corruption of that concupiscence which is in the world.”

Consider also:

• St. Athanasius: "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God." (De inc. 54, 3: PG 25, 192B) and [CCC 460]
• St. Thomas Aquinas: "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods." (Opusc. 57, 1-4) [CCC 460]
• Also: This teaching is stated in many ways throughout the New Testament. Examples:
• John 1:12 “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (Obviously, a new creation) 
• 2 Cor 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (Again, a new creation)
• 2 Peter 1:4 might well puts it best – but Protestants essentially only read St. Paul: So, see Romans, 6:4, 7:6, 12:2; Galatians 3:27; Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:8-12.
• Two Old Testament examples: Isaiah 65:17; Ezekiel 36:25-26
• Note: In general, Jesus seems to demand the impossible of “ordinary” humans. In Matthew 5, during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives the Beatitudes, then says we are “salt of the earth” and “light of the world”, discusses how He has come not to do away with the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them. He discusses elevated behavior regarding anger, adultery, divorce, making oaths and not retaliating (“turn the other cheek”) and love our enemies. He ends with "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." (5:48) That is something manifestly impossible for “normal” human beings to do.

Theosis

Theosis, however, makes it possible. And something all true Catholics and Orthodox have to emphasize is that the Eucharist is the means by which we are saved, otherwise we will “have no life within us.” (St John’s famous chapter 6.)

As for allowing ourselves into be dragged into “arguments about matrilineal bloodlines on the other (hand)”, both St Matthew and St Luke let themselves get drawn into lines of family descent. Both the Jew St. Matthew (who may have composed his Gospel in either Hebrew or Aramaic) and St Luke, the “Greek physician” (Syrian Greek, that is, and quite possibly a physician), open their Gospels with genealogy.

Yes, it isn't matrilineal, but some scholars suggest Luke's version is just that. But whatever.

I mention the matrilineal bloodlines because most non-Jews don’t know about that, how important that is to who is considered a Jew, and why, and thus why the Blessed Virgin Mary is both a typos of Eve AND a typos of Sarah – who also had only one child, and whose child would carry the wood for his sacrifice to the top of the mount Jesus would later carry His Cross to. And also this is hugely important for understanding the Blessed Virgin Mary’s place as our Mother.

• (The Fathers at Vatican II — I should say the more orthodox ones — fully intended to issue a major proclamation on her as a formal Council constitution, but the Progressives derailed that. Something to remember in this 100th year of Fatima.)

That passage you mention about God being able to raise up the very rocks to be children of Abraham is a great one. It is St John the Baptist in St Matthew 3:9. St John is addressing the Pharisees and Sadducees, and saying In verse 7: “And seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them: Ye brood of vipers, who hath shewed you to flee from the wrath to come?” But notice what he then says in verse 8: “Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance.” (Luke 3:8 mirrors this exactly, except he plurals "fruit", i.e., "fruits". Though disputed, this passage suggests he does not reject them completely, but tries to “cut them down to size” and tells them true repentance involves real spiritual work, not just acting the part. That's the point of verse 9: just being descendants of Abraham (and Sarah) does do it; they need to bring spiritual fruit (good works) worthy of penance (although as I say, scholars argue exactly how this is meant).

However, and this is important, God does indeed “raise up stones to be sons of Abraham” for God converts the Gentiles, people with stony hearts and who actually worship stone idols. Our ancestors, in fact. It’s an echo of Ezekiel 37 and the valley of dry bones. Or in Ezekiel 36:25ff: "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances...”.

The Christian reads this as referring not just to fallen-away Jews of Ezekiel’s day, but of us Christians, as well. And it fits wonderfully.

You write, “Regardless of the ethnic background, once the waters of baptism are poured over your head, you are no longer a Jew.” I would say you then become a true Jew, Jews as God planned them to be, and heirs of the Covenants, especially of course the New Covenant, which fulfills the all old Covenants.

• Or why does St. Paul write: “And whosoever shall follow this rule, peace on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.” That’s a pretty famous passage, “the Israel of God”. (It’s Galatians 6:16.) 
• And in Romans 9:6: “It is not as though God's word has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.” That whole chapter of Romans 9 is an extended essay on our very topic. It builds from St. Paul’s “hand-wringing” at Romans 9:3 and is a profound meditation. But rather than get involved in all that, I’ll just give two further quotes from Galatians:
• (Galatians 3:7): “Understand, then, that those who have faith are the sons of Abraham.” 
• And (Galatians 3:29): “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.” 

As for the other issue you raise, how Jews can believe anything, i.e., have ended up believing a wide variety of things no first century Pharisee would countenance, so long as they reject Christ, sure. Some of them believe in reincarnation, some that the Messiah has come in the person of the New York Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, who died in 1994. (He himself objected to that sort of allegation, and since he died, the movement that claims him as Messiah has declined). You can certainly say today’s Jews have not continued unbroken the belief systems of the Pharisees, that’s true. The religion is sort of like a capital “T”: it went straight and strong till Christ, then one group of Jews went one way, into Christianity, and the other group went in the opposite direction.

But so what? Christianity is not a radical break with its Jewish past, but its fulfillment. Judaism Fulfilled. Judaism Resplendent, as it was meant to be. Pius XI (or was it the XII?) said we are all spiritual Semites. So we are. Why deny it?

And most importantly, if we are to be the helpers and servants of God, agents of the Holy Spirit, it is necessary to understand all this because God wants the Jews converted. As St Paul says in Romans 12, “Now if the offence of them be the riches of the world, and the diminution of them, the riches of the Gentiles; how much more the fullness of them?” Perhaps a bit more clearly stated in the NIV’s: “But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!” In fact, the whole of Romans 12 is a long reflection on this aspect of what we’re discussing. (So we're talking about things St. Paul himself was intensely concerned with.)

We’re to work toward that. The conversion of Jews.

And finally, as for Jews being the first Protestants, sure, one can make that case. Though I’ve always thought these guys were: (Luke 9:49-50 / also Mark 9:38) “And John, answering, said: Master, we saw a certain man casting out devils in thy name, and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us. And Jesus said to him: Forbid him not; for he that is not against you, is for you.”

But God wants all these people converted, and we won’t get that done by being short with them, dismissing they "out of hand" and so on. We should, like the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, take St Francis de Sales' advice:

• "Cook the truth in charity until it tastes sweet"—this famous quotation of St. Francis de Sales is the principle of our apostolic work. Fruitless discussions or, worse, uncharitable polemics never help to attract souls to the Lord. Again, St. Francis de Sales said, "One drop of honey attracts more bees than a barrel of vinegar." The revealed truth of our Holy Catholic Faith is in itself attractive because of its depth, brilliance, and logic. Wherever it appears clothed in the beautiful garments of charity, it becomes ever more acceptable to those who might otherwise fear its inevitable consequences for our lives and the sharpness with which it cuts through our weaknesses and our excuses.

That's taken from the Institute's website at: http://www.institute-christ-king.org/institute/who-we-are/
 (It's under the Spirit section.)

Thanks again for writing!

An Préachán