Catholicism: Western or Jewish religion?

by Jonathan Ekene Ifeanyi

Commodus

Nietzsche 

Today when people think of Christianity or Catholicism they often think of it as “a religion of the West”, and when they think of the Jews they have the immediate impression of “the enemies of Christianity”. This is wrong! 

From the biblical point of view—I mean both the Old and New Testaments, the people we often refer to as “the Jews” or “Israelites”  today are not really true Jews—not true Israelites. St. Paul writes: “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision  is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men , but of God” (Romans 2:29).

The true Jews (or Israelites) are those who obey God by following strictly the teachings of His prophets—that is, true CHRISTIANS—the very reason why the Church of Christ is called the new “Israel of God” As St Paul puts it, “But far be it from me to boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.” – “ἐμοὶ δὲ μὴ γένοιτο καυχᾶσθαι εἰ μὴ ἐν τῷ σταυρῷ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, δι᾽ οὗ ἐμοὶ κόσμος ἐσταύρωται κἀγὼ κόσμῳ. οὔτε γὰρ περιτομή τί ἐστιν οὔτε ἀκροβυστία, ἀλλὰ καινὴ κτίσις. καὶ ὅσοι τῷ κανόνι τούτῳ στοιχήσουσιν, εἰρήνη ἐπ᾽ αὐτοὺς καὶ ἔλεος, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰσραὴλ τοῦ θεοῦ.” (Galatians 6: 14-16).

Again, St Paul, a Jewish Christian and indeed the greatest Christian theologian in history, writes: “We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3). By “the circumcision” he meant the Jewish people (now Christians) regarded as bound in covenant to God—the actual rite of circumcision was abandoned by Christians. As St. Paul further explains in his Letter to the Romans, Israel is like a tree. The Jews of Jesus’ day, as ethnic Israelites, were all natural branches in this tree, and the Gentiles (non-Jews) who join the Church are like branches that are cut off from other trees and grafted into Israel. As he puts it, “Well: because of unbelief they were broken off. But thou standest by faith...” (Romans 11: 20). On the flipside, the Jews who rejected Jesus were cut off from their own family tree. As a result, the Church doesn’t simply replace Israel; rather, in a very real sense, the Church is Israel. It is the multi-ethnic and multi-national family made up of both Jews and Gentiles that the Old Testament prophets always said Israel would one day become. (See Zephaniah 3:9-10; Zechariah 8:20-23, and other passages).  

However, St. Paul admonishes Christians not to be arrogant, for if God did not spare the natural Jews, who then are the Gentiles? According to him, God can still save the natural Jews—BUT ONLY IF they can abandon their unbelief. As he puts it, “...be not highminded, but fear. For if God hath not spared the natural branches, fear lest perhaps he also spare not thee. See then the goodness and the severity of God: towards them indeed that are fallen, the severity; but towards thee, the goodness of God, if thou abide in goodness, otherwise thou also shall be cut off. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.” – “...μὴ ὑψηλὰ φρόνει, ἀλλὰ φοβοῦ · εἰ γὰρ ὁ θεὸς τῶν κατὰ φύσιν κλάδων οὐκ ἐφείσατο, οὐδὲ σοῦ φείσεται. ἴδε οὖν χρηστότητα καὶ ἀποτομίαν θεοῦ · ἐπὶ μὲν τοὺς πεσόντας ἀποτομία, ἐπὶ δὲ σὲ χρηστότης θεοῦ, ἐὰν ἐπιμένῃς τῇ χρηστότητι, ἐπεὶ καὶ σὺ ἐκκοπήσῃ. κἀκεῖνοι δέ, ἐὰν μὴ ἐπιμένωσι τῇ ἀπιστίᾳ, ἐγκεντρισθήσονται · δυνατὸς γάρ ἐστιν ὁ θεὸς πάλιν ἐγκεντρίσαι αὐτούς.” (Romans 11: 20-23).

If the Jews are great people, it’s because God Himself made them great, and Jesus Christ—put simply—is that God. As St Paul also puts it, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For in him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers: All things were created by him and in him. And he is before all, and by him all things hold together.” – “ὅς ἐστιν εἰκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ἀοράτου, πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ ἐκτίσθη τὰ πάντα ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, τὰ ὁρατὰ καὶ τὰ ἀόρατα, εἴτε θρόνοι εἴτε κυριότητες εἴτε ἀρχαὶ εἴτε ἐξουσίαι · τὰ πάντα δι’ αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν ἔκτισται · καὶ αὐτός ἐστιν πρὸ πάντων καὶ τὰ πάντα ἐν αὐτῷ συνέστηκεν” (Col. 1:15-17).

                                          Western Christianity?

Sure, it was in the West—Europe particularly—that Christianity grew, and the West has produced some of the greatest Christians in history. But this was so only because when the Europeans of old accepted Christianity they abandoned their false gods and embraced it as their beloved religion—quite unlike many modern hypocritical West Africans who accepted it only to exploit it for their selfish gains. Because Christianity grew in European soil, the notion of ‘Europe’ or the ‘Western world’ has been intimately connected with the concept of ‘Christianity’ and ‘Christendom’. Many even attribute Christianity for being the link that created a unified European identity—which is true.

However, that was the Europe or the West of history, not of today—neither of the earliest days of Christianity. Put simply, Christianity itself is originally NOT a religion of the West. As I once wrote, Christianity is, first and foremost, a religion of the Jews (I mean the true Jews—the natural Jews). Christ Himself, its founder, was a typical Jew, indeed the greatest Jew in history—and so were ALL His early apostles—Saints Peter, Paul, John, and others. In fact, the West was purely PAGAN by the time of Christ—purely PAGAN before Saint Paul and other early Jewish evangelists came to its rescue by evangelising it and converting it to Christianity. Today, once again, the West—far from being Christian—has reverted to its original indigenous religion—PAGANISM. By the time of Christ, it worshipped idols and even man himself; and today, once again, it has reverted to the worship of idols, and the worship of man.

Late John Paul II taking active part in pagan ritual

Late John Paul II taking active part in pagan ritual

In the ancient Roman world, for instance, Emperor Commodus (pictured above), among other emperors, demanded to be worshipped as god (as the god Hercules)—and was indeed worshipped by the ancient Westerners (the Romans in particular) even though “god Commodus” himself, towards the end of his life, lapsed into insanity by the time he gave Rome a new name—“Colonia Commodiana” (Colony of Commodus), and, really believing himself to be the god Hercules, entered the arena to fight as a gladiator or to kill lions with bow and arrow and, trapped by his advisers, was, on December 31, 192, strangled to death by a champion wrestler—thus shattering his “deity”.

Similarly, in this modern world, Frederick Nietzsche (also pictured above beside Commodus), a German classicist and philosopher and arguably the most influential atheist of the modern world, after his famous nineteenth century declaration that “God is dead”, told his fellow Westerners categorically that “we must become gods ourselves” and was, for saying so, applauded by Western scholars as “a great thinker” even though when Nietzsche himself eventually died insane in 1900—thus, like Commodus, shattering his own “deity” and those of fellow Westerners as well—no one commented.

Today Western “Christians”, like Commodus, Nietzsche and others, are thoughtlessly—and indeed insanely—obsessed with man-worship. ...nothing Christian. And their immense number is simply terrifying! Think about John Paul II and his gang and the innumerable souls they deceived for twenty-six years! Think about Francis and his gang of heretics and the millions they are deceiving currently! Indeed, the mere thought of it—really terrifying—has led some Catholics to conclude that the Church has ceased existing—which is false; for the current struggle between good and evil Catholics is, in fact, as old as Christianity itself, and will certainly continue till the end of this age. As St. Augustine, the theologian next in rank after St Paul, puts it (commenting on the attacks encountered by the Church during the early days of its growth):

“For we must not imagine that there can be any time when this saying of the same teacher fails to be true: ‘All who want to live a devout life in Christ suffer persecution’. Because even when those outside do not rage and there seems to be, and really is, tranquillity, which brings great consolation especially to the weak, even so there are always some, inside indeed there are many, who by their unprincipled behaviour torment the feelings of those who live devout lives. For such people cause the name of ‘Christian’ and ‘Catholic’ to be defamed.  And the dearer this name is to those who want to live a devout life in Christ, the more they grieve that evildoers within the church make that name less beloved than the hearts of the devout long for it to be. Besides this, when the heretics themselves are thought to have the Christian name and the sacraments, the scriptures, and the creed, they cause great grief in the hearts of the devout. This is because many who wish to be Christian are forced to hesitate by their dissentions and many slanderers find also among the heretics material for the defamation of the name of Christian, because these heretics too are called, in a manner of speaking, Christians. Owing to this kind of discreditable behaviour and this sort of human error, those who want to lead a devout life in Christ suffer persecutions, even though they endure no physical violence or bodily torment. For they suffer these persecutions not in their bodies but in their hearts.  Hence the Psalmist says, ‘According to the multitude of sorrows in my heart’—not ‘in my body’” — “Nam et id, quod ait idem doctor: Quicumque volunt in Christo pie vivere, persecutionem patiuntur, nullis putandum est deesse posse temporibus. Quia et cum ab eis, qui foris sunt, non saevientibus videtur esse tranquillitas et re vera est plurimumque consolationis affert, maxime infirmis: non tamen desunt, immo multi sunt intus, qui corda pie viventium suis perditis moribus cruciant; quoniam per eos blasphematur christianum et catholicum nomen; quod quanto est carius eis, qui volunt pie vivere in Christo, tanto magis dolent, quod per malos intus positos fit, ut minus, quam piorum mentes desiderant, diligatur. Ipsi quoque haeretici, cum cogitantur habere nomen et sacramenta christiana et Scripturas et professionem, magnum dolorem faciunt in cordibus piorum; quia et multi volentes esse Christiani propter eorum dissensiones haesitare coguntur et multi maledici etiam in his inveniunt materiam blasphemandi Christianum nomen, quia et ipsi quoquo modo christiani appellantur. His atque huiusmodi pravis moribus et erroribus hominum persecutionem patiuntur, qui volunt in Christo pie vivere, etiam nullo infestante neque vexante corpus illorum. Patiuntur quippe hanc persecutionem non in corporibus, sed in cordibus. Unde illa vox est: Secundum multitudinem dolorum meorum in corde meo. Non enim ait: In corpore meo.” (De Civitate Dei Contra Paganos, Liber XVIII, 51).