Pleasing Man Over God

Pope Eugene IV Who Presided Over The Council Of Florence

A month has passed since the publication of a controversial document entitled: THE GIFTS AND THE CALLING 
OF GOD ARE IRREVOCABLE. Sadly, the document is deeply heretical. It was written by Cardinal Kurt Koch. The fact that it is on Vatican.va suggests that at least some with authority higher than his approve of this document. It can be found here:

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/relations-jews-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_20151210_ebraismo-nostra-aetate_en.html

Basically, the document states that modern day Jews need not convert to Catholicism and that Judaism provides a valid path to God for them. In paragraph 36 Koch states: “That the Jews are participants in God’s salvation is theologically unquestionable, but how that can be possible without confessing Christ explicitly, is and remains an unfathomable divine mystery.”

The Council of Florence firmly states:

“It firmly believes, professes and teaches that the legal prescriptions of the old Testament or the Mosaic law, which are divided into ceremonies, holy sacrifices and sacraments, because they were instituted to signify something in the future, although they were adequate for the divine cult of that age, once our lord Jesus Christ who was signified by them had come, came to an end and the sacraments of the new Testament had their beginning. Whoever, after the passion, places his hope in the legal prescriptions and submits himself to them as necessary for salvation and as if faith in Christ without them could not save, sins mortally. It does not deny that from Christ’s passion until the promulgation of the gospel they could have been retained, provided they were in no way believed to be necessary for salvation. But it asserts that after the promulgation of the gospel they cannot be observed without loss of eternal salvation. Therefore it denounces all who after that time observe circumcision, the sabbath and other legal prescriptions as strangers to the faith of Christ and unable to share in eternal salvation, unless they recoil at some time from these errors. Therefore it strictly orders all who glory in the name of Christian, not to practise circumcision either before or after baptism, since whether or not they place their hope in it, it cannot possibly be observed without loss of eternal salvation.”

As an ordained priest, Cardinal Koch is bound to teach the traditions of the Church which include the Council of Florence. I don’t want to get into any further details regarding this document because men much more competent than I have refuted it.

Robert Sungenis has done precisely that and his analysis can be found here:

Click to access Critical%20Analysis%20of%20the%202015%20Commission%20on%20the%20Jews.pdf

There is a larger principle at work here, which is the principle of pleasing people over pleasing God. Was this document meant to please God or please man? The answer is simple, it was done to please man. Why on Earth would anyone want to please man over their Creator? They do this because it is simply not popular to preach Christ in this day and age. If Cardinal Koch did that, he would ruin ecumenical relations with modern Judaism. The Gospel is not to build bridges with other religions but to preach conversion to Christ. We can certainly dialogue with anyone but the dialogue has to be a tool to a higher purpose.

Dialoguing for the sake of getting warm and fuzzy with people while abandoning the Great Commission is so easy to do. It’s very comforting as well. The world will love you and treat you with respect. Cardinal Koch and others have chosen to be loved by the world. However, at the end of the day, these politicians, religious leaders of other religions, and everyone else won’t judge your soul.