Cappadocious, please read his link, don't just skirt by it. You may be shocked what it says. OR maybe you are aware of the liturgy and don't think it's anti-semitic because you agree with it? ARE Jews "Christ-killers"? ARE we guilty of deicide?
...and does he pray that God would take vengeance on us? Not to mention that those prayers describe all Jews as "lawless". Awful. The rest of the Christian world has repented, but this antisemitism is enshrined as "holy Tradition" by some.
I attended my first Latin Mass ever just a couple weeks ago with some friends of mine. It was an hour away. We could have gone to a nearby SSPX church, but avoided it like the plague. For me a big reason is that SSPX harbors so many anti-semites. It's not that everyone in the group is that way, but if you ARE an anti-semite, you will surely find a safe haven there. I believe that one of the reasons they reject Vatican 2 is the rejection of Nostra Aetate and it's statements about the Jews not being to blame for the death of Christ.
Care to cite St. John of Damascus's (not Chrysostom's) service on the matter?
It is important to keep in mind that one can regard Rabbinic Judaism as a non-christian religion with no special status before God without being anti-Jewish and without being an anti-Semite. It is also important to know what constitutes the Israel of God and avoid falling into the Christian-Zionist view that mere physical descent from Abraham (through Isaac and Jacob) makes Jews the chosen race. In fact the idea of race is itself highly questionable given that no single person is going to be a "pure" anything as far as the old categories of race (a mainly pre-genetic age concept) go. The passages I mentioned in my previous post and the statement of saint Paul to the effect that "[God] has made of one blood all nations of men that dwell on all the face of the earth" point us in the right direction for answering this thread's question. Saint Paul observed that "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:28-29).
People often misquote this verse, which is really about equality before God, to try and say it means there are no longer any Jews or Gentiles in a practical sense. Not true. It also says there are no more male or female, but I'm sure no one's private parts have fallen off.
In Christ there is literally no male and no female just as there is no Jew or Gentile and no slave or free. The operative word in this is "in" it is in communion with Christ that these distinctions, which mark society in this world, cease to exist as operative distinctions. That is not to say that one ceases to be a Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female in this world.
Actually in Acts 15 the council concerns itself with GENTILE converts who Judaizers are pressuring to convert to Judaism, while Paul and Peter are advocating that they remain righteous Gentiles. The council never states that JEWS were not obligated to continue observing the Law.
Yeah, the phrase is from Acts 21. And Acts 15 is about the preaching of saint Paul troubling the former Pharisees in the church.
Yes, I commonly use Acts 15 when dealing with fellow Messianics who are convinced that everyone (gentiles included) are required to observe the 613 laws. BTW these were not ex-Pharisees. They brought their strict observences with them into the Church. Remember that at this time in history, Christianity was a sect of Judaism still.
Yes, the lack of the ex was a problem both for them and for saint Paul and the apostles hence the council decision which so directly challenged and disavowed the Pharisee's position.
There is more to it than that. Even if there were a temple - and some people do wish to rebuild it and it may be that it will be rebuilt some time in the future - nobody could offer sacrifices in it that would please God because the one sacrifice for sins has already been made and offered to God on the cross which sacrifice cleanses from all their sins those who place their faith in Jesus the Messiah. As the scriptures say and as saint Paul reiterates there is salvation in Christ alone because he is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world but the sacrifices of animals in the temple can avail no one any more.
I believe that if the temple were rebuilt, the sacrifices would "look back" in memory of Christ's death, much in the same way that they "looked forward" to it before Christ.
I am inclined to think that if any Earthly temple were rebuilt and sacrifices offered in it then it would be a blasphemy and not a remembrance of the costly sacrifice of Christ. The scriptures warn that an antichrist will sit in the Earthly temple and proclaim himself to be God (2Thess 2:4). That warning was not given as idle words. The rebuilding of an Earthly temple would be a warning to all christians that something very wicked is at work. It would not be a blessing to anybody, least of all to the faithful in Christ Jesus.
