Johnny Skeptic

Why didn't early native American Indians have faith, or people who lived in China in ancient times?

Lógos Sokratikós

You have just summed up in one short phrase the psychoanalytic (Lacanian) key understanding of psychotic delusion.

:bow:

Toto

arnoldo - is there not some irony in quoting a book from the "New" Testament to answer this question - since God's chosen people reject the NT, while the religionists who have adopted the NT no longer see Jews as chosen by their God?

Lógos Sokratikós

You're asking for another answer from conservative (and may I say solipsistic) Christian theology. And then you're going to be upset about it. Why even ask?

arnoldo

Many of God's chosen people have accepted Yeshua and the NT. . in fact, wasn't the NT written by Jews?
The NT doesn't state that the Jews aren't chosen by God. . .

Romans 11

I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. . . .
9 And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:

10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.

11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. 12 Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?

Ladybird

This certainly is an interesting debate and one that was very personal for me for many many years. I realised though that it often gets tied up with the filters that we have. We argue for and against depending on our political, religious, philosophical views. There is much written about the subject and there are also debates within the debates.

At this point in our development as humanity and the global suffering experienced by all we may need to look at the bigger picture. What was the purpose of creation and humanity's existence? And if anybody was chosen - what were they chosen for?

To do this we need to understand how our little reality relates to creation and it's purpose. Sound abstract and off topic? Go check out this insightful but humorous video on the same. Can't post links yet so you have to add the htt..://..w. to the url below

kabbalah.info/course/main/bb.php?id=comments

:wave:

ible

OP: "Does the Bible say why God chose Jews to be his chosen people?"

Implicitly, Johnny Skeptic, you are asking why there is a chosen people at all (you find that rather hard to swallow), so it's not as if any given reason for a chosen people will satisfy you. But here's one from the Bible:

Answer: In order to be a blessing to other nations. (Genesis 12:2-3)


Let me try to help answer your implicit question, however. We know that all this stuff is bound up with notions of eternal life or torment. So I'd like to put forward the idea that "God judges each according to the responsibility God assigns them." The more God reveals, the more each person is expected to understand. (And we, of course, don't really understand anyway, and that's where the Christian story comes in. But we don't have to go there yet.)

So in my interpretation, the Jews were assigned quite a bit of responsibility for understanding God, since God made the point of conversing with them every so often. So why did God choose the Jews? To give them some notion of God's justice and mercy, to set the stage for the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. IOW, to be a blessing to the nations. We can learn from both their good and bad examples.

Toto

Please do not use this thread to preach your own religious beliefs. This is not the place for that.

Chili

. . . but they don't have a clue 'as Jew' and never will 'as Jew' and that is why they did not recognize Christ 'as Jew' and is why God made Catholics God's favorite NT people. Don't you understand that Jews are Jews only for as long as they are not Christian and the same is true for Catholics who are only Catholic for a long as they are not Christan and when they become Christain they are no longer Catholic (or Jew) but Christian.

Where you and most people go wrong is in calling protestants Christian while they are not because to be a Christian is exactly where religion ends for each and every Christian. . . just as it did for Jeses the ex -Jew.

If they were responsible they would have to be infallible which is a necessary condition to be Christian with the gates of heaven opened to all in Christendom after Jesus came and showed us the way. It therefore is necessary that infallibility is claimed by those in-the-know.

We have no allegience to Jews except for the fact that they are our fellow sojourners and equal in the sight of God, but, I must add here, they are to be admired above all for their devotion in history that got us thusfar.

So let me tell you that "that sacrifice to end all sacrifices" is only the create a clear cut division between the old and the new testament but does not relieve us from taking Jesus down from the cross and place ourselves upon it . . . to say that it is wrong for us to say: "thank you Jesus for dying for me" while implying to say that now I do not have to [follow you that far].

Minimalist

Considering all the shit they've had to put up with down through history they should have told their god "thanks, but no thanks."