Correction Chosen people. Admittedly some do who have not read or understood either the Tenach or Brit Hadassha scriptures. The Choseness of the Jewish people is indisputable. It has never been withdrawn by G-d with Christians taking that place. Replacement theology is a terrible position taken by many Christian denominations. It purports that G-d rejected the Jewish people because they didn’t accept Yeshua (Jesus) as their Messiah. Ergo, the church ‘replaced’ Israel as G-d’s ‘chosen’ people. There is more than one problem with this. In particular, the prophecies in the Tenach that spoke of the regathering after dispersion of the Jewish people have come to pass in our day. If G-d can break His covenants such as He has made with the Jewish people, our own faith is on very shaky ground. Neither Jews or Christians worship a god who withdraws his favour and backs out of covenants if people misbehave. Covenants are not conditional as compared to contracts.
I can’t speak to the Moslems regarding themselves as chosen and superior. They don’t use the same scriptures and they worship a desert moon god that Muhammad selected. Their moral foundation is not Judri-Christian.
Lully. Agree with every word that you write. Paul wrote in Romans 11: 1 'I ask, then, has God rejected his own people, the nation of Israel? Of course not!' The Jewish people are still G-d's chosen people. Now and forever!
Thank you! We need more sermons based on Romans 9-11. We have so much to thank the Jewish people for, both in the past and now. They preserved their precious scriptures for us and our faith as Christians is all the richer because of the journey G-d has taken them on from Abraham forward. So glad I can honour them as my elder brother and sister.
Amen!! Well said! Replacement theology is a false teaching, straight from the pit of hell!. I know I wouldn't want a Gd who breaks His promises. IDK why some believers never think about that. If G-d never kept His Word, then why would we trust Him?
Thank you for a fine essay, thoughts, and ideas. "The BIG Lesson", as I name it, began October 7. Even for those of us who agree with your astute wording, there is still a need to understand and engage with "The BIG Lesson" individually and internally. Even for those who agree with each one of your points there are glitches in the system. The main glitch is cognitive dissonance at work. Two specific examples might be: a) NDS - Netanyahu Derangement Syndrome i.e. can one say the word Netanyahu or Bibi or Prime Minster Netanyahu without having a violent internal combustion unleashed? and, b) Orthodox - can one say or even think or even imagine that in fact the Orthodox ARE the very ones who ARE sustaining the Jewish Culture? Meaning for those of us who might be Jewish or Israeli or both or 'identify' with Judaism or Jewishness or Jewish 'values - can we stop our own violent internal combustion long enough to understand that the Orthodox might possibly be one of the major keys to 'finding the right path home'? Just a thought.
Good post. Jew hatred is basically a willful blindness to the fine print of life. If you want to become a medical doctor you have to work your butt off; they just don't away medical degrees. And besides who wants to go to a doctor who hasn't put in the time and suffered to get there? Being a Jew is the same thing a whole lot more. We are chosen! We are supposed to do amazing things in this world of ours. And that mission comes with a lot of sacrifice. Anyone can join the team but brother (or sister) you gotta be a serious player because being a Jew, a real Jew, is not for the faint of heart.
A great essay which makes some cogent points about why the "Chosen People" cause so much resentment and hate in others. Just as the empty-headed protesters chant the usual buzzwords, genocide, colonists, Nazis, and so on, "Chosen People" is just another one added to the list of the unknowing. I once read, maybe even on Future of Jewish, that the tenets of Judaism is the conscience for the world. When they can not live up to the values the Jewish people have put forth, (and there are exceptions to both) then the hate becomes more intense. In the words of the "great philosopher" Hitler who said, “Conscience is a Jewish invention; it is a blemish like circumcision.” He also said: “If one little Jewish boy survives without any Jewish education, with no synagogue and no Hebrew school, it [Judaism] is in his soul. Even if there had never been a synagogue or a Jewish school or an Old Testament, the Jewish spirit would still exist and exert its influence. It has been there from the beginning, and there is no Jew, not a single one, who does not personify it." Therein, is one good example of the hate for Jews. There would need to be a book for the thousands of other examples throughout history. My question to the haters is, "Would you have wanted to be the "chosen"? Along with that, also having to endure and survive for the thousands of years of the "chosen's" history of abuse, torture, fighting and death just for being "chosen"? I would be certain they never gave that one bit of thought.
Then this must be as described: "The End of Days" .... even the dinosaurs may reject this world ... after the experience, the knowledge gleaned, the view of the world at large: I am ready and will die as a Jew!
While I agree with you [about most of this] I find it unfair to paint us w/ such a huge brush. Many Christians [including me] believe the Jewish people were indeed chosen by G-d. Israel is a light to the nations & a kingdom of priests & a Holy Nation.
to be chosen means that we accepted our role as dictated word for word by God to Moses on a 24/7 basis in all aspects of our life we accepted that role and the nations of the world rejected it even after being an ability to fulfill Commandments that were easy
Your generalisation of the Christian view of the Jews is crude and not according to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Paul, himself a Jew,as the other disciples, sets it out on Romans chapters 9 to 11.
Otherwise I find your newsletters very informative.
Excellent piece. Just last week at dinner I was telling my family the same thing . The problem is not that Jews think they are better than everybody else, as the anti- semites claim, but that the anti-semite secretly believes the Jew is better than he is, and that drives him to envy and hatred.
> But this raises the larger question: Doesn’t pretty much every religion tell its adherents that they are God’s favorites? Isn’t that exactly what Christianity and Islam very emphatically assert?
No, in both Christianity and Islam, God’s preference for these people comes from their faith in him and their correct belief in him. In Judaism, God’s preference for Jews comes from his covenant with the Jewish nation, the ethnic body of Jewry.
Correction Chosen people. Admittedly some do who have not read or understood either the Tenach or Brit Hadassha scriptures. The Choseness of the Jewish people is indisputable. It has never been withdrawn by G-d with Christians taking that place. Replacement theology is a terrible position taken by many Christian denominations. It purports that G-d rejected the Jewish people because they didn’t accept Yeshua (Jesus) as their Messiah. Ergo, the church ‘replaced’ Israel as G-d’s ‘chosen’ people. There is more than one problem with this. In particular, the prophecies in the Tenach that spoke of the regathering after dispersion of the Jewish people have come to pass in our day. If G-d can break His covenants such as He has made with the Jewish people, our own faith is on very shaky ground. Neither Jews or Christians worship a god who withdraws his favour and backs out of covenants if people misbehave. Covenants are not conditional as compared to contracts.
I can’t speak to the Moslems regarding themselves as chosen and superior. They don’t use the same scriptures and they worship a desert moon god that Muhammad selected. Their moral foundation is not Judri-Christian.
Lully. Agree with every word that you write. Paul wrote in Romans 11: 1 'I ask, then, has God rejected his own people, the nation of Israel? Of course not!' The Jewish people are still G-d's chosen people. Now and forever!
Thank you! We need more sermons based on Romans 9-11. We have so much to thank the Jewish people for, both in the past and now. They preserved their precious scriptures for us and our faith as Christians is all the richer because of the journey G-d has taken them on from Abraham forward. So glad I can honour them as my elder brother and sister.
Amen!
Amen!! Well said! Replacement theology is a false teaching, straight from the pit of hell!. I know I wouldn't want a Gd who breaks His promises. IDK why some believers never think about that. If G-d never kept His Word, then why would we trust Him?
So true, Stephanie. Our faith is even stronger because of G-d’s faithfulness to the Jewish people.
Thank you Lully! True, True!🙌
Thank you for a fine essay, thoughts, and ideas. "The BIG Lesson", as I name it, began October 7. Even for those of us who agree with your astute wording, there is still a need to understand and engage with "The BIG Lesson" individually and internally. Even for those who agree with each one of your points there are glitches in the system. The main glitch is cognitive dissonance at work. Two specific examples might be: a) NDS - Netanyahu Derangement Syndrome i.e. can one say the word Netanyahu or Bibi or Prime Minster Netanyahu without having a violent internal combustion unleashed? and, b) Orthodox - can one say or even think or even imagine that in fact the Orthodox ARE the very ones who ARE sustaining the Jewish Culture? Meaning for those of us who might be Jewish or Israeli or both or 'identify' with Judaism or Jewishness or Jewish 'values - can we stop our own violent internal combustion long enough to understand that the Orthodox might possibly be one of the major keys to 'finding the right path home'? Just a thought.
Good post. Jew hatred is basically a willful blindness to the fine print of life. If you want to become a medical doctor you have to work your butt off; they just don't away medical degrees. And besides who wants to go to a doctor who hasn't put in the time and suffered to get there? Being a Jew is the same thing a whole lot more. We are chosen! We are supposed to do amazing things in this world of ours. And that mission comes with a lot of sacrifice. Anyone can join the team but brother (or sister) you gotta be a serious player because being a Jew, a real Jew, is not for the faint of heart.
Amazing analysis.
A great essay which makes some cogent points about why the "Chosen People" cause so much resentment and hate in others. Just as the empty-headed protesters chant the usual buzzwords, genocide, colonists, Nazis, and so on, "Chosen People" is just another one added to the list of the unknowing. I once read, maybe even on Future of Jewish, that the tenets of Judaism is the conscience for the world. When they can not live up to the values the Jewish people have put forth, (and there are exceptions to both) then the hate becomes more intense. In the words of the "great philosopher" Hitler who said, “Conscience is a Jewish invention; it is a blemish like circumcision.” He also said: “If one little Jewish boy survives without any Jewish education, with no synagogue and no Hebrew school, it [Judaism] is in his soul. Even if there had never been a synagogue or a Jewish school or an Old Testament, the Jewish spirit would still exist and exert its influence. It has been there from the beginning, and there is no Jew, not a single one, who does not personify it." Therein, is one good example of the hate for Jews. There would need to be a book for the thousands of other examples throughout history. My question to the haters is, "Would you have wanted to be the "chosen"? Along with that, also having to endure and survive for the thousands of years of the "chosen's" history of abuse, torture, fighting and death just for being "chosen"? I would be certain they never gave that one bit of thought.
I’ve come to think we are in the midst of the Muslim conquest 2.0
Then this must be as described: "The End of Days" .... even the dinosaurs may reject this world ... after the experience, the knowledge gleaned, the view of the world at large: I am ready and will die as a Jew!
While I agree with you [about most of this] I find it unfair to paint us w/ such a huge brush. Many Christians [including me] believe the Jewish people were indeed chosen by G-d. Israel is a light to the nations & a kingdom of priests & a Holy Nation.
Judeo- Christian. This is readily apparent in the current war that Hamas instigated.
It needs common sense a fool can ask 1000 questions that ten wisemen can't answer to make them over stand, it's many are called few are chosen.
to be chosen means that we accepted our role as dictated word for word by God to Moses on a 24/7 basis in all aspects of our life we accepted that role and the nations of the world rejected it even after being an ability to fulfill Commandments that were easy
Your generalisation of the Christian view of the Jews is crude and not according to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Paul, himself a Jew,as the other disciples, sets it out on Romans chapters 9 to 11.
Otherwise I find your newsletters very informative.
Excellent piece. Just last week at dinner I was telling my family the same thing . The problem is not that Jews think they are better than everybody else, as the anti- semites claim, but that the anti-semite secretly believes the Jew is better than he is, and that drives him to envy and hatred.
> But this raises the larger question: Doesn’t pretty much every religion tell its adherents that they are God’s favorites? Isn’t that exactly what Christianity and Islam very emphatically assert?
No, in both Christianity and Islam, God’s preference for these people comes from their faith in him and their correct belief in him. In Judaism, God’s preference for Jews comes from his covenant with the Jewish nation, the ethnic body of Jewry.
I do have a correction to the statement that Christian’s regard themselves as the Chisen people.
Wow
The Jews are NOT committing genocide!