Chosen people

Throughout history, various groups have considered themselves chosen by God for some purpose. This status may be viewed as a mark of superiority or a rank of special purpose and responsibility.

Exclusivist model

Exclusivist models hold that one particular set of religious doctrines is the "One True Religion," and all others are false, so that the development of the True Religion is tied inexorably to one prophet or holy book. In this model, all other religions are seen as either distortions of the original truth or original fabrications resulting from either human ignorance or imagination, or a more devious influence, such as false prophets or the influence of another rival supernatural entity (such as Satan).

Types of purposes

The sense of being a chosen people occurs in both religious and nonreligious contexts. The Abolitionists, who were largely Christian, considered themselves chosen by God to bring freedom and equal rights to the slaves. Many slaveholders, another largely Christian group, saw themselves as chosen to keep and sell slaves.

The Nazis considered the Aryan race to be superior, and believed it was their mission to dominate over all races they considered "inferior." Many religious and charitable organizations consider themselves to be chosen by God to care for the sick and the suffering.

The sense of being a "chosen people" is therefore often associated with a particular ideological movement —it is a sense of importance which drives people to further the ends of their ideology.

Chosen to receive a message

In many religions it is believed that the God has revealed a message to a prophet or messenger.

Some of these religions, such as some forms of Christianity and Islam, teach that their path is the only path to salvation. In other religions, like other forms of Christianity, Islam and Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Wicca, and Transcendentalism, it is believed that the followers of one's faith do not have an exclusive path to God. They hold that people of other faiths may also reach God in their own way.

Superiority?

Views of being a chosen people are sometimes connected with ethnocentrism. The idea of a chosen people can be used to justify or create cultural imperialism, racism, and xenophobia. Some groups who have elected to think of themselves as "chosen," but who are uncomfortable with the superiority this would seem to imply, have argued that the "chosen status" by definition is a humbling one, as it carries responsibility and sacrifice, rather than simple privilege. This argument is common among traditional religious Jews and Christians alike. Another argument against the inherent moral, ethnic, or cultural polarization that can accompany the idea of chosenness is the notion that while one's own group might be chosen for one thing, it is probable that other groups are chosen for something else. This latter argument is made by some factions within Reconstructionist Judaism and other liberal or left-leaning Jewish groups.

Judaism

In Judaism, chosenness is the belief that the Jews are a people chosen to be in a covenant with God. The idea is not connected with tribal groupings as they are traditionally understood, as non-Jews are free to convert to Judaism.

The Jewish idea of being chosen is first found in the Torah (five books of Moses) and is elaborated on in later books of the Hebrew Bible. This status carries both responsibilities and blessings as described in the Biblical covenants with God. Much is written about this topic in rabbinic literature.

Judaism's teachings on being a chosen people are described in depth in Jews as a chosen people.

Christianity

Supersessionism is the belief of some Christians that Christians have replaced physical Israelites as God's Chosen people. In this view, Israel's chosenness found its ultimate fulfillment through the message of Jesus; Jews who remain non-Christian are no longer considered to be chosen, since they reject Jesus as the Messiah and son of God. Christians who ascribe to supersessionism, cite the Bible verse John 14:6, attributed to Jesus: "I am the Way; I am Truth and Life; No one can come to the Father except through me" as evidence that only Christians can attain heaven.

Latter Day Saints

In Mormonism, the Latter Day Saints (LDS) see themselves as a chosen people. In contrast to supersessionism, Latter Day Saints do not dispute the "chosen" status of the Jewish people; however, only practicing LDS members are eligible to receive the greatest blessing available in the after-life. Mormon eschatology holds that Jews, as a chosen people, will ultimately accept Christianity.

Mormon doctrine teaches that Mormons are "The kin blood of the Jews." Every practicing LDS member receives a patriarchal blessing that reveals to him the tribe of Israel to which he belongs. This lineage may be blood related or through "adoption;" therefore, a child may not share the lineage of its parents (but will still be a member of the tribes of Israel). It is a widely held belief that most members of the faith are in the tribe of Ephraim or the tribe of Manasseh.

See Mormonism and Judaism.

Christian Identity groups

Christian Identity groups, based on a fusion of Nazi ideology, white supremacy, and fundamentalist Christianity, have developed a theology which holds that God hates the Jews, and that only white Christians are God's chosen people. These groups are rejected as non-Christian by the great majority of mainstream Christian churches.

As an example, The Covenant, The Sword, and The Arm of the Lord is a Christian Identity movement which preaches that "Jews of today are not God's chosen people, but are in fact an anti-Christ race, whose purpose is to destroy God's people and Christianity through its Talmudic teaching, forced inter-racial mixings, and perversions."

The Unification Church

Reverend Moon teaches that Korea is the chosen nation, selected to serve a divine mission. Korea, Moon says, was "chosen by God to be the birthplace of the leading figure of the age",^* and to be the birthplace of "Heavenly Tradition", ushering in God's kingdom.

Islam

Some Muslims believe Islam is Exclusive, and some do not.

Muslims who believe that Muslims, Christians and Jews all serve the same God cite Qur'anic verses such as:

Say, 'People of the Book! come to a proposition which is the same for us and you - that we should worship none but Allah and not associate any partners with Him and not take one another as lords besides Allah.' If they turn away, say, 'Bear witness that we are Muslims.'(Surah Al 'Imran; 3:64)

Today all good things have been allowed to you. And the food of those given the Book is also allowed to you and your food is allowed to them. So are chaste women from among the muminun and chaste women of those given the Book before you, once you have given them their dowries in marriage, not in fornication or taking them as lovers. But as for anyone who rejects faith, his actions will come to nothing and in the akhira he will be among the losers. (Surat al-Ma'ida: 5:5)

Among the people of the Book there are some who have faith in Allah and in what has been sent down to you and what was sent down to them, and who are humble before Allah. They do not sell Allah's Signs for a paltry price. Such people will have their reward with their Lord. And Allah is swift at reckoning. (Surah Al 'Imran; 3:199)

Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and fair admonition, and argue with them in the kindest way. Your Lord knows best who is misguided from His way. And He knows best who are guided. (Surat an-Nahl; 16:125)

...You will find the people most affectionate to those who have faith are those who say, 'We are Christians.' That is because some of them are priests and monks and because they are not arrogant. (Surat al-Ma'ida; 5:82)

Only argue with the People of the Book in the kindest way - except in the case of those of them who do wrong - saying, 'We have faith in what has been sent down to us and what was sent down to you. Our God and your God are one and we submit to Him.'(Surat al-'Ankabut; 29:46)

...There is a community among the People of the Book who are upright. They recite Allah's Signs throughout the night, and they prostrate. They have iman in Allah and the Last Day, and enjoin the right and forbid the wrong, and compete in doing good. They are among the salihun. You will not be denied the reward for any good thing you do. Allah knows those who have taqwa. (Surah Al 'Imran: 3:113-115)

Those with faith, those who are Jews, and the Christians and Sabaeans, all who have faith in Allah and the Last Day and act rightly, will have their reward with their Lord. They will feel no fear and will know no sorrow. (Surat al-Baqara; 2:62)

Muslims who believe Islam is in an adversarial relationship with Christianity and Judaism, cite other verses such as:

O you who believe! Do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people. (Qur'an 5:51)

You People of the Book! Why do you clothe Truth with falsehood and conceal the Truth while you have knowledge? Surah 3.71

Can you, o you men of Faith, entertain the hope that they will believe in you? Seeing that a party of them heard the Word of God and perverted it knowingly after they understood it. Surah 2.75

Islamic supersessionism presents Muslims as the only people chosen to carry the true word of God.. According to these individuals, Islam the leaders of both Judaism and Christianity deliberately altered the true word of God, and thus led all of their believers down a false path. In the Qur'an, The Jewish people are charged with "falsehood" (Sura 3:71), distortion (4:46), and of being "corrupters of Scripture."

Some parts of the Qur'an attribute differences between Muslims and non-Muslims to tahri fi-manawi, a "corruption of the meaning" of the words. In this view, the Jewish Bible and Christian New Testament are true, but the Jews and Christians misunderstood the meaning of their own Scriptures, and thus need the Qur'an to clearly understand the will of God. Other parts of the Qur'an teach that many Jews and Christians deliberately altered their scripture, and thus altered the word of God in order to deceive their co-religionists. This belief was developed further in medieval Islamic polemics, and is a mainstream belief in much of Islam today. This is known as the doctrine of tahrifi-lafzi, "the corruption of the text.

Hinduism

Whilst the caste system of India confers a degree of birth-right to the " chosen " Brahmins, there exist a few cults or New Religious Movements that consider themselves to be the Chosen people, e.g. the Brahma Kumari World Spiritual Organisation ^*. The B.K.s consider that the world is undergoing a transformation from old to new, and that they and they alone will inherit a Golden Aged paradise on the basis on the efforts they make following their leader Brahma Baba at this time. Further that Brahma Baba is the sole medium of the Supreme Soul, God.

The B.K.s believe in a repeating cyclic history of time as it is written in their scriptures, and are believed by Buddhist and mainstream Hindus. They believe and teach that all other avatars and prophets must receive their knowledge directly from God which they will then take into the future to re-establish their own religion once again. When the avatar or prophet comes to earth, they will live a truthful life, although the avatar or prophet will not know the knowledge taught by the B.K.s. Persons of every religion (or without religion) will become completely pure as this world transforms from old to new. The B.K.s believe in a strict hierarchy of human souls in which they occupy the top 8, 108, 16,108 and 900,000 positions, which comprise the trunk of the human world tree. All other religions are seen as branches of the tree, but a necessary part of the tree's beauty.

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