Chosen people
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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.
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[edit] 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).
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 most forms of Christianity and Islam, teach that their path is the only path to salvation. In other religions, like other forms of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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-ethnic Jews can become Jews.
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.
[edit] Christianity
Many Christian denominations have considered themselves to be the "true" Christians, at some time or another.
[edit] Supersessionism
Supersessionism is the traditional Christian belief that Christian believers 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 rely on Biblical references such as Galatians 3:28-29 to support their position that followers of Jesus, not Jews, are the chosen of God and heirs to God's promises to Abraham today: "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."
[edit] Seventh-day Adventism
In traditional Seventh-day Adventist theology, the Seventh-day Adventist church is identified as the end time remnant identified in Revelation 12:17. According to this view, Adventists are "chosen" by God to proclaim the three angels' messages of Revelation 14 to the world.
[edit] 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, because of the LDS belief in authorized temple ordinances necessary for exaltation, for the latter-day dispensation of the gospel only faithful LDS members, children or other innocents who die before an age of self-accountability, or those who accept vicarious ordinances and gospel covenants in the Spirit world are believed to be eligible to receive the greatest blessing available in the after-life. Mormon eschatology holds that Jews, as a chosen people, will ultimately accept Christianity (See Jeremiah 31:31-34).
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.
[edit] 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."
[edit] 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",[1] and to be the birthplace of "Heavenly Tradition", ushering in God's kingdom.
[edit] 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 God and not associate any partners with Him and not take one another as lords besides God.' 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 God and in what has been sent down to you and what was sent down to them, and who are humble before God. They do not sell God's Signs for a paltry price. Such people will have their reward with their Lord. And God 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 God's Signs throughout the night, and they prostrate. They have iman in God 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. God 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 God 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 God 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, according to the supersessionists, The Jewish people of that particular time period 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."
[edit] Hinduism
Hinduism does not emphasize any concept of a chosen people. In general, Hinduism believes that salvation (moksha) is attained through realization of the truth and through spiritual experience. God is seen as impartial. Swami Vivekananda, a Hindu monk who advocated the harmony of all religions, taught that although the concept of "chosen people" is not ultimately true, it is a stage of growth and evolution that many religions must go through before they reach the higher truth of oneness. Vivekananda explained:
[Such religions] naturally believe in a Personal God who is purely anthropomorphic, who like a great potentate in this world is pleased with some and displeased with others. He is arbitrarily pleased with some people or races and showers blessings upon them. You will find that in almost every religion is the idea: "We are the favorites of God, and only by believing as we do, can you be taken into favor with Him." And, therefore, in the nature of things, [such] religions are bound to fight and quarrel with each other.[1]
However, there are a few features of Hinduism that are reminscent of a "chosen people" concept. The caste system of India confers a degree of birth-right on higher castes such as the Brahmins, which some claim is sanctioned by God or by the scriptures. However, there is controversy within Hinduism about whether the caste system is really part of the Hindu religion, or is merely an outdated social institution.
After the interactions with the West Asian religions, at present 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 [B.K.]. 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.
[edit] Rastafari
Rastafari beliefs contained six fundamental principles, including the complete choseness of the black race in the eyes of Jah (God incarnate), rendering them supreme physically and spiritually to all other people. Many Rastas are also physical immortalists who believe the chosen few will continue to live forever in their current bodies. This idea of ever living (rather than everlasting) life is very strong and important.
Given Jewish biblical tradition and Ethiopian legend via Kebra Nagast, Rastas believe that Israel's King Solomon, together with Ethiopian Queen of Sheba, conceived a child which began the Solomonic line of kings in Ethiopia, rendering the African people as the true children of Israel, and thereby chosen. Reinforcement of this belief occurred when Beta Israel, Ethiopia's ancient Jewish community, were rescued from Sudanese famine and brought to Israel during Operation Moses in 1985.
