God is the supreme creator and lives outside of the time construct He created. We say chosen by God because He has the foreknowledge to know which of His creations will use the free will He’s given them to choose to have faith in him. We are chosen by choosing Him. It’s an advanced biblical teaching that new Christians often are not spiritually mature enough to grasp.
Race has nothing to do with it. We are all created equal in His image. All it takes is accepting His free gift of salvation by admitting you are a sinner, asking forgiveness, and having faith in Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, dying to pay the wages of your sin. God knows what’s in your heart and if you are genuine or not. You can do nothing to save yourself only faith in Jesus can save you.
An extremely dumb down and imperfect way to think about it would be think about your children. If you had a bunch of kids and you knew in the future which of them would choose to reciprocate your love and be obedient to your teachings and wisdom, and which of them would choose not to have a relationship with you and ignore all that you’ve given them would you not honor all the choices made and choose the the ones that chose you as your favorites? Why would chase after anyone that wanted nothing to do with you? What would they be to you?
As you study His word you can gain understanding. He doesn’t want robots that are incapable of genuine love. He made us to have a relationship with us. That’s why He gave us free will to choose to love Him back. He has given us His word so that we may learn of His attributes, glean understanding of who He is, how He relates to us, and how we can relate to Him. So that we can see how, after we sinned and separated ourselves from Him, He still provided a path back to Him by manifesting Himself in flesh like us and dying for our sins. So that we could learn of all the promises He’s made and kept throughout history and have faith in the promises yet to be answered. He is trustworthy. He told us the end from the beginning to give us hope and help foster our faith. None but God can do this.
I left out the important part. In my example your foreknowledge reveals that your children, and keep in mind we are talking about adult offspring here that are capable of making autonomous decisions regarding what’s right and wrong, are doomed to death. Even worse than death, they are doomed to an eternity of slavery and torture. Only your love and wisdom can save them because you know a path they can take to save themselves. You sacrificed your life providing that path. Yet they are more concerned with their current pleasures than the doom that is coming to them. More concerned about their own personal pleasures and vices than acknowledging you and what you’ve done for them. Not only did you give them life, you are now offering them sanctuary from certain death. They are not thankful, they are selfish, they want life on their own terms even though you created them for a purpose and gave them instruction on how to reach their full potential but they refuse to partake.
We say that us believers are chosen but in reality we are doing the choosing. God just knows what our decision will be. We choose ourselves over God at our own peril. This is a reality that nobody will escape. Choose Jesus and have everlasting life. Or don’t and go to hell, everyone is responsible for themselves. We all live and die by our own choices.
Please explain what it means to be God's chosen people.
Are they God's favorites? Do they get to rule over the rest of us? Do they have special privileges? Chosen for what?
And if I change my religion can I get those special privileges too, or do I have to be born a certain race?
You can convert to Judaism. In the Bible Rehab did so and was fully accepted.
If you choose to do so, it will require study and commitment (unless you were Sammy Davis).
And when you pass away, your Rabbi will announce to the congregation that the old goy died.
Try reading the bible. It’s all there.
You mean the part where God promised power in return for genital mutilation?
God is the supreme creator and lives outside of the time construct He created. We say chosen by God because He has the foreknowledge to know which of His creations will use the free will He’s given them to choose to have faith in him. We are chosen by choosing Him. It’s an advanced biblical teaching that new Christians often are not spiritually mature enough to grasp.
Race has nothing to do with it. We are all created equal in His image. All it takes is accepting His free gift of salvation by admitting you are a sinner, asking forgiveness, and having faith in Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, dying to pay the wages of your sin. God knows what’s in your heart and if you are genuine or not. You can do nothing to save yourself only faith in Jesus can save you.
An extremely dumb down and imperfect way to think about it would be think about your children. If you had a bunch of kids and you knew in the future which of them would choose to reciprocate your love and be obedient to your teachings and wisdom, and which of them would choose not to have a relationship with you and ignore all that you’ve given them would you not honor all the choices made and choose the the ones that chose you as your favorites? Why would chase after anyone that wanted nothing to do with you? What would they be to you?
As you study His word you can gain understanding. He doesn’t want robots that are incapable of genuine love. He made us to have a relationship with us. That’s why He gave us free will to choose to love Him back. He has given us His word so that we may learn of His attributes, glean understanding of who He is, how He relates to us, and how we can relate to Him. So that we can see how, after we sinned and separated ourselves from Him, He still provided a path back to Him by manifesting Himself in flesh like us and dying for our sins. So that we could learn of all the promises He’s made and kept throughout history and have faith in the promises yet to be answered. He is trustworthy. He told us the end from the beginning to give us hope and help foster our faith. None but God can do this.
My children carry my DNA regardless of whether agree with me or do what I say. This is quite a revealing analogy you put forth.
I left out the important part. In my example your foreknowledge reveals that your children, and keep in mind we are talking about adult offspring here that are capable of making autonomous decisions regarding what’s right and wrong, are doomed to death. Even worse than death, they are doomed to an eternity of slavery and torture. Only your love and wisdom can save them because you know a path they can take to save themselves. You sacrificed your life providing that path. Yet they are more concerned with their current pleasures than the doom that is coming to them. More concerned about their own personal pleasures and vices than acknowledging you and what you’ve done for them. Not only did you give them life, you are now offering them sanctuary from certain death. They are not thankful, they are selfish, they want life on their own terms even though you created them for a purpose and gave them instruction on how to reach their full potential but they refuse to partake.
We say that us believers are chosen but in reality we are doing the choosing. God just knows what our decision will be. We choose ourselves over God at our own peril. This is a reality that nobody will escape. Choose Jesus and have everlasting life. Or don’t and go to hell, everyone is responsible for themselves. We all live and die by our own choices.
Sorry, you're not going to scare me into joining your religion. I'm not afraid of death or hell or God or the devil.
My original question was about Jews being "God's chosen people", and your response didn't really answer that.