URANTIA WIKI

Chosen people

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From Urantia Wiki, the encyclopedia of The Urantia Book

Also: chosen-people, my people.

In the Urantia Book

There is no such thing as a “chosen people. (134:5.4)

    Jews

    • Moses proclaimed that Yahweh was the Lord God of Israel, who had singled out the Hebrews as his chosen people; he was building a new nation, and he wisely nationalized his religious teachings, telling his followers that Yahweh was a hard taskmaster, a “jealous God. 96:4.6
    • Moses taught israelites that they would become the chosen people of God only on condition that they “kept all his commandments and obeyed all his statutes.” 96:5.6
    • Samuel proclaimed a Yahweh who made all men but was occupied chiefly with the Hebrews, his chosen people. 97:1.7
    • Amos and Hosea preached a God who thought no differently of the Hebrews than of any other nation when it came to the punishment of wrongdoing. This was a direct attack on the egoistic doctrine of the “chosen people,” 97:4.2-6
    • In their reaction against national inferiority they swung to the other extreme of national and racial egotism, in which they distorted and perverted their traditions with the view of exalting themselves above all races as the chosen people of God 93:9.9
    • It was resentment of the loss of their national god that led the Jewish priests to go to such lengths in the invention of fables and miracles in Hebrew history in an effort to restore the Jews as the chosen people 97:7.1
    • Israelite leaders taught that they were a chosen people, not for special indulgence and monopoly of divine favor, but for the special service of carrying the truth of the one God over all to every nation. 97:9.27 97:10.1
    • The fortuitous liberty and independence of the political rule of surrounding and more powerful peoples the Jews attributed to the fact that they were the “chosen people,” to the direct interposition of Yahweh. 121:2.8
    • Due to this Jews were perplexed by Babylonian captivity due to belief that they were the chosen people 97:8.3

    Dangers of the doctrine

    • one of the dangers of institutional religion is the creation of the aristocratic “chosen-people” attitude 99:6.3
    • Religion become tainted with that persistently mischief-making error, the chosen-people delusion 92:3.2
    • The doctrine of the chosen people has been a primary factor in uniting tribes and building nations until modern times. 71:3.2

    Bible parallels

    Passages that the paragraphs cited above parallel, quote or reinterpret, from Duane Faw’s Paramony cross-references. Hover a reference to read it.

    Categories: Concepts and teachings