Who are Gods chosen people?

[Greg J.]

While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.” He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:46-50, 1984 NIV)

Being a blood relative did not make one Jesus' kin on this occasion.

 

[JohnKing67]

Why are you a Christian and not a Jew?

Sorry for the basic question, and it should be in exploring Christianty, but I can not post a thread there.

In the New Testament I don't believe there's much difference between Jews and non-Jews. Everyone has to come to God for forgiveness of sin through Jesus.

 

[Widlast]

Why are you a Christian and not a Jew?

Sorry for the basic question, and it should be in exploring Christianty, but I can not post a thread there.

I am a Christian because Christianity is TRUE. The rest can claim whatever they want, but the facts remain.
Judaism WAS TRUE at a time in the distant past, and now is NOT TRUE.

 

[david.d]

I am a Christian because Christianity is TRUE. The rest can claim whatever they want, but the facts remain.
Judaism WAS TRUE at a time in the distant past, and now is NOT TRUE.

While worded harshly, this is the most accurate response I've seen so far. The old convenient was with the Jews, beginning with Abraham. God chose them for his first covenant. They failed to uphold the covenant, so he sent His Son to establish the second covenant which isn't only for the Jews. Both covenants are worldly covenants. Not every Jew that lived before Christ will be in heaven, just as not every Gentile before will be in hell. The Book of Life was written and sealed with all of the names of the children of God before the world began. The covenants are an earthly salvation, obedience and service to the true God. You can't sow seeds in this field and then go reap them in another. The Son of God sowed the good seeds here and they will be reaped here, the bad ones he didn't sow and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

 

[Clintos]

Yahshua and Jesus, is there a difference? Would one be leaning more towards the Jewish religion if one worshiped Yahshua or should one stick with Jesus to be on the safe side? Or does it really matter?

 

[ViaCrucis]

Do Jews have to find Jesus?What do they have to do to be saved in the end times and or when they die?

Traditional Christian teaching is that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the whole world, that means there is no salvation apart from Him and what He accomplished. That is to say, it is through Christ by which God saves, is saving, will save, and reconciles the world to Himself.

The covenant God made with the Israelites at Sinai contained no promise of eternal life, salvation, rescue from sin and death, etc. It was a national covenant which in Christian understanding points, ultimately, to Jesus. From a Christian understanding all of God's covenant promises point to Christ as Christ is the center of all things.

In St. Paul's epistle to the Romans he writes of the universal problem of sin, "All have sinned" he writes; the reality of sin and death is common to all human beings both Jews and Gentiles; and salvation is for both Jews and Gentiles and that is found in Christ by the mercy of God which He has on all, through faith. Because it is only in and by Christ that there is salvation it is therefore trust in Christ which is the way by which God takes us and brings the objective reality of what Christ has done for the whole world and connects it to us as individuals. So whether Jew or Gentile all have sinned, all die, and Christ is the Savior of all both Jew and Gentile having destroyed the power of death, conquered sin, and delivers the whole human race, indeed the whole of creation to the peace and hope of God. That God is, and indeed will, restore all things, the whole of creation being made brand new, and we with God forever in that future and unending age.

It's not about what "tribe" you belong to. It's about what God has done in actual, real historical space-time through the death and resurrection of Jesus which is for the whole world.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[ViaCrucis]

Yahshua and Jesus, is there a difference? Would one be leaning more towards the Jewish religion if one worshiped Yahshua or should one stick with Jesus to be on the safe side? Or does it really matter?

"Yahshua" is something that some Sacred Namers (a sect or grouping of sects of Christians that believe that one must say the "proper" names in relation to Jesus and God) say. Yahshua is a corruption of the Hebrew name Yehoshua and its shorter form Yeshua. The successor of Moses is, in English translations of the Bible, known as Joshua the son of Nun, in Hebrew he is known as Yehoshua ben Nun; in later periods the name Yeshua (in English translations of the Bible rendered as Jeshua) is found. Yeshua and its Aramaic cognates (the Jews of Jesus' day didn't speak Hebrew, but instead had been speaking Aramaic for centuries) was a very common Jewish name. In Greek Yehoshua, Yeshua, and the common Aramaic form (perhaps pronounced something like Eoshoa) are all written in Greek characters as Ἰησοῦς (Iesous, pronounced "Yay-soos"), when transcribed in Latin it became Iesus. In the middle ages a modified form of the letter 'I' was introduced, 'J' and thus Iesus became written as Jesus, and in English developed the hard 'J' sound we are familiar with today and thus sounding like "Jee-zus" due to pronunciation shifts over the centuries in the English language.

"Yahshua" isn't a name, but some Sacred Namers think it is and insist on its usage. The name of Christ wasn't Yehoshua or Yeshua either, as those are Hebrew pronunciations and Hebrew wasn't the language in use in Jesus' time. As noted they spoke Aramaic, and specifically Jesus and His family would have spoken a Galilean dialect of Palestinian Aramaic. There is some debate from what I can gather as to how His name would have been pronounced by Mary and others in Nazareth. Modern Syriac, a descendant of an ancient form of Aramaic related to the Aramaic of Jesus pronounces Christ's name as Isho/Eesho.

It simply doesn't matter one way or the other honestly, except as a matter of academic or scholarly curiosity.

With all that explained, no religious Jew (a person who practices Judaism) accepts Jesus, regardless of how His name is pronounced. Jews regard Jesus, at best, as a false and failed messiah in a long line of failed false messiahs. Which is to say Jesus has no role, no meaning in Judaism, He's as irrelevant to their religion as Muhammad or Buddha is to Christianity.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Clintos]

@ ViaCrusis- That is exactly how I feel. I just thought I was the only one.

 

[JoeP222w]

Why are you a Christian and not a Jew?

Sorry for the basic question, and it should be in exploring Christianty, but I can not post a thread there.

Because God has done a work of transformation in my heart to bring me to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone for my salvation and my righteousness, by faith alone, by His grace alone. The Jews (in a general sense) reject the truth of Jesus Christ, that He is God. The are some of Jewish ethnicity who have trusted in Jesus Christ, but I don't see them as actual Jews.

To the original question: God's chosen people are the ones He elects to salvation in Jesus Christ, by His grace. This includes all kinds of people.

 

[JoeP222w]

Do Jews have to find Jesus?

Romans tells us that no one seeks God, so the Jew has no ability to find Jesus (Romans 3:10-12). God is the one who transforms a person into a new creation.

What do they have to do to be saved in the end times and or when they die?

There is nothing anyone can "do" to be saved. God is the one who saves people, by calling them to repent and trust in Jesus Christ. Same rule applies for Jew and Gentile.

 

[JoeP222w]

A little off topic but what about the old and new testament how does it work being a christian should they lean towards the new covenant or old covenent?

A person is granted eternal life the same in the Old Testament as in the New Testament: They must repent of their sins and trust in God by faith alone (not their works), by His grace alone.

 

[Clintos]

Romans tells us that no one seeks God, so the Jew has no ability to find Jesus (Romans 3:10-12). God is the one who transforms a person into a new creation.

God transforms one into a new creation to those that believe and repent and turns from their sins. And if one believes in are Lord as our savior is he saved?

 

[Clintos]

God's chosen people are the ones He elects to salvation in Jesus Christ, by His grace. This includes all kinds of people.

Does He elect everybody and then it's up to them to believe in His grace?

 

[Clintos]

The are some of Jewish ethnicity who have trusted in Jesus Christ, but I don't see them as actual Jews.

Would the Jews that trust in Jesus Christ be Shunned by the Jewish community?

 

[Clintos]

What is Messianic Judaism? Are they not fully Jews and not fully Christian? Is a Judeo-Christian a title that makes no sense?

Does this sum up what a Messianic Jew is:

What is Messianic Judaism?

 

[JoeP222w]

God transforms one into a new creation to those that believe and repent and turns from their sins. And if one believes in are Lord as our savior is he saved?

The sequence matters.

- God first regenerates the individual, makes them a new creation.
- They then repent and believe and are saved.

God must cause them to regenerate first because we are [spiritually] dead in our sins and trespasses against the Holy God. A dead person has no ability to respond to God unless He first makes them alive.

 

[AlexDTX]

Why are you a Christian and not a Jew?

Sorry for the basic question, and it should be in exploring Christianty, but I can not post a thread there.

Neither Christians nor Jews are God's chosen people. There is only one chosen person: His Son, Jesus Christ. For Israel, all who believed in the coming of the Savior abode in Him and were part of the His elect. For Gentiles all who believe in the death and resurrection of the Savior obtain the new birth and become part of His elect. All who abide in Christ are the chosen people because only Christ is chosen.

 

[Clintos]

I lean towards Pentecostal religion but I have not fully committed myself to their way of thinking because they seem to be very judgmental and I wonder sometimes if they are a true christian? or is it just tough love they preach?

 

[AlexDTX]

A little off topic but what about the old and new testament how does it work being a christian should they lean towards the new covenant or old covenent?

The Old Covenant never applied to gentiles. It was made with one specific group of people, the family of Israel. The Old Covenant does not apply to Christians, but the unchanging truths apply to everyone.

 

[JoeP222w]

Does He elect everybody and then it's up to them to believe in His grace?

No. God elects only some individuals. God does not elect every single human being that has ever existed to salvation. The number of the elect is unknown to us, but the Bible indicates that it is not possible to count the number of elect that there are so many of them (Revelation 7:9). Additionally, God never reveals to us who the elect are, so that is why the Christian is to proclaim the gospel to all of creation.

A person responds to the gospel, and because of God's regeneration, they repent and trust in Jesus Christ. The one whom God regenerates will never chose to turn away from Him. That is not to say that the Christian does not struggle with sin, but never to eternal damnation. This is because God is sovereign.

There are those who claim that even if God regenerates someone that that person can still turn from God and not choose God. This is not a Biblical concept, and it makes man sovereign to preserve man's autonomous free will (which does not exist), such that man has the power to frustrate God's plan and purpose and deny the freedom of God.