Interesting indeed, Richnorth.
I am aware of the Jewish mind toward exclusiveness based on my understanding of its origins in the Old Testament, the Book of the Covenant. According to the OT, God did, indeed, establish a special relationship with the tribes of Israel, the antecedants of the modern Jewish faith and made a covenant with them. If they would turn from their worship of false idols and come to an understanding of the God of Moses, of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, then God would return them to the land of promise, to Israel.And it is a well known fact that Jesus himself was a Jew.
However, according to the New Testament, when God's chosen people rejected Him, God then turned his attention to the Gentiles and all others who could who would, commit to Him on the basis of faith rather than on the basis of a covenant.
As the scripture puts it: "He (meaning Christ) came unto his own (the people of the Covenant) but his own received him not. But as many as receive him, to them gave he power to become the Sons of God, even to them that believe on His name."
Much theology can be derived from the above. But the main theological point has to do with the way(s) that mankind is able to recapture a sense of the divine. Who and where is God and how can man come to know him? This is the essential truth behind all other truths or assumptions of truth. |
