This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
This is the passage that was sitting before me when I randomly opened my Bible today. (OK, it was the second thing, if I’m to be honest. The first time I opened it to get my Drive-by Scripture for today, it opened to the concordance [sort of like an index] at the back of the Bible.)
I find this passage interesting in being the one I turned to given the recent discussions between me and Tit for Tat on how arrogant Christianity and other religions are that want to convert people (which, let’s be honest, really amounts to: “We’d like you to join. Will you?” which is a pretty common thing for groups to do).
Somehow, though, Judaism seemed to be off the hook under that logic in the discussion because they don’t very actively seek converts.
But let’s look at that passage from Jeremiah, which pretty much focuses on the Hebrews alone being God’s people and the ones for whom the law will be written on their hearts. No, it’s just the Christians and the radical Muslims who are “arrogant” among the major religions.
Why should Judaism not be considered arrogant, because they don’t seek to let people in (under Tit for Tat’s argument), and they consider themselves the Chosen People…yet Christianity is arrogant because it seeks to embrace everyone and preaches that God looks to include all people under his plans?
To robyn and other readers who are Jewish: This is not a slam on Judaism, because I don’t believe Judaism is inherently arrogant. I’m actually rather fond of Jews, given that half of my Bible (more than half, actually) is based on their scriptures and because they still have a key place in God’s heart and in God’s plans. Also because I’m fond of folks in general, including some Muslims, pagans and others who don’t subscribe to my faith. It’s just that it’s interesting how Christianity is picked almost 100% of the time as the most arrogant religion around, even though every religion can be picked apart to be made to look arrogant. But nobody really does that very often, except with regard to Christians…Oh, and politically wing-nutty Muslims who somehow got the idea that killing folks and/or conquering them will get them in good with Allah and get them a bunch of virgins in the afterlife.
Yeah….
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