The Chosen Ones

     Every person, every group wants to believe that they are ‘special’ and if you or your group are chosen by your ‘god’ then you must be very special indeed.

     Believing that your group has been ‘chosen’ may be beneficial in that it can consolidate bonds within your group, extending caring, help, protection to beyond your direct family. But being ‘chosen’ can also often draw a line, separating your group from the rest of the society in which you live.
          In Judaism, the Hebrew people had been ‘chosen’ to be in a covenant with God, this ‘chosenness’ perhaps implying privilege but also responsibilities.

     Practising Mormons receive a ‘patriarchal blessing’ that reveals their lineage in the House of Israel. Thus, they become part of the ‘chosen’.

        Some Seventh-Day Adventists claim to be, ‘chosen’ by God to proclaim the ‘message’ of the Book of Revelation.

   

A Rastafarian

     

     Rastafarians believe that the ‘black race’ has been ‘chosen’ and that Haile Selassie (now deceased Emperor of Ethiopia) is (was?) the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

     The Unification Church of Reverend Moon teaches that Korea is the ‘chosen’ nation.

Haile Selassie

Reverend and Mrs. Moon

     The Christian Theology of  ’Supersessionism’ embraces the idea that the ‘New Covenant with Christendom’ replaces the covenant established between God and the Israelites through Moses. Christians become ‘The Chosen People’.
     The number ‘144,000‘ has been ‘chosen’ (fun with numbers, again): Raelism (a new-age ‘religion’) claims that there are 144,000 chosen people to continue humanity when the ‘Endof the World’ arrives.

     Jehovah Witnesses are taught that only 144,000 of the faithful will spend eternity with God.

     The Russian Christian Skoptsy sect believed that Jesus would return (the second coming) when the Skoptsy numbered 144,000 (see post: Stranger Than Fiction).