Introduction

God has always offered salvation to any individual or group who is willing to seek him. Through all generations of time, select few have accepted the invitation. In a show of godly mercy, God cascades echoes of the blessings of the righteous onto their less righteous peers and posterity. Without exception, the descendants of covenant fathers such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the Nephites who witnessed the resurrected Christ, etc., gradually chip away at God's patient blessings by progressively apostatizing from the covenant made to their fathers until they are ripe in iniquity.

Unfortunately, the apostate descendants of covenant fathers always seem to consider themselves equally as righteous as their forebears. They are lifted in haughty pride and call themselves chosen, though God has said no such thing.

Throughout history, the ancestors of those who achieved a connection with God considered themselves a chosen people. The false sense of security brought by the erroneous idea that God could never abandon them despite their sins fostered a degree of wickedness that usually exceeded that of their Godless peers.

Perhaps the easiest to recognize example of this phenomenon is the children of Israel between the time of Moses and Jesus. Israel was a chosen people during this time. Yet, they were in an apostate state. The evidence of their chosen status was expressed in the invitation they had received to come up to the presence of Christ. This invitation—originally made through Moses—was still available to them through the generations, as evidenced by those individuals who obtained it.

A chosen status is therefore not an indication of acceptance by the Lord or a measurement of the righteousness of the people: Israel's kings were generally quite wicked, and their people were no different. Paul distinguished between the invitation provided and the fruits obtained by accepting it:

Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. (Romans 9:6-8.)

As he explained to the group of Gentiles he was addressing, there was a distinction between those who obtained the promise (that is, the promise of eternal life from Christ to an individual) and those who were of a “chosen” lineage. Paul argued that the same invitations available to the Israelites by lineage were available to the Gentiles—and that neither would prove of any use without the righteousness of the acceptor. Though Israel was considered chosen, in reality this identifier had more to do with the increased instruction they received from the righteousness of their progenitor patriarchs than it did with God’s approbation of their contemporary behavior, which was nearconstant wickedness.

A covenant people is a people with whom God has made the covenant of eternal life. Unlike other covenants, such as that God made with Aaron, the covenant of eternal life is not transmitted by virtue of descent. Nephi explained that individuals’ relationships with God are what causes the covenant to be offered:

For behold, I say unto you that as many of the Gentiles as will repent are the covenant people of the Lord; and as many of the Jews as will not repent shall be cast off; for the Lord covenanteth with none save it be with them that repent and believe in his Son, who is the Holy One of Israel. (2 Nephi 30:2.)

With the Israelites, God offered the covenant, but it was not accepted. Through Moses he gave to them a set of laws that would bring them to Christ, both spiritually and literally. To them the invitation to obtain was extended. Did this make them special? The invitation was and always is unto all. The distinction was not in the lack or presence of the invitation, but in the presence of an expectation and an increase in the means to obtain it. The Israelites had a dispensation of gospel knowledge. They had the righteous example of Moses and other prophets who had obtained the presence of God. This is what made them different.

Being a chosen people simply means that there is an expectation and a means provided to rise to the fulfillment of the expectation. Being a chosen people does not mean that you are more righteous than anyone else. Consequently, it does not mean you are any closer to divinity than anyone else. In fact, a chosen people who reject God’s teachings fare worse with him than those who never knew him in the first place. A chosen people is not more righteous than others. They are merely expected to be so.

The Israelites were chosen and also generally wicked. At times, the Lord said very sharp things about them. For example, he stated they were as wicked as those who were not chosen people:

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised; Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart. (Jeremiah 9:25-26.)

Although they were generally wicked, and were not a covenant people, the Israelites still had interaction with God at times. Their daily participation in religion did not create a covenant relationship with God. A people can be wholly devoted to religion and still not approach God.

In the Book of Mormon, we see the Nephites—who were the chosen people—utterly destroyed by the Lamanites. The wickedness of the Nephites was truly great: not only did their sins exceed those of the Lamanites in absolute terms, but they committed them against greater light and truth, having been taught the correct way and turned away from it.¹ From the above points we see that:

1. A chosen people do not have greater blessings with God. They simply have an invitation from him to obtain such with an expectation to do so.
2. A group can only become a covenant people if God actually makes a promise of eternal life to them as individuals. Covenants cannot be inherited from organizational ancestors.
3. Where much is given, much is required. If a group has access to a greater portion of God's teachings, they are judged to a higher standard.

These principles stand at odds to what is commonly understood in modern Mormonism.² That is, that the LDS are entitled to special blessings from God, and ever will be until Christ comes again, regardless as to how well they actually keep God’s commandments.