Modern-day Jews are not God's chosen people, said Pope Shenouda III, the head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church, in a statement Wednesday evening.
"Do not believe their claims that they are God's chosen people, because it is not true," Shenouda said during his weekly sermon on Wednesday evening at the papal residence in Abbasseya.
When there were no believers on earth the Jews were really God's chosen people, but God's chosen people are now all those who believe in the existence of God and carry out all God's teachings, he added.
Shenouda said he had spoken earlier with former US President Jimmy Carter, and explained to him that Jews were called God’s chosen people because they were the only worshipers on earth, while the rest of its inhabitants were pagans.
Once billions believed in the existence of God, the Jews no longer were God’s chosen people, he said, and now all those who believe in God and have true faith are God's chosen people.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
