Here we present another chapter from Charles Weisman’s book, Is Universalism Of God? — where he addresses the false idea that God’s laws and punishment for their transgression are universal — rather than specifically for the 12 tribes of Israel, His covenant people.
Weisman writes,
God’s Law & Judgment
If God’s law and judgments are ascribed only to His Israel people, then that marks a racial division which the Christian Universalists simply cannot tolerate — and so they must find ways of dismantling it. As one humanist Christian stated,
“We can dogmatically say that the whole human race was/is accountable to ‘The Law’ because all men are included in God’s judgment against sin.”
Yet in Psalm 147:19 & 20 we read this fact regarding God’s law and judgments:
“He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.”
“He has not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them.”
Universalist and humanist Christians will never address specific verses such as these — instead they will quote only vague or general verses and project onto them their modern beliefs. And by doing so, they thus have the Bible in constant conflict with itself.
[CFT Note: Modern Christians will always misuse the term “nation” to mean a literal country or nation-state with geo-political borders rather than in the biblical sense from the Greek “ethnos” or race, tribe or bloodline — see Strong’s 1484]
The false assumption upon which these Universalists rely is that any judgment upon any person or any nation is a judgment under the Law-Covenant, which shows that all people are in covenant with God — and therefore are under the New Covenant.
Of course, no part of this reasoning is correct.
In an attempt to show how all people and all races are under the Law and Covenant, Universalists will point out that in Jeremiah 25 (Babylon), 47 (Philistines), 48 (Moab), 49 (Ammonites), 50 (Chaldeans), and Ezekiel 25 (Ammonites) there are judgments upon different non-Israelite nations — such as Babylon, Egypt, Edom, Tyre, Philistia, etc.
However, none of these judgments are due to non-Israelites violating the Covenant — most are due to the wicked things these nations have done against Israel or Jerusalem.
God has the right to bring judgment upon any of His creations because of the creator-creature relationship — not because they are obliged to the law by way of a covenant.
[CFT Note: God also uses the non-Israelite nations — or peoples — as a rod of chastisement to punish His Israelite people for their transgressions — see Pslams 78, Hosea 10:10, & Jeremiah 30:14]
Even animals can do “wicked” things which bring judgment upon them — for example,
”If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, then the ox shall surely by stoned.”
–Exodus 2l:28
Clearly, the ox was not under the Law-Covenant, yet it did something wicked to God’s people and could be killed for its acts. Likewise, if a king or nation is said to be wicked, it does not mean they are therefore under a Law-Covenant.
Actually, God’s judgment existed before the Old Covenant, as in the case of Sodom.
[CFT Note: Prior to the covenant with Israel, God’s law and judgment applied only to His Adamic creation — and contrary to what Universalists claim, not all peoples are descended from Adam. See our essay Pre-Adamics In Genesis: Adam Was Not The First Man]
However, after the Covenant was established with Israel, God would bring judgment upon other peoples, but unless it involves His Israel people in someway, this would be a rare occurrence.
For instance, why is it that there is no record — sacred or secular — of God punishing the Negroes in Africa for their great many pagan practices, cannibalism, murder, voodoo, and human sacrifice to idols? Israel surely would certainly be punished for such wickedness.
The answer is simple — Israel are sons of God and so they are chastised by God:
“For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives. Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you do not experience discipline like everyone else, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.”
–Hebrews 12:6-7
God makes it clear that He “knows” only Israel as sons — and will punish them accordingly:
“You [Israel] only have I chosen among all the families of the earth; Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”
–Amos 3:2
However the Negroes are not sons of God — nor did they dwell in the lands where they could do harm to Israel — and therefore God did not chastise them for their pagan ways.
Jeremiah 11:3 says,
“Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant.”
Universalists will claim that “the man” here in verse 3 is obviously any man who breaks the Ten Commandments — however, the previous verse clearly identifies to whom this curse specifically refers:
“Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”
–Jeremiah 11-2
Again Universalists will claim that Isaiah 24 — taken out of context –describes God’s judgment against all “the inhabitants of the earth”:
“The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant.”
–Isaiah 24:5
However, “the earth” — or erets from the Hebrew — in this chapter does not refer to the entire planet, but rather to only the land of Judah or Israel as in Isaiah 24 verses 1, 3, 5, & 6 — and
“Hear this, O elders, And listen, all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days Or in your fathers’ days?”
–Joel 1:2, [see Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary on the Bible, vol. 1, p. 457].
Scripture is clear that God made covenants involving the law — and punishments for its violation — only with Israel, as we see in:
“So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.”
–Deuteronomy 4:13
“The covenant which He made with Abraham, And His oath to Isaac. Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, To Israel as an everlasting covenant.”
–Psalms 105:9 & 10
“But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.”
–Isaiah 59:2
“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
–Jeremiah 31:31-33
“I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me.”
–Jeremiah 32:40
“Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant. And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord GOD.”
–Ezekiel 16:60-63
“For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”
–Hebrews 8:7-12
https://christiansfortruth.com/does-gods-law-and-judgment-apply-universally-to-all-people-or-only-to-israel/