Q. What is meant by the Jews being God's chosen people? What is their eternal future? Does a Jew who dies without Christ as their Savior spend eternity in hell? Should we, as Christians, pray for their conversion? 

A. You have asked whether the Jews are God's chosen people and several other questions related to that issue. The questions are very important and the answers which have been given to them often lead to different and false answers that affect both religious and political views. They are often seen as the basis for establishing the state of Israel as well as the false notion that all Jewish people will be saved.

Perhaps rather than asking the question whether the Jews are God's chosen people, it would be better to ask whether Israel is God's chosen people, in what sense they are chosen, and who really is Israel. Taking the questions in reverse order, the New Testament makes it clear that the true Israel is made up of believers. As St. Paul states in a number of places, it is children of faith who are the children of Abraham and he calls them the Israel of God. Israel was chosen as the nation through which God would fulfill his promise of sending a Messiah for the salvation of people. It is the people who believe in Jesus as the Messiah sent by God who are the true Israel. In that sense, Israel is God's chosen people. It is not the nation or the race as such, apart from faith, which are God's chosen people. 

The Bible also makes it clear that there is no warrant for saying that apart from Christ there is salvation. Jesus himself said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." While we certainly cannot limit God who may act as he wishes, we have no warrant for saying that there is salvation for anyone apart faith in Christ. Consequently we should certainly pray for the conversion of Jewish people who do not know Jesus as the Messiah, the Savior, just as we pray for all others who do not have that faith.