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I really think the element is recorded in:
But one line we must always consider is:
We have to never put the Almighty God in a box based on our understanding.
Over time many may of come to believe and grafted in again and will continue to do so.....
Trust in Him in all things.
Be thankful for the Grace and Mercy that he showered us with and limit it not by our understanding.
11 I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
[SUP]2 [/SUP]God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel saying,
[SUP]3 [/SUP]Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
[SUP]4 [/SUP]But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
[SUP]5 [/SUP]Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
[SUP]6 [/SUP]And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
[SUP]7 [/SUP]What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
[SUP]8 [/SUP](According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear
unto this day.
[SUP]9 [/SUP]And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:
[SUP]10 [/SUP]Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.
[SUP]11 [/SUP]I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
[SUP]12 [/SUP]Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?
[SUP]13 [/SUP]For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
[SUP]14 [/SUP]If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.
[SUP]15 [/SUP]For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
[SUP]16 [/SUP]For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
[SUP]17 [/SUP]And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
[SUP]18 [/SUP]Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
[SUP]19 [/SUP]Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.
[SUP]20 [/SUP]Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
[SUP]21 [/SUP]For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
[SUP]22 [/SUP]Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
[SUP]23 [/SUP]And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
[SUP]24 [/SUP]For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
[SUP]25 [/SUP]For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
[SUP]26 [/SUP]And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
[SUP]27 [/SUP]For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
[SUP]28 [/SUP]As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes.
[SUP]29 [/SUP]For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
[SUP]30 [/SUP]For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
[SUP]31 [/SUP]Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
[SUP]32 [/SUP]For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
[SUP]33 [/SUP]O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
[SUP]34 [/SUP]For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
[SUP]35 [/SUP]Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
[SUP]36 [/SUP]For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen
[SUP]2 [/SUP]God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel saying,
[SUP]3 [/SUP]Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
[SUP]4 [/SUP]But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
[SUP]5 [/SUP]Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
[SUP]6 [/SUP]And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
[SUP]7 [/SUP]What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
[SUP]8 [/SUP](According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear
unto this day.[SUP]9 [/SUP]And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:
[SUP]10 [/SUP]Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.
[SUP]11 [/SUP]I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
[SUP]12 [/SUP]Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?
[SUP]13 [/SUP]For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
[SUP]14 [/SUP]If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.
[SUP]15 [/SUP]For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
[SUP]16 [/SUP]For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
[SUP]17 [/SUP]And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
[SUP]18 [/SUP]Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
[SUP]19 [/SUP]Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.
[SUP]20 [/SUP]Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
[SUP]21 [/SUP]For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
[SUP]22 [/SUP]Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
[SUP]23 [/SUP]And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
[SUP]24 [/SUP]For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
[SUP]25 [/SUP]For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
[SUP]26 [/SUP]And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
[SUP]27 [/SUP]For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
[SUP]28 [/SUP]As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes.
[SUP]29 [/SUP]For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
[SUP]30 [/SUP]For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
[SUP]31 [/SUP]Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
[SUP]32 [/SUP]For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
[SUP]33 [/SUP]O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
[SUP]34 [/SUP]For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
[SUP]35 [/SUP]Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
[SUP]36 [/SUP]For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen
But one line we must always consider is:
We have to never put the Almighty God in a box based on our understanding.
Over time many may of come to believe and grafted in again and will continue to do so.....
Trust in Him in all things.
Be thankful for the Grace and Mercy that he showered us with and limit it not by our understanding.
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. [SUP]26 [/SUP]And so all Israel shall be saved:
I
Rom11:25&26
Now I'm in trouble
I
Rom11:25&26
Now I'm in trouble
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A
I think Therapon asserts the that the Dome of the Rock is in the court of the Gentiles right? He's not the only one that believes this. Hal Lyndsey does based on Dr. Asher Kaufman's work. There are other scholars who believe that the Dome of the Rock is not the actual location of the First and Second Temples, and that the Temples were actually located either just north of or just south of the Dome of the Rock.
But The Temple Institute and the Temple Mount and Eretz Yisrael each state that its goal is to build the Third Temple on the Temple Mount (Mount Moriah).
I'm not yet comprehending the dual covenant assertion much less the epistemology and argument to support it. I have debated Seventh Day Adventists with regards to the many false theological assertions they constructed from early SDA plagiarists and false prophets like Ellen G. White after The Great Disappointment. They have errored with regard to the New Covenant. Is Therapon a Seventh Day Adventist?
But The Temple Institute and the Temple Mount and Eretz Yisrael each state that its goal is to build the Third Temple on the Temple Mount (Mount Moriah).
I'm not yet comprehending the dual covenant assertion much less the epistemology and argument to support it. I have debated Seventh Day Adventists with regards to the many false theological assertions they constructed from early SDA plagiarists and false prophets like Ellen G. White after The Great Disappointment. They have errored with regard to the New Covenant. Is Therapon a Seventh Day Adventist?
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A
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. [SUP]26 [/SUP]And so all Israel shall be saved:
I
Rom11:25&26
Now I'm in trouble
I
Rom11:25&26
Now I'm in trouble
wed have a slam dunk. Good scripture.
And no trouble at all"All Israel will be saved"
T
[QUOTE=loveme1;927227]Therapon, do you say that the 'blinded' Jews will be reconciled through belief in the Messiah?
Romans 11[/QUOTE]
Shalom sister, It matters little what I say, what matters is what G-d says in the Bible. G-d made an everlasting covenant with the physical seed of Israel and He is a covenant keeping G-d. Here is a short excerpt from Leviticus 26:33-45 . . .
"I will scatter you (Isrealites) among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you . . . and they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands . . . And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God . . . But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD."
That is the covenant God gave to Moses. So salvation for the Jewish people does not depend on their doctrine or their head knowledge, but on the covenant-keeping faithfulness of G-d.
This does not mean that all who claim to be Jews in the flesh are saved, anymore than everyone who walks into a church is saved because Romans 2:28-29 says . . .
"For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God."
So according to those verses, the devout Jew who trusts in the G-d of his fathers can indeed be saved. I have long taught that salvation has nothing to do with having the right doctrine, but everything to do with having a humble and contrite heart towards G-d. Ha Shem does not care if you call Him Messiah or Yeshua or Jesus, He cares deeply that you love and obey Him. 1Samuel i6:7 shows that same spiritual principle . . .
Look not on his denolination or on the size of his church; for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the doctrine, but the LORD looketh on the heart.
I am in no way claiming I quoted that verse accurately, but I believe that is its intent.
Romans 11[/QUOTE]
Shalom sister, It matters little what I say, what matters is what G-d says in the Bible. G-d made an everlasting covenant with the physical seed of Israel and He is a covenant keeping G-d. Here is a short excerpt from Leviticus 26:33-45 . . .
"I will scatter you (Isrealites) among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you . . . and they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands . . . And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God . . . But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD."
That is the covenant God gave to Moses. So salvation for the Jewish people does not depend on their doctrine or their head knowledge, but on the covenant-keeping faithfulness of G-d.
This does not mean that all who claim to be Jews in the flesh are saved, anymore than everyone who walks into a church is saved because Romans 2:28-29 says . . .
"For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God."
So according to those verses, the devout Jew who trusts in the G-d of his fathers can indeed be saved. I have long taught that salvation has nothing to do with having the right doctrine, but everything to do with having a humble and contrite heart towards G-d. Ha Shem does not care if you call Him Messiah or Yeshua or Jesus, He cares deeply that you love and obey Him. 1Samuel i6:7 shows that same spiritual principle . . .
Look not on his denolination or on the size of his church; for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the doctrine, but the LORD looketh on the heart.
I am in no way claiming I quoted that verse accurately, but I believe that is its intent.
If we now add who Paul previously said who true Israel was then
wed have a slam dunk. Good scripture. And no trouble at all
"All Israel will be saved"
wed have a slam dunk. Good scripture.
And no trouble at all"All Israel will be saved"
Zech8:20-23
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Shalom sister, It matters little what I say, what matters is what G-d says in the Bible. G-d made an everlasting covenant with the physical seed of Israel and He is a covenant keeping G-d. Here is a short excerpt from Leviticus 26:33-45 . . .
"I will scatter you (Isrealites) among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you . . . and they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands . . . And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God . . . But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD."
That is the covenant God gave to Moses. So salvation for the Jewish people does not depend on their doctrine or their head knowledge, but on the covenant-keeping faithfulness of G-d.
This does not mean that all who claim to be Jews in the flesh are saved, anymore than everyone who walks into a church is saved because Romans 2:28-29 says . . .
"For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God."
So according to those verses, the devout Jew who trusts in the G-d of his fathers can indeed be saved. I have long taught that salvation has nothing to do with having the right doctrine, but everything to do with having a humble and contrite heart towards G-d. Ha Shem does not care if you call Him Messiah or Yeshua or Jesus, He cares deeply that you love and obey Him. 1Samuel i6:7 shows that same spiritual principle . . .
Look not on his denolination or on the size of his church; for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the doctrine, but the LORD looketh on the heart.
I am in no way claiming I quoted that verse accurately, but I believe that is its intent.
[/QUOTE]
I believe all the Almighty wrote will always come to pass for He is Faithful and True always.
The error is only ever with the understanding of man.
The Messiah came from the Old Covenant to bring the New Covenant we can not separate this.
What is yet to take place here is what will bring it all together.... The Almighty has a plan
A
Biblical scholars Kaiser, W. C., Jr., Davids, P. H., Bruce, F. F., and Brauch, M. T. define "all Israel shall be saved" in the following way:
Romans 11:26 has been at the heart of much Christian reflection about eschatology or doctrines about end times.
It's difficult to understand the precise meaning of Paul’s words “all Israel will be saved” though many theories abound.
Paul expresses deep pain over the fact that Israel, the people of God, had rejected their Messiah in Romans. The question of Israel’s fate, in light of its rejection of the early Christian proclamation that Jesus of Nazareth was the fulfillment of Israel’s prophetic hope, was very much in the consciousness of Jewish followers of the risen Christ.
Scholars assert that there is a sense of perplexity regarding Jewish unbelief throughout the New Testament beginning with the Gospels. But for Paul, it must have been particularly intense. After all, he was in opposition to Jesus as Messiah initially.
But beyond this Paul's people had been objects of God’s gracious activity through the calling of father Abraham, the creation of a nation, the deliverance of the exodus, the giving of law and covenant. They had been objects of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness from which “nothing can separate” as he had just confessed in Romans 8:35. If the word of God does not fail (Rom 9:6), why is Israel stuck in the failure of disobedience? That is the agonizing question which Paul addresses in Romans 9–11.
After sadness over Israel (Rom 9:1–5), Paul proceeds to show in a variety of ways that God’s redemptive purposes, inaugurated with the call of Abraham and brought to a climax in Christ, have in fact not failed, even with regard to the people of Israel.
He begins by demonstrating that from the very beginning belonging to the people of God was not a matter of birthright (Rom 9:7–8) or of human achievement (Rom 9:11, 16). Rather, membership in God’s family is determined solely by the promise (Rom 9:8), calling (Rom 9:11) and mercy (Rom 9:16) of God.
In this context, Paul introduces a different use of the term Israel, which he has already indicated earlier in this epistle (see Rom 2:28–29; see also Gal 3:7; 6:16); namely, there is an Israel “of the flesh” and an Israel “of the promise.”
Both are determined by the gracious action of God, but the latter transcends the boundaries of the former. That “the children of God” (Rom 9:8) have their existence purely on the basis of God’s calling and mercy by the analogy of the potter and the clay in Romans 9:19–23. The potter is sovereign over the clay. And, in that sovereignty, he has called into peoplehood a remnant both from the people of Israel and from the Gentiles. The citation of prophetic words from Hosea and Isaiah (Rom 9:25–26) underlines this fact.
In the following section (Rom 9:30–10:4), Paul goes on to state why the redemptive purposes of God are being received and realized among the Gentiles and why Israel as a whole is rejecting them.
Israel rejected the righteousness of God—his relation-restoring action that culminated in the servant-ministry of Jesus—because it sought to establish its own righteousness by external conformity to the law. This attempt to secure one’s own worth and standing with God, which according to Paul’s earlier discussion (Rom 2:17–29) invariably results in boasting and self-righteousness, leads to refusal to submit to God’s way (Rom 10:3). And God’s way is that as creatures we respond to the love and faithfulness of the Creator with faith, that we believe his Word, that we respond in trust (Rom 10:5–13).
The opportunity to respond to God in this way has been there throughout Israel’s history, as Paul demonstrates by reference to Old Testament texts (Rom 10:14–21). And throughout that history, including the coming of God’s righteousness in the Messiah, Israel has been “a disobedient and obstinate people” (Rom 10:21).
Does this history of rejection and disobedience mean that God has finally given up on his people Israel? That is the question which occupies Paul in the next section of the epistle (Rom 11:1–10). The answer to the question is no. For just as God called out a remnant from a disobedient nation in the past (Rom 9:2–4), so too there is a remnant in the present that has responded in faith to God’s grace (Rom 11:5). Paul himself is evidence of the existence of such a remnant within Judaism (Rom 11:1).
But the fact remains that the vast majority of Israel has refused to submit to God’s way of salvation and has rejected his Jesus Christ as their Messiah. True. But God is not yet done with his people. Though Paul has been very adamant throughout the epistle that faith and belonging to Christ are the only criteria for what it means to be “of the seed of Abraham” (Rom 2:20; 9:6–8), Paul also decidedly rejects the idea that this truth means the exclusion of the nation of Israel from God’s redemptive purposes (the analogy of the olive tree in Rom 11:17–24 underlines that). For him, such a conclusion would have been inconsistent with the historical election of Israel (see Rom 11:29).
Thus Paul acknowledges Israel’s failure and rejection (Rom 11:7), but he proceeds to argue that within God’s overarching purposes this reality is temporally limited. Indeed, God uses the present rejection for his purposes. This activity of God is underscored by the Scripture citations from Isaiah 29 and Psalm 69 about the hardening of Israel (Rom 11:8–10), for since Israel’s disobedience is placed in the service of God’s purpose, God can be spoken of as “hardening” Israel. But the goal of disobedience and hardening is not their ultimate rejection and destruction; it is, rather, twofold: (1) the salvation of the Gentiles (the world) and (2) the ultimate salvation of Israel (Rom 11:11–15).
Paul is convinced that through the proclamation of the gospel to the Gentiles and its acceptance by them, the promise to Abraham, that all the people of the earth shall be blessed in him, is being fulfilled (see Rom 4). He is also convinced, on the basis of Deuteronomy 32:21, which he cites in Romans 10:19, that the salvation of the Gentiles will provoke Israel to jealousy and open them to the gospel (Rom 11:11, 14).
Within the context of this argument, Paul anticipates the “mystery” regarding the nation of Israel’s ultimate destiny, which he will articulate in Romans 11:25–26. If the failure of Israel is leading to the salvation of the Gentiles, the manifestation of God’s grace and blessing will be much greater with “their full inclusion” (Rom 11:12). What does he mean by this expression?
The term translated “full inclusion” is the Greek word plērōma. The ASV renders this term by “fulfillment” or “fullness.” In Romans 11:25 the same expression is used again, but this time in connection with the Gentiles. Here the RSV renders it as “full number of the Gentiles,” while the ASV renders “fullness of the Gentiles.” This idea of a divinely predetermined number, which has to be made up of both Gentiles and Jews, is not within Paul’s purview here.
When noncanonical Jewish apocalyptic literature speaks of a “full number” of Israelites in relation to end events, the word used is not plērōma but arithmos. In Revelation 7:4 we read of “the number of the sealed” (RSV). The word used is again not plērōma but arithmos, and the number is generally regarded as symbolic rather than indicative of numerical extent. Thus we do better to seek the meaning for Paul’s use of plērōma in his use of the term elsewhere in his writings.
With but one exception (Rom 13:10), the most natural rendering of Paul’s use of plērōma is “fullness” or “completeness” (Rom 15:29; Gal 4:4; Eph 1:23; 3:19; 4:13; Col 1:19; 2:9). What then do the expressions “[Israel’s] fullness” (Rom 11:12) and “the fullness of the Gentiles” (Rom 11:25 KJV) mean? Light may be shed on this problem by Paul’s use of verbal cognates of plērōma in three texts where his mission to the Gentiles is in focus. In Romans 15:18–22 he speaks of having “fully proclaimed” the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles and now being desirous of expanding this mission to Spain. In Colossians 1:25–27 he speaks of having made the “word of God fully known” (RSV) among the Gentiles. And in 2 Timothy 4:17 he confesses God’s empowerment “so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.”
In light of these usages, Johannes Munck argues convincingly, in his book Christ and Israel, that Paul’s commitment to the full dissemination of the gospel to the Gentiles must provide the interpretive key to his use of plērōma in Romans 11. The expression “the fullness [or completion] of the Gentiles” in 11:25 (KJV) then denotes the final result of Paul’s proclamation of the gospel to the Gentiles. God’s purpose through that preaching is their salvation, their completion (as children of God in Christ; see Col 2:10).
The completion of the mission to the Gentiles will result in, or lead to, Israel’s “fullness” or “completion” (Rom 11:12), her “acceptance” (Rom 11:15). These phrases anticipate the affirmation that “all Israel will be saved.” The way from the anticipation of this conviction to this climactic expression is paved by the analogy of the olive tree (Rom 11:17–24) and its astounding claim that God will indeed graft the broken-off branches of unbelieving Israel back into the olive tree to join the branches of “remnant Jews” and believing Gentiles who have already been grafted to the olive tree.
Paul proclaims this future realization of God’s intention as “a mystery” (Rom 11:25). He is not referring here to a special revelation he had received, some esoteric secret communicated to him directly in a vision or dream. Rather, he is referring to God’s redemptive action and purpose, revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Christ which he proclaims (Rom 16:25; 1 Cor 2:1–2; Col 2:2, where “God’s mystery” is simply identified as “Christ”). Sometimes, as in this text, the term is used more specifically for God’s plan of salvation. The most instructive parallel to this text—which envisions the grafting of both Gentile and Jew into the same olive tree—is Ephesians 3:3–6, where Paul says that the content of the “mystery of Christ” is the inclusion of the Gentiles as fellow heirs of the promise with Jews in the new community of Christ’s body.
Within this overarching content of the mystery Paul proclaims is a more specific component, namely, that the “hardening [which] has come upon part of Israel” (Rom 11:25) is limited not only in extent, but also with regard to time: its rejection will last only “until the fullness of the Gentiles” comes (KJV). This completion of God’s purpose among the Gentiles leads then to the completion of that same redemptive purpose for Israel, in that “all Israel will be saved” (11:26). Commentators are agreed that “all Israel” means Israel “as a whole,” as a historical people who have a unique and particular identity, not necessarily including every individual Israelite. Support for this way of understanding the phrase “all Israel” comes from a rabbinic tract (Sanhedrin X, 1), where the statement “all Israelites have a share in the world to come” is immediately qualified by a list of exceptions, such as the Sadducees, heretics, magicians and so on. The salvation of Israel is comprehensive, but not all-inclusive. In this text, just as “the fullness of the Gentiles” does not mean that each individual Gentile will believe in his heart and confess with his lips (Rom 10:10), so the “fullness of Israel” cannot mean every individual Jew.
While in Romans 11:25–26 the present “part of Israel” which is hardened is contrasted with “all Israel” which will be saved in the future, it is clear that “all Israel” denotes both the already-saved remnant and the yet-to-be-saved “others” or “rest” (Rom 11:7). What is also clear from the whole thrust of the discussion in Romans 9–11 is that God’s purposes for the salvation of Israel will be realized in no other way and by no other means than through the preaching of the gospel and the response of faith. It is that preaching and that response which will lead to “life from the dead” (Rom 11:15), clearly a reference to the eschatological event of the resurrection which will be preceded by the “completion of Israel” (Rom 11:26) as the last stage in the process initiated by the death and resurrection of Jesus.
There is no indication anywhere in these chapters of Romans that Paul has in view the conversion of Israel as a nation-state, located on a particular piece of real estate. Already in Paul’s time, there were more Jews living outside Palestine than within. What Paul does envision is a time when the gospel will be heard and accepted by his people as a whole, scattered throughout the world but, nonetheless, a unique, identifiable people whose identity is rooted in the great historical events of redemptive history and whose future is guaranteed by the God who has saved his people and will again save them by “banish[ing] ungodliness” and “tak[ing] away their sins” (Rom 11:26–27 RSV). Note Isaiah 63:17 and Galatians 6:16.
Romans 11:26 has been at the heart of much Christian reflection about eschatology or doctrines about end times.
It's difficult to understand the precise meaning of Paul’s words “all Israel will be saved” though many theories abound.
Paul expresses deep pain over the fact that Israel, the people of God, had rejected their Messiah in Romans. The question of Israel’s fate, in light of its rejection of the early Christian proclamation that Jesus of Nazareth was the fulfillment of Israel’s prophetic hope, was very much in the consciousness of Jewish followers of the risen Christ.
Scholars assert that there is a sense of perplexity regarding Jewish unbelief throughout the New Testament beginning with the Gospels. But for Paul, it must have been particularly intense. After all, he was in opposition to Jesus as Messiah initially.
But beyond this Paul's people had been objects of God’s gracious activity through the calling of father Abraham, the creation of a nation, the deliverance of the exodus, the giving of law and covenant. They had been objects of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness from which “nothing can separate” as he had just confessed in Romans 8:35. If the word of God does not fail (Rom 9:6), why is Israel stuck in the failure of disobedience? That is the agonizing question which Paul addresses in Romans 9–11.
After sadness over Israel (Rom 9:1–5), Paul proceeds to show in a variety of ways that God’s redemptive purposes, inaugurated with the call of Abraham and brought to a climax in Christ, have in fact not failed, even with regard to the people of Israel.
He begins by demonstrating that from the very beginning belonging to the people of God was not a matter of birthright (Rom 9:7–8) or of human achievement (Rom 9:11, 16). Rather, membership in God’s family is determined solely by the promise (Rom 9:8), calling (Rom 9:11) and mercy (Rom 9:16) of God.
In this context, Paul introduces a different use of the term Israel, which he has already indicated earlier in this epistle (see Rom 2:28–29; see also Gal 3:7; 6:16); namely, there is an Israel “of the flesh” and an Israel “of the promise.”
Both are determined by the gracious action of God, but the latter transcends the boundaries of the former. That “the children of God” (Rom 9:8) have their existence purely on the basis of God’s calling and mercy by the analogy of the potter and the clay in Romans 9:19–23. The potter is sovereign over the clay. And, in that sovereignty, he has called into peoplehood a remnant both from the people of Israel and from the Gentiles. The citation of prophetic words from Hosea and Isaiah (Rom 9:25–26) underlines this fact.
In the following section (Rom 9:30–10:4), Paul goes on to state why the redemptive purposes of God are being received and realized among the Gentiles and why Israel as a whole is rejecting them.
Israel rejected the righteousness of God—his relation-restoring action that culminated in the servant-ministry of Jesus—because it sought to establish its own righteousness by external conformity to the law. This attempt to secure one’s own worth and standing with God, which according to Paul’s earlier discussion (Rom 2:17–29) invariably results in boasting and self-righteousness, leads to refusal to submit to God’s way (Rom 10:3). And God’s way is that as creatures we respond to the love and faithfulness of the Creator with faith, that we believe his Word, that we respond in trust (Rom 10:5–13).
The opportunity to respond to God in this way has been there throughout Israel’s history, as Paul demonstrates by reference to Old Testament texts (Rom 10:14–21). And throughout that history, including the coming of God’s righteousness in the Messiah, Israel has been “a disobedient and obstinate people” (Rom 10:21).
Does this history of rejection and disobedience mean that God has finally given up on his people Israel? That is the question which occupies Paul in the next section of the epistle (Rom 11:1–10). The answer to the question is no. For just as God called out a remnant from a disobedient nation in the past (Rom 9:2–4), so too there is a remnant in the present that has responded in faith to God’s grace (Rom 11:5). Paul himself is evidence of the existence of such a remnant within Judaism (Rom 11:1).
But the fact remains that the vast majority of Israel has refused to submit to God’s way of salvation and has rejected his Jesus Christ as their Messiah. True. But God is not yet done with his people. Though Paul has been very adamant throughout the epistle that faith and belonging to Christ are the only criteria for what it means to be “of the seed of Abraham” (Rom 2:20; 9:6–8), Paul also decidedly rejects the idea that this truth means the exclusion of the nation of Israel from God’s redemptive purposes (the analogy of the olive tree in Rom 11:17–24 underlines that). For him, such a conclusion would have been inconsistent with the historical election of Israel (see Rom 11:29).
Thus Paul acknowledges Israel’s failure and rejection (Rom 11:7), but he proceeds to argue that within God’s overarching purposes this reality is temporally limited. Indeed, God uses the present rejection for his purposes. This activity of God is underscored by the Scripture citations from Isaiah 29 and Psalm 69 about the hardening of Israel (Rom 11:8–10), for since Israel’s disobedience is placed in the service of God’s purpose, God can be spoken of as “hardening” Israel. But the goal of disobedience and hardening is not their ultimate rejection and destruction; it is, rather, twofold: (1) the salvation of the Gentiles (the world) and (2) the ultimate salvation of Israel (Rom 11:11–15).
Paul is convinced that through the proclamation of the gospel to the Gentiles and its acceptance by them, the promise to Abraham, that all the people of the earth shall be blessed in him, is being fulfilled (see Rom 4). He is also convinced, on the basis of Deuteronomy 32:21, which he cites in Romans 10:19, that the salvation of the Gentiles will provoke Israel to jealousy and open them to the gospel (Rom 11:11, 14).
Within the context of this argument, Paul anticipates the “mystery” regarding the nation of Israel’s ultimate destiny, which he will articulate in Romans 11:25–26. If the failure of Israel is leading to the salvation of the Gentiles, the manifestation of God’s grace and blessing will be much greater with “their full inclusion” (Rom 11:12). What does he mean by this expression?
The term translated “full inclusion” is the Greek word plērōma. The ASV renders this term by “fulfillment” or “fullness.” In Romans 11:25 the same expression is used again, but this time in connection with the Gentiles. Here the RSV renders it as “full number of the Gentiles,” while the ASV renders “fullness of the Gentiles.” This idea of a divinely predetermined number, which has to be made up of both Gentiles and Jews, is not within Paul’s purview here.
When noncanonical Jewish apocalyptic literature speaks of a “full number” of Israelites in relation to end events, the word used is not plērōma but arithmos. In Revelation 7:4 we read of “the number of the sealed” (RSV). The word used is again not plērōma but arithmos, and the number is generally regarded as symbolic rather than indicative of numerical extent. Thus we do better to seek the meaning for Paul’s use of plērōma in his use of the term elsewhere in his writings.
With but one exception (Rom 13:10), the most natural rendering of Paul’s use of plērōma is “fullness” or “completeness” (Rom 15:29; Gal 4:4; Eph 1:23; 3:19; 4:13; Col 1:19; 2:9). What then do the expressions “[Israel’s] fullness” (Rom 11:12) and “the fullness of the Gentiles” (Rom 11:25 KJV) mean? Light may be shed on this problem by Paul’s use of verbal cognates of plērōma in three texts where his mission to the Gentiles is in focus. In Romans 15:18–22 he speaks of having “fully proclaimed” the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles and now being desirous of expanding this mission to Spain. In Colossians 1:25–27 he speaks of having made the “word of God fully known” (RSV) among the Gentiles. And in 2 Timothy 4:17 he confesses God’s empowerment “so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.”
In light of these usages, Johannes Munck argues convincingly, in his book Christ and Israel, that Paul’s commitment to the full dissemination of the gospel to the Gentiles must provide the interpretive key to his use of plērōma in Romans 11. The expression “the fullness [or completion] of the Gentiles” in 11:25 (KJV) then denotes the final result of Paul’s proclamation of the gospel to the Gentiles. God’s purpose through that preaching is their salvation, their completion (as children of God in Christ; see Col 2:10).
The completion of the mission to the Gentiles will result in, or lead to, Israel’s “fullness” or “completion” (Rom 11:12), her “acceptance” (Rom 11:15). These phrases anticipate the affirmation that “all Israel will be saved.” The way from the anticipation of this conviction to this climactic expression is paved by the analogy of the olive tree (Rom 11:17–24) and its astounding claim that God will indeed graft the broken-off branches of unbelieving Israel back into the olive tree to join the branches of “remnant Jews” and believing Gentiles who have already been grafted to the olive tree.
Paul proclaims this future realization of God’s intention as “a mystery” (Rom 11:25). He is not referring here to a special revelation he had received, some esoteric secret communicated to him directly in a vision or dream. Rather, he is referring to God’s redemptive action and purpose, revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Christ which he proclaims (Rom 16:25; 1 Cor 2:1–2; Col 2:2, where “God’s mystery” is simply identified as “Christ”). Sometimes, as in this text, the term is used more specifically for God’s plan of salvation. The most instructive parallel to this text—which envisions the grafting of both Gentile and Jew into the same olive tree—is Ephesians 3:3–6, where Paul says that the content of the “mystery of Christ” is the inclusion of the Gentiles as fellow heirs of the promise with Jews in the new community of Christ’s body.
Within this overarching content of the mystery Paul proclaims is a more specific component, namely, that the “hardening [which] has come upon part of Israel” (Rom 11:25) is limited not only in extent, but also with regard to time: its rejection will last only “until the fullness of the Gentiles” comes (KJV). This completion of God’s purpose among the Gentiles leads then to the completion of that same redemptive purpose for Israel, in that “all Israel will be saved” (11:26). Commentators are agreed that “all Israel” means Israel “as a whole,” as a historical people who have a unique and particular identity, not necessarily including every individual Israelite. Support for this way of understanding the phrase “all Israel” comes from a rabbinic tract (Sanhedrin X, 1), where the statement “all Israelites have a share in the world to come” is immediately qualified by a list of exceptions, such as the Sadducees, heretics, magicians and so on. The salvation of Israel is comprehensive, but not all-inclusive. In this text, just as “the fullness of the Gentiles” does not mean that each individual Gentile will believe in his heart and confess with his lips (Rom 10:10), so the “fullness of Israel” cannot mean every individual Jew.
While in Romans 11:25–26 the present “part of Israel” which is hardened is contrasted with “all Israel” which will be saved in the future, it is clear that “all Israel” denotes both the already-saved remnant and the yet-to-be-saved “others” or “rest” (Rom 11:7). What is also clear from the whole thrust of the discussion in Romans 9–11 is that God’s purposes for the salvation of Israel will be realized in no other way and by no other means than through the preaching of the gospel and the response of faith. It is that preaching and that response which will lead to “life from the dead” (Rom 11:15), clearly a reference to the eschatological event of the resurrection which will be preceded by the “completion of Israel” (Rom 11:26) as the last stage in the process initiated by the death and resurrection of Jesus.
There is no indication anywhere in these chapters of Romans that Paul has in view the conversion of Israel as a nation-state, located on a particular piece of real estate. Already in Paul’s time, there were more Jews living outside Palestine than within. What Paul does envision is a time when the gospel will be heard and accepted by his people as a whole, scattered throughout the world but, nonetheless, a unique, identifiable people whose identity is rooted in the great historical events of redemptive history and whose future is guaranteed by the God who has saved his people and will again save them by “banish[ing] ungodliness” and “tak[ing] away their sins” (Rom 11:26–27 RSV). Note Isaiah 63:17 and Galatians 6:16.
So if a person stands on the plain words of Christ when he walked this earth they are damned , a heretic and will go to hell(Mark)
Yes because you are not understanding that Jesus was both the Son of Man (Mary) and the Son of God.
He taught and preached as a man from a human perspective.
A bit like a teacher lowering themselves to the level of a child, while at the same time being a great scientist.(the responder)
The above shows where that 'head knowledge' you mentioned leads for some sadly
Yes because you are not understanding that Jesus was both the Son of Man (Mary) and the Son of God.
He taught and preached as a man from a human perspective.
A bit like a teacher lowering themselves to the level of a child, while at the same time being a great scientist.(the responder)
The above shows where that 'head knowledge' you mentioned leads for some sadly
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