"And so all Israel shall be saved"
When Paul said, "And so all Israel shall be saved", I could be wrong, but I think he meant in effect, "And that's the manner in which the prophecies about Israel's salvation are finding their fulfillment".
I don't think Paul meant that there will come a nationwide revival in Israel during some special dispensation aside from the dispensation of the Gospel.
A lot of end-timers are using this particular Scripture to portray a grandiose picture of Israel's future.
Some of the end-timers imagine this grandiose future will happen before the second coming (because they realize no-one can be saved after the second coming).
Other end-timers claim it will happen after the second coming and during the Millenium (because a nationwide revival in Israel doesn't quite fit their picture of events during what they call "The Great Tribulation"). Therefore they invent the heresy that Jews can be saved a different way, even after the second coming. Whenever a prophecy doesn't quite fit their "Great Tribultion" picture, they tend to just slot the Scripture into "The Millenium" or into some future period when God makes special provisions aside from the Gospel exclusively for Jews.
And other end-timers probably haven't given it enough thought.
Here's what I think Paul may have meant - but I'm not 100% sure:
I think Paul's objective in the chapter may have been simply to explain God's presentday dealings with Israelites.
Perhaps it had become necessary for the Romans to hear such an explanation - because Paul needed to warn the Roman believers against becoming conceited.
Perhaps they were at risk of boasting over the Jews because they themselves were receiving salvation but Israel was missing out.
Some Roman believers may even have been thinking it was no longer possible for any Jewish individuals to be saved at all.
Others may have been confused - thinking God hadn't kept His promises to Israel.
So in order to correct their ideas and attitudes, Paul needed to explain God's present-day dealings with Israelites. He needed to explain the manner in which the Messianic prophecies had been fulfilled - to clear-up any confusion.
First of all, Paul explained that God had not made it impossible for any Jews to be saved - because Paul himself was a Jew.
Secondly, Paul explained that God's Messianic promises to Israel had not failed - they were fulfilled in the sense that all Jews who believed were being saved, and the rest had become hard-hearted. Paul quoted some Scriptures to prove that it was destined to happen this way.
Thirdly, Paul explained that he was trying to provoke his own countrymen to jealousy, in hopes of saving some of them - in his own generation. So Paul was asserting the distinct possibility that Jewish people could still be saved, if they believe.
Fourthly, he told the Roman believers not to become too proud about their own position with God, seeing God is still able to save any Jew who believes.
Fifthly, Paul explained the manner in which the mysterious prophecies about the Messiah and Israel's salvation had been fulfilled - they were fulfilled in the sense that some Jews had believed and received while the rest became hard-hearted - and at the same time many Gentiles had also believed and received - and both shall continue side-by-side until the end. That's how the prophecies were fulfilled.
And then he said, "...and so all Israel shall be saved..."
Notice he didn't say, "and then all Israel shall be saved..." No.
He said, "And so [not, 'and then'] all Israel shall be saved.
In other words, he was saying, "And that is the manner in which all Jewish people can [still] be saved".
He wasn't meaning to say: "And then (after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in) God's attention shall revert back to Israel and then every single Jewish person will be saved." No.
He said: "And so [in that manner, which I've just described to you] the prophecies about Israel's salvation are being fulfilled".
Paul never mentioned any special future period for Israel in which God will again revert His attention to them in terms of offering them a different method of obtaining salvation outside of the general Gospel.
Paul was explaining the presentday dealings of God with Jews - he was not forecasting a special future period for the Jews in which God will begin to deal with them according to a different program other than the Gospel.
In this chapter Paul was not dealing with a future fulfillment of as-yet-unfulfilled Messianic prophecies - he was dealing with fulfilled prophecy: he was explaining the manner of God's presentday dealings with Jews. Jews can still be saved along with Gentiles, and in that manner, the prophecy has been and is being fulfilled.
There doesn't appear to have been anything more or anything less than that, in Paul's treatment of prophecy.
So that eliminates the need for some of the wacky heresies such as God having some different future program to procure the salvation of Israel aside from the general Gospel.
Of course I'm not 100% sure that I've grasped Paul's line of thought accurately though. Any comments?
No comments:
Post a Comment