Jesus said:
And this gospel of the kingdom
will be proclaimed
throughout the whole world
as a testimony to all nations,
and then the end will come
—Matthew 24:14
That could mean that the Gospel won't stop being preached to Gentiles until "the end".
If so, then when Paul said "blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in..." he likely meant, until the end.
Meaning, that rather than God's focus turning away from Gentiles to national Israel, and blindness being lifted off Israel immediately prior to the end, the present scenario could instead continue until the very end.
(The present scenario being as Paul described: that a remnant of Jews believed first; that blindness in part happened to the rest of Israel; that Gentiles then heard and believed; that the door wasn't closed to Jews, but God began using Gentiles to provoke more Jews to faith, to the effect that both Gentiles and Jews were becoming believers simultaneously.)
"...and so all Israel will be saved".
Not, and then all Israel - but, and so all Israel will be saved, he said.
And then he immediately quotes a sample Old Testament prophecy - which evidently was fulfilled by Messiah's first coming, not only by His second coming - or else no-one has ever yet been saved!
In which case Paul's meaning possibly could have been not that the nationwide salvation of Israel would then follow in history, but that the preceding explanation he had given was the precise manner in which prophecies concerning Israel's salvation had indeed already seen their intended fulfilment.
Or alternatively, are there gaps between the end? epochs of history to be played-out between when the end begins and when the end ends? or, how many 'ends' are there?
It might be interesting to study every instance when the Bible mentions "the end" - and take note of what's meant to happen, and when, and see whether it must all happen at once or whether epochs of time can transpire in-between for it all to happen.
And this gospel of the kingdom
will be proclaimed
throughout the whole world
as a testimony to all nations,
and then the end will come
—Matthew 24:14
That could mean that the Gospel won't stop being preached to Gentiles until "the end".
If so, then when Paul said "blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in..." he likely meant, until the end.
Meaning, that rather than God's focus turning away from Gentiles to national Israel, and blindness being lifted off Israel immediately prior to the end, the present scenario could instead continue until the very end.
(The present scenario being as Paul described: that a remnant of Jews believed first; that blindness in part happened to the rest of Israel; that Gentiles then heard and believed; that the door wasn't closed to Jews, but God began using Gentiles to provoke more Jews to faith, to the effect that both Gentiles and Jews were becoming believers simultaneously.)
"...and so all Israel will be saved".
Not, and then all Israel - but, and so all Israel will be saved, he said.
And then he immediately quotes a sample Old Testament prophecy - which evidently was fulfilled by Messiah's first coming, not only by His second coming - or else no-one has ever yet been saved!
In which case Paul's meaning possibly could have been not that the nationwide salvation of Israel would then follow in history, but that the preceding explanation he had given was the precise manner in which prophecies concerning Israel's salvation had indeed already seen their intended fulfilment.
Or alternatively, are there gaps between the end? epochs of history to be played-out between when the end begins and when the end ends? or, how many 'ends' are there?
It might be interesting to study every instance when the Bible mentions "the end" - and take note of what's meant to happen, and when, and see whether it must all happen at once or whether epochs of time can transpire in-between for it all to happen.
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