The Future Salvation of Israel Controversy

Northwest Bible Church – January 9, 2005 Worship Service – Alan Conner
Rom. 11:23-27
The Future Salvation of Israel Controversy

 
INTRO
Any study of end times must deal with the subject of the future of Israel. There is no greater passage of Scripture dealing with this subject than Romans 11. The key verse is Rom. 11:26, but all do not agree on how to interpret it.

1) Future revival view.

2) Church view.

3) Remnant view.
See William Hendriksen, Louis Berkhof, Herman Bavink; G. C. Berkouwer; Herman Ridderbos; O. Palmer Robertson; Herman Hoeksema; Lenski; Anthony Hoekema; Hans LaRondelle, etc. (Many within Dutch Reformed).

DISCLAMER: if #1 is the right view and Israel does experience a future revival in which all Israel (or the vast majority) of Jews will be saved, it does not support the dispensational view that Israel will have its own separate program.

SUPPORT FOR THE REMNANT VIEW

REASON #1 - The flow of the context in Romans deals with God’s salvation of a remnant in Israel not her salvation as a nation. Consider:

1) The Israel within Israel principle (9:6).
2) Isaiah’s remnant principle (9:27). An abiding principle.
3) Israel’s accountability for her unbelief (ch. 10).
4) God has not rejected Israel totally (11:1-10). Present perspective, not future.
5) Israel’s “fullness” (Romans 11:12) and “acceptance” (Romans 11:15) do not imply the future end-time revival view.
6) The present focus (not future) of Paul’s summary (11:30-32).

REASON #2 - The possibility of Jews being grafted back into the tree (Romans 11:23-24).

1) The possibility of Jews being regrafted back into the olive tree (Romans 11:23).

2) The reasonableness of this (Romans 11:24).

If Paul believed that the future salvation of Israel was a certainty (Romans 11:26), then why express it with a conditional “if” that expresses uncertainty in Romans 11:23?

REASON #3 - The mystery of God’s plan of salvation for Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (Romans 11:25).

1) The meaning of the “mystery.”

So what is the mystery? This mystery could be the same as the mystery in Rom. 16:25-26; and in Eph. 3:4-6. But the mystery may also include the idea of how God is saving the Jewish remnant through the JEALOUSY which comes from the Gentiles receiving their blessings.

2) The meaning of “until the fullness of the Gentiles has comes in.”

The “until” does not, by itself, imply a reversal of the hardening of Israel when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (see the use of “until” in Rom. 5:13; 8:22; 1 Cor. 15:25; Heb. 1:13 etc.).

REASON #4 - “So” in Romans 11:26 does not mean “after this,” or “then” (in a temporal sense).

1) The future revival view understands this as if it says “and after this” or “then” (in a temporal sense). But the Greek word ou¢twß means “in this manner” and is never given a temporal meaning like “then.” See BAG. Cf. Rom. 11:5.

2) Paul is not saying that “Israel has experienced hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles comes in, then, (after this has happened), all Israel will be saved. Rather he says that “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way (see Romans 11:25) all Israel will be saved.”
In other words, ALL ISRAEL WILL BE SAVED as God saves the remnant (those not hardened) and this will occur up until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in at the end of the age.

3) Remember Israel’s fullness in Romans 11:12 is the same word as in Romans 11:25.

REASON #5 - If the “all” in “all Israel” (Romans 11:26) refers only to the last generation of Jews, then it does not do justice to the word for they will only be a tiny fragment of the total number of Jews who have lived on the earth.

REASON #6 - The support of the O.T. (Romans 11:26-27).

This reference is probably to the first coming of Christ, not the second coming.

SUMMARY