Free audio sermons: Get free audio sermons through this free Christan sermon podcast!

Friday, October 9, 2009

WILL ALL ISRAEL BE SAVED?

Certain Premillennial doctrines persist, despite the impossibilities that come in believing both them and the message of the Bible.  Many of these Premillennial ideas center around the belief that Jesus is going to return to earth for 1,000 years and reign on David's physical throne.  There are ideas about what will happen concerning the peoples of earth who are alive when these things are alleged to occur, and one of these ideas involve the restoration of physical Israel.  Many Premillennialists appeal to Paul's words in Romans 11:26, where he says, "And so all Israel will be saved."  Is Paul saying that at some point every Jew is going to be saved?  A careful consideration of Romans 11 answers that with relative simplicity.

The context of Romans 11 centers around the idea that all people, Jew and Gentile, are reconciled to God through Christ.  Since the Pentecost following Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, many Jews had accepted the gospel of Christ and become part of His church.  They came through Christ, not Moses' law (cf. Rom. 7).  Yet, starting with Cornelius and his household, the gospel of Christ was preached to Gentiles, too.  This had created feelings of prejudice and hostility on the part of the Jews, hesitant to accept Gentiles into their fellowship.  Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles (11:13), often defended their right to be in the one body with the Jews.  However, the Gentiles now appear to be struggling with feelings of contempt toward the Jews.  Paul has to remind the Gentiles that the gospel first went to the Jews and only later were Gentiles grafted into the figurative tree.  The factor determining whether one was in Christ or not was not ethnicity, but rather "faith" or "unbelief" (11:20).


Some have suggested Paul's statement in verse 26 means that in the same way the Gentiles are saved, "So all Israel will be saved."  While that is a true statement, I do not believe this is what Paul is saying here.  Paul had begun his discussion about God's sovereign choice back in Romans nine with these words, "But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect.  For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, 'In Isaac your seed shall be called.' That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed" (7-8).  The Israel of Romans 11:26 is not the physical nation of the Jews.  Instead, it is the spiritual Israel of the church.  The New Testament often appeals to the church as the new, spiritual Israel, an allusion that points to the fact that Christians are God's new chosen people and His special people with whom He is in covenant relationship (cf. Rom. 2:28-29; Gal. 3:21-4:31; 6:16; Heb. 12:22; etc.).  All of us, including Premillennialists, need to understand that salvation is not tied to any physical nation or geographic location.  Salvation is through Christ and in Christ.  That opportunity is open to anyone who will get into Christ (cf. Gal. 3:26-29).  Let us thank God that He is not looking at skin color or genealogy; He sees the blood of His Son as it is applied to our souls.
 
--Neal Pollard
 


Get a wide range of easy to use Bible material from the abiblecommentary.com web site and my Christian blog. You may also subscribe to my e-devotional on twitter and use the FREE on line Romans commentary.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

How to be saved

Are you wondering how to be saved? Are you searching for information on how to be saved? Do you want to know what God requires you to do to be saved from your sins? Learn how to be saved from sin and have heaven you home by visiting http://www.abiblecommentary.com/newtestamentchristianity today! There is also a good discussion on how to be saved at http://www.commentaryonthebible.com/howtobesaved

Bible commentary search engine

On line Bible commentary

My Bible commentary books are now listed on openlibrary.org, a VERY useful web site! Check out this neat web site and my profile there at this link: http://openlibrary.org/people/abible

Commentary on the Bible listing

Yelp.com has helped me promote the "Bible commentary" products from www.abiblecommentary.com - my "yelp listing" is here: http://abiblecommentary.yelp.com

Flickr.com Bible commentary profile

I added my "Bible commentary" profile to flickr and it was EASY! Check it out at http://www.flickr.com/people/abiblecommentary/

Blogs from www.livejournal.com

Are you interested in blogging? If you are looking for a "free blog" that is EASY to use, check out www.livejournal.com. You can be up in running in just minutes - here is my first "Bible commentary" blog post: http://abible.livejournal.com/

Blog Archive