ALL ISRAEL SHALL BE SAVED"
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Tom, this is a comprehensive answer but I will address some other poinst in another post.
May the Holy Spirit give you a spirit of wisdom and understanding
as you read. I pray that the will of God be done and may He be
glorified in Jesus' name. Amen.
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Concerning Rom. 11:25-32. '"all Israel shall be saved"
The key verse to understand this group of verses is: "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." Has the deliverer come? Yes, Jesus is without a doubt the deliverer. Has He turned ungodliness from Jacob? Here is the key question? Jesus not only had to be the deliverer, but He also had to turn ungodliness from the true Israel of God. The Holy Spirit in our hearts tells us that prophecy cannot fail. We know if God said He will turn ungodliness from Jacob, then He will do it. God gave us these prophecies hundreds of years before the Jesus' day. If we consider the Jews of today as Israel, then it appears that the prophecies concerning "all Israel shall be saved" have failed. Tens of millions of modern Jews have died in the last two thousand years still rejecting Jesus. These Jews died in their sins and if they are the true descendants of Abraham and Jacob, then Jesus did not "turn ungodliness from Jacob" as the prophecy tells us. God forbid. We know that cannot be true. Jesus fulfilled the prophecy as St. Paul tells us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So, the question is, who is "ALL ISRAEL" who has been saved. I struggled with these verses for years until the Lord revealed His truth. God answers the question in His Word. Turn to Rom. Ch.9 and read verses 4-8 carefully. Verse 6 unfolds the mystery. "Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. FOR THEY ARE NOT ALL ISRAEL WHICH ARE OF ISRAEL: When the light of this verse first hit me, I saw the whole picture. Notice verse 8, "That is , They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Refer to Gal.,3:16: Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ"
God is telling us that there are true Israelites and there are false Israelites. The way to recognize the True Israelites in the New Covenant is to find those with FAITH in Jesus. Who are the children of the Promise-- Those who have Faith in Jesus; this is the faith of Abraham--Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now turn to Rom.11 and read verses 1-6. The Spirit begins by "I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid." The only people God has ever had are those that have had the Faith of Abraham. God will never cast away His children of the faith of Abraham. Now turn to verse 5. "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." IT IS THAT REMNANT THAT IS "ALL OF ISRAEL". Similarly, in the days of Elijah there were only 7000 TRUE ISRAELITES-men of faith- out of millions of Jews alive at that time. So in the days of Jesus there was a much larger Remnanat who were the
True Israel of God. This is the great deliverance and salvation of His people Israel. Turn to verse 7. "What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded." All of the True Israelites in the generation of Jews during Jesus's ministry were saved. This is how all the 'true Israelites were saved'. This was the first wave of salvation--The Apostles and the disciples that the inner group were all Jews. Then as the Apostles and disciples began to preach, tens of thousands of Jews were saved as recorded by Acts. There were several thousands saved in one day when Peter preached his famous sermon in Acts Ch. 2. Read verse 40. "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized; and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls." This verse gives us a glimpse of "ALL ISRAEL' in the process of being saved. These waves of Jewish conversion continued until the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD---this was the physical end of the OLD COVENANT and the end of Old Testament Judaism. The spiritual and real end of the Old Covenant occurred when Jesus was Crucified and raised from the dead. We can see in the Scriputres that many many tens of thousands were being saved. In ch 4 verse 32 it calls them a multitude. Turn to Acts 6:7. "and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith." We know if a great company of priests had been coverted that their must have been tens of thusands of Jews being converted. This also fufills the prophecy about the sons of Levi offering scrifices in righteousness.
After these ALL OF TRUE ISRAEL were converted, they went out and bagan to convert the whole world. It was these Jewish Apostles who converted our ancestors. Praise God--God's Word has been fulfilled to the T for those with ears. Going back to our original verse "and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob" The Lord Jesus Christ achieved this by dying on the Cross. When the true Jews the true sons of Jacob accepted Jesus their ungodliness was turned away. After the conversion of the true Israelites or true Jews, the real Jews separated themselves from the false Jews and through the power of the Holy Spirit, established the Church.
The Jews who rejected Jesus established what God called "THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN" Rev. 2:9, 3:9. Since God had destroyed the Temple, the Priesthood, the Genealogies,
the Ark of the Covenant and all the Temple furniture, the old
Temple Judaism no longer existed. The NEW COVENANT in Jesus' blood
had replaced the OLD COVENANT. The OLD COVENANT was now dead.
Hebrews 8:13 "In that he saith, a new covenant, he hath made the first old,n Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away."
The old Covenant has indeed vanished away with the Temple, the priesthood, the Temple furniture, the genealogies, and been relplaced
with the glorious NEW COVENANT in JESUS' BLOOD--the holy Christian Church--the Body of Christ.
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Romans 2
28: For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh.
29: 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.
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Galatians 3
16: Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
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Galatians 3
29: And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
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Chapter: Phil.3
2: Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
3: For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
4: Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
5: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
6: Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
7: But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
8: Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,and do count them but dung, that I may win
Christ,
9: And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
May the Lord be glorified and His will be done.
Emile |
