Hello, this is Pastor Steven Anderson from Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona.
Today I want to talk about Romans 11, 25, and 26.
These are verses that people will often use to say that God's not through with the physical
nation of Israel, and although they're in unbelief now, and although they reject the
Lord Jesus Christ now, in the end times they're going to turn to the Lord, and they're going
to be restored, and they're going to be God's people once again, and that's why we should
still recognize the physical nation of Israel, because he's not through with them yet.
They're going to be saved.
Now, listen to these scriptures from Romans 11, 25, and 26.
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should
be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness
of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved.
As it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob.
So they'll point to that and say, see, blindness is only happened to Israel until the fullness
of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved.
And they say right there, that shows that the blindness is temporary, because once the
fullness of the Gentiles has come in, Israel's no longer going to be blinded.
And they'll say, you know, that's when the church age is over, and he ceases to deal
with the Gentiles, and he starts dealing with Israel again.
I'm going to show you just how unbiblical this is, and I think the key is to figure
out when this is talking about, because he says that blindness has happened in Israel
until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
Let's see when that is.
In Luke 21, the Bible reads in verse 24, and they shall fall by the edge of the sword,
and shall be led away captive into all nations.
And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be
fulfilled.
I want you to make note of that, that Jerusalem is trodden down of the Gentiles until the
times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Listen to Revelation 11 verse 2, the Bible reads, but the court which is without the
temple leave out, and measure it not.
For it is given unto the Gentiles, and the holy city shall they tread underfoot, same
wording as Luke 21, forty and two months.
And I will give power unto my two witnesses.
So when is the time of the Gentiles fulfilled, or the fullness of the Gentiles come in?
Well, according to scripture, it's after Jerusalem has been trodden underfoot for 42 months.
That would put it three and a half years after the abomination of desolation.
And that would basically put it at the beginning of the millennial reign of Christ.
Because the abomination of desolation takes place in the midst of Daniel's 70th week.
That's when Jerusalem is going to be destroyed and trodden underfoot.
Forty-two months later, we have Jesus Christ setting up his kingdom on this earth in the
millennium.
That's the when of Romans 11, 25, and 26.
So if we go back to Romans 11, 25, and 26 with that in mind, it says, for I would not
brethren that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own
conceits, that blindness in part is happened unto Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles
be come in.
When is that?
Forty-two months after the abomination of desolation, the beginning of the millennial
reign of Jesus Christ.
Listen to the next verse.
And so all Israel shall be saved as it is written there shall come out of Zion the deliverer
and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
So when is it that Israel is no longer going to be blind and all Israel is going to be
saved?
It's in the millennial reign of Jesus Christ because when Jesus Christ physically returns
to this earth and sets up his kingdom and he's there ruling and reigning from Zion,
from Jerusalem, at that time Israel will no longer be blinded.
They'll all be saved.
Why?
Because all of unbelieving Israel will have already been wiped out.
They're going to have been destroyed.
So it's not that in the end times, all of the unsaved, unbelieving Israelites are all
going to turn unto Jesus Christ.
That's not what the Bible is teaching.
What it's actually teaching is that in the millennial reign of Christ, all of the unbelievers
of Israel will have been wiped out.
And at that time, all Israel shall be saved.
There'll be no more ungodliness than Jacob.
There'll be no blindness upon the children of Israel because it will only be saved Israel
that's even there.
That's the only way all Israel can be saved.
God's not, I've heard some people say every single Israelite will just turn to Christ
at that point.
That's not even biblical salvation because biblical salvation involves our free will.
People don't just automatically get saved because of their nationality.
They just happen to be a Jew living in the end time.
So they automatically get saved when Christ comes.
That's not how salvation works.
All Israel shall be saved because they're not all Israel which are of Israel.
And this is talking about the true saved Israel that's going to inherit the kingdom in the
millennium.
Look, the millennium is going to be a kingdom that's ruled and reigned over by Christians,
by believers.
But of course, there have been lots of saved Jews and saved Israelites through the years
and they'll be a part of that kingdom.
This is not teaching that somehow before that the Jews are going to turn unto Christ.
No, this is talking about at the beginning of the millennial reign of Christ and that's
because unbelieving Israel will have been wiped out.
So all Israel shall be saved.