Romans 9:27-29
Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
only the remnant will be saved.
For the Lord will carry out
his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”
It is just as Isaiah said previously:
“Unless the Lord Almighty
had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have been like Gomorrah.”
Fascinating.
I can only wonder if it is available to pray for more than Israel’s stated remnant to be saved, thus countering the prophecy of Isaiah. What I am led to think is that, as many Israelites who come to Christ, becoming ‘Christians’, become part of the number that ‘has no limit’; as God told Abraham to consider the stars of the sky to reckon the number of his progeny;
Though, of the Kingdom of Israel, an Israelite who holds fast to the old covenant and refuses to recognize God’s messiah, of this set, it is clear that only a limited number will be ‘saved’. For though ‘salvation’ belongs to Israel, and the Lord ‘came to his own’, how few from the old covenant are said in scripture to have ‘believed’, God’. Abraham, Moses, Joseph, Jacob, Enoch, Noah, Jonah, Elijah, Elisha, Samson, Nehemiah, Daniel,.et al.
It does seem that the representation of the entire nation, is as Dr. Hutchens suggests – 1%.
I have to disagree with you about this. You have to read Romans 11 to make sense of what will take place. As God is a God of His word He would not contradict Himself. In verse 26 of Romans 11 it states…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: for this is my covenant with them………(KJV) It is folly to take one scripture out on its own without consulting others. As for the 144000, these are the Jews who will be preaching to their own kinsmen during the tribulation period. I repeat read all of Romans 11.
Indeed the “all Israel will be saved” in Romans 11: 26, is that “third part” in Zech. 13: 9 that alone as Jews from National Israel, that will be physically spared at the Day of the Lord, the eschatological end, in Zech. 14: 1-5, etc. But they must pass through that time as Jesus said in Matt. 24: 21-22, “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.”
Yes, surely, only “a remnant according to God’s gracious choice.” (Rom. 11: 5) We must read the whole of Romans 11, with chapters 9 and 10!
Again Dr. Jim Hutchens, thank you for the Truth Report, always in context. I continue to pray for Isreal and her people and witness as opportunity presents itself, knowing God’s word will not return to Him void. Just to share a scripture I came across, I love the one, Jeremiah 31:31-40. Just one question, why does the sign say “Trust the lies -Not the truth” I do not understand”( the one on the truth report)?
In Scripture, “all” doesn’t always mean “all.” It can be all of a subset. Therefore, it is clear that “all Israel shall be saved” doesn’t mean all the Jews. Or even all the physical descendants of Abraham. In Rom. 9:6, Paul just told us “they are not ALL ISRAEL who are descended from Israel.” Esau was excluded, for example. There is an Israel within Israel – the chosen line of Issac. This is the “remnant.” It is made up of believing Jews and all of us who formerly were “gentiles,” as Paul informs us in today’s lesson (see vs.24). If you have any doubt that we non-Jews who are in Messiah Jesus are included in that chosen remnant read Gal. 4:28: “And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.”
The reason the Church is so confused on this issue is because our paradigm is wrong. As I heard Caroline Glick explain recently, anytime your understanding is based on a false paradigm all further understanding will go askew. She was referring to why the Middle East “two-state” Peace Plan continues to fail because it is based on the belief that the root cause of Jihadist anger is due to the lack of a Palestinian State. Which it is not. It is based on their hatred for a Jewish state of any size coming into the region the deem sacred to Allah. In the same way, Christians have been taught to believe that God now has two separate people groups – the Jews (modern Israel) and the Church. An earthly people and a heavenly people. Instead of seeing that Jesus only has one flock with one shepherd. Before he died he prayed we’d all be one. It is time for the ecclesia of God to wake up and see we have been grafted into the Israel of God, and Jesus prayer is soon to be fulfilled We are in the remnant. We are just waiting for God’s grace to be shed on our Jewish brothers, so all those chosen descendents from both camps can become ALL ISRAEL. This is prophesied in Ezek. 37:15-2
As for the 144,000, I believe that is just a representative figure for the perfect number of the remnant, who is “all Israel.” Keep reading and you see the same group described as “a great multitude which no one could count from every nation. (Rev. 7:9). And in Rev. 14:4 the same144,000 are described as those “who have been purchased from men as the first fruits to God and to the Lamb.” The same group who we were told earlier (Rev. 5:9,10) that Jesus purchased …from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”
Revisited article. I did not connect the satire of the sign to your opening remarks,regarding the error of replacement theology.
Believe that Zechariah 13:8-9 paints a better picture than 1%, but still a sad ending for a majority of those to whom were provided the oracles of God.
The end of what were have heard and read is something up to God. Consider this: we have Jewish folks here in America who are blatantly and publicly ant-Israel. God has dealt with the rebellious element of His people in the past in like manner to Numbers 16 and repeatedly in the writings of the major prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. He has not changed, then or now. He has the final word.
Whether it’s 1%, or 80%; the matter is in GOD’S hands. After all, HE is the ultimate mathematician.
True Israel has always and will always be regenerate Israel. The 144,000 Jews, 12,000 from each named tribe of Israel will be the result of Elijah’s evangelizing at the very beginning of the tribulation period. Elijah will announce the restoration of the kingdom that was rejected by Israel at the first advent. Not every Jew is true Israel, but all of true Israel will be spared and saved.