By: Toddwott

Toddwott — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 13:52:52 +0000

Hi,
I have some questions that I hope you can answer. I’m trying to wade through all the opinions about future prophecy.
1) God is no respecter of persons and shows no favoritism, since all have fallen short of His glory. But it seems to me that if Israel is saved at the Second Coming, when they look on Him whom they pierced, it would be a case of being saved by sight rather than by faith. And in Jesus’ words to Thomas, those of faith are blessed, not those of sight.
2) I don’t understand the national salvation of Israel. Isn’t God showing favoritism if He is choosing to save the entire nation? Has He ever saved an entire nation of Gentiles? And if Israel is to inherit the land, don’t the Gentiles who have been grafted into then also inherit the land? The promise was to Abraham’s seed, which is Christ, and to all who are in Him. So the broken off natural branches are grafted into the same tree that Gentiles are grafted into, which must be the Church.
Paul says that not all who are descended from Israel are Israel, meaning, not all Israelites are elect, but only those of faith. He also says that Gentiles are also included in the elect, through being in Christ, while those who refuse to believe the prophet will be completely cut off (circumcised) from the nation. How does “all Israel will be saved” mean the entire nation will be saved if, though they be like the sands of the seashore, only a remnant will be saved? Is it a remnant of ethnic Jews that are saved, or only a remnant?
3) To me, it sounds like, though the Church is made up of Jew and Gentile, that somehow God loves the Jewish aspect of the Church more than the Gentile. Was God’s purpose in electing Israel to make for Himself a special nation, or to save all the nations through Jesus, the True Israel.
4) I read somewhere that God has hardened the Jews in order that Gentile may be brought in. How does the continued hardening accomplish the salvation of Gentiles? The hardening of the one generation that crucified Jesus has already accomplished that. Why continue the hardening? What I see in Paul’s explanation in Romans 9-11 is not the hardening of Israel, but a partial hardening until the fulness of the Gentiles comes in. But, comes into what? What do the Gentiles come into? The elect remnant of the Olive Tree, making them just as much Israel as the natural branches, since both are in Christ. So “all Israel” to me, seems to refer to the entire Olive Tree with both kinds of branches. “And in this way,” (not “and then”) all Israel will be saved. How can it be “all” if only a remnant are saved? Is it all, or is it a remnant?
5) Will ethnic Israel be a special nation in the Millennium? And for what purpose? To be a light to the nations? If so, did the Church fail in its mission? It seems that both Jesus and Israel fail in their mission during the Millennium, since a horde as the sands of the seashore rebel at the end. And what happens to the mortal believers after the Millennium? Are they raptured, translated into immortality?
I know this is a lot of questions. I hope you have the time to answer them.

Comments on: Translations

By: Toddwott