This lesson (21 mins) focuses on Romans 9-11. Messianics, along with millions of evangelicals, believe the Bible predicts a mass conversion of Israel. The biblical support for this is weak to non-existent.
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Main ideas:
- In Rom 11:25, plērōma means fullness, not "full number." (The identical term appears in 13:10 and 15:29. Also John 1:16; 1 Cor 10:26; Gal 4:4; etc.)
- Rom 9:6: Ancestry doesn't count; "Israel" = children of faith, not Abraham's physical descendants.
- "All Israel" refers to true Israel—those who by faith are the sons and daughters of Abraham.
- "Remnant" (11:5) implies a minority, just as during O.T. times.
- Rom 9-11 answers the question of why most Jews failed to embrace Jesus as the Messiah. Predicting events two millennia later would not have addressed this question at all!
- The "resurrection" of Ezek 37 pertains to the return from exile (6th C. BC), with overtones of Rev 21-22. It does not refer to the founding of the modern State of Israel (1948).
- Large-scale "end-times" acceptance of fleshly Israel would be manifestly unfair to generations past.
- Thus there is no true scriptural basis for an end-times mass conversion of modern-day Jews.
Next: What about Shabbat?
