Thread: This passage is somewhat of a block for me...

Romans 11:25-26

25For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery--so that you will not be wise in your own estimation--that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in;

26and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written,
"THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION,
HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB."

The words "partial" and "until" really strike at me. The dispie would point quickly and say, "See, it's only for awhile." Could anyone help? Please?

This passage may be taken two different ways, neither of which is prejudicial to a non-dispensational understanding of the passage.

1) The "hardening in part" simply refers to the fact ethnic Israel has a non-elect "part" and an elect "part", and this fact is an inter-advential reality that isn't going away, not as long as it is necessary to "make room" in the "olive tree" for Gentiles to be "grafted on". IOW, there is a predetermined number of the elect, and not all of them are of ethnic Israel, although ethnic Israel gave the church its initial form. God broke useless (hardened) branches off that one tree in order to make room for the Gentiles, and he continues to save only a "part" of ethnic Israel during this entire age--that is, UNTIL all the elect of the Gentiles have been successfully implanted.

Now, the reason this is not prejudicial to the non-dispensational position is that there is NOTHING said about what happens when the last elect "part" of the Gentiles is grafted in beside the last non-hardened, elect "part" of ethnic Israel. And the answer could be that such a moment indicates the end of time. There's no more "partial hardening" of ethnic Israel after that, because there's no more ethnic Israel outside the new humanity in the new heavens and earth. "All Israel" (v. 26) is thus the sum total of all the spiritual olive tree, on this interpretation.

2) The other interpretation holds that the term "fullness" refers not to the "complete" Gentile ingathering (happening alongside the Jewish), but to a particular, and large scale end-time sweep of specific host--perhaps the majority (but not necessarily all) of living Gentiles at that time--into the church. IOW, "fullness" refers to a kind of cumulative "batch," a final hugely effective Spiritual revival, which begins in the Gentile world.

And at its "high point", or just after, ethnic Israel--hitherto hardened en masse to all the revivals since Pentecost--is also brought into the Messianic kingdom. IOW, they too have a share in the final revival, and a great number of them--perhaps the majority also of them alive in those days--are also saved. But not separate from the Gentiles, rather together with them.

This view has had much popularity long before dispensationalism. If you have a copy of the WCF, with all the "extras", you will find in the Dir. for Publik Worship, that one of the directions for pastoral prayer is, "for the propagation of the gospel, ... the conversion of the Jews, the fulness of the Gentiles, ... and the hastening of the 2nd coming." Iain Murray wrote a book called The Puritan Hope that shows how many Puritans expected such powerful effects of preaching, hoping (many of them) that they were living in the beginning of the final years of history.

So, on this second view, the UNTIL refers to the fact that ethnic Israel's wholesale conversion will be as the final cap-stone to the redemptive work of God in the world, just prior to the consummation (or on the postmillenial outlook, on the way into the "golden age"). Also, on this view "All Israel" is often taken to refer to the same kind of "great host or majority" as "fulness" did to the Gentiles.

Either way, dispensationalism is still a novel interpretation...

Originally Posted by Contra_Mundum

This passage may be taken two different ways, neither of which is prejudicial to a non-dispensational understanding of the passage.

1) The "hardening in part" simply refers to the fact ethnic Israel has a non-elect "part" and an elect "part", and this fact is an inter-advential reality that isn't going away, not as long as it is necessary to "make room" in the "olive tree" for Gentiles to be "grafted on". IOW, there is a predetermined number of the elect, and not all of them are of ethnic Israel, although ethnic Israel gave the church its initial form. God broke useless (hardened) branches off that one tree in order to make room for the Gentiles, and he continues to save only a "part" of ethnic Israel during this entire age--that is, UNTIL all the elect of the Gentiles have been successfully implanted.

Now, the reason this is not prejudicial to the non-dispensational position is that there is NOTHING said about what happens when the last elect "part" of the Gentiles is grafted in beside the last non-hardened, elect "part" of ethnic Israel. And the answer could be that such a moment indicates the end of time. There's no more "partial hardening" of ethnic Israel after that, because there's no more ethnic Israel outside the new humanity in the new heavens and earth. "All Israel" (v. 26) is thus the sum total of all the spiritual olive tree, on this interpretation.

2) The other interpretation holds that the term "fullness" refers not to the "complete" Gentile ingathering (happening alongside the Jewish), but to a particular, and large scale end-time sweep of specific host--perhaps the majority (but not necessarily all) of living Gentiles at that time--into the church. IOW, "fullness" refers to a kind of cumulative "batch," a final hugely effective Spiritual revival, which begins in the Gentile world.

And at its "high point", or just after, ethnic Israel--hitherto hardened en masse to all the revivals since Pentecost--is also brought into the Messianic kingdom. IOW, they too have a share in the final revival, and a great number of them--perhaps the majority also of them alive in those days--are also saved. But not separate from the Gentiles, rather together with them.

This view has had much popularity long before dispensationalism. If you have a copy of the WCF, with all the "extras", you will find in the Dir. for Publik Worship, that one of the directions for pastoral prayer is, "for the propagation of the gospel, ... the conversion of the Jews, the fulness of the Gentiles, ... and the hastening of the 2nd coming." Iain Murray wrote a book called The Puritan Hope that shows how many Puritans expected such powerful effects of preaching, hoping (many of them) that they were living in the beginning of the final years of history.

So, on this second view, the UNTIL refers to the fact that ethnic Israel's wholesale conversion will be as the final cap-stone to the redemptive work of God in the world, just prior to the consummation (or on the postmillenial outlook, on the way into the "golden age"). Also, on this view "All Israel" is often taken to refer to the same kind of "great host or majority" as "fulness" did to the Gentiles.

Either way, dispensationalism is still a novel interpretation...

Thank you.