Gary continues his discussion with Pastor Greg Chacon about biblical interpretation.
God’s promises to Israel are not in doubt, but to maintain that they have been postponed for nearly 2,000 years only to be realized when Israel encounters another holocaust when two-thirds of the Jews living in Israel will be slaughtered and only a remnant saved, is not an answer to the claim “that God is finished with the Jewish people as a nation.”
It’s obvious from the Bible that God is not going to restore every “physical seed of Abraham.” If God were going to do that, then why bother with the gospel? Paul does not mean by “in this way all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:26) that every Jew without exception throughout history (the diachronic [through time] view) will one day be saved. Paul is writing about a “remnant” of his countrymen (11:5). Even so, Paul states unequivocally that God has not rejected His people (11:1). What evidence does He give?
For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says in the Elijah section—how he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars. I am the only one left, and they are trying to take my life! But what was God’s reply to him? I have left 7,000 men for Myself who have not bowed down to Baal (11:1-4).
Paul’s own salvation is prima facie evidence that God had not rejected Israel even though not every Israelite was or will be saved. The way that God saved a remnant in Elijah’s day, God was saving a remnant in Paul’s day: “In the same way, then, there is also at the present time a remnant chosen by grace.”
Paul wasn’t projecting an event in the distant future. He was describing God’s faithfulness to His covenant promises “at the present time,” that is, in Paul’s own day. As we’ll see, God was demonstrating this fact beginning with Pentecost when “Jews from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5-11) embraced Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s promises made to Abraham long ago. Jesus said to “the Jews” of His day, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:57).
Prophecy Wars: The Biblical Battle Over the End Times
There is a long history of skeptics turning to Bible prophecy to claim that Jesus was wrong about the timing of His coming at “the end of the age” (Matt. 24:3) and the signs associated with it. Noted atheist Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) is one of them and Bart Ehrman is a modern example. It’s obvious that neither Russell or Ehrman are aware of or are ignoring the mountain of scholarship that was available to them that showed that the prophecy given by Jesus was fulfilled in great detail just as He said it would be before the generation of His day passed away.
Buy NowGary continues his discussion with Pastor Greg Chacon about biblical interpretation. After showing how dispensationalism is flawed, Gary further explains how Bible translations sometimes hide important information by omitting certain words or translating the same word differently in different places.