03.15. Romans 11:25-28 The Fullness Of The Nations / Gentiles
Rom 11:25-28 MKJV For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, lest you should be wise within yourselves; that blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the nations has comes in. And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, "There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is My covenant with them, when I have taken away their sins." Indeed as regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes. But as regards the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.
Mat 24:14 ASV And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.
Paul says that the salvation of Israel first requires the salvation of the nations (or Gentiles) and when that process, which we call the Great Commission is complete, then Israel will turn back to God “and then the end shall come”. So the salvation of the Jews, and the end of this age, depend on the progress of the gospel – or rather the progress of the proclamation of the gospel. “The fullness of the nations” does not mean that all gentiles will be saved, but it does mean they will all have a meaningful chance to be saved and some from each group will believe. This is made clear by several verses in the Book of Revelation indicating that people from every ethnic group will a) be in heaven and b) will have the gospel proclaimed to them:
Rev 5:9-10 HCSB And they sang a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals; because You were slaughtered, and You redeemed people for God by Your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation. You made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign on the earth.
Rev 7:9-10 HCSB After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were robed in white with palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!
Rev 14:6-7 HCSB Then I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having the eternal gospel to announce to the inhabitants of the earth--to every nation, tribe, language, and people. He spoke with a loud voice: "Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water." This naturally leads to the question of “how far along in the process are we”. It was in 1945 Archbishop William Temple announced that “finally the Church is in every nation on earth”. Later in the 1970’s it was realized that there were many “hidden people” inside each nation who had no church in their particular tribe and no gospel in their particular language. This has led to today’s emphasis on “unreached people groups”. Estimates vary on how many groups exist without a vital, evangelizing church in their midst (from around 4,000 to 10,000). The Joshua Project now uses the term Least-Reached People Groups and says there are currently 6,505 of them. For some excellent information and statistics you can go to: http://www.joshuaproject.net/globalstatistics.php
It is interesting that it was right after Archbishop William Temple’s proclamation in 1945 that momentum gathered for the existence of the State of Israel which was founded in 1948. I believe we are now in the overlap between the two (Present Gentile and Coming Jewish) eras, as the gospel finally reaches the last groups who have not heard and as Israel gains tenure and land and plans to rebuild its Temple one day. The fullness of the Gentiles is about to come in, and once this has happened Israel will experience revival and salvation. But Israel will not gain its security without a colossal fight and the storm clouds are gathering as this week’s Holocaust-Denial conference in Iran and the statement of its controversial President that "Just as the Soviet Union was wiped out and today does not exist, so will the Zionist regime soon be wiped out,"
(see http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/12/iran.holocaust.conference.reut/index.html)
I believe that we are about to see the end of the Gentile era of gospel expansion and the beginning of a rise in Jewish Christianity (which is sometimes referred to as Messianic Judaism). The revival in Eze 37:1-28 (Valley of Dry Bones) is followed by Eze 37:1-28 and Eze 38:1-23 - the Gog and Magog invasion from lands that are Islamic today! As a missionary I used to think it could take 20 to 120 years for the gospel to finally reach the least reached people groups, but with the Internet and amazing connectivity that is all beginning to change. Perhaps the rise of mass communication of the gospel since the end of WW2 – first with radio and then huge short-wave transmitters, and 8 Mm projectors - then with TV and video, Internet and DVD – is part of God’s plan to get the gospel out to all nations in this last hour! In the verses at the start of this study Paul describes the Jews as suffering a great spiritual blindness that made them “enemies of the gospel” and even to this day some Jews are vehemently anti-Christian and oppose even such innocent displays of the faith as Christmas trees and nativity scenes and some Jewish film directors have made some extremely anti-Christian references in their films.
We are not yet at the point where everyone has heard, nor are we anywhere near a mass conversion of Jews to Christ - but the times are a’changing and we are much closer now than we ever were.