It has been a while since I have done a breakdown. One of the passages I emphasized in “The Need For a New Temple” gives me good reason to write one again.
Romans 11:25-26a says,
“I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved.”
The question I want to break down regarding this text is, “How does the partial hardening of Israel effect our understanding of Eschatology if it is said to last “until the full number of the Gentiles” comes in?
In a Pre-Wrath Eschatological framework, this text remains seamless. The rapture of believers is when we understand that the full number of gentiles comes in. Unlike Pre-tribulationalism, Pre-Wrath interpretations see the rapture taking place within Daniel’s 70th week, not prior to it. The entire 7-year period of this world’s climactic ending, known as Daniel’s 70th week, is often mislabeled as God’s wrath exclusively. Nowhere in scripture is this entire 7-year period exclusively described as God’s wrath. A Pre-Wrath interpretation rightly acknowledges the distinction between “tribulation” and “the wrath of God”. Therefore, a Pre-Wrath interpretation defines the Great Tribulation as a time of intense persecution by the hands of the antichrist. This takes place immediately following the midpoint of the 7-year period where the antichrist declares himself as God and sets up the abomination of desolation in the temple. Matthew 24:21-22 says,
“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.”
We learn here that this time of great persecution/tribulation will be cut short for the elects’ sake. The “elect” consistently refers to true believers in scripture. Pre-trib scholars would try to have you believe that it only refers to Jews. With a simple word study this can be proven false, as you will see often that exclusively gentile groups are called “the elect” at times. God’s elect will be heavily persecuted at this time, but it will be “cut short”. Cut short by what? Verse 29 through 31 tells us. It says,
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
The Great Tribulation is cut short by the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds to gather together His people unto himself. It is cut short by the rapture of believers.
As I stated beforehand, a Pre-Wrath understanding of the rapture places it shortly past the midpoint of the 7-year period, after an intense period of persecution by the hand of the antichrist. Therefore, we can conclude that this is the time where the “fullness of the gentiles comes in.” This is seamless. This is simple. This also corresponds to parallel scripture seen in Revelation 7:12-14 where we see the same cosmic disturbances. We are then told in Revelation 7:1-10 that a great multitude is then seen appearing in heaven from all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, praising the Lord, having just come out from Great Tribulation. This is spoken alongside 144,000 Jews that are also sealed by God at this time. I would suggest that the sealing of 144,000 Jews indicates that the hardening of Israel has ended, and now, after the rapture they have come to know the Lord Jesus as savior and are sealed by Him. However, this text is problematic for a pre-trib interpretation. A Pre-trib interpretation claims that the church isn’t seen at all from Revelation 3 onward because the rapture takes place before the 7-year period begins entirely. The problem for them arises because even they acknowledge that the “fullness of the gentiles” is complete at the rapture. But if we place the rapture at the beginning of the 7-year period, then who is this uncountable group appearing in heaven at the midpoint of the 7 years that we are told have come out of Great Tribulation? It’s definitely not Jews. The text explicitly states that these are from all nations, tribes, and tongues. These are unmistakenly gentiles. In other words, if the rapture takes place before Daniel’s 70th week, it does not bring in the full number of gentiles, and Israel’s partial hardness continues well into Daniel’s 70th week. This concept is contrary to a pre-tribulational understanding of the core purpose of this “week”.
At its core Dispensational Pre-Tribulationalism is built around the idea that Israel and the church are distinct entities. Every tenant of Dispensationalism lays upon this foundation. Therefore, God has two, what they would call, “programs”, in which God deals with Israel and the Church apart from one another. God cannot/will not deal with Israel and the church at the same time, therefore, he created “dispensations” to do so separately. Hence, we have this dispensation of Grace in between Christ’s first coming and the rapture so that God can deal with the gentile church. After the rapture, a new dispensation will begin and resume Daniel’s 70th week so that God can begin dealing with Israel again. This idea, however, does not work. If the rapture takes place before Daniel’s 70th week so that God can be done dealing with the gentiles and begin focusing on Israel again, then why are we seeing an uncountable group of gentile believers appearing in heaven midway through the 7-year period who we are told have come out of Great Tribulation, having washed their clothes I the blood of the lamb? Clearly God will be still doing a massive work dealing with gentiles because we are told this is an uncountable number. This also means that the full number of gentiles didn’t come in at the rapture, and therefore, Israel’s partial hardness would not yet be over.
Pre-tribbers recognize these people and call them “Tribulation Saints”. I call them, “The Body of Christ” because that’s who they truly are. This is Abraham’s offspring who he was told would become uncountable as the stars in the sky or sand on the seashore. Outwardly, they are both Jew and Gentile. Inwardly, they are all God’s elect. So now we have a third “people” of God because to admit that these “so-called” Tribulation saints are members of the church would jeopardize the divide between the dispensation of grace, meant for the gentiles, and the Dispensation of the Kingdom meant for God’s dealing with Israel. As you can see, this is not a seamless transition at all. If Israel remains hardened until the fullness of the gentiles come is, these gentile Tribulation saints render a secret pre-trib rapture meaningless and unjustifiable.
There is a fine line that we must remain balanced on if we are to be consistent when handling the scriptures. When it comes down to the relationship between Israel and the Church, we must not go to either extreme. We must reject Replacement theology, which is that Israel is rejected entirely by God and replaced with the church. But we also must reject a hard distinction between Israel and the church. Instead, we must understand the integration of believing gentiles into the promises of believing Israel. Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy is on hold not for God to go on a side quest to get gentiles in and out of the way so that he can get back to the main quest again after the rapture. God has one quest. This time in between the first and second coming is for the integrating or grafting in of believing gentiles. When the time is right, the prophecy will resume, and believing Jews and gentiles together will enter into the final 7 years to seal up all vision and prophecy. This is what makes up true Israel. It is neither a replacement of Israel, nor is it a division or separation. It is in integration of all people, Jew and gentile under the veil of Christ by faith. And so all Israel will be saved.
As I stated in the original post, whether you believe the 144,000 sealed Jews is a spiritual number signifying “the complete number”, or hold to a literal understanding of this number, the fact of the matter is that they are not sealed until halfway through Daniel’s week when an uncountable number of gentiles appear in heaven. The hardness of Israel’s heart can only be lifted when the full number of gentiles come in. These are the last gentiles we see coming in. This being so, there is really no case to be made here for a pre-trib rapture so that God can shift his attention back to Israel for the remaining 7 years. His attention has, and always will be on those who he has foreknown before the foundations of the world, both Jew and Gentile alike.
Thank you for taking the time to read. I pray that this practical breakdown was eye-opening to the truth of God’s Word and His plan for His people. God Bless!
Softly Spoken Truth 