The Mystery of All Israel Being Saved

The Mystery of All Israel Being Saved by Dennis Edwards

Another “mystery” spoken of by Apostle Paul is found in Romans 11:25-33.

Romans 11: 25-29 For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

Romans 11: 30-33 For as you in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God has concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

Different scholars have different views on what these verses actually mean. The general consensus, however, is that at some point at the end, when “the fulness of the Gentiles be come in,” the ethnic nation of Israel, or a remnant of the ethnic nation, shall be saved. Some believe it happens at the time of Christ’s coming, at the time of the rapture. The following verses could be used to affirm that view.

Revelation 1:7 Behold, he comes with cloud; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him (the Jewish nation that demanded His death): and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

It was the Jewish nation that demanded Jesus’ death, when the Roman leader Pilot was determined to let him go. The verse above, therefore, seems to be emphasizing that the Jewish people especially shall see him when he comes in the clouds to gather together his elect at the time of the rapture.

Zechariah 12:9-10 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall morn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

When will they look upon him whom they have pierced? It seems to be at the time of his coming in the clouds to gather together his elect at the rapture event.

Matthew 24:29-31 Immediately after the tribulation of those days, (the 3 and 1/2 years of Great tribulation as spoken of in the Scriptures), shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn (including the remnant of Israel that shall be saved), and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect (the true believers or followers of Jesus) from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days at the Rapture event, but preceding the Wrath of God is when the unbelieving Jewish remnant find faith. It is then when they shall mourn and repent of their unbelief, as we will see in our study.

"The fulness of the Gentiles" may be referring to the various empires or “beasts” that have ruled over the world and especially over the nation of Israel, the Antichrist being the final beast. In Revelation 11:2 we have the term “Gentiles,” referring to the Antichrist forces, taking over the “holy city” Jerusalem, for 42 months, or 3 and ½ years, the time of the Great Tribulation. Let’s read the verse.

Revelation 11: 2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

Remember, the Antichrist will break the covenant, stop the daily sacrifice, and place the abomination that makes desolate at the “midst of the week,” the middle of the seven year period. He invades Jerusalem to do so and takes over, implementing mandatory “mark of the beast” technology, which will be necessary in order to participate in his New World Order system. (See Daniel 9:27, 8:11, 11:31, Revelation 13:16-18)

But some will rebel and not cooperate. The orthodox Jews may be in that category, especially if the "mark" is some sort of tattoo or micro-chip implant. God’s word forbids them from making any markings on their flesh.

Leviticus 19: 28 You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord.

(However, during the Covid - 19 lockdowns and vaccinations, Israel managed to vaccinate close to 90% of its population. It remains to be seen how many will resist the mark of the beast technology when it appears.)

We can conclude, therefore, that at least some of the unsaved Jewish people living in Israel and or around the world will be anti-Antichrists. They will be against the Antichrist, though they may at first have been deceived by him and his “Holy Covenant.” Remember, the covenant seems to be what gives the Jewish people permission to start the daily sacrifice on the temple mount, the holy place, in the first place. Therefore, at first, the Jewish people would see the Antichrist as someone they could work with. He is someone who will help them begin their longed for sacrificial ceremonial worship on the Temple Mount.

However, when the Antichrist invades Israel, stops the daily sacrifice, and places the abomination of desolation in the holy place, the Orthodox Jews and other Jewish people, at least a remnant, if not many or most, will finally realize that the New World Order leader is evil. They will begin to understand that the Christians prophets were right. They will begin to have their blindness removed and some will come to faith.

Since Apostle Paul says that the blindness in part to Israel will last, “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in,” we need to try to understand when “will the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” If it is at the point when the Antichrist steps up or is revealed, as Apostle Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, then we can expect the Jewish people to begin to come to Christ during the Great Tribulation period. Those that do, would be raptured with the other Christian believers at the Lord’s coming.

Let’s look again at 2 Thessalonians 2 where Apostle Paul is talking about the coming of the Lord and our gathering together unto Him.

2 Thessalonians 2: 3-4 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there comes a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

If what Apostle Paul is talking about is the moment the Antichrist stops the daily sacrifice and places the abomination, then that would be the same sign that Jesus gave us that the Great Tribulation would begin. That would be distinctly at the “midst of the week,” or in the middle of the 7-year agreement or covenant. (See Daniel 9:27, 11:31 & Matthew 24:15 & 21)

But, maybe, “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in,” is not until Christ appears at the time of the Rapture, or even later when He comes with His saints at the Battle of Armageddon which takes place some 30 days after the rapture. We take that idea from the information that Daniel 12:11 has given us concerning the length of time the abomination stands, which is 1,290 days, or thirty days longer than the Great Tribulation period.

It is at Armageddon, that the time of the Gentiles ruling over Jerusalem would actually come to an end with Jesus’ return to defeat the Antichrist and his forces. If the Jewish people remained anti-Antichrist during the Great Tribulation period, refused to worship the beast and his image, and refused his mark; if, also, they lived throughout the Great Tribulation period and the Wrath of God, then they could be in that “blessed” group of people the prophet Daniel talks of at the end of in Daniel 12.

Daniel 12: 12 Blessed is he that waits, and comes to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.

As we have shown elsewhere, the addition of the 1,260 days of Great Tribulation, plus the 75 days of the Wrath of God, gives us the 1,335 days that Daniel speaks of in the above verse. The unsaved who live through the horrific period of the 1,260 days of Great Tribulation and the even worse period of the 75 days of the Wrath of God found in Revelation 16 and Isaiah 13:6-13, those that live through that terrible period will be blessed. They will live on into the new period of dispensation called the Millennium. Christ will rule the earth with His saints for a thousand years.

How “all Israel shall be saved” is still a mystery. We are speculating, though our speculations are based on God's word. Earlier in Romans, Apostle Paul had also written,

Romans 9: 6-7 Not as though the word of God has taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.

Romans 9:27 Esaias also cries concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.

Will “all Israel” be only a remnant, or actually be “all Israel?” At the moment, because of the verse in Zechariah saying one-third shall be brought through the fire of testing and two-thirds shall die, I lean more to the idea that a one-third remnant of ethnic Israel, the Jewish people, will be saved. Some are already being saved and they make great witnesses.

Some 20,000+ Israelites are Messianic Jews, or Jews who believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Many of these are witnessing in some way to their unbelieving brethren throughout the nation of Israel. At what point the rest of Israel, or a remnant of unbelieving Israel, will be saved, remains to be seen, though it seems it will be at the rapture event. The fact that some shall be “regrafted into the olive tree,” once again shows God’s unfathomable love and mercy towards any who repent and come to a believing faith in Him.

Romans 11:24 For if you [a gentile Christian] were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature [with false gentile beliefs and traditions about God], and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree [the seed of Abraham by faith that follows of the true God]: how much more shall these [the ethnic Jewish people], which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

Obviously, Apostle Paul is saying that some shall be saved. Throughout Israel's history it was usually a small group who were faithful to the Lord. At times, under a good leader or king, much of the nation became righteous, because they believed and obeyed God's word as ministered by the king, the prophets and the priests. Pray for them. Not all are Anti-Christ, and even now many are Anti-antichrists.

Recapitulating: from Zechariah 13:8-9, it looks like the remnant saved may be as many as one-third of the Jewish population of Israel. While in unbelief, God lets the Jewish people be persecuted and chastised by the Antichrist for their sins. Two-thirds of the Jewish population die during that horrific period of Great Tribulation. The remaining one-third finally repent and come to faith.

It may happen, when they see the two prophets in Jerusalem killed and then come back to life three days later at the Rapture event. From that point on, because they have truly found faith and come to God with all their heart, Jesus begins to protect them and save them from further persecution and death at the hands of the Antichrist forces. We find that idea in Zechariah and elsewhere.

Zechariah 13:8-9 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, says the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die, but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them; I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord (JESUS) is my God.

We see the same thing in Isaiah.

Isaiah 10:20-21 "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay (depend) upon him that smote them (the Antichrist); but shall stay (depend) upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel (JESUS), in truth. The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.

In the New Testament, we see the unclean spirit in a man in Capernaum calling Jesus, "the Holy One of God," Luke 4:34.

Who is the mighty God that the remnant returns to? Let's look at the prophecy from Isaiah chapter nine.

Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

"The mighty God" to whom the remnant return to is none other than Jesus Himself. A remnant of unbelieving Jewish people, after passing through the Great Tribulation period, shall come to faith in Jesus. It may be, that as many as 144,000 Jewish Christians, those who had already come to faith in Jesus, are slain under the Antichrist during the period of Great Tribulation, before the Rapture event. That would explain the martyrs mentioned in Revelation 7:13-17 & 14:1-4, who seemed to come from Jewish descent, Revelation 7:4-8.

However, on seeing the Rapture event, one-third of the unbelieving Jewish people will finally come to faith. They will ultimately be saved from their enemies, when Jesus returns at the Battle of Armageddon some 30 days after the rapture. These newly saved Jewish converts will miraculously live through the 75 days of Wrath of God on into the Millennium period.

The following verses from Jeremiah are often used to express that the remnant will be somehow saved during that horrible period of human history.

Jeremiah 30:5-7 For thus says the Lord; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask now, and see whether a man does travail with child? Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he will be saved out of it.

Why will Jacob be saved? Because he has turned to the Lord Jesus. The name their leaders hated and cursed, Jesus, is the name they shall come to believe in. We read further in Zechariah verses which we have mentioned earlier:

Zechariah 12:10 -11a And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem (at the time of the rapture), the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem,

One third of the Jewish people will come to find the true God Jesus Christ during that horrific period of Antichrist persecution and war. They will mourn because they will realise, they have been in rebellion against Jesus for so long. God has brought them through the fires of persecution and affliction under the Antichrist forces. In their affliction they have cried out to the Lord for forgiveness and have found it. In all honesty, they fall upon the God of their Father Abraham in truth, and as a result, God fulfils His promise to Solomon.

I Chronicles 7:14 If My people who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

The blinders are removed as they see Jesus coming in the clouds to rescue His bride in the gathering together of the rapture, and the unbelieving Jewish remnant, one-third of Jewish the population of Israel, find faith. They are not raptured, but they are saved and now believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah.

Revelation 1:7 Behold, He comes with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindred of the earth shall wail because of Him. even so, Amen.

Jesus had come unto His own some 2000 plus years ago, but His own had received Him not. Now, after much affliction, suffering, and war; they see Jesus coming in the clouds to rescue His bride, the true Christian believers. As the two slain Jerusalem prophets rise to their feet, and then supernaturally ascend up into heaven, the unbelieving remnant finally believe. Too late for the Rapture, but not too late for God to intervene and save them from the hands of the Antichrist, who is determined to exterminate them as a nation.

Psalm 83:4 Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.

Instead of the Antichrist and his forces eliminating Israel, Jesus Himself will intervene and destroy the Antichrist and his forces.

Zechariah 12:2-3 Behold. I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

Zechariah 14:3 Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight those (Antichrist) nations (gathered against Jerusalem), as when He fought in the day of battle.

Revelation 19:20-21 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the nark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant (of the Antichrist forces) were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse (JESUS), which sword proceeded out of His mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

Zechariah 14:9 And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one.

It seems as if these days are almost upon us. Don't delay. Receive Jesus today. It may be later than you think!

To go to a related post The Day of Jacob's Trouble