One Fold – One Israel
Article series: INTRODUCTION – WHO IS JEHOVAH? – WHO IS THE REAL ISRAEL – THE SCATTERING – THE GATHERING: ONE-FOLD – ONE ISRAEL: THE MODERN STATE OF ISRAEL NOT CHOSEN – DANIEL 9 AND THE PRE-TRIBULATION DECEPTION – JUDAISM ACE IS NOT A GODLY REPRESENTATION OF OT – THE BIRTH OF THE MODERN STATE OF ISRAEL – THE DIFFERENCE (between Biblical Israel taking of Canaan and modern Israel taking of Palestine) – What side should we take in the Palestinian and Israeli conflict?
Exploring Romans 11: Will Jews convert and be God’s Israel once again?
Misunderstanding Paul’s wording in Romans 11 has led many Christians to believe that Jews who rejected Christ are still God’s people and will one day return to Him. The establishment of the state of Israel is, by many, considered the fulfillment of Paul’s prophecy.
“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye 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” (Rom 11:25-27)
Perhaps rendering the word “until” according to its Greek meaning, “while,” would have avoided all this misunderstanding, but that was the translators’ choice. Is Paul here speaking of a mystery concerning Jewish conversion in some distant future, or has Paul’s meaning been distorted by false teachers and faulty translation?
Paul’s meaning is clear throughout the 11th chapter, and the rest of the chapter must serve to explain this one verse. Further revelations in scripture must also align with it.
Do we interpret it to mean that Jews who rejected Christ are predestined to convert, or is there a misunderstanding here? Christ has never forced anyone to follow Him.
If Paul is saying the mystery is that God will reject the Jewish people but save a remnant in the end, it would mean that God has shown no mercy to the many Jews living in the time between then and now. This is nonsensical, because God cares for all people, Jews and pagans alike. He would not prevent the conversion of Jewish people before the end simply because His plan is to win them only at that final moment. God seeks to save every individual He can, in every age.
This leaves us with two options;
1. God foresees that many Jews will convert in the end, despite generations of rejection. This is indeed wonderful and possible. As the prophet Daniel was told concerning the time of the end: “Knowledge shall increase, and many shall travel to and fro” (Dan. 12:4). An increase in knowledge naturally leads to more conversions; it is a logical sequence, but hardly a mystery. Paul describes the Jews as “natural branches” cut off from God’s tree because of unfaithfulness and, if grafted back, grafted to their own tree naturally (Rom. 11:24). What is the greater mystery: a branch grafted back to its own tree, or one that was “grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree”? Paul is clear that a Jewish conversion is not a greater mystery or achievement than a pagan conversion. A Jewish conversion, therefore, cannot be both a mystery and something natural at the same time.
If Romans 11:25-27 is meant to speak of Jews converting in the future, it still does not prophesy the State of Israel, because God does not need a “State of Israel” to save Jews. The two are not synonymous. Previously, Jews lived among Christians and had to converse and interact with them daily all over the world. This led to many Jewish conversions, which is why Jewish leaders in each place encouraged Jews to form closed communities wherever they lived, avoiding as much contact with Christians as possible. The State of Israel gathered the Jews who had been spread among Christians and secluded them in a land where they learned only from one another. The result was a stronger identity rooted in the rejection of Christ for many, while others, no longer in small communities abroad, became atheists. A study quoted in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz shows that only 30% of Israelis say they are religious. (https://www.haaretz.com/2015-04-14/ty-article/israel-china-among-least-religious-nations/0000017f-e103-d804-ad7f-f1fb55ca0000)
This indicates that since the birth of the State of Israel, many Jews have become less spiritually interested and even more ignorant of Christianity.
Paul is not prophesying the State of Israel in Romans 11, as that is not synonymous with a “state of conversion.” Those Jews who returned to the land after the Babylonian captivity had to convert before returning. It was God’s condition that their conversion take place wherever they had been scattered. Thus, the belief that God gathered modern Jews to the State of Israel in order to convert them there contradicts God’s established order and law. Returning to the land was a reward for their conversion, not the means to produce one.
“And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee, And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee” (Deu.30:1-3)
Those who claim that Jews are to return before they convert speak neither truth nor light:
“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa.8:20)
Solomon understood this sequence and prayed accordingly, offering a prayer that God said He would hear.
“If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near; Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness;
And so return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name: Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause” (1. King.8:46-49)
Christ was clear that the only acceptable repentance was acknowledging Him as Lord (Mat 23:39). Jews need atonement to receive God’s approval and restoration, an atonement given only through Christ. Thus, the modern Jews who have returned to the State of Israel, by not accepting Christ and by not inviting Christian converts to join them, do not fulfill the requirements for return. Worse, they defy Christ’s own words and conditions for returning.
If Paul is prophesying the return of many spiritually blinded Jews, he is prophesying their conversion to Christ, not a return to a land.
It is a natural consequence of the world becoming more enlightened and people less isolated through the internet that many Jews will convert to Christ in the end times. However, this cannot, in my opinion, be what Paul is speaking of here. For then “the whole of Israel saved” would be ignoring the fact that Jews have been lost for 2,000 years, and only a remnant at the end would be saved, which is then called “the whole of Israel.” This makes little sense. The mystery Paul is speaking of must be something other than what some speculate.
2. The second option for understanding this verse is that a word within it should have been translated into English somewhat differently. If we compare it with the rest of the New Testament, the great secret of the gospel at the time of writing was that the invitation was extended to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. It took a while for the apostles to understand this, and they even needed a prompt before they would preach to the Gentiles (Mat 15:23; Joh 4:9; Acts.10:45; Gal.2:12). They were greatly astonished when Christ preached to non-Jews, and they debated the matter after Christ’s departure, when Peter had witnessed pagans receiving the Holy Spirit (Acts.11). This was the great “secret”: that pagans were to become part of Christ’s Israel and be equal to the Christian Jews.
This is the secret: “the fullness of the Gentiles” has to come “in” so that “all Israel shall be saved”. This understanding fits with Christ’s own message: “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. … And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (Joh.10:11,16)
Here Christ speaks of Israel and of people from another “fold” who must be brought in to create “one fold.” If this is what Paul meant, he is echoing Christ’s own words and not introducing a new doctrine.
Earlier in chapter 11, Paul explains that he himself is part of the remnant of Israel, those who received Christ. He is part of that remnant in his own day. He then explains that Israel is like a tree with branches, and the Gentiles are “grafted in” to this tree that is Israel, while those among “the natural branches” who reject Christ are cut off, meaning they are no longer part of Israel.
The modern State of Israel is a “cut off branch” from the real Israel and is no longer God’s Israel. As Paul states, if individual Jews convert, they are grafted back onto the tree, and so it has been throughout history.
In the Bible, the word “Jews” is used not only to describe a people but also a state of the heart: “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God” (Rom 2:28-29). In Revelation, this notion is repeated when Christ says that some claim to be Jews but are not.
The stem of God’s tree is not a Jewish state or the state of Israel; it is Jehovah and His law and prophets.
The letter to the Romans was written by Paul while he was in Corinth. He wrote chapter 11 during this same period, when he was also mistreated by Jewish brethren, leading to this declaration: “But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, ‘Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.’” (Acts 18:6)
Paul understood that for Christ to return, “the other fold” had to come in, and this is why he directed his focus toward them rather than toward the “spiritually blinded” portion of the Jews.
The sequence of events is explained by Christ. He said to the disciples: “These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat 10:5-7)
The first to be reached was genetic Israel. Once this was done, the apostles were sent to all the world with the gospel: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Mat 24:14).
Notice that the message is the same to Israel as to “all nations”: “the kingdom of heaven” and “this gospel of the kingdom.” It is Christ’s kingdom, Christ’s domain.
This is repeated in Revelation, where an angel carries a message to worship God, their Creator, a message that is to go not just to Jews but to “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people …Fear God, and give glory to him” (Rev.14:6-7).
The plan is explained fairly well here and elsewhere. God intended to first reach Judah, then as many of physical Israel as possible wherever they were scattered, and then extend the offer to the whole world. Once those who receive salvation have “come in,” and the fullness of all who are called has been gathered, Christ will have “one fold”: “the whole of Israel.” The “whole” does not mean everyone; if it did, then all Jews and all Gentiles would be saved. This is not the meaning of “the whole” in Paul’s letter. He means that those Jews who convert to Christ, together with those coming in from the Gentiles, will form “a whole” — a new whole, a complete “fold” as Christ described. This was the secret hidden from many: that the long-awaited Messiah of the tribe of Judah would not save His people and establish His kingdom until “the fullness of the pagans came in.” This was the entire plan from the very beginning, from when Israel was called out of Egypt to be a kingdom of priests, commissioned to bring the truth about God, His law, and His atonement to the world. But instead of fulfilling this calling, they imitated the pagans, kept their knowledge and practice to themselves, and refused to share it or draw others to it. Rather than seeing themselves as God’s ambassadors, they felt superior to others and did not proclaim their God. God’s plan did not change; instead, He commissioned the apostles, the seventy chosen, and the first Christians to do the work that Judah had been unwilling to do: to reach the rest of the world.
The secret was therefore not that Jews would convert, as they were the natural “branches,” but that pagans would be “grafted in” before Christ’s kingdom could begin. Christ is not waiting for spiritually blinded Jews to convert, but for those who have not yet had the chance to hear the gospel to hear it. Then, as Christ said, “the end shall come.”
There is no additional period of time allotted, no return to a Jewish state for another attempt. Everyone must convert first, wherever they are, and then Christ will come and gather His people. The Bible teaches that it was first the Jews, then Israel, then the pagans, and then “the end” comes.
The invitation and call to the pagans were prophesied several times in the Old Testament.
“Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. … He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law” (Isa.42:1.4)
While Jews hoped the Messiah had come to deliver them and rule over the world and the Gentiles with “an iron rod,” they failed to see that the Messiah’s purpose was to save the Gentiles and invite them to become part of Israel (Rev.19:15; Rom 2:10-11). The “iron rod” spoke of the final judgment upon all mankind, an idea that was strongly resisted.
“Do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak, saying,
“The Lord has utterly separated me from His people” From Isaiah we see that God also in the Old Testament invited the stranger to come and worship and be one with His people if he wished: “ Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, …Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer…mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people. ..The Lord GOD which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.” (Isa.56:3-8)
The truth comes from the Jews.
So why does Paul say: “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen” (Rom 9:3-5)
This is a valuable and powerful statement that, if understood correctly, can protect someone from deception. If the wrong meaning is drawn from it, however, it only serves to confuse. Paul sometimes explains things in a more complex way than many without formal education can follow, as Peter himself acknowledged about Paul’s writings (2.Pet.3:15-16). Paul most likely wrote in the academic style of his day because, unlike the fishermen Peter and John and others from common trades, Paul had been educated in rabbinical schools and was a Pharisee (Php.3:5, Act 22:3). This may explain why the letters of Peter, John, and James are straightforward and easy to understand even in translation, while Paul often argues back and forth before arriving at his conclusion. This is a very different approach, and it is easily misunderstood, particularly when he presents the views of others alongside his own responses, making both appear to the modern reader as his personal opinion. It was, in fact, common in the ancient Greek style of writing (Aristotelian Argument) to first introduce an issue, then present the case, then address the opposition, provide proof, and finally present a conclusion. While Paul does communicate as a learned man of his day, great confusion arises when everything he says is taken as his final conclusion. Much of Paul’s rhetorical style is lost on modern readers, as it was on some in his own day who lacked formal education. One such example is Paul’s discussion of God’s law, where he appears to dismiss it, yet concludes that the law is good and has not been abolished (Rom.3:31; 1.Tim.1:8). Many Christian doctrines are built solely upon the arguments Paul raises, rather than upon the conclusions he gives in answer to those very arguments.
So, is Paul saying in Romans 9 that God’s people are the genetic Israeli people, regardless of what they do or believe, because they were once given “the covenant” and “the promise”?
In the next verse, Paul says: “Not as though the word of God hath 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. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed” (Rom 9:6-8)
Paul explains here that just as not all of Abraham’s physical children inherited the promise given to Abraham, neither are all who are Israel by flesh inheritors of that promise.
What many think Paul is saying is that everything belongs to those of the flesh, even though he himself is explaining that his meaning is the exact opposite.
Jesus explained the same in a straightforward way in His address to the Samaritan woman: “The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him” (Joh 4:19-23)
Why did Jesus not say salvation came from Him? Why say it came from the Jews, the same Jews He knew were about to end His life? This is precisely the point that Paul also explains.
Jews needed to receive Christ as their King and Savior and had to understand that the law and the prophets spoke of Him.
But when Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman, He made a point of helping her understand that the Messiah’s mission was rooted in the Jewish system, and not in hers or any other pagan tradition.
The truth, the promises, the culture, and the law had been entrusted to the Jews, and the gospel was to be built upon those truths rather than upon a different religious framework. It was important for her to understand that the foundation of Christ’s mission was the truth given to the Jews.
This is also Paul’s point. He is not saying that Jews who rejected Christ are still Israel of the promise and continue to have a claim on God’s promises, but rather that the pagans who have “been grafted in” to the tree need to understand that this is the tree they are grafted upon. They are partaking in the blessing given to physical Israel and the Jews, and the gospel belongs within this framework, not within a pagan or any other religious tradition.
In essence, Paul was teaching the pagans not to alter the foundation of the gospel and create a separate religion. This is remarkably fitting advice, given that the Roman church ultimately did exactly that, rejecting the Jewish roots and replacing them with pagan ones. Both Christ and Paul warn against such a move. Separating Judaism from Christianity caused division in what was meant to be united, and it was contrary to God’s will. The Jews who rejected Christ also played their part in creating this division. The Roman Church and the Jews-by-Flesh together succeeded in destroying the witness of the gospel by severing the law and the prophets from it. The Jews claimed to keep the law, and the Roman church claimed to keep the gospel. Both are now ignorant of their own impending doom, having worked together in pulling the two witnesses apart, with equal guilt.
The truth Paul explains in his letter is the same truth Jesus conveyed to the Samaritan woman: that the gospel and Christ are only understood correctly when united with “the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers…”
Yet, although given the key to unlock the mystery of redemption, only by accepting Christ would they truly be God’s “Israel”.
Paul’s explanation of the “grafting in” of the pagans is also meant to prevent the notion that Gentiles are to transform their own religion and simply call it by Christ’s name. It is also a call not to hate or reject them despite facing resistance from many Jews, but rather to feel blessed by them and by their history and experience with God, and to hope, pray, and trust that many will turn back to God and be “re-grafted.”
The first headquarters of the gospel messengers was Jerusalem, and the first preachers were Jews. However, the Roman church transferred this headquarters to Rome and changed the very foundation upon which people understand the gospel.
Thus, the letter to the Romans stands the test of time and exposes their folly.
However, this move could not have happened if the Jewish leaders had not scattered the true Israel from the land.
Jesus began by preaching to His Jewish brethren, reaching them first with the gospel. He also preached to the Samaritans, who possessed part of the truth but had been misled on several matters. He clarified to them that the Jews were on the right side of their long-standing differences. He then sent out His apostles to preach to the “lost” from the tribes of Israel. The reason they received the truth first was that they were closer to it and better equipped to preach to the pagans worldwide. They were commissioned to enlighten the world concerning His identity and purpose. And so it happened, just as God designed it. The Bible, which speaks to billions worldwide every day, was written by Jews. Christians are educated through scripture, taught once again by Jews: faithful Jews. They learn from Israel’s history, from the covenants given to them, from their relationship with God, their failures, and their prophets. And lastly, from the Lion of Judah, Christ, who was born a Jew. The whole Bible is a Jewish book. Every page of the New Testament is a gift from God through the Jews. They were entrusted with the truth, and their history forms the very foundation of the Christian faith.
All of this is the fulfillment of the promises given to physical Israel, and God kept His word. The fulfillment is not, however, attributed to the Jews who rejected their own Lord. They are no longer grafted in and are no longer part of God’s Israel, even if they call themselves Israel. They forfeited the opportunity to educate the world. Paul’s meaning is that we must recognize how everything was fulfilled through the Jewish people, and this recognition is not to be extended to the disobedient Jews of today.
Paul also calls for respect for what the Jewish people have contributed, and any persecution of Jews by Christians throughout history is not God’s design. Christians have not been called to persecute anyone, least of all their own spiritually blinded brothers. You cannot cure hardness of heart with more hardness. Only love can give birth to love. Every Christian should therefore pray for and love those who are spiritually blinded, not hate them.
But loving them does not mean giving them the false assurance that they are the “real Israel” in their spiritually blinded state. Only by converting can they be grafted back into the “real Israel,” the fold that is the remnant of Israel by flesh, those who have preached and won willing souls from among the Gentiles to the gospel. This is the real Israel. The “spiritually blinded Jews” must join this group, this tree.
Replacement theory
God’s Israel was never taken from the Jewish people and given to the Christian people. God’s Israel followed the line of the Jewish people through Christ, His disciples, the seventy chosen, and the tribes of Israel, through a Jewish book, the New Testament, and then also through the “grafted in Gentiles.” Israel was not taken from one group and given to another. Israel continued with the faithful remnant, who became the teachers and forefathers through whom Gentiles were reached and added. Thus, God’s Israel is not a replacement theory; it is a continuation through a faithful remnant and those “adopted” into the family. Those Jews who rejected a place in Christ’s leadership and kingdom were, as they chose, removed from “the tree.”
Replacement theory does not say that Gentiles are now part of Israel. The Bible says they are.
Rather, replacement theory is the lie of both the Roman church and the Jewish establishment:
1. The Roman church preaches replacement theory by removing the gospel of Christ from the God-given Jewish culture and replacing the foundation of God with the foundation of man. By dismantling the base of the gospel, the Roman church turned Christianity into a replacement religion altogether. God continued with the faithful remnant, not with the Roman church.
2. Replacement theory also takes the promises given to the faithful remnant of God, those who received Christ and preached the offer of salvation to the whole world, and reassigns those promises to the Jews who rejected God. To rob the faithful Jews, Moses and the prophets, and the true meaning of the law and the culture, and then claim that the real Israel consists of those who misunderstood and disobediently persecuted Christ and His followers, is another form of “replacement theory.” We take from those whom God has declared to be faithful Israel and claim that God’s promises belong instead to the unfaithful, broken-off branches. Peter, John, James, and all those they reached are then set aside in favor of the descendants of the Pharisees who scattered them, which is an insult to God. It is also contrary to Israel’s history as recorded in the law and the Bible. God never chose the disobedient remnant over the obedient one.
When we understand who the real Israel is, we will understand that it is blessing them that brings a blessing in return, not donating money to the modern State of Israel and its warfare.