Salvation of the “Jews” – Part 2
- Very Average Joe
- Jul 10
- 7 min read
Updated: Jul 12
To repeat the conditions covered in Part 1:
God promised to save the Jews (and God keeps His promises).
The Jewish faith (Old Covenant) is superseded by the Christian faith (New Covenant); therefore, the former is no longer valid.
2.1 The “Solution”
The two views below are often presented as the answers to the question.
“Answer” 1: God’s people in this new era are no longer the Jews, it is those who accept Christ as Lord and Savior regardless of their race and previous religious faith (if any). Therefore, God has not broken any promises as these now apply to Christians.
Objection: It is true that Christians are now God’s people but this arguably does not take away God’s initial promise to the Jews. If God said so, then He is/will be true to His word somehow. (Isaiah 59) The Jews at the time cursed themselves when they answered Pilate, “His [Christ’s] blood be upon us and our children.” (Matthew 27) Nevertheless, Christ on the cross said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23) There must be consequences but not necessarily that which excludes salvation.
“Answer” 2: Although not ideal, the Jews are an exception as long as they honestly practice the Old Law.
Objection: This presupposes that the Jews are an exception, that they have some special status that is still valid today. There is no basis for such a claim. It is true that God considers our circumstances and, ultimately, it is between each individual and God anyway. But that is another discussion since this question obviously treats the Jews as one collective whilst keeping in mind the question of the status of the Old Law.
There is no need to reconcile the two conditions by adopting different meanings since a broader meaning does not exclude the narrower meaning, and the metaphorical or figurative does not exclude the literal.
Question: Will God save the Jews? And how?
God promised and yet the Old Covenant is invalid. If both conditions are true, then there is only one logical outcome.
Clue: What must Jews do before the Second Coming?
Answer: The Jews will convert en masse before the Second Coming.
According to Scripture and what is traditionally held since the Early Church, the Jews will convert towards the end. Perhaps this is one meaning of Christ’s words, “Many that are first, shall be last, and the last shall be first.” (Matthew 19, Mark 10, Luke 13)
Jeremiah 50 foretells Israel falling away but that God will bring them back:
My people have been a lost flock, their shepherds have caused them to go astray, and have made them wander in the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place. … And I will bring Israel again to his habitation: and he shall feed on Carmel…
Hosea 3 is clearer with reference to Jesus Christ, who is a descendant of King David, as well as the Jewish conversion “in the last days”:
For the children of Israel shall sit many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without altar, and without ephod, and without theraphim. And after this the children of Israel shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king: and they shall fear the Lord, and his goodness in the last days.
From Zephaniah 3:
The triflers that were departed from the law, I will gather together, because they were of thee: that thou mayest no more suffer reproach for them.
Zacharias 8 hints that the Jewish people are scattered before God brings them back:
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will save my people from the land of the east, and from the land of the going down of the sun. And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God in truth and in justice.
Malachi 4 mentions the conversion of the Jews at the return of the prophet Elias towards the end:
Behold I will send you Elias the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers: lest I come, and strike the earth with anathema.
Christ gave a long warning to the Pharisees in Luke 13, concluding with the below:
And I say to you, that you shall not see me till the time come, when you shall say: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Christ spoke about the end of the world in Luke 21. It seems, amongst the mayhem, that the Jews will finally convert:
…and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles; till the times of the nations be fulfilled. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves…
In Romans 11, although St Paul goes on about how God “concluded all in unbelief”, he nonetheless mentions the “blindness” of Israel that will change towards the end.
For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, (lest you should be wise in your own conceits), that blindness in part has happened in Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in. And so all Israel should be saved, as it is written: There shall come out of Sion, he that shall deliver, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And this is to them my covenant: when I shall take away their sins.
From the City of God, Book XX, Chapter 29 by St Augustine (b. 354 – d. 430):
It is a familiar theme in the conversation and heart of the faithful, that in the last days before the judgment the Jews shall believe in the true Christ, that is, our Christ, by means of this great and admirable prophet Elias who shall expound the law to them. For not without reason do we hope that before the coming of our Judge and Saviour Elias shall come, because we have good reason to believe that he is now alive; for, as Scripture most distinctly informs us, he was taken up from this life in a chariot of fire. When, therefore, he has come, he shall give a spiritual explanation of the law which the Jews at present understand carnally, and shall thus “turn the heart of the father to the son,” that is, the heart of fathers to their children; for the Septuagint translators have frequently put the singular for the plural number. And the meaning is, that the sons, that is, the Jews, shall understand the law as the fathers, that is, the prophets, and among them Moses himself, understood it.
From the “Homilies on Matthew”, Homily 57, by St John Chrysostom (b. 347 – d. 407) discusses Matthew 17 which mentions the coming of Elias.
To show therefore that the Tishbite comes before that other advent, which has the judgment, He said this. And the reason too of his coming He teaches withal. And what is this reason? That when He has come, he may persuade the Jews to believe in Christ, and that they may not all utterly perish at His coming. Wherefore He too, guiding them on to that remembrance, says, “And he shall restore all things;” that is, shall correct the unbelief of the Jews that are then in being.
From Moralia in Iob by Pope St Gregory I the Great (b. 540 – d. 604):
It is well that after the losses of his substance, after the death of his children, after the tortures of his wounds, after the strife and conflict of words, he is raised up again with a double reward, clearly, in that Holy Church, even while yet in this present life, receives a double recompense for the toils she undergoes, since having taken in the Gentiles to the full, at the end of the world she converts to herself the souls of the Jews likewise. For it is on this account written, “Until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved.”
From De Fide Orthodoxa, Book IV, Chapter 26 by St John Damascene (b. 676 – d. 749) about the Antichrist:
It should be known that the Antichrist is bound to come. Every one, therefore, who confesses not that the Son of God came in the flesh and is perfect God and became perfect man, after being God, is Antichrist. But in a peculiar and special sense he who comes at the consummation of the age is called Antichrist. First, then, it is requisite that the Gospel should be preached among all nations, as the Lord said, and then he will come to refute the impious Jews.
2.2 Implications
There is no basis to “support Israel” because of some special status, at least not the anti-Christian zionist aspects.
By the way, there is a distinction between Jew (religious), Hebrew (racial) and Israel (political). These terms are often used ambiguously, deliberately or otherwise, thus causing confusion.
However one looks at it, it can be simplistically said that the Jews have no special status beyond the historical.
Of course, Christians should pray for others, including the conversion of the Jews. Whether this is still done today or even part of the liturgy is another topic. To put it simply, if it is not, then it is due to the goodie-two-shoes humanism that pervades the so-called Christian West; apparently, praying for the conversion of Jews is “racist” and “anti-semitic”.
Although it was predicted and indeed that the Jews were scattered after their rejection of Christ, Zacharias 12 foretells their return to Jerusalem, but not in a good way, at least not at first, as they will be “a burdensome stone to all people”. The below seems to have been at least partly fulfilled since 1948.
Behold I will make Jerusalem a lintel of surfeiting to all the people round about: and Juda also shall be in the siege against Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone to all people: all that shall lift it up shall be rent and torn, and all the kingdoms of the earth shall be gathered together against her. In that day, saith the Lord, I will strike every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open my eyes upon the house of Juda, and will strike every horse of the nations with blindness. And the governors of Juda shall say in their heart: Let the inhabitants of Jerusalem be strengthened for me in the Lord of hosts, their God. In that day I will make the governors of Juda like a furnace of fire amongst wood, and as a firebrand amongst hay: and they shall devour all the people round about, to the right hand, and to the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place in Jerusalem.
Be sure to subscribe to our mailing list so you get each new Opinyun that comes out!
Comments