THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

The Hope of Israel: What Is It? 147
tion; and hence it must come in this present "day of
salvation," or not come at all.
All this being understood, it yet remains that the
passage in Romans 11:25 leaves room for, even if it
does not imply, a time to come during this gospel era
when the supernatural blindness, imposed as a punishment
upon the Jews as a nation, will be removed, or
at least abated, so that the gospel message will have
a far greater effect among them than during the time
the vail was upon their hearts, and that many of them
may be saved. Paul's heart's desire and prayer to God
for Israel was "that they might be saved"; and it
reasonable to assume that, in so praying, he was "praying
in the Holy Ghost." This lends support to the expectation
that there will yet be a mighty working of
the Spirit and the word of God amongst the Jewish
people, something analogous to "the latter rain" in
which, of course, Gentiles too will participate.
It is apparent upon an attentive perusal of Romans
IX-XI that the subject of a national restoration for
the Jews is not in contemplation at all.
is
What occupies
the apostle's mind is the distressing "mystery" (11 :25)
of Israel's failure to recognize the promised Messiah
when He came to them, and to receive the salvation
He offered them. The salvation of God, foretold by the
prophets and now proclaimed by the gospel (1 Pet. 1:9-
12), is what Israel as a nation had "not obtained,"
though they had been seeking for it (Rom. 11 :7) ; for
truly they had been eagerly looking for what their expected
Messiah was to bring them and do for them,
though all but a very small remnant were wholly mistaken
as to the nature of the salvation foretold by the
prophets (See Chapter XVI herein).