I have read the responses to the question “Are all Jews Saved?” and am confused. First, the Jews of the Old Testament who trusted in God are saved under the Old Testament right? Secondly, the Bible tells us that God blinded the Jewish people to Jesus in order to fulfill the “time of the Gentiles.”
To say that God would blind a nation of people to Jesus and salvation AND not maintain the Old Covenant with them seems unimaginable for a loving, forgiving God.
What you’re saying is that ALL Jews from Jesus to Revelation, except for the few Messianic Jews, are going to hell because God blinded them to the truth of Jesus and the cross. You’re saying that all of the terrible things done to the Jews, many in the name of Christianity, are simply their sentence for being Jewish.
In effect you’re saying that God condemned them to eternity in hell because some tribe and nation had to be an example and a people for all of the world to hate in order to fulfill God’s plan.
I believe that the Old Covenant must be in effect throughout the “time of the Gentiles” for those Jews who keep it. Doesn’t this make more sense, doesn’t this describe our Creator better?
If you’re referring to my answer to the question, “Will All Jews Be Saved?” You’re reading a lot into it. Let me clarify the issue regarding salvation for Jews.
First of all, you’re overlooking a critical piece of information. It’s found in Luke 19:41-44. After fulfilling over 300 Old Covenant prophecies right before their eyes, including making His entry into Jerusalem on the very day the Prophet Daniel had told them He would over 500 years earlier, the Jewish leadership failed to recognize Him, and He held them responsible. He was the fulfillment of the Old Covenant and in rejecting Him they caused their own blindness.
But the first members of the Church were all Jews who had been impacted by His ministry and it remained that way for over 20 years after the cross. The New Testament was mostly written by Jews. The Epistle to the Hebrews was written specifically to Jews telling them that because of the cross the Old Covenant had been set aside in favor of the New. And in the last 2000 years untold numbers of Jews have secretly received the gift of Salvation through the study of their Scriptures, most notably Isaiah 52:13-53:12, in the quiet of their own hearts. Today there are hundreds of messianic congregations in Israel alone.
But the fact is that even before the cross, the Old Covenant never saved a single person. Its sole purpose was to expose the sinful nature of man and convince them of their need for a Savior. (Romans 3:20) The same idea can be found in Micah 6, Psalm 51, Zechariah 3 and a dozen other places in the Old Testament. The Jews who were saved in Old Covenant days were those who died in faith of a coming Savior, not those who kept the Law.
And finally since 70 AD it’s been impossible for Jews to keep the Old Covenant because it requires a Temple to do so. Even if the Old Covenant could have saved them, every Old Covenant Jew for the last 1936 years would have died in sin because there’s been no sacrifice for sin as required by the Old Covenant. Without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sin. Jesus is our only sacrifice.