3171.—Times of the Gentiles
By Editor
Does Luke 21:24 mean that God will reject the Gentiles to such an extent that He will again turn to the Jews? And also Rom. 11:25, the last part of the verse? I understand that the Jews are building and inhabiting Jerusalem as a fulfilment of this prophecy. G. A. First, the times of the Gentiles evidently refer to those prophetic times which God has spoken of by His prophets and concerning which He has given periods or limitations, as for instance the 1,260 years of papal supremacy referred to in both Daniel and the Revelation, and the 2,300 years during which time God's worship and service should be trampled under foot. Then indeterminate years follow. Prophetic definite time ended, as we understand, in 1844. Indefinite time follows this, preceding the Lord's coming. Thus the rule of all Gentile nations will be ended, and "Jerusalem which is above, which is the mother of us all," will welcome her children. There is nothing in the text which would intimate that then would the Lord turn to the Jews as a nation and restore them; for every Jew has now the same opportunity as every Gentile. Rom. 11:25 has reference to a different thing. The statement is that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. In other words, the Jews as a nation rejected Christ, but it does not mean that the Jews as individuals are rejected. When the Jews would not carry on the work which God gave them to do, the privilege of doing that work must go to the saved of all nations, peoples, tongues, and kings; but the Gospel must be received by them as individuals. No nation as a nation would be converted. No people could say that they were responsible for the work of salvation which God would do in the earth, consequently the Jewish nation was set aside. But what is the "fulness of the Gentiles"? That fulness is met in Jesus Christ. He was the fulness of both Jew and Gentile. John says of Him, "Of His fulness we all received, and grace for grace." John 1:16. And Paul in writing to the Gentiles declares, "For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in Him [Christ] should all the fulness dwell." Col. 1:19. And he tells us further the blessed fact, "For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and in Him ye are made full." Col. 2:9, 10. Therefore the fulness of both Jew and Gentile is found in Christ Jesus our Lord, and it is found nowhere else; and that came in when the Jews rejected Jesus Christ. He died upon the cross for all, and His apostles were sent out into all the world to preach that Gospel freely to all, to whomsoever it came; and in its acceptance there is neither Greek nor Jew, male nor female, but all are one in Christ Jesus. Our querist's reference to Heb. 9:27 we do not understand. It seems to us that the text is very clear. It declares, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." It does not say how long after. It does intimate, however, that the judgment will not come before death, but after death, and that death determines the character; and however death may leave us, there the judgment finds us. Hebrews deals in finalities. It is ever pointing forward to the end, to the climax. Men live here, but the judgment lies beyond.