Dispensationalists have God's future calendar all figured out. They say that this present dispensation cannot end until the "full number of the Gentiles has come in" (Rom. 11:25, NIV), meaning that all the Gentiles in the world are going to be saved into the Church. When there are no more Gentiles to be saved, then the Church will be raptured. Very soon after that the Antichrist makes a "firm covenant" with Israel, and the "Great Tribulation" begins.

Left behind in this Tribulation, supposedly, will be 144000 Jews. They pick up tracts and other literature left here and there by the departing Christians, begin reading them, and miraculously get saved. Perhaps the greater miracle here is that before the Rapture of the Church, there were tracts, and books, and evangelists witnessing Christ to them, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT PRESENT and yet they remained stubborn unbelievers to the end. It wouldn't make sense to say that the "horrors" of tribulation will cause them to be, converted, because for the first three and a half years there supposedly will not be any of the horror of the "Tribulation." Things, they say, will be rather peaceful in this "Tribulation." But the story goes on that they immediately become fantastic witnesses, and before the Tribulation is over, will have won countless millions of Gentiles to Christ - more than the Church had done in 2000 or more years.

AND NOW THE BIG QUESTION:
If all the Gentiles had already come into the Church before the rapture and before the Tribulation begins, where do these Jewish "witnesses" find all those countless millions of Gentiles to witness to during that "Tribulation?" That's a real stumper!

I didn't make all that up. It is what dispensationalists have been teaching for years. Here is what they say:

According to Romans 11:25, the "full number of the Gentiles will be brought into the Church, the blindness of Israel will be removed, the Church will be raptured, and the "Great Tribulation" begins. Then the greatest revival ever known will take place; 144000 Jews who have missed the Rapture because of stubborn unbelief, who will be left behind to go through the Tribulation, suddenly get saved, and will win more souls to Christ in 21 months than the Church had been able to do in 2000 years. Sounds fantastic? It sure does. Bit is it true?

Dr. Tim LaHaye writes, "The greatest revival the world has ever known is yet to come. It will not occur within the Church Age but during the Tribulation period. This coming worldwide revival is prophetically described in Revelation 7, appearing right after the seal judgments to indicate that it will take place during the first twenty-one months of the Tribulation. Evidently, while the Antichrist is making his political advance, the Holy Spirit will move in the hearts of millions of people, leading them to a saving knowledge of Christ" (Revelation Unveiled, p 148),

Hal Lindsey, who is very adept at finding verses here and there in the KJV which need "correcting," has this to say, "Israel's partial hardening of the heart is said to continue 'until the full number of Gentiles has come in.' (Rom. 11:25 NIV) The original Greek literally says, 'until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in,' but the New International Version correctly interpreted the word FULLNESS in the light of the context" (The Road To Holocaust, p 202). This is amazing. Even though the original Greek literally says, "until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in," and the context does not even vaguely indicate that "fulness" should be "full number," the NIV renders it's own interpretation. Did they know something the original writers of the Bible did not?

Notice how Mr. Lindsey justifies that NIV re-write according to interpretation: "Paul frequently wrote about Gentiles being added to the body of Christ to make up a certain number of redeemed people...As this age progresses, that Gentile-dominated number of saved people in the body of Christ is nearing completion. There will soon come a time when the last person will believe in Christ...then its earthly mission will end. Christ will suddenly come for His own and take them to His Father's house." (IBID, p 203).

Dr Lindsey says that the Rapture happens after there are no more Gentiles to be saved. But at the same time, the teaching goes that after the Rapture, during the first 21 months of the seven year "Tribulation," the 144000 Jews will win untold millions of Gentiles to Christ, more than the Church had been able to win during its entire 2000 year existence! But if the Tribulation does not occur until the last Gentile is brought into the Church, where do the 144000 Jews find all those countless millions of Gentiles to witness to in the Tribulation? This is a big theological goof. How did so many well-known and capable Bible scholars and teachers miss that? How did Dr Lahaye and Mr Lindsey miss it? Is it because that is how they read it in some new translation?

The big problem with Bible teachers, even old timers of the Fundamentalist persuasion, may be the idea that possessing and using works of modern scholarship, such as the NIV, adds to one's air of sophistication. The general assumption, faulty as it may be, is that modern scholars know the Greek language better, and are therefore better equipped to translate the Bible than were the translators of the King James Bible. But close scrutiny shows that those translators four hundred years ago understood Scriptures better than scholars do today. Whether they were smarter, or whether they got help from above, may be arguable, but the fact is, the AV is much more consistent, and much less self-contradictory, than any other Bible available today.

FULNESS VS FULL NUMBER
"Fulness" does not mean "full number," and these brilliant NIV translators didn't understand what "be come in" really means. In the context of Romans 11:25, "fulness" means full stature, full power, completeness, perfection, abounding in quality, etc. That became the status of the Gentile world when the times of Israel ended in A.D.70. (When Israel was invaded by Rome, there were two spiritual divisions of Israel, the good and the bad, the believers in Christ, and the unbelievers. The believers were Christians, who had given up their national identity as Israelites; they were subjects of Christ's Kingdom, and were scattered throughout the world among all Gentile kingdoms. The stubborn unbelievers, the blinded, were the sole representatives of Israel, and they were all destroyed in that holocaust. After that, there were no Israelites. With no Israelites, there could be no Israel. People who call themselves Jews today only think they are Jews. The term "Jew" is neither ethnic nor national, it is religious. You could say that Israelites were Jews, but only while Israel remained a viable nation, whether Judaea or the northern kingdom. But by the end of that war in A.D.70, Israel ceased to be, and so did the Jew, at least as far as the Bible is concerned. The day of Israel ended, the times of the Gentiles began. We are now in the times of the Gentiles.

ISRAEL WAS NOT "PARTIALLY BLINDED."
"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" (Rom. 11:25).

Although "blindness in part" sounds a little as though Israel was only partially blinded, it really means that part of Israel was blinded, part was not (I'm sure that Paul would readily apologize for misleading modern biblical experts. He probably didn't think they would have so much trouble with a simple expression. It no doubt was purely unintentional. I think that he kind of expected scholars to read the whole Bible, and take into account clear, explanatory passages rather than jump to conclusions after reading the first verse they happen to see).

"What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded" (Rom. 11:7). Here we can see the two divisions of Israel. One part was the "election," the saved, the Christians; the other part was blinded, the Jews, the stubborn unbelievers. There was no such thing as a "partial blindness" of Israel. It is almost comical to read how scholars explain how Jews today can be blinded, yet can be saved. Dr. Pentecost states, "Paul says that this blindness is 'in part.' This reveals the fact that the blindness is not universal so that no Jew can believe today. The possibility of an individual's salvation exists, although the nation has been judiciously blinded" (Things To Come, p 303). This statement of his is as tough to interpret as some modern translations. How can an individual's possibility of salvation exist even though the nation is judiciously blinded? Does this mean that God blinded the nation except for some Jews? Which Jews were not blinded? How did God choose the ones He didn't blind? Or does Dr. Pentecost mean, as do many Dispensationalists, the all of Israel was "partilly blinded," but not so blinded that they couldn't be saved. This "partial blindness" only means that they are saved with greater difficulty. Now, pray tell, why would God partially blind His people, the people after His own heart, the "apple of His eye," so that it takes more effort to save them than Gentiles? That is unscriptural, and absolute nonsense.

There was none of that halfway business. The blindness of the stubbornly unbelieving part of Israel was complete, and quite lethal. The Bible explains:

"And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (2 Thes. 2:10-12).

The word "damned" is a strong word, meaning "doomed." We hardly need a dictionary to define that for us. None of the unbelievers escaped the holocaust of A.D.70.

"For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape" (1 Thes. 5:3). The key phrase here is, "they shall not escape." And the destruction was sudden.

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