Derek Prince - Israel Will Play A Central Role In The End Times
But all that is ahead. Now, in the midst of all this Israel, the Jewish people who’ve been displaced from the center of history for nineteen centuries, are coming back into the center of history. I don’t know whether you’ve ever noticed. Israel today is a very small land. It’s smaller than Wales, smaller than the state of New Hampshire, has about four million Jews and about one million others. And yet, it’s almost in the news every day, even here in New Zealand. Ruth and I have noticed scarcely a day passes without a report from Israel. Do you know why? Because Israel is coming back into center stage for the climax of the age. That’s where they’ll be when the climax comes.
Now, Romans 11 contains a very important revelation. Romans 11:25-26 These words are addressed by Paul to Christians from a Gentile background that is, non-Jewish. How many of you know that most of you are Gentiles. I’m a Gentile, Warren is a Gentile. Ruth is a Jewess, see. But she’s in a minority. The people who are not Christians are pagans but the people who are not Jews are Gentiles. This is difficult for some people to apprehend. Paul is writing to Christians from a Gentile background and this is what he says.
Romans 11:25 I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, this secret that God has been keeping, lest you should be wise in your own opinion. Don’t get conceited. Don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. What is the mystery? That hardening in part has happened to Israel until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. Notice it’s hardening in part. The whole Jewish people has never been totally hardened. There’s always been Jews in every generation who believed in Jesus. Sometimes a very small minority. But hardening in part has happened to Israel not forever but until. Until what? The full number of the Gentiles has come in. Until the church has done its job and proclaimed this gospel of the kingdom to all nations. And meanwhile the Lord has begun to gather in the Gentile harvest. I believe myself the greatest harvest the church has ever seen is still ahead of us. I believe millions of people are going to come into the kingdom of God. But bear in mind that’s preparatory to the restoration of Israel.
And then Paul goes on to say in verse 26: So all Israel will be saved. Israel is the only nation of which the Bible predicts that all the nation will be saved. It doesn’t say all New Zealand or all Britain. Not all America, all Russia, but all Israel will be saved. On the other hand, you have to bear in mind that all Israel is not all the Israel that’s alive now for in Romans 9:27 Paul quotes Isaiah. He says: Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea the remnant will be saved. The remnant is the remnant God has foreknown and chosen for Himself. So it’s not all the Jews that are presently alive in Israel, but it’s the remnant that God will bring through great tribulation testing and suffering to make them His.