They believed in a literal fulfillment of Israel’s covenants following the church age.

“They”again being the early church teachers, and leaders. These bloggers say that the proof of this is in this following passage:

“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. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins” (Romans 11:25-27).

Had these who are understanding and writing this Way of Life Ministries article, a portion of which I just quoted here —had they instead have stated that early believers believed in a literal fulfillment of Israel’s Covenants following the salvation of the last Gentile; then they would have been true to the literal text of this scripture quoted above. However within their statement There is, in fact, no mention of the three facts that are proven within literal Scripture, and which actually prove the literal context of this Scripture. This proof also counters their statement’s base conclusion, in fact, making it a prevarication, containing only partial truth.

The first omission of fact is that Gentiles will be saved during the Tribulation. I’ll not go into that fact further, because even pre-Trib scholars admit in a twisted way that this is true.

Secondly, according to this statement, they lay claim to a fulfillment of Israel’s covenants after a certain and specific age, which they call the church age, but an age none the less, which is really not provable from the literal scriptures.

When Jesus stated that: “on this rock I will build My Church”. — the rock to which He referred was the truth of Peters statement that He (Jesus) was and still is the Christ, the Son of the living God. At that moment the Disciples knew that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. The church that He mentioned, would then be considered by them Jewish, and it was established by a Jew (Jesus) for Jews as well as later for ingrafted Gentiles. The first 3000 added to the church were likely all Jewish additions. Gentiles were later grafted in because literal scripture says: that it was because of the unbelief of the Jewish religious system — His own peoples rejection. And this addition of Gentiles, was to fulfill the prophetic promise to Abraham as he was to be the father of nations (in fact many plural nations). Messiah was to be savior to Jews and Gentiles alike. “For God so loved the world”.

Thirdly, the literal fulfillment of Israel’s Covenants, would include the New Covenant promised to Israel, under which we Gentiles also are saved. But furthermore all those covenant promises would include the Gentiles in the coming future fulfillment’s.

Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both [groups into] one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, 15 by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, [which is] the Law of commandments [contained] in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, [thus] establishing peace, (NASB1995)

Paul here gave us a perfect literal picture of who you are in Christ, but before that he told you literally who you were before:

Ephesians 2:12 [remember] that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. (NASB1995)

For you to be taught that you are a separate entity from Israel housed in a separate Gentile Church Age is just not provable from literal scripture. If the literal scripture is true there can be no pre-Trib rapture. By saying this I am not advocating for a no millennium; position; nor for a pre tribulation style millennium taught by a post-millennial position — one without Christ physically on the earth, for literal scripture demands Christ’s kingdom to follow His return to this earth. These literal scriptures do not cause a Gentile entity to replace a Jewish one. The church does not replace Israel. The church began with Israel and accommodates all of Gods people as one unit.

This does not negate that there will still be a Nation of mortals during the millennium who will make up a ruling nation over the mortals of the whole earth. The remaining nations of the world will come up to Jerusalem to sacrifice. The church (bride) made up of Gods people will rule over all of this with Christ for 1000 years. This is the most literal way to understand Scripture.