For the past 8 months, I’ve been working on an academic essay titled Reframing Romans 11:25–27: Gentile Fullness and the Salvation of Israel in Paul’s Generation . The core question driving the project is a familiar one: What does Paul mean by “the fullness of the Gentiles,” and how does that relate to the salvation of “all Israel”? The dominant interpretation—especially in futurist and dispensational readings—understands the “fullness of the Gentiles” as a massive, end-of-history ingathering of Gentile converts, followed by a large-scale conversion of ethnic Israel at some distant point in the future. The problem, however, is that this scenario remains perpetually deferred. Two thousand years later, the fulfillment is always still just ahead. My argument is that there is a more coherent way to read Romans 11:25–27—one that takes seriously the New Testament’s own redemptive-historical framework and the expectations shared by its authors. I...
While reading Hebrews 12:22–29 the other day, the language and references began to generate a series of familiar associations. Zion led to angels, angels to judgment, and judgment—almost inevitably—back to Matthew’s Olivet Discourse. From there, Daniel and Paul quickly came into view. Rather than feeling scattered, these connections reinforced a pattern evident across the New Testament, namely, that Scripture clarifies Scripture and in doing so shapes the contours of its own eschatological claims. Hebrews (12:22–29) speaks with striking confidence about where its readers already stand. They have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem. This is not presented as a destination awaiting fulfillment, but as a present covenantal reality. What follows reinforces that point: angels gathered in festal assembly, the assembly of the firstborn, God identified as Judge, and the spirits of the righteous made perfect. The emphasis throughout is ...