Here Pastor Paul Sadler speaks of Israel's salvation as being "two dimensional," one aspect being "physical" and the other "spiritual":

"The salvation of Israel is two dimensional. The physical side of her deliverance was always paramount in the minds of most Jews, especially those of the dispersion....As we know, Peter was charged with the spiritual side of things, calling upon his hearers shortly after Pentecost to 'repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.' (Acts 3:19)" (Sadler, "The Life and Epistles of the Apostle Peter; Part 4," The Berean Searchlight, May, 2000, p.7).

He also says that both of these elements remain in the future, and he quotes several verses which he calls "time phrases" in order to attempt to prove his assertion:

"Both of these elements of Israel's salvation are future, which helps to explain Peter's 'time phrases' in his epistles, such as, 'ready to be revealed in the last time,' 'receiving the end of your faith,' 'hope to the end,' etc. (I Pet. 1:5,9,13). The 'last time' and 'the end' Peter speaks of here are the last days of prophecy that have been temporarily interrupted by the present age of grace. Consequently, the Hebrew race, including every detail of their redemption, is being preserved by the power of God until Christ returns in glory to establish His millennial kingdom" (Ibid.).

According to Pastor Sadler every detail of the "redemption" that is in regard to the Hebrew race is being preserved until the Lord Jesus returns to set up His millennial kingdom. However, the Apostle Peter tells the Jewish Christian that they have already been redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus:

"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Pet.1:18-19).

It is also a fact that the author of the book of Hebrews tells the Jewish believers that the Lord has already obtained eternal redemption for them:

"Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us" (Heb.9:12).

Pastor Sadler said that "Both of these elements of Israel's salvation are future, which helps to explain Peter's 'time phrases' in his epistles, such as...'receiving the end of your faith.'" Let us look at this verse:

"Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls" (1 Pet.1:9).

Peter is certainly not telling these Jewish believers that the salvation of their souls remain in the future. First of all, the Greek word telos is translated "end," and that word can mean "the aim, purpose" (Thayer's Greek English Lexicon). Therefore, Peter's words can mean "receiving the purpose of your faith, the salvation of your souls." Here is another translation of the same verse:

"...obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls" (1 Pet.1:9; NASB).

Secondly, the Greek word komizo is translated "receiving," and it is in the present tense. If the salvation of which Peter spoke of in this verse remains in the future then Peter would not have used the word in the "present" tense but instead would have used it in the "future" tense. He would have said, "You will receive the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." But that is not what he said.

Those who received the Jewish epistles were already redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus and they had already received the salvation of their soul. Despite these clear facts Pastor Sadler says the following:

"Observing the grace of God among the Gentiles, Peter was beginning to have a fuller appreciation of the prophesied grace that would come unto them. In fact, the Spirit had directed him to declare at the Jerusalem Council, 'we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.' You see, the prophets had prophesied about the sufferings of Christ and the glory that would follow shortly thereafter in the kingdom" (Sadler, "The Life and Letters of the Apostle Peter; Part III," The Berean Searchlight, April 2000, p.9-10).

Here again Pastor Sadler is attempting to prove that the salvation of the Jewish believers remained in the future--"we shall be saved." However, the Greek word translated "shall be saved" is sozo and at Acts 15:11 Peter used that word in the "aorist" tense. According the The Blue Letter Bible the aorist tense "is characterized by its emphasis on punctiliar action; that is, the concept of the verb is considered without regard for past, present, or future time."

Therefore it is not surprising to see the following translation:

"We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are" (Acts 15:11; NIV).

As already shown, the words of Peter at 1 Peter 1:9 demonstrate that the salvation of the soul was a present possession of the Jewish believers. Therefore we can understand that the Jewish believers were already saved by grace and that the "grace" in regard to salvation did not remain in the future.

Pastor Sadler mistakenly takes that promises that are in regard to "corporate" Israel and tries to apply those promises to "individual" Jews.

George Eldon Ladd correctly understood that the salvation of Israel in the OT is corporate in nature, writing that "in the Old Testament the eschatological salvation is always pictured in terms of the national, theocratic fate of the people of Israel" [emphasis added] (George E. Ladd, ,The Last Things [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 1978], 8).

The salvation of Israel is pictured in the Old Testament as being a "national" regeneration. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum writes that "The basis of Israel's final regeneration is the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34...The result of the New Covenant will be a total national regeneration of Israel...That Israel was to undergo a national regeneration is not confined to the words of the New Covenant alone. The truths of the New Covenant are greatly elaborated by various prophets" [emphasis added] (Fruchtenbaum, Israel in the Messianic Kingdom).

It is this "national" regeneration or salvation of Israel that remains in the future and it is prophesised in the thirty-seventh chapter of the book of Ezekiel. There we see the prophet taken to a valley full of "dry bones" and these bones are described as "the whole house of Israel":

"The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones...Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts" (Ez.37:1,11).

In the same chapter we see a description of a future regeneration of the "nation" of Israel:

"So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army" (Ez.37:7-10).

This demonstrates that the the eschatological salvation of Israel as prophesised in the OT in corporate in nature. In the following verse Paul is speaking about that "corporate" salvation:

"...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" (Ro.11:26-27).

In an address to the Evangelical Theological Society in 1954 Howard W. Ferrin quoted Dean Alford's commentary on these verses where Alford says that Paul "is dealing with 'nations'--with Gentile nations, and the Jewish nation. Thus dealing, he speaks of the fulness of the Gentiles coming in, and of all Israel being saved: having 'no regard' for the time of the 'individual' destinies of the Gentiles or the Jews, but regarding 'nations' as each included under the common bond of consanguinity, according to the flesh (Alford, "The Greek Testament, II," p.435)" [emphasis added] (Ferrin, "All Israel Shall Be Saved," Bibliotheca Sacra 112 (July, 1955), 241).

We must be careful to distinguish between promises made to "corporate" Israel and the promises which apply to "individual" Jews. At the time when the Jewish epistles were written corporate Israel was temporarily set aside so therefore the "corporate" promises belonging to Israel were put on hold.

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