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translated "hope". Similarly, no one would translate Titus 2: 13: "Looking for that
blessed trust", or Acts 28: 20: "The trust of Israel." We must therefore revise the
translation of Rom. 15: 12 and read: "On (epi) Him shall the Gentiles hope."
The next thing to notice is that the Apostle does not speak of "the God of hope", but of
"the God of the hope". Remembering that the article "the" often carries with it the idea
which would be expressed by the English "that", we may translate as follows:
"On Him shall the Gentiles hope. Now the God of that hope fill you with all joy and
peace in believing, that ye may abound in that hope, in holy spirit power."
This passage is of great importance because of its bearing upon the hope entertained
by the Church during the Acts. If the believing Gentiles in the Church at Rome were to
be filled with all joy and peace in believing, and if they were to abound in this hope, then
obviously the hope expressed in Isa. 11: must have been the legitimate hope of the
Church. Now the hope of Isa. 11: is definitely Millennial, and will be fulfilled after the
Lord has "slain the wicked with the breath of His lips" (Isa. 11: 4). Moreover it is
associated with the time described in verse 6 when
"the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the
calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them"
(Isa. 11: 6).
Such conditions will not be brought to pass on the earth until the hope of Israel is
realized and, as we read in verse 9:
"They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain" (Isa. 11: 9).
It is "in that day" that the hope of the Church at Rome will be realized.
Romans is not only the most fundamental of Paul's epistles, but it is also the last
epistle to be written before Israel were set aside at Acts 28: In the early chapters of
the Acts, before Paul's conversion, we find the hope of Israel uppermost in the minds of
the other apostles (Acts 1: 6, 3: 19, 26), and this hope remained right through the Acts
(until the last few verses of the last chapter). Even after the epistle to the Romans had
been written, we find the Apostle declaring before Agrippa that he still entertained "the
hope of the promise made unto the fathers" (Acts 26: 6, 7); and even when he reached
Rome, he could still say without reserve: "For the hope of Israel I am bound with this
chain" (Acts 28: 20).
Though justified by faith, the believing Gentile in Romans was dispensationally but a
wild olive graft into the stock of Israel. He had no hope apart from Israel, and not until
Israel were set aside at Acts 28: was any hope other than "the hope of Israel"
possible. It is quite unscriptural to attempt to link up the Church of the Mystery with
the hope of I Thess. 4: No amount of argument can alter the plain statement of
Rom. 15: 12 & 13 and all that this implies. The interested reader should refer to the
charts given in Volume XXV (pages 8 and 65), testing them thoroughly by the rightly
divided Word of Truth.