How did salvation come to the Gentiles according to Romans 11?
According to Romans 11, salvation came to the Gentiles by Israel’s fall. God set Israel aside for a period and turned to the Gentiles, so that through Israel’s fall salvation reached them. Paul says plainly that they have not fallen out of God’s program; they were merely set aside.
Les teaches that Israel’s prophetic program was interrupted because the tribulation did not come in after the crucifixion; in the book of Acts, none of this happens. God does not give up on Israel. Paul says in Romans 11 that they have not fallen out of God’s program; they have merely gone into a period when God sets them aside and turns to the Gentiles. Paul says clearly that by their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles. Les pictures this as a parenthesis. After Acts (40 years to A.D. 70), Titus destroyed the temple and Jerusalem, and Israel was sent into dispersion, becoming like corpses in the Gentile world, as in Ezekiel 37. Then comes a period totally out of a time frame, since Old Testament prophecy concerning Israel was always in a time frame, with 490 years determined and 40 years here and there.