That's very tricky any more, as there are a few versions of IO now in existence.
Some say "gentiles" means the northern tribes.
Some say "gentiles" can refer to the northern tribes in certain verses.
You also have several levels of IO proponents now saying parts of the Bible are a myth; and you likewise have those that say the entire book is fiction, based on ANE typology.
And then you also have the IO-Universalists ;)
The events of the 1st century were exclusively against Israel, and as no one since has been under the law of Moses, no one sins, so no one needs a savior, and we all still get to go to heaven when we die.
I likewise love their argument that this judgment in scripture only applies to those under the Law of Moses.
When exactly was Babylon (Tower of Babel era), or Sodom and Gomorrah under the Law of Moses? How about the Canaanites? or even the Amorites?
One has to remember the base premise that binds all these versions together........................................the belief that the literal story of and in the bible, is about Israel >>>>>>>>>> ONLY.
Israel Only is guilty of only being a surface reading, at best.
They do not see or understand the deeper spiritual connections and connotations.
They; admittedly, do not have the holy spirit, so it naturally flows that spiritual things are foreign to their thinking.
Not their imaginations though ;)
They only see the surface story, and that is nearly identical to Futurists. By misplacing the audience relevance, time statements, and many of the personal pronouns in scripture, their closeness to the allegorical, merely projects all these events into our own future; as does each previous generation, but their projection is almost exclusively into a physical/natural and carnal world fulfillment.
We simply can not limit Paul's preaching to Israelites Only, based conclusively on this verse:
Acts 9:15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:
Paul did not only preach and write to Israelites. Gentiles are clearly established here to distinguish a body of people that are not of the "Children of Israel", so why is Paul, taking them the gospel, if it was only for Israel?
Israel-Only destroyed in one verse.
Israel Only is simply ludicrous.
Don't worry; there's no shortage of excuses for that verse, but no doctrine stands or falls (exhaustively) on one verse, so the battle never ends for them.
