"1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." (Rom. 10: 1-4 nkjv)
"Primitive Baptists," aka "Hardshell Baptists," teach that the people described as "seeking to establish their own righteousness" and who have "not submitted to the righteousness of God" nor recognized "Christ" as "the end of the law for righteousness" and who are unbelievers are nevertheless born again children of God. I know this is their view because I was a minister in their sect for many years. They also teach that the salvation of Romans chapter ten is not eternal salvation, but a temporal salvation, a salvation that is not necessary to go to heaven.
That is truly an aberrant view and absolutely has no foundation in the context. This twisted interpretation is the result of their idea that eternal salvation has no conditions, that faith, repentance, confession, and perseverance are not conditions, for they believe that a person may be saved but who does not know nor believe in one true God, nor in Christ Jesus, nor in the word and gospel of God.
They say that most born again children of God are working to save themselves by their works and have not trusted solely in the imputed righteousness of Christ. However, that is certainly not what Paul was affirming in the above text. Paul prays that Israel "might be saved" and this salvation involves believing in Christ and accepting his righteousness for justification.
From a Primitive Baptist Study on Romans (here) we read this commentary on this passage (emphasis mine):
"Paul said he was praying for Israel that they might be saved. In Rom. Chapter 9 Paul had declared, "They are not all Israel, which are of Israel." Thus, there are two Israel's taught in the scriptures. There is natural Israel, and there is spiritual Israel. Not all of natural Israel was a part of spiritual Israel. In the eighth chapter, Paul taught the covenant work of God that God chose a people before the world began to be his and then he predestinated them to be conformed to the image of His son. Next, he called, justified, and glorified those that he chose before the world began. It makes no sense that Paul would be praying for those who were not a part of God's elect. Thus, Paul was praying for that part of natural Israel, which was a part of spiritual Israel."
It is true that Paul speaks of "Israel after the flesh" (I Cor. 10: 18) and says: "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." (Rom. 2: 28-29 kjv) However, by "Israel" in this text he does not have in mind those who have already been saved or were spiritual Jews. Rather, he has the same people in mind that he mentioned earlier in his letter when he wrote:
"1 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; 5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen." (Rom. 9:1-5 nkjv)
Here we see where Paul is praying for the salvation of his fellow Israelites, his brethren according to the flesh, and these are the same ones who he prays for in Romans 10: 1 and who have rejected Christ and his righteousness and seek to be saved by their own righteousness or obedience to the law.
It is an absurd statement for this Hardshell to say -- "It makes no sense that Paul would be praying for those who were not a part of God's elect." Is it the Hardshell view that they can never pray for the salvation of anyone who is lost? That they can only pray for those who they believe are of the elect? How absurd and unscriptural is that idea?
The same Hardshell article says further:
"Paul was praying that they "might be saved." What was it that Paul desired that they be saved from? Most people today would say that he desired that they be saved from the condemnation of sin. The problem with this belief is that God's elect are already saved from sin and justified by the blood of Christ. Paul set forth this principle when he asked, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" He then answered the question with, "It is God that justifieth." The elect have been already justified by the blood of Jesus. They do not need any further saving from the condemnation of sin. It is a finished work. Therefore, the prayer of Paul on behalf of spiritual Israel is that they might be saved from something else other than the condemnation of sin."
The same article says further:
"We do not have to speculate what Paul desired they be saved from. It is given to us in verse three: "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness." Paul desired that they be saved from their ignorance and from their efforts to try to establish their own righteousness. Most of those among the Israelite nation who were a part of spiritual Israel were ignorant of the righteousness of God. They were going about to establish their own righteousness through the works of the Mosaic Law. They thought that through keeping the law and all its ordinances and commandments that they could become righteous before God."
From this commentary we see that the Hardshell Baptists believe that a true knowledge of God and of Christ the Son of God, or of the way of salvation, is not necessary to be saved. They even teach that many heathen Polytheists who believe in many false gods are nevertheless saved. Yet, the Bible clearly says that those who "know not God" will be "punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord." (II Thess. 1: 8-9)
This Hardshell commentary also says that "ignorance" of the one true God and of the way of salvation through Christ does not mean that such ignorance damns a sinner forever. That is, of course, absurd. Notice these words of the apostle Paul, and see how he describes those who are "alienated from the life of God," i.e. dead in sin:
"Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart." (Eph. 4: 18 kjv)
Here we see that to be saved from ignorance of God and his way of salvation is to be saved from spiritual death. In salvation God delivers sinners from this kind of ignorance. Of the elect it is said -- "they shall all be taught of God." (Isaiah 54:13; John 6:45) How could they be ignorant of God and his way of salvation if they have been taught of God? If God-taught people believe in many gods and disbelieve that salvation is through Christ, then God must have been a poor teacher, reductio ad absurdum.
This Hardshell commentary also teaches that most saved people are saved even though they are ignorant of God's righteousness through Christ, and are trying to save themselves by their own works, and though they do not see and accept Christ "as the end of the law for righteousness" Christ is nevertheless still their righteousness. Paul, however, had a different idea, for he wrote:
"knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified." (Gal. 2:16 nkjv)
"Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace." (Gal. 5: 4 kjv)
The same article says further:
"That portion of the Israelite nation which was a part of spiritual Israel was going about trying to establish their own righteousness through the works of the law and therefore had not submitted themselves to the truth, that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. So long as they were trying to establish their own righteousness they were in opposition to the plain truth that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness."
But, the fault here is in the assertion that people who are trying to establish their own righteousness through the works of the law and have rejected the righteousness of Christ may still be saved.
John Gill, who the Hardshells say was in league with them, in his commentary on Romans 10: 1 said:
"prayer to God for Israel was, that they might be saved; not only that they might be saved in a temporal sense, from these grievous calamities and sore judgments he saw were coming upon them, which he had reason to believe would issue in the destruction of them, as a nation and church; but that they might be spiritually converted, turned from their evil ways, and brought to believe in Christ, whom they had despised and rejected, and so be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation: this he might desire not only from a natural affection for them, but as a minister of the Gospel, who cannot but wish that all that hear him might be converted and saved; and as a believer in Christ he might pray for this in submission to the will of God; and especially as he knew there was a seed, a remnant according to the election of grace, at that present time among them, that should be saved, though the larger number of them were cast off."
The idea that Romans chapter ten is not talking about eternal salvation from sin and death is ridiculous.
