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Please don't get so excited, it's not good for you.mmmm .... let's see. Paul's talking to you until ... he isn't. You guys keep telling us to read Paul and when we do you get gas. What he said was obvious enough to me and it is equally obvious that it said something similar to you that you felt the need to explain away. Rather than explain it away consider just letting it say what it says, believe it, and then go back and figure out what you ingested that required you to explain away what Paul clearly said.
Oh, and before I forget, who do you propose is the other branch Paul is speaking of?
You have to read IN CONTEXT. Sometimes Paul writes things that must be read that way. Takes this passage as an example:
Rom 2:17-24 KJV Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, (18) And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; (19) And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, (20) An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. (21) Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? (22) Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? (23) Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God? (24) For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.
Who was Paul talking about here?Much of Romans is a history lesson showing how Israel did not obey the LORD.
Rom 9:1-5 KJV I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, (2) That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. (3) For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: (4) Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; (5) Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
Don't forget that Gentiles (stranger) were always allowed to join with Israel and be "as one born in the land". Other Gentiles that did NOT join with Israel were outside of the promises.
These Gentiles that joined Israel are the one grafted in. But NOW everyone can come to God without Israel.
Rom 11:25 KJV For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Notice how the fullness of the Gentiles is coming in WHILE Israel is blinded in part.Someday, Israel will be restored. Until then it's the dispensation of the grace of God to us Gentiles.