Conference to be held in North London on Friday 8th and Saturday 9th October (includes a buffet meal on the Friday evening) exploring the relationship between the Church and Israel and its effects.

Speakers

Darrell Bock (Dallas Theological Seminary)
Mitch Glaser (Chosen People Ministries, New York)
Jules Gomes (London School of Theology)
Richard Harvey (All Nations College)
Barry Horner (Christ Church, Tucson, Arizona)
Calvin Smith (King's Evangelical Divinity School)

Dates and Times

Friday 8 October (6 - 9.30 pm)
Saturday 9 October (10 - 5 pm, followed by a concert with Marty Goetz in Hammersmith, London at 8 pm)

Venue

London School of Theology, Green Lane, Northwood, Middlesex HA6 2UW. Directions.

About the Conference

Jointly organised by Chosen People Ministries and King’s Evangelical Divinity School, the purpose of this conference is to explore the often tense relationship between the Church and Israel, Christian responses to the Middle East and their wider effects on Jewish evangelism, Messianic Judaism and Jewish-Christian relations. The Church-Israel relationship represents a longstanding doctrinal debate throughout much of the Church’s history. However, in the past two decades or so, with an increasingly bitter Middle East conflict, this issue has moved beyond the strictly exegetical and theological spheres to encompass the political realm, so that the increasingly bitter debate taking place across society and the media concerning the Israel-Palestinian conflict is being increasingly echoed in the Church, resulting in Christian responses to Israel of late becoming sharply polarised, heated and intractable. The wider knock-on effects of this include disagreements within Messianic Judaism over how it views itself and its relationship with the Church, how a perceived Christian anti-Israel bias is affecting Jewish responses to the Gospel, and the bearing the debate is having upon how British Evangelicals view and engage in Jewish mission.

The conference, then, will explore Christian responses to the Middle East, together with outlining and analysing aspects of the Church’s relationship with Israel, including issues such as supercessionism, the ongoing election and purposes in the plan of God for the nation of Israel, the history and present role of Christian Zionism as it relates to Jewish evangelism (both positively and detrimentally), how the current theological debate is being played out against the backdrop of the volatile Middle East conflict, and Jewish mission. It will help Evangelicals, regardless of their theological perspective, to develop a clearer and more complete theology regarding the relationship between Israel and the Church, leading towards a deeper biblical and theological basis for Jewish mission. The aim is for the conference to produce more light than heat, especially seeking agreement on the need and strategic importance to reach Jewish people with the Gospel. It is also envisaged the conference will contribute towards constructive theological dialogue between theologians from all sides, thus helping to shift the discussion away from what has too often been an unnecessarily pejorative and polemic approach.

Some of the papers delivered at the conference will be included in a new volume exploring the nature, cause and effects of the uneasy relationship between the Church and Israel, due for publication in 2011.