FULLY BOOKED. NO PLACES REMAINING FOR CONFERENCE (concert on Saturday evening still available).

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.

Programme

FRIDAY 8 OCTOBER

6.00 pm Registration and bookstall
6.30 pm Welcome (Mitch Glaser) and buffet meal
8.00 pm Conference Introduction
Paper 1: Calvin Smith: Christian-State Relations in the Holy Land Today
Paper 2: Richard Harvey: Messianic Judaism: Identity and Its Relationship With the Church

SATURDAY 9 OCTOBER

10.15 am Registration and bookstall
10.45 am Paper 3: Darrell Bock: The Restoration of Israel in Luke-Acts?
11.45 am Paper 4: Barry Horner: A Parting of the Ways: Breakdown of Jewish-Christian Relations in the Postapostolic Period
12.30 pm Lunch break (bring a packed lunch or eat at a nearby restaurant)
2.00 pm Paper 5: Mitch Glaser: Israel and Its Effect on the British Missionary Movement
3.00 pm Refreshments
3.30 Paper 6: Jules Gomes: Are Abraham's Descendants Apes? Islam, Anti-semitism and the Church

8 pm Concert with Marty Goetz (an offering will be taken at the concert).

List of nearby hotels and accommodation.

About the Conference Speakers

Darrell Bock (Ph.D., University of Aberdeen) is Research Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. He has earned international recognition as a Humboldt Scholar (Tübingen University in Germany) and for his work in Luke-Acts and in Jesus’ examination before the Jews. He was president of the Evangelical Theological Society for 2000–2001, and serves as corresponding editor at large for Christianity Today.

Mitch Glaser (Ph.D, Fuller Theological Seminary, California) is President of Chosen People Ministries, originally a ministry to the Jewish people established in New York in 1894 but now with outreach worldwide. He edited (with Darrell Bock) To the Jew First: The Case for Jewish Evangelism in Scripture and History (Kregel Publications, 2008), has written numerous articles related on Messianic Judaism and Jewish evangelism, and a member of the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism.

Jules Gomes (Ph.D., Cambridge) is currently M.A. Course Leader and Tutor in Biblical Theology at London School of Theology. He Read English Literature at Bombay University before studying Theology at seminaries in Prune and Bangalore. Jules is an ordained Anglican minister and has pastored in India and England. Until recently he was Co-ordinating Chaplain to the University of Greenwich, Trinity College of Music and the Old Royal Naval College Chapel.

Richard Harvey (Ph.D., University of Wales Lampeter) is Tutor in Theology and Director of Training at All Nations College, England. A Messianic Jew, he is a member of the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism, European Board Member of Jews for Jesus, Vice-President of the British Messianic Jewish Alliance, and on the editorial board of the journal Mishkan. He is author of Mapping Messianic Jewish Theology: A Constructive Approach (Paternoster, 2009).

Barry E. Horner (D.Min. Westminster Seminary, California; M.Div., Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, Portland, Oregon) comes from Melbourne, Australia, and presently ministers at Christ’s Church of Tucson, Arizona. Recognized as a leading authority on John Bunyan and his writings, he has published several volumes in this field, including The Pilgrim’s Progress: Themes and Issues. More recently Future Israel was published and quickly became recognised as a significant contribution, in challenging supercessionism, within the contemporary eschatological debate.

Calvin L. Smith (Ph.D., University of Birmingham, England) is Principal of King’s Evangelical Divinity School, United Kingdom, and Editor of the Evangelical Review of Society and Politics. He writes and lectures on Christian responses to Israel, edited The Jews, Modern Israel and the New Supercessionism: Resources for Christians (King’s Divinity Press, 2009), and is currently researching for a book entitled Sons of Abraham: The Politics of Christian Faith in the Holy Land (forthcoming 2011).

COSTS AND BOOKING

Places are limited so please book quickly. Bookings are strictly on a first-come-first-served basis.

There are several booking options, including concessionary rates for Higher Education enrolled students and others, together with a day rate for those who can only attend one of the sessions. Full details and secure server payment gateway are available through the school's online shop.