Their pain is our pain - or should be

In this episode, Philip welcomes Cole Martin again, who has been travelling around Aotearoa with two visitors to our country. Together we interview Dr Lamma Mansour, a sociologist and theologian who is a Palestinian citizen of Israel from Nazareth and Dr Yousef Al Khouri, the Academic Dean of Bethlehem Bible College, who was born and grew up in Gaza and who now lives in Bethlehem near the field where the angels appeared to the shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus. We talk about life for Palestinians both inside the territory of Israel and in the West Bank and Gaza.

In this episode, Lauren and Philip examine the theology behind the popular Left Behind series of novels, specifically the Rapture, by which the church will be whisked away to escape the so-called Great Tribulation. For many of us, this scheme is “received orthodoxy” that we have absorbed by a process like osmosis and have never really examined – this episode provides an opportunity to do that.

In this episode, Lauren and Philip ask why so many Christians continue to support Israel. They explore a popular understanding of the end times, where some Christians believe that the formation of the state of Israel is a prelude to the Second Coming of Jesus. Is this really the case? Do the Palestinian Christians have to leave their homes so Jesus can return? And will Jesus really sit on the throne of David in Jerusalem for 1,000 years?

In this episode, we interview Dr Hanna Massad, former pastor of the Gaza Baptist Church. We were moved by his message of love, reconciliation, and forgiveness in the face of persecution, and learned of various aspects of his current ministry.

We remind ourselves of the importance of the land, Jerusalem and temple in ancient Israel and what the New Testament says about that. At the end of the episode, we consider what Paul the Apostle meant when he said, "In this way all Israel will be saved" (Romans 11:26).