Bible teachers and ministry leaders from across the country came together to tackle antisemitism at The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry headquarters in Westville, N.J., on Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 16 and 17, for the 19th Annual Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics.
“Our theme on ‘Israel, War, and Antisemitism’ was a sensitive but important one for our day,” stated Dr. Mike Stallard, vice president of international ministries with FOIGM and executive director of CDH. “At least six papers dealt in some way with antisemitism, an evil that dispensationalists must oppose vigorously.”
CDH is an academic study group, established in 2008 to promote theological discussion among traditional dispensationalist theologians, pastors and students.
Stallard added: “The 18 academic papers presented were the most in the history of this study group for traditional dispensationalists. We expect several publications to emerge from this year’s group of excellent papers.”
To accommodate that number of presenters, and the group assembled to listen—which included FOIGM staff members—sessions were split between the new state-of-the-art recording studio and the chapel, and most of them were offered in breakout session tracks.
With antisemitism growing exponentially—sadly even within the conservative and Christian worlds, broadly speaking—those teaching at the conference this year took these issues with utmost seriousness, with many seeking to provide guidance as to how to think about the modern State of Israel, in particular. Dr. David Gunn shared his paper focused on the relation between the Israelites in the ancient world and the Jewish people today. Dr. Ian Bacon, Dr. Randall Price and Dr. Mike Stallard took on the issues surrounding Zionism and the question of whether the reestablishment of Israel in 1948 was related to the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.
“The scholarship of dispensationalism is clearly anything but ‘dead’ or ‘fallen,’” stated Dr. Cory Marsh, professor of New Testament at Southern California Seminary, who presented the closing paper, on the dispensational understanding of Israelology, based on Romans 9-11. “In an age of antisemitism rising to heights unseen since the days of Hitler, dispensationalism’s insistence upon God’s unwavering love for the Jewish people is more relevant than the current complacent culture would suggest. In that regard, FOIGM hosting CDH made this year’s conference all the more meaningful.”
On the first day of the gathering, there was a very unique opportunity to hear a panel discussion with three local Jewish rabbis. They interacted regarding “The Jewish People and Evangelicals.” This was a new feature that paralleled the regular pastors’ panel on the second day of the conference.
“Several attenders of the conference commented that their favorite part of our meeting was the rabbi panel,” Stallard said. “I believe that was true for me as well. Pray, in these days of hostility toward Jewish people and national Israel, that dispensationalists will remain firm friends in spite of our serious differences.”
Dr. Tim Sigler, the CEO of Ariel Ministries, prepared a paper on “Israelology Among the -ologies.”
“A consistent literal, grammatical, historical approach to Biblical interpretation leads to an appreciation of the role of Israel in God’s redemptive plan—past, present and future,” Sigler emphasized. “This is at the heart of dispensationalism. CDH is evidence that this appreciation is alive and well within evangelical scholarship.”
Stallard told the group as the event closed that he considered this to be one of the best editions of CDH.
He explained the next steps as follows: “We give presenters one month to modify their papers based upon the interaction at the meeting. Until then, only those who attended the conference will have access to the papers. After that, separate videos for each original presentation will be posted along with the updated papers for universal access. At the present time, one can go to the schedule (at dispensationalcouncil.org) and view the entire recording for the livestream.”
Papers from previous years’ conferences, going back to 2019, are also available on the CDH website, and many videos of presentations are included from the years since 2021.
CDH has taken over publishing the Journal of Ministry and Theology online. It includes papers delivered at the annual CDH conferences, and two new editions of JMAT can be found on the CDH website.
“We would like to thank our presenters for the sacrifice they made in spending time and expense for their efforts,” Stallard said in conclusion.
The 20th annual CDH will be held on Sept. 15 and 16, 2027, at a location yet to be determined.
Discussion
NewThank you
Paul, Thank you for this update and for your work with Friends of Israel. I have recently been surprised on how much pushback I have been getting for my defense of Israel and of the Jewish people. Ironically, I am as critical of the Jews as what the Old Testament prophets and Christ himself was. I condemn their sin, while still loving them, but that is not enough for many who want me to more fully condemn them. It is quite frustrating.
Part of the issue is that I firmly teach that the nation of Israel has not been replaced by the church even though I affirm that many individuals within Israel have been cut off. Further, having native branches cut off did not originate with Paul writing to the Romans. It goes all the way back to Numbers 15:30-31
Notice they will be completely cut off. That meant they were to be cut off from the nation of Israel and counted as Gentiles. This was true in Numbers for both the native and grafted in branches (see vs 30) Jesus reaffirmed this same idea of cutting off Jewish branches in Matthew 18 in what is classically represented as church discipline. (It is a good pattern for churches to follow, but was originally addressed to the Jewish community as Jesus spoke.)
Note that church in Matthew 18 means the Jewish assembly. In both the Numbers 15 and Matthew 18 passages, Jews were cut off and counted as Gentiles, but that did not destroy the original Jewish nation. Neither does Romans 11 where Paul speaks of the native branches being cut off. In fact, the chapter of Romans 11 starts out in the first few verses clarifying that God has NOT cut off his people. Only branches are cut off. Roots are not pulled out and a new tree planted, yet this makes me an evil Zionist to some who have such a bias that they hardly want to engage with scripture. I am convinced that there is spiritual warfare going on over this subject.