Present Witness

An online resource making an apologetic defense of God’s enduring promise to Israel and the Jewish people. Through His covenantal fidelity to the Jewish people God will consummate His promise and plans to all humanity, first to the Jew but equally to the Gentile.

What We Do

We translate theological concepts into popular language, helping a wider audience access important ideas. We also provide perspective into our cultural moment concerning Israel & the Jewish people and how this relates to the church. Lastly, we magnify the incredible contributions that Jewish people have made into our shared human experience through their contributions in art, music, inventions, scientific discovery and humor.  We do this through various media: articles, video, conferences, debates, and short form and long form mixed media content.  

We do all of this to bring honor to the ultimate Israelite, Jesus and to bring honor to the God of Israel.

→ About Present Witness

“The God of Israel is The Firm Foundation and inescapable predicament of Christian theology. Pursued without reference to the God of Israel, Christian theology is hopelessly exposed to the charge of being mere vanity, for the gospel about Jesus is credible only if predicated on a living God who “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist”. But pursued with reference to the God of Israel, Christian theology is immediately engaged in a fight for it’s life, pressed on every side by perplexities and difficulties with which it must wrestle but which it cannot master. Not least among these perplexities is that Christian theology serves an overwhelming gentile church that exists alongside another community, the Jewish people, who also glorifies the God of Israel but which cannot hear the gospel tidings of the living God.”

— Kendall Soulen, The God of Israel and Christian Theology

CONTENT

Content
Election Outside of Jesus?
Election Outside of Jesus?

A recurring question that I hear within the Christian camp is one of understandable perplexion concerning the Jewish people's ongoing election. More specifically, how does election exist as the people of God outside of the knowledge of Jesus? And election unto what exactly? This paradox for the Church is a contradiction of fundamental identity within the Church's self-understanding. In this essay, we will explore some themes around the ongoing election of Israel and what this could mean for the Church’s own understanding of itself.

A Non-Dispensational Case For Christian Zionism and The Permanent Election of the Jews - A Historical Reflection
A Non-Dispensational Case For Christian Zionism and The Permanent Election of the Jews - A Historical Reflection

Support for Israel and the Jewish people is becoming an increasingly difficult position to hold. Our cultural moment has found itself facing an all too familiar anti-Jewish zeitgeist on two fronts.

Jew & Gentile in The One New Man
Jew & Gentile in The One New Man

Is the Torah relevant today? How should Jew & Gentile believers live as the One New Man? Does oneness mean sameness? Is it possible to have unity within differences? One of the more complex tensions in scripture is the dynamics between Jews and Gentiles. Which makes a certain amount of sense considering 1st-century followers of Jesus were primarily made up of Jews.

Evaluating Replacement Theology Through History, Present & Future
Evaluating Replacement Theology Through History, Present & Future

Replacement Theology has pressure on all sides as it attempts to negate both the promises of God and dislocate the God of Israel from the people of Israel. We will examine the four dimensions in which Replacement Theology fails concerning its reworking of covenantal history. We will look at the past, the present, the future, and finally, the fruit that this theological position produces.

The Greater Always Includes the Lesser
The Greater Always Includes the Lesser

Paul makes clear that Jesus's coming secures all the promises and expands on them to include the gentile nations. The greater includes the lesser. God's kingdom, through Jesus, is advancing to make good on the promises to Noah, Abraham, and David. This hope also includes the expansion of Salvation to the Gentiles.

The Flaw In The Heart Of The Crystal
The Flaw In The Heart Of The Crystal

Dr. Kendall Soulen takes aim at the heart of Suppersessionism with his analysis of how the Christian church see’s itself through its canonical narrative. Soulen was the president of the American Theological Society in 2017, and is also the president of the Society for Post-Supersessionist Theology.

The Hatred of the jew, in the last analysis, is the hatred of God. And the jew, no matter how alienated and apostate, is still the physical symbolic representative of the God of israel, the god of jacob

— art katz