Philip Church

In 1970, as a newly married couple, my wife and I visited New Guinea, as it was then known. The island was divided into three parts: the western half was known as Irian Jaya, now West Papua and the eastern half was divided into New Guinea in the north and Papua in the South. With independence from Australia and self-government in the mid-70s, these two eastern parts were united to form Papua New Guinea. West Papua is part of Indonesia. We went sometime around Easter 1970. After arriving in Port Moresby we flew to Mt Hagen via Goroka by DC3, stayed with a young John and Anne Hitchen. John was Dean of the Christian Leaders’ Training College (CLTC, https://www.cltc.ac.pg/ ). This was before they went to Aberdeen for John’s PhD Studies. We travelled by truck down the Highlands Highway to Lae with Norman Bartlett, and after a few days there we flew back to Port Moresby (again by DC3) and home again. Only a few memories of that trip a...

More Dialogue with Graeme Carle A few weeks ago I responded to Graeme’s challenge for someone to critique his blog on Israel and the promised land ( https://drphilchurch.blogspot.com.au/2017/12/a-response-to-graeme-carle-promised.html ).  Graeme has now responded ( https://emmausroad.org.nz/7566-2/ ). And some of what he says cannot go unchallenged. I am hoping we can end it here though, as I want my blog to be more than just dialogue with Graeme. Reading the Scriptures against their first century context Graeme takes me to task for not reading the Scriptures against their first century context. I plead, “Not guilty.” This is essential, along with remembering those to whom they were written, since the Scriptures were written for us but not to us. That means that our interpretations need to be meaningful and relevant for those to whom they were written. We need also to be aware of genre in our reading. A case in point is the book of Revelation, which I will refer to below. ...

Recently Graeme Carle published his opinions on Israel and the promised land here: https://emmausroad.org.nz/promised-land-not/ . In his post he challenged anyone from Laidlaw College or Carey Baptist College to respond. I am taking up the challenge, although I represent neither college. The opinions are my own. Graeme starts with Romans 4:13, “For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. ” We all know that Abraham was promised not the world but a small slice of territory at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, But here, Paul, in line with his recognition that God’s promise of descendants to Abraham is expanded to include not just ethnic Israel but everybody who has faith, also recognises that in Christ the promised land is expanded to include the whole world. Graeme claims, “Abraham and Jesus haven’t yet inherited the whole world to share with us have they?” Graeme is wrong. ...

I published this on the Laidlaw College blog a few years ago. I thought I might say it again Was Jesus really born in a stable? The traditional Christmas story, played out in numerous nativity pageants around the world every year has Joseph and a highly pregnant Mary knocking on doors in Bethlehem, being turned away from every place, and ending up in a stable where Jesus is born. When I looked at the text again this year that picture did not seem quite right. Luke 2:4-7 explains, 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. The text explai...

In 1996 my wife Dorothy and I went to Israel. At that time I had no idea of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and knew little about Zionism. It happened to be around the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, and in Jerusalem, I was mystified when I kept encountering Christians asking me if I had “come up to the feast.” I was unaware at the time, but I now know that the “International Christian Embassy Jerusalem” organizes tours to Israel for Christians who want to do just that. They set themselves up in 1980 when about a dozen countries moved their embassies to Tel Aviv after Israel declared unilateral ownership of Jerusalem. It was an act of protest over that, because they felt that Jerusalem was too important to not have an international Christian presence. Ironically the Israeli Government gave them a house that was formerly owned by a wealthy Christian Palestinian family who had been ejected from it. About 5,000 Christians usually attend the 9 day festival. Then, on one October Su...