One of the things we do from time to time at Root Source is to expose conversations between interesting people. We find that some of the best education comes from listening to a respectful dialog between people who are not “on the same page” theologically.

Gidon Ariel is the CEO and founder of Root Source. Gidon describes himself as an authentic, traditional Orthodox Jew who makes it a life goal to be willing to talk to “any flavor of Christian” who is willing to talk to him, and to engage in meaningful dialog.  (This is certainly why he has been so appreciated over the years here at Root Source!  You don’t have to walk on tip-toes with Gidon — you can be yourself!)

The other party in this conversation is Doug Hamp.  Doug is the leader of a congregation in Denver, Colorado that teaches regularly about Torah observance. We first came across Doug when we interviewed him regarding his book called “The Language of Jesus” where Doug makes a very strong case directly from the New Testament Greek translations that Jesus spoke Hebrew, not Aramaic, as is widely claimed in the academic world.  Perhaps we will replay those broadcasts again soon.

Anway the conversation in the broadcast below is titled about “what is happening relative to Israel and the Church” but what they actually get into reveals both men’s different journie’s and perspectives.

On Doug’s part, after spending time in Israel, he describes his transition away from the label “Evangelical Christian”, and how he sees the church being grafted into the “commonwealth of Israel” as mentioned in Ephesians 2.  He says that observing Shabbat, the feasts and the food laws is a privilege he is honored to teach to Christians.  He believes the biggest split between the church and the Jews came through the teachings of Marcion in 140 CE, and that some of Marcion’s errors are still believed within the Christian church today.

Gidon, for his part describes his approach of interacting with may different Christians of many different beliefs — not for the purposes of changing them at all, but just for the sake of understanding.  Gidon also tells how a recent stay on Shabbat at the home of a of a non-Jew introduced him to a “new descriptive term” that he thinks makes sense to the mindset of  traditional Jews like Gidon.  (You’ll have to watch to hear that one, and how Doug responds.)

This video is a bit longer than normal — 53 minutes.  But, did you know you can speed that up?  If you watch a YouTube video, you can click on the settings button (looks like a gear) and change the speed of the video to play at 1.25, 1.5 or even 2x faster.

This video was recorded on July 8, in the first week that we had announced the 9th of Av repentance program.