New Center for Israel hosts student interest launch event

Liberty University’s Center for Israel held a student interest panel on Dec. 2, providing a space for dialogue about the center’s purpose and opening the floor for students’ questions.

The center was launched in October as a new initiative designed to deepen understanding, foster meaningful relationships, and promote thoughtful scholarship around the shared spiritual heritage between Christians and the Jewish people. The center serves as a hub for education, dialogue, and collaboration.

The event, held in the Freedom Tower, featured a panel discussion with Dr. Troy Temple, dean of the John W. Rawlings School of Divinity; Ryan Helfenbein, vice president of Communications and Public Engagement and executive director of the Standing for Freedom Center; Dr. Johnnie Moore, CEO and founder of The KAIROS Company and a Center for Israel senior founding fellow; and Biblical Studies Associate Professor Dr. Thomas Hudgins. The discussion was moderated by Biblical Studies Associate Professor Dr. Jillian Ross. Over 70 students attended the session.

Temple began the evening by emphasizing the important role Israel plays in God’s redemptive plan of salvation, noting God’s historical covenant with the people of Israel.

“We want to pray that the nation of Israel will respond to the true Messiah, ultimately,” he said. “It’s a missional heartbeat that we have for the Center for Israel, to pray for the nation of Israel and provide resources to guide the church in supporting Israel in the hope for the Gospel, for the Jewish people.”

The discussion highlighted the specific covenants God made with Israel as documented in Scripture, the threat to Western society of extremist Islam, Liberty’s longstanding relationship with Israel, and the ongoing conflict in Palestine.

Moore, who previously served as senior vice president at Liberty, also noted America’s foundation on Judeo-Christian values, arguing that American culture and even Christianity at large would not exist without the Jewish faith.

“Your religion as a Christian, my religion as a Christian, and the truth that we’ve come to discover in Jesus Christ — it would not exist without the foundation of Judaism,” he said.

Moore also spoke about his work in the Middle East over the summer, where he met with Christian leaders and provided meals for Palestinian families as executive chairman of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The Center for Israel builds on the university’s longstanding commitment to biblical truth and its legacy of friendship with the Jewish community. Inspired by the vision of Liberty founder Dr. Jerry Falwell Sr., the center seeks to cultivate a new generation of leaders who are grounded in faith and equipped to engage the world with compassion and conviction.

“Beloved, if we don’t have a unifying truth, not my truth or anyone’s truth from up here, a unifying truth that has authority and is infallible and endures, then we’re lacking in most of our conversations,” Temple said. “The commitment that we make in this expression from the School of Divinity, our seminary, and ultimately the university, is that we will stand on the unity of Scripture as God’s only inspired word. And that’s how we calibrate what is truth and what is not.”