| Type | evangelical Bible college |
|---|---|
| Established | 2014 |
| Location | , |
| Affiliations | Evangelical Alliance Israel, Asia Theological Association |
| Website | nazcol.org |
 | |
Nazareth Evangelical College is an evangelical Bible college located in Nazareth, Israel. The language of instruction is Arabic. The college offers graduate and undergraduate degrees [1] and provides a number of other education services to the local community. [2]
Nazareth Evangelical College has its origins in two Bible colleges: Galilee Bible College (GBC) and Nazareth Evangelical Theological Seminary (NETS). Nazareth Evangelical Theological Seminary (NETS) was founded in 2007 by the Scottish missionary-scholar J. Bryson Arthur and his wife May, originally with the name The Nazareth Center for Christian Studies. [3] [4] Galilee Bible College was founded as an Israeli branch of the West Bank Bible college Bethlehem Bible College . All courses were taught in Arabic.
With the departure of NETS's primarily Western staff in 2013, NETS was handed over to entirely Arab leadership, turned into a purely Arab-language institution, and was merged with GBC to become Nazareth Evangelical College, Israel's only theological seminary dedicated to serving the country's Arab evangelical minority in their own language. The merger took place in partnership in 2014 with the Association of Baptist Churches in Israel (ABCI), Bethlehem Bible College (BBC), and the Convention of Evangelical Churches in Israel (now called the Synod of Evangelical Churches in Israel). [5]
Nazareth Evangelical College offers a BA in Biblical Studies and an MA in Leadership & Christian Ministry. Both degrees receive their accreditation through Bethlehem Bible College, which is accredited by the Middle East Association for Theological Education (MEATE), Asia Theological Association (ATA) and the Palestinian Authority. [6]
NEC has also started an International Study Program, a series of courses and excursions designed to help develop relationships with international partners and share something about the unique Palestinian-Israeli evangelical context to visitors interested in deepening their understanding of the region. Currently on offer are a series of lectures [7] on different facets of the local context and a combination of these lectures with a tour. [8]
In addition to an extensive English language theological library, NEC now hosts the largest Arabic-language theological library in the country.
NEC subscribes to an evangelical statement of faith. [9]
Palestinian Christians are Christian citizens of the State of Palestine. In the wider definition of Palestinian Christians, including the Palestinian refugees, diaspora and people with full or partial Palestinian Christian ancestry this can be applied to an estimated 500,000 people worldwide as of the year 2000. Palestinian Christians belong to one of a number of Christian denominations, including Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Anglicanism, Lutheranism, other branches of Protestantism and others. Bernard Sabella of Bethlehem University estimates that 6% of the Palestinian population worldwide is Christian and that 56% of them live outside of the region of Palestine. In both the local dialect of Palestinian Arabic and in Classical Arabic or Modern Standard Arabic, Christians are called Nasrani or Masihi. Hebrew-speakers call them Notzri, which means Nazarene.
Bethlehem of Galilee is a moshav in northern Israel. Located in the Galilee near Kiryat Tivon, around 10 kilometres north-west of Nazareth and 30 kilometres east of Haifa, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Jezreel Valley Regional Council. As of 2021 it had a population of 823.
The Association of Baptist Churches in Israel (ABCI) is a Baptist association of churches in Israel. It is a member of the European Baptist Federation, the Baptist World Alliance and the Evangelical Alliance of Israel.
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Elias Chacour is a Palestinian Arab-Israeli who served as the Archbishop of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth and All Galilee of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church from 2006 to 2014. Noted for his efforts to promote reconciliation between Palestinians and Jews, he is the author of two books about the experience of Palestinian people living in present-day Israel. He describes himself as a "Palestinian-Arab-Christian-Israeli."
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) is an academic divinity school founded in 1897 and located in the northern Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Illinois. It is part of and located on the main campus of Trinity International University. It’s among the most conservative and largest theological educational institutions. Since the reorganization of Trinity in 1963 by Kenneth Kantzer, the school has consistently recruited and retained some of the top scholars in the world to serve as faculty.
Meredith George Kline was an American theologian and Old Testament scholar. He also had degrees in Assyriology and Egyptology.
A Bible college, sometimes referred to as a Bible institute or theological institute or theological seminary, is an evangelical Christian or Restoration Movement Christian institution of higher education which prepares students for Christian ministry with theological education, Biblical studies and practical ministry training.
Asia Theological Association (ATA) is a Christian organisation of seminaries in Asia. It is a member of the International Council for Evangelical Theological Education. The headquarters is in Quezon City, Philippines.
Christianity is the third largest religion in Israel, after Judaism and Islam. At the end of 2022, Christians made up 1.9% of the Israeli population, numbering approximately 185,000. 75.8% of the Christians in Israel are Arab Christians. Christians make up 6.9% of the Arab citizens of Israel.
Anis Shorrosh was a Palestinian Evangelical Christian, who published many books and debated with Ahmad Deedat. Shorrosh was the translator of The True Furqan, which he said was intended to challenge the Quran. Shorrosh translated the book to English from Arabic.
The Heritage College & Seminary is a Baptist theological institute in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. It is affiliated with the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada.
Emile Shoufani, is an Israeli Arab Christian theologist, educator and activist for peace, archimandrite of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. Fr. Emile Shoufani won UNESCO Prize for Peace Education (2003).
Bethlehem Bible College is a Christian evangelical college, founded in 1979 in Bethlehem, under Israeli military occupation. It was created to prepare Christian leaders to serve Arab churches and society in the Holy Land. It trains students to model Christ-centeredness, humility and biblical wholeness. The College uses Arabic as its primary language of instruction, and all courses are accredited through MEATE, the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education and several international theological organizations.
Israel College of the Bible, also known as ONE FOR ISRAEL Bible College is a private Hebrew-speaking Messianic Bible college in Netanya, Israel. It is an independent academically accredited institution.
Christian political theology in the Middle East is a religious response by Christian leaders and scholars to political problems. Political theologians try to balance the demands of a tumultuous region with the delicate but long history of Christianity in the Middle East. This has yielded a diversity of political theology disproportionate to the small size of Middle Eastern Christian minorities. The region's importance to Christians worldwide – both for history and doctrinal authority for many denominations – also shapes the political theologies of the Middle East.
Willem A. VanGemeren is Professor Emeritus of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author of a number of books, including Interpreting the Prophetic Word (Zondervan) and a commentary on Psalms in the Expositor's Bible Commentary series (Zondervan). He was a senior editor of the five-volume work The New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis in which ten essays have been compiled to thoroughly explain proper hermeneutics and Biblical interpretation. He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Evangelical Theological Society, and the Institute for Biblical Research.
Sani Ibrahim "Barhoum" Azar is the fourth and current Palestinian Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.