The Back to Jerusalem Podcast

Eugene Bach reports from the U.S. at the start of his October coast-to-coast tour, fresh from the Voice of the Persecuted gathering held in the heart of Oxford University – 500 years after William Tyndale completed the first printed English Bible in 1526, a work he paid for with his life.At Oxford, believers who have been imprisoned for their faith in China, North Korea, Pakistan and Turkey shared what the persecuted church can teach the West. Among them was Pastor Andrew Brunson, imprisoned in Turkey for preaching the gospel and recently appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. His warning to Western Christians was blunt: persecution is coming, and in many ways it is already here.Eugene also shares the story of Shagufta Kausar, sentenced to death in Pakistan over a blasphemy accusation, and explains why she was unable to attend the Oxford meeting after her UK visa was denied.From there, Eugene walks through Scripture on the end times – Matthew 24:14, Romans 11 and Revelation 7 – and explains why he believes the completion of the Great Commission, the salvation of the Jewish people, the East Gate of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount are central to the spiritual battle of our day, and why the region between Xi'an and Jerusalem is the final frontier of missions.He closes with his take on the Flydubai Flight 1073 incident, the Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight diverted to Saudi Arabia after one pilot stabbed the other in the cockpit – an event Israeli officials have described as an attempted terror attack – and on how parts of the media framed it.

Eugene Bach delivers an update from inside southern China on a story Back to Jerusalem has been tracking for years: the Chinese Communist Party's project to produce its own translation of the Bible.

While the world has heard about flooding in Nepal and southern Tibet, a separate and possibly more devastating flood hit North Korea at the beginning of this month, destroying roads, bridges, railways, and thousands of homes. Eugene explains the two reasons this disaster has stayed hidden from the outside world: North Korea's track record of executing officials blamed for past disasters, and the fact that these floods struck near a sensitive naval base in Chongjin — the same base where a North Korean warship launch famously capsized in 2025.

In Brazil, BTJ joins a Christian hackers conference focused on using technology for missions. Hackers attending the conference work on solutions for moving funds to missionaries, getting Bibles into closed countries, and using AI, software, and other skills to help spread the Gospel.

What if there were two Jesuses to choose from? Eugene explores the story of Pastor Jing Dianying and the Jesus Family in China, revealing how Jing was forced to choose between a kingdom built through force and one built through love, sacrifice, and faith. He connects this choice to the surprising story of Jesus Barabbas and asks which Jesus we are choosing today.