Westminster Conference 02

The second day of conference was at least as good as if not better than the first day. Certainly the standard of discussion seemed a little better. Robert Oliver, Jeremy Walker and Robert Strivens chaired.

We kicked off with Westminster Seminary West President Robert Godfrey on tradition. Drawing on the work of Heiko Oberman (The Dawn of the Reformation) and one or two others he helpfully untangled the muddle of tradition using Oberman's three types and adding a fourth of his own. Oberman says

"Whereas in Tradition I truth is grasped and held through reflection on Holy Scripture and in Tradition II through reflection on Scripture and Tradition ... (in) Tradition III, truth is grasped and held by introspection and self-analysis on the part of the Church focused in the Teaching office".

So T1 is a school of interpretation such as the Reformed one; T2 involves an appeal to oral tradition as is common in Eastern Orthodoxy; T3 is tied up with J H Newman's idea of development of doctrine.

Godfrey's T4 includes ideas passed won that are a matter of prudence rather Scripture.

Having set this out at some length and illustrated it by reference to the controversy over images, Dr Godfrey went on to speak of the necessity of certain traditions and the usefulness of others. he closed by warning of the obvious dangers of traditions.

Of course, the difficulty is in disentangling what sort of traditions our traditions are.

In the second session Jonathan Watson tackled Thomas Brooks' excellent Precious remedies against Satan's devices. This sort of paper can be done badly but was done very well on this occasion. After a brief biography (there is not much to say as we have seen on this blog) we had a four point summary of how to deal with Satan's devices.

1. Know yourself

2. Know your enemy (his names, pervasiveness, hatred for us, great experience and his requiring a double leave to move - from God and then from you!)

3. Know your weapons

4. Helpful directions for Christian soldiers - there were 10 of these, to do with obeying the Word, not grieving the Spirit, seeking heavenly wisdom, resisting at the first moment, endeavouring to be Spirit filled, keeping humble, being on guard, keeping up communion with God, never relying on self and being much in prayer.

The book contains 38 devices and 189 remedies!

The final paper, given by Faith Cook, was on William Grimshaw. Much of this material was familiar to some of us but it was good to be reminded again of his example in this anniversary year.

On a personal note I have found the conference most heart warming. I especially appreciated the reminder of the Puritans commitment to godliness through disciplined highlighted in Brooks' gem of a work.