Abraham Conference at John Owen Centre Day 2

Messers Salter (seated) and Gibson (standing) 

We are a bit behind here but the second day at the Abraham conference was a fine one. We opened with a paper from David Shaw of Oak Hill and the whole matter of Abraham and justification by faith. He helpfully brought us up to speed with regard to the current debate with plenty of references to Wright and Barr et al. Perhaps the one failure was to relate this more directly to Abraham and not just to Romans 4 but this was a worthwhile paper. We then tried something a little different as David Gibson and Martin Salter presented papers arguing the paedo- and credo- Baptist positions respectively. Again Abraham was slightly lost in all this but it was a worthwhile exercise even if it shifted nobody's view. Dr Robert Strivens the LTS principal rounded off with an expansive and final paper on Abraham and Paul, arguing that Paul was consciously working out the promises made to Abraham.

I guess when we looked at Adam and Noah it was a little easier to focus simply on them and their times. Both being the first man of creation any extrapolation is both universal and individual to me. Abraham, on the other hand, is the father of the faithful and perhaps counter-intuitively that makes him a much bigger figure, one not so easily surveyed in a two day conference. Perhaps it will be possible to return to this towering figure another time and look at Abraham the prophet, Abraham the liar, Abraham and the land, etc, etc.

The recordings will be online in a few weeks I understand and a conference is planned for next year September 7 and 8.