Westminster Conference Papers 2022 Print Version Out

The printed version of the six papers given last September on Oxford Street are now available in print form. The death of Michael Toogood earlier this year means that for the first time in along time we did not have his help o this volume.

Westminster Conference 2022 Day Two

The one about the two Scotsmen

If you compare two days, inevitably one will be superior to the other and our second day, for various reasons, was not quite up to our first one. We began with Ian Hamilton, now based in Inverness, who spoke on Protestantism and Tradition. This was a useful and helpful paper, though in danger of rambling at times, I felt. (The anti-Baptist barbs were less of a problem.)

He ended with four conclusions

1. We should give serious thought to the way the church has worshipped down the ages

2. We should never unthinkingly receive church tradtions no matter how godly those we receive them from

3. We need to understand what Sola Scriptura means. It is not Scripture without tradition but tradition always in the light of Scripture.

4. We should practice Calvin's maxim about letting love be our guide. (This is from Calvin's Institutes where he encourages a dynamic approach to worship and gives wise advice on how to determine fitting changes. "... because these things are not necessary to salvation, and for the upbuilding of the church ought to be variously accommodated to the customs of each nation and age, it will be fitting ... to change and abrogate traditional practices and to establish new ones. Indeed, I admit that we ought not to charge into innovation rashly, suddenly, for insufficient cause. But love will best judge what may hurt or edify; and if we let love be our guide, all will be safe" (4.10.30).

In the afternoon we had another Scotsman, this time Alistair Wilson from Edinburgh on David Livingstone (1813-1873) who will have been dead 150 years come next May. This was a thoroughly researched and well presented paper using powerpoint that looked at three questions about Livingstone

• Was he really a ‘missionary’?
• Did he support and enable imperialism?
• Did he act inappropriately towards his wife and family, towards his colleagues, and towards the people of Africa?

Dr Wilson's were nuanced but sympathetic to Livingstone without hagiography. He certainly began as a missionary and even his years as an explorer were with future missionary work in mind. This paper will be well worth reading when it is published. It seemed to me that Livingstone was a typical pioneer with all his good and bad points.

We had decent discussions following both papers. The final paper is not discussed. This time round it was on Guillaume Farel and should have been given by Stephane Simonnin but he had covid and so Jeremy Walker read his paper. Farel is a lesser known Reformer and it was good to hear his story.

So pretty good stuff all round. Numbers were slightly down but not by much. We are a little on the old side but we are trying to address that. Next year, it was announced, the papers will be on Matthew Poole, Eric Liddell, Theodore Beza, Thomas Aquinas and the Puritans on original sin and Edwards on the History of Redemption.

John Owen Centre Annual Conference 2015 Day 1

It was good to at the John Owen Centre today for the first of two days on Putting Theology into Practice. There were three speakers.

Colin Burcombe from Northern Ireland took us helpfully to Genesis 26 and the Patriarch Isaac as an example of a man of principle attracted to pragmatism who makes a principled withdrawal and a return to first principles.

Two nice quotations:

“The promise given to Isaac was searching; to refuse the immediate plenty of Egypt for mostly unseen and distant blessings demanded the kind of faith praise in Hebrews 11, verses 9 and 10 and proved Isaac a true son of his father, even though, like Abraham, he was to mar his obedience at once.” (Kidner)

". . . this account of Isaac's dealings with the Philistines portrays Isaac as very much walking in his father's footsteps. He receives similar promises, faces similar tests, fails similarly, but eventually triumphs in like fashion. Indeed, in certain respects he is given more in the promises and achieves more. He is promised 'all these lands [v. 4],' and by the end of the story he is securely settled in Beersheba and has a treaty with the Philistines in which they acknowledge his superiority." (Wenham)

Then came another speaker new to me Alistair Wilson from Scotland who looked at the Apostle Paul, looking mostly at 1 Corinthians and seeking to articulate where Paul was driven by principle and where he was pragmatic. As before, good discussion followed.

The final paper by Ian Hamilton (currently in Cambridge but set to return to Scotland next year) was more anecdotal, reflecting on the Church of Scotland and other developments in church history. He closed by saying

1. God's Word is not a systematic theology

2. Godly men have differed down the years

3. Principled pragmatists have often had a high view of the church

4.  Always think the best of others

Some more quotations:

"... quietness and patience and persuasion are no less Christian virtues than is the heroic sacrifice of stipends on high principle." (Owen Chadwick)

“Among the chief evils of our time is that the churches are so divided, that human fellowship is scarcely now in any repute among us. Thus it is that [as] the members of the church [are] being severed, the body lies bleeding. If I could be of any service, I would not grudge to cross even ten seas on account of it.” (Calvin to Cranmer)

Some of us LTS alumni had a nice get together with the Principal and a short time of prayer after the day's proceedings.