Westminster Conference 2013 Day 1

We had an excellent day at the Salvation Army's Regent Hall on Oxford Street. About 80 or 90 gathered to hear and discuss three varied papers. All three papers were very good and the discussion, always more difficult than hearing, was not bad.

First, Peter Williams of Tyndale House spoke on Are there four Gospels? This was a convincing, well researched and popularly styled paper well worth hearing (CD available) or reading when the printed version comes around. Dr Williams introduced us to the other so called Gospels and pointed out where they are quite different to our Gospels and fall short. He introduced us to the work of Peter Balla, which was from this book here I believe. Lots of good things there. Robert Strivens chaired.

Then we had Andrew Wheeler from Keswick on C S Lewis. Andrew is a long term reader of Lewis and he gave an excellent paper setting out Lewis's attitude to Scripture. He drew a distinction between his attitude to the Old and New Testaments. His thesis was that Lewis was basically conservative but because he took a literary approach to Scripture he sometimes made concessions to liberal views that he need not have. I chaired the discussion and I think it was okay when we weren't side-tracked on how often he met Lloyd-Jones.

Here I notice it says 

In a footnote in D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The Fight of Faith 1939-1981 by Iain Murray, Murray notes the following: "Lewis is said to have valued ML-J's appreciation and encouragement when the early edition of his Pilgrim's Regress was not selling well. Vincent Lloyd-Jones and Lewis knew each other well, being contemporaries at Oxford. ML-J met the author again and they had a long conversation when they found both themselves on the same boat to Ireland in 1953. On the later occasion, to the question, 'When are you going to write another book?', Lewis replied, 'When I understand the meaning of prayer'."*

The final session was Jeremy Walker on Henry Havelock, God's Soldier. Phil Arthur chaired. This was a helpful introduction to a little known man of God and a Baptist to boot. He ought to be better known.
*I had originally put Martyn instead of Vincent. Sorry for the confusion.

C S Lewis

C S Lewis Clarity and Confusion by Andrew Wheeler is a helpful little book that came out in 2006. Mr Wheeler is clearly a big Lewis fan but like other evangelicals can see that there are problems with his theology. What he does, therefore, is to outline what is positive and negative in the man's writings, from the perspective of evangelical belief. He is perhaps a little hampered in this by apparently having no formal training in theology but he is clear enough and well able to do what he sets out to do.

After a brief sketch of Lewis's life he first sets out his sound credentials as a genuine Christian who knew conviction of sin and salvation through Christ's death and had a correct view of God (though spoiled by his willingness to condone the use of images and pictures) and a right understanding of the resurrection.

Having given us some glimpses of God's grace in Lewis's life with ample and apt quotations from his works, he goes on to some areas concern. These concern Lewis's understanding of the Bible, creation and evolution, other religions and the Christian world (his belief in purgatory is highlighted).

Some may object to such a box ticking approach but it is done with some understanding and is very useful to evangelical Christians who sometimes feel they are in something of a love hate relationship with the work of C S Lewis.

The work is enhanced by three appendices - some great quotations, a quite thorough chronological list of his writings and (most useful of all) a Scripture index to the works (necessarily excluding the fiction - I wonder, has anyone ever attempted something of that sort?).