Ernest Kevan

I have just finished reading the new Banner of Truth biography of the London Bible College principal Ernest Kevan by Paul Brown. It is very well written and is both a challenge in that Kevan was clearly a dedicated and godly man and informative about a period which is really just before my time (Kevan died a little prematurely in 1965) but part of the whole renaissance of Calvinism in the UK in the forties and fifties.

Far from looking for controversy, Paul Brown nevertheless doesn't duck issues such as Lloyd-Jones perceived attack on LBC in 1958 (see the chapter headed BD or not BD). He has done his best too to trace the development of the Strict Baptist Kevan's thinking over the years as he passed from Walthamstow to New Cross to Tooting to LBC in an ever changing situation. A very balanced portrait, it includes not only Kevan's leading of the college but his children's works, social involvement and, perhaps unexpectedly, his sense of fun. An appendix usefully summarises his PhD on the Law.  We really are in Paul Brown's debt.

Busy as ever

We often remark on this blog on how busy it is and this last week has been no exception. Today I was out fairly early to lend a hand with the church clean up, something we try to have regularly. Seeing the Principal of the London Theological Seminary busy with a hoover was a good reminder of the varied tasks church members sometimes end up doing as they seek to serve the Lord.

It was off then by bus to Trafalgar Square. Had a nice chat with an African American woman who has been a member of the huge Hillsong church since there were only twelve of them. We didn't get on to theology (!). When I arrived, Sebastian Mani, our main organiser, was preaching. I preached next and we also heard from Gavin Childress and his 18 year old son James. The weather was not great but we were able to give out tracts and Bibles and preach the Word. You get plenty of flak but loads of opportunities. I was able to give Bibles to two Turkish boys and tracts to two teenagers from Abu Dhabi. I also had some conversation with a Polish atheist who claimed to believe that our meeting was merely random. That I doubt. What opportunities!

On the way home I bumped into retired minister Joseph Hewitt and listened to the animated conversation of a newly engaged couple as they argued and made phone calls. If they were really drama students (I've seen that before now) they were brilliant.

I'm back home now watching the Ireland Scotland match and enjoying a chicken pie Dewi made in fod tech in school (very nice). Glad that Wales beat Italy but it hasn't been a great tournament. That's why I've said nothing until now.

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Yesterday was also very full with a lecture on the cults at EMF in the morning and a committee meeting for Grace Publications in Covent Garden in the afternoon. In the evening I got along to Bethesda, Kensington, where Paul Brown was giving the annual lecture for the Strict Baptist Historical Society. The society itself is understandably rather quaint but the lecture was a fine one - on Ernest Kevan and focussing on his pastoral years, first at Walthamstow then at New Cross. The emphasis on hard work and vision was challenging and contained lots of useful insights.

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Tuesday and Wednesday were also pretty busy. On Tuesday I was in the John Owen Centre again, this time with 8 or 9 others for some Hebrew from Genesis (the Abrahamic covenant) with David Green - always worthwhile. (I should have mentioned being in the JOC the other week when we were reading the book on the Lord's Supper by Malcolm MacLean, which I appreciated but others found less satisfying). In the evening there was a church officers meeting. Wednesday was my typically busy fortnightly one as I was among the older folk morning and afternoon, with the midweek meeting in the evening (still working through Titus).

Westminster Conference 01

It was good to be one of around 200 today who gathered in the American Church in Tottenham Court Road for the first day of the annual Westminster Conference. We had three papers from three older men - Iain Murray, John J Murray and Paul Brown. Erroll Hulse, Robert Oliver and Phil Arthur chaired. J J Murray has recently produced a book on the rise of the Reformed movement and he sought to recap on some of that. Paul Brown looked helpfully at the life of the first principal of London Bible College, Ernest Kevan. Perhaps the best paper was Iain Murray's on what we can learn from the Puritans. He considered six areas -

1. The vital nature of conversion

2. The need for method and structure to live the Christian life

3. The sanctification of the Lord's Day

4. The importance of Christian unity - not developed but perhaps it will be in the printed paper

5. The danger of Roman Catholicism

6. The power of the preached Word

Sadly, discussion was as unproductive as ever. It is difficult to see how it can be improved unless we distribute papers before hand.