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.

Aber Conference Round Up

The conference is, of course, much more than the main addresses in the Great Hall. We've mentioned the sort of mini conference that occurs over the weekend before. There was also a history trip on the Monday - to Bala this time. There are also open airs and prayer meetings.

There are also a large number of ancillary meetings for young people and others. My eldest son and daughter-in-law were involved in running the Extra Time (when they weren't working in the Christian bookshop by the chapel) which five young people up from Childs Hill were attending with others. My sister-in-law and her husband were involved in running the Time Out for 26-44 year olds (!). The young people also play football and netball on the Friday, which is good fun.

There were three seminars in the afternoons, Tuesday to Thursday. I missed Paul Mallard on suffering (which I have heard before) and David Jones on evangelistic preaching. On the Tuesday I went to hear P J Williams again who spoke (with helpful powerpoint) ostensibly on the KJV (pointing out that the letters J and V never appeared in the original along with more important matters too).  His real subject was again the reliability of Scripture, pointing out things such as Ussher's general accuracy. Good stuff. He answered the few questions at the end well too.

Then there was the missionary exhibition, which I managed to visit once, not getting all the way round. I did visit the LTS stand, of course, with Robert and Sarah Strivens, also those of WEST and Oak Hill too (Jonathan Stephen and Paul Woodbridge). Former Childs Hill member Paul Fountain was also there with his wife Ruth promoting Reformed Baptist work in Sri Lanka. There was also an inductive Bible study mission I'd never heard of called Precept ministries. It was a great joy to meet my fellow Cwmbranite Andy Lovell, retired missionary to Peru, and his wife Rachel, now promoting the work of Gospel for Asia. Paul Barns also spoke about the work in Nepal one night (India Link Ministries) and I had a nice chat to Mike Moore from CWI at one point.
Of course, besides all this there is the opportunity to meet up with friends old and new. It was great to see Benard and Linda Lewis, Derek and Rachel Sewell, Keith and Janice Hoare, Guy and Sarah Davies, Ian Middlemist, Kees Van Kralingen, etc, etc.

Dr Williams @ LTS

Yesterday I joined around 25 others at the LTS to hear Dr P J Williams, warden of Tyndale House, Cambridge, exploring the reliability of the Old Testament. It was good to hear someone with evident scholarly gifts (an a young earth creationist no less) asserting the reliability of what we who believe know is a thoroughly reliable book but that is constantly under attack for one reason or another. We spoke briefly and he seemed to think he had met me. I later realised he must have grown up in Hambleton Evangelical Church in Carlton Minniot, Yorkshire, where we have one or two connections. I would tell you more but the powers that be were keen not to give the material given exposure on the Internet. Perhaps a book is in the offing. It is a pity that more were not present. They can't all be in Bala or getting ready for EMA next week. The LTS is to be commended for putting on these Monday seminars. Christopher Ash next, I think, in the Autumn and a conference before that.