Stapleford etc

On Monday we were meeting again at the Evangelical Library near Baker Street where we are still inching towards a sale of the property. Further developments look to be in the right direction. Watch this space!
Then I was out all day Tuesday. Bright and early Eleri took me to the London Gateway Services near the bottom of the M1 (did you know that the M1 has no Junction 3?) where I met up with Jeremy Walker (Maidenbower Baptist) to travel to Stapleford, just off the M1 between Derby and Nottingham. In a chapel there I was at my first full committee organising upcoming Westminster Conferences. It was good to be amongst august company. One of the EP directors was able to give me a first glimpse of my book on regeneration, which Jeremy told me he also had a copy of. I'm still yet to have one of my own.
The next Westminster Conference (2008) is all set. I have listed the subjects here. Speakers are to be Iain Murray (Lessons from the Puritans), John J Murray (Recovering the Reformed vision), Paul Brown (Kevan and law), American Professor Robert Godfrey (Tradition good and bad), Jonathan Watson of Banner (Thomas Brooks) and Faith Cook (Grimshaw).
The conference is becoming a little nomadic. Having begun in Westminster Chapel and been in the Friends House near Euston for a short while, this year's conference (December 9, 10) will be at the American Church in Tottenham Court Road.
As for 2009 (December 8, 9) things are shaping up well. We are hoping to have papers on Calvin (two of these), one on the 1859 Revival, one concerning Darwin and Darwinism, one on the Elizabethan settlement of 1559 and, to round off, one on the Moravians. It is shaping up to be a very good conference. Do come along.
The church kindly made us hot drinks and given us a light lunch. One of the ladies said that they had had a baptism last Sunday of the husband of a church member, a man they had been praying for, for some 32 years! Praise the Lord!

After the committee those who wished were kindly invited to have a meal at the nearby home of a former committee member now retired. We had a lovely time chatting and enjoying hospitality there, sharing news and anecdotes, etc. This man has preached some 700 sermons since he retired 10 years ago, which shows that life is hardly over just because you retire.
We then headed home. I was back by 9 pm but Jeremy took another 2 hours to get through London. It was my suggestion to head through the city I hope that wasn't what made him so late.

Westminster 07 E F

The afternoon session of the second day at the Westminster Conference was also on a theological tome. This time a younger man, Jeremy Walker, took us through some works found in the fourth volume of Puritan Stephen Charnock (1628-1680) namely A Discourse of the Knowledge of God and especially A Discourse of the Knowledge of God in Christ where Charnock ties everything to knowing God in Christ. A tour de force of the relevant texts these works were summarised, sometimes densely but always lucidly, and prepared the way for a profitable discussion of the subject. It followed on in part from the morning session. The contributions of other Puritans, such as Sibbes and Manton and Owen were also brought in. Charnock is orthodox and unoriginal but more thorough going in this area than others. What David Clarkson is willing to leave as a hint Charnock takes up and runs with.

Mr Walker helpfully concluded with some application in the area of worship, orthodox trinitarianism, the traditional approach to theology proper, true godliness and comfort for this life and the next.

A school concert precluded me from hearing all but the very start of the final paper from conference secretary John Harris on the preaching of Newton. He began with Newton's sermons from texts in Handel's Messiah and then for his first point looked at his call. An interesting draft transcription of the journal he kept on this matter can be found here. Newton was not a great preacher it seems so it was perhaps an odd subject for consideration. Many of us had also had a good slice of Newton on the Monday before.

Westminster 07 D

The first session on the second day of the Westminster conference this year featured Maurice Roberts of Inverness (our favourite Welsh Scotsman chairman Geoff Thomas introduced him as) speaking on Turretin and the place of Systematic Theology. This focused on Turretin (1623-1687) - described by the late Leon Morris as a towering figure among the Genevan Reformers - and his Institutes of Elenctic Theology and was chiefly a helpful summary of that great but largely forgotten work. It included some background to the subject also and closed with a plea - "Systematic Theology breathes in the soul something our churches very much need at this hour - a conviction of the infallibility of eternal truth."

Originally in Latin, an English edition of the elenctics (from a Greek word meaning conviction and used when convicting of error) has been available in three volumes since 1992, edited by James T Dennison. Mr Roberts plea was for Systematic Theology rather than Turretin's work in particular, which is no easy read. He was commended, however, for his help on open theism, God's law and the new perspective. A good discussion followed, thankfully not side-tracked by the presence of a latter day Amyraldian, with whom Mr Roberts dealt graciously but firmly.

Westminster 07 C

The third and final paper of the first day was by Prinicpal designae of LTS, Robert Strivens. He spoke on Preaching ex opere operato. He out lined the historic and contemporary difference between Lutherans and Reformed over the relation between Word and Spirit or why preaching is soemtimes effective and sometimes not. Over reacting to the Zwickau prophets Luther took the view that Word and Spirit always work together. The Swiss Reformers adn then Calvin took the view that the Spirt works usually by his Word but is not tied to it. The danger of simply expounding the Word and thinking that is enough was underlined. This was done too in the discussio under the chairmanship of Stephen Clark. The need for something more than mere exegesis was accpeted by most although we had some difficulty in finding how best to express the idea.

Westminster 07 B

The second paper this year was on our old friend Charles Wesley who was born December 18, 1707. I chaired this session and Graham Harrison of Newport spoke. He spent the first 25 minutes on Wesley's life and then most of the rest of the time on his 5-9,000 (probably around 7,000 hymns). From the day he was converted he wrote an average of 10 verses a day on almost every subject under the sun and above it, words of the highest calibre.
Mr Harrison then spoke on his anti-Calvinism and his views on perfectionism and assurance as it comes out in his hymns. A tendentiousness against Calvinism seems to come in around 1740, about two years after his earliest sinner focused hymns. He can be quite belligerent, caustic and persistent in this. So we have eg

See, sinners, in the gospel glass,
The friend and Saviour of mankind!
Not one of all the apostate race
But may in him salvation find!
His thoughts, and words, and actions prove,
His life and death, - that God is love!

Behold the Lamb of God, who bears
The sins of all the world away!

The individual phrases are not so bad but the way it is done is often tendentious and sarcasm and similar devices creep in. Cf

God is unchangeable, and therefore so are you:
And therefore, they can never fail who once His goodness knew.
In part perhaps you may, You cannot wholly fall
Cannot become a castaway like non elected Paul.

He would deliberately and unfairly refer to the decretum horibile as the horrible decree (The horrible decree confound, Enlarge thy people’s heart!).
Some of CWs hymns we just can't sing some need to be edited, some we need to read differently.
More briefly we then looked negatively at his perfectionism, later moderated, and positively at his insistence on the inward witness of the Spirit. Cf

I cannot rest in sins forgiven;
Where is the earnest of my heaven?
Where the Indubitable Seal
That ascertains the kingdom mine?
The powerful stamp I long to feel,
The signature of love Divine:
O, shed it in my heart abroad,
Fullness of love, of heaven, of God!

Interestingly older brother John would often tone down what he disliked in Charles. It is said that he thought Love divine too sentimental and would change the 'dear's to 'great's (My great redeemer praise instead of my dear redeemer).

A useful enough discussion followed.

[Pic referred to in the talk is in Bristol]

Westminster 07 A

Around 150 gathered at the Friends Meeting House in Euston Road today for the 2007 Westminster Conference. The opening paper was on The Clapham Sect and the abolition of slavery. Given by ET editor Roger Fay of Ripon it was a succinct and helpful survey of what has become more familiar territory in this anniversary year. Beginning with Wesley's letter to Wilberforce Mr Fay described the execrable nature of the slave trade and showed how difficult it was to stop because of the low religious state of the country, the Enlightenment view of ethnicity, the lack of direct involvement in the trade of most people leaving them quite ignorant of its nature and the powerful interests that supported it. He went on to describe the Parliamentary battle explaining something of the Clapham group or sect on the way. A call was made for us to see that victory was a result of team work not just of Wilberforce's role though we must not underestiamte his importance. The paper quite fairly brought out the work of the Quakers and of Thomas Clarkson and others and the importance of networking.
In conclusion we were told that the slave trade was ended by Christians or those imbued with the Christian ethos, by evangelicals in particular and ultimately by God himself in his providence.

Chaired by Phil Arthur, discussion followed. We nearly got side tracked on white slavery and were tempted either to call for more agitation or for revival but seemed to get a balanced view by the end.

Westminster Conference 2007

The truth shall make you free

The details of this year's Westminster Conference have just come through my letter box - ah, the letter box. Remeber the halcyon days of two posts and everything by letter?

For those of you not on the mailing list, the details are as follows.

It’s on Tuesday/Wednesday 11th-12th December at Friend’s House, 173 Euston Rd, London, opposite Euston Station. The cost is £35 (£20 for full-time students).

The programme is:

Tuesday 11th December

11.00 The Clapham Sect and the Abolition of Slavery - Roger Fay
14.00 Charles Wesley and his Hymns - Graham Harrison (I'm chairing this one)
16.45 Preaching - “ex opere operato” - Robert Strivens

Wednesday 12th December

11.00 Turretin [see pic] and the place of Systematic Theology - Maurice Roberts
14.00 Stephen Charnock and the Knowledge of God in Christ - Jeremy Walker
16.45 The Preaching of John Newton - John Harris

Further information and booking forms available from John Harris, 8 Back Knowl Rd, Mirfield, W. Yorks, WF14 9SA

The night before an evening with John Newton has been arranged with Brian Edwards and George Curry speaking. The event, appropriately, is at St Mary Woolnoth, EC3 (Bank).

Westminster Conference 2007

The Westminster Conference for the study of church history with special reference to the Puritans is due to take place in 2007 on December 11, 12 in The Friends Meeting House on Euston Road (opposite Euston Station). No speakers have been annouced but the subjects are expected to be
The Clapham Sect and the abolition of slavery (ie 1833)
Charles Wesley (1725-1788) and his hymns
Preaching ex opere operato











Turretin (1623-1687) and Systematic Theology
Stephen Charnock (1628-1680) and the knowledge of God
The preaching of John Newton (1725-1807)
The Conference Secretary is John Harris

Westminster Conference 06 F

The tradition at the conference is to have no discussion after the final session as everyone wants to catch their trains. Once again a biographical paper was given. This was a fine effort from the redoubtable Lancaster Baptist pastor Phil Arthur - very listenable and featuring as it did quotations from the Bible in Anglo-Saxon and Middle English as well as from Tyndale himself.
(I mention this because for the first time in along time all the addresses were taped and will be available for purchase in due time. Of course, most of the published papers will include material that it was not possible to deliver at the time).
(The Anglo-Saxon quotation from Matthew 7 gave me great pleasure as I have it almost by heart - Aelc thara the thas min word gehierth and tha wyrcth, bith gelic thaem wisan were, se his hus ofer stan getimbrode, etc. Phil caused unintended laughter when he pronounced sand-ceosol as sandcastle. I think I am right in saying it should be sand-cheosol!).
One was struck again by what a gifted and resolute hero Tyndale was. I had hoped he would be recognised as British man of the millennium a few years back but the spiritual climate is not conducive to such recognition. He is one of whom the world was not worthy. What a challenge.
Sadly numbers were down a little this year for some reason - nearer 200 than 300. Next year's conference is set for December 11, 12. I will give some details in a separate post.

Westminster Conference 06 E

The second session of the second day of the Westminster Conference was a highly topical look at the Puritan doctrine of just war. The speaker was Dr Ken Brownell of the East London Tabernacle. This was quite a masterful sweep through the history of just war theory beginning with Augustine and his successors and going on to Aquinas, the Reformers and the Puritans themselves, using William Gouge as the main example. There is no Puritan work that deals directly with the subject but in several places they discuss the issues.
Gouge added to Augustine's requirements of just cause, legitimate authority and right intention, that of war always being a last resort. Other Puritans added proportionality and willingness to end enmity at some point. Although the Reformers seem to have thrown off notions of holy war against infidels of a physical sort the Puritans arguably drifted back into that way of thinking for some time. This was one of several interesting themes picked out. Another was the development of Calvin's idea that in extremis there was a place for revolt against tyrants. This obviously had bearing on the events that led to the death of Charles I, something the Puritans were divided over.
In conclusion we were urged to know our history, be sure of our criteria and to seriously reflect on the new challenges this modern world brings. The Puritans can be of great help to the developing world on these issues although their hermeneutic was inadequate at certain points. Their holy war ideas were misguided but their clear pastoral concern for all caught up in war is something to be emulated.

Westminster Conference 06 D

The most substantial session of the conference this year came at the beginning of the second day when (the incongruously youthful looking) Professor Garry Williams of Oak Hill introduced us to the Puritan doctrine of atonement. Once again the focus was chiefly on that Colossus John Owen as his views were presented in contrast chiefly to the Socinians and Hugo Grotius (1597-1645) [see pic] but also some of his fellow Puritans. Dr Williams drew our attention to seven features. Owen was biblical, catholic, systematic, covenantal, polemic, affective and contemporary.
Biblically he used thorough exegesis. An example would be his close sustained reading of Isaiah 53 to refute the Socinians and Grotius. He also used biblical history as when he speaks of the total involvement of all creation in the atonement (from God to the brute creation). Examples were also given of his use of biblical theology.
Though founded on the Bible Owen, like other Puritans, shows definite continuity with Augustine and the Catholic tradition and systematises his thought. Dismissing the common charge of Aristotelianism made against Owen Dr Williams next discussed the question of the necessity of the atonement, something on which Owen changed his mind, first denying and then accepting the view. This put him at variance with the eminent Rutherford and Twisse. The strength of the position, however, is that it accounts for Christ's suffering in a way the voluntarist cannot and secures the relationship between God's nature and his revelation.
Dr Williams went on to discuss the governmental theory of the atonement propounded by Grotius and Owen's response to it making some helpful distinctions and observations. Owen's emphasis on the mystical union of the believer with Christ was brought out helpfully. A great deal else was also said about how Owen opposed Grotius's concessions when arguing with the Socinians. It will be good to see this in print and to peruse it at leisure. It was good to be present, however, and to think through some of the issues regarding the atonement, issues most of us have rarely begun to think about. Perhaps the most interesting thought to arise, something that really came out in the fine discussion that followed, was the idea that we can say with Owen that sin must be punished of necessity whereas reward can only be something that God chooses to bestow. Not all were happy with the idea but it seems sound to me. This was one of the finest papers delivered to the conference in recent years. The subject is of enormous contemporary relevance but there was not time in the paper or in discussion to begin to look at this. Clearly Owen is the man who needs to be refuted, however, if certain modern writers are to make any impact on the evangelical doctrine.

Westminster Conference 06 B

The second session of the Westminster Conference 'Where reason fails ...' was given by retired minister and former Anglican Gordon Murray. Thomas Cranmer and the Anglican Enigma took us back to the tumultuous times and the eventful life of the Reformer and Archbishop, and described his slow but sure journey from Romanist to Reformation views. Cranmer has often been accused of timidity and an over zealous loyalty to Henry VIII. Mr Murray defended him from such charges citing his unheeded protests against the beheadings of Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell and his willingness to disagree with the king over doctrine.
Perhaps his commitment to Scripture in the light of reason and traditon is a little enigmatic. His belief that bishops were a good though not essential thing would perplex some. The whole state church idea that goes back to Constantine is an enigma too. No doubt it was the sheer persistence of clever opponents that forced him at one point during his final imprisonment to agree that Nero was once head of the church! However, his changing stance on the Lord's Supper is one every Protestant would understand. His grasp of justification, seen especially in the homilies, is again not enigmatic. Infant baptism in the Common Book of Prayer again is much more so but its reverence, pointed prayers and God-centred worship ought not to be forgotten. Mr Murray's moving account of Cranmer's final days and especially his powerful and unexpected speech before his martyrdom was most moving.
Discussion centred chiefly on the biblical ecumenism of Cranmer and other Reformers, something that had clearly struck Mr Murray. Such discussions are always difficult as we tend to berate ourselves for our lack of such a spirit but some good contributions were made.

Westminster Conference 06 A

About 200 gathered today at the Friends Meeting House near Euston for the Westminster Conference. The opening lecture was on John Owen on the Trinity was given by Robert Letham. An Englishman, Dr Letham has been pastoring in the USA for the last 17 years but has recently taken up an appointment in the Evangelical Theological College of Wales, Bridgend. Author of a recently published and well received IVP book on the Trinity, his lecture was fluent and erudite but included a few light touches to ease us along in what can be a diffiicult subject.
Dr Letham began by listing the works where Owen chiefly deals with the subject, highlighting Communion with God 1657. He then outlined the history of the doctrine chiefly in the western Catholic context, complaining about the way Hodge and others divide their teaching on God's attributes and the Trinity.
He saw Owen's strengths to be his biblical, orthodoxly western and yet, like Lombard and Calvin, partly eastern approach. He puts equal focus on the threeness adn the oneness of God.
There were some criticisms, for example Owen's over-reliance on arguments based on Song of Songs. Appreciation for Owen's use of covenantal theology was tempered too by a suggestion that he neglects the Spirit, probably due to Augustinian influence. (Augustine illustrated the Trinity by seeing the Spirt as the love that binds lover and Beloved).
Chairman Errol Hulse suggested we either discuss reaching Muslims or communion with all three persons. We opted for the latter and one or two helpful things were said.

For a review of Dr Letham's book see

http://www.reformation21.org/Past_Issues/April_2006/Shelf_Life_/Shelf_Life_/166/vobId__2627/