Apologies for the delay with this final report. On our second day we had another three speakers. Personally, I felt that as we moved away from the subject of Melchizedek a little something was lost perhaps. Anyway we had three excellent messages, all worth hearing. First, Benedict Bird spoke on Owen on the Priesthood of Christ. Very clear and helpful. There was a lot of discussion but we were perhaps not well verses in the subject enough to take the discussion very far.
Benedict's outline was as follows
1 To what extent was the priesthood of Christ a major focus in his work?
2 Why was Christ's priesthood a major focus?
3 How was his teaching distinctive?
i Appointment in eternity
ii Preincarnation revelation of the priesthood
iii From the incarnation to the cross humiliation and oblation
iv From resurrection to session exaltation and intercession
v From second coming to eternity when he is priest no longer
4 What did Owen have to say about Melchizedek in particular?
Then in the afternoon Andrew Kerr from Northern Ireland spoke on Christ's kingly office. This subject tends to be given to the Scots and Irish and our speaker proved to be very much at home with his subject. Despite his affable and self effacing style he proved to be more than competent. This was partly a disadvantage as his power point presentation confronted us with quote after quote, chart after chart, etc. One of many documents he drew on was William Roberts' Reformed Presbyterian Catechism of 1853, a very interesting document available online. The real issue here is no doubt how it all works out and this was not something we could really get on to.
As is the tradition, the conference finished with a Baptist tasked with seeking to draw out some practical uses. Jeremy Walker reminded us that our study
1. Should bring
before us the claims of Christ's person
2. Show us what is the
character of his ambassadors
3. Encourage us to hear the call of his
heralds
4. And know the comfort of
his offices
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