Grace Baptist Assembly 2016 Final Sessions

On the Tuesday evening Alun McNabb gave his second and final message. In what was no doubt not the first outing for this material he gave us six or seven reasons why Jeremiah would probably find it difficult to secure a pastorate these days. He instanced his God-centredness, his failure to be "seeker friendly", his seriousness, the way he exposed sin, the fact he was emotional and too repetitive and finally his lack of "musicalness". This was good old fashioned stuff.

On our final day we had a fascinating session first on the document "We believe" one of the two standards of the assembly, the other being the Confession of 1689. It being 40 years since the publication of the Affirmation it was good to hear Peter Day recount the origins of the document. Stephen Rees then compared the 1689 and 1966 documents showing how the latter is a shorter more relevant document in modern language. I have never looked seriously at the 1966 Affirmation as it includes a strict view of communion, not my position. However, that is a mistake on my part as there are many good things in it clearly.

That fist session ran over slightly but we were able to get back on track for the final session when Jonathan Chell of Ramsey preached very helpfully from Psalm 23 to close the conference and bringing us back eventually to where we started off.

Assembly plans to gather again in the same place (Hayes Centre, Swanwick) next year, May 9-11. More here.

Sam Waldron at LTS

It was good to be present this afternoon with around 20 others at the LTS to hear Dr Sam Waldron on confessions and creeds. Dr Waldron travelled from Leeds and was delayed by half an hour which was a pity but we all coped. He ably led two sessions, the first dealing with objections to a local church having a cofession and the second dealing with how the confession should be used - that is, not expecting every member to sign up to the confession but teaching it in the church. You can get a flavour of these sessions from similar material Dr Waldron has written up elsewhere. See here for the first session and here for the second. I thought it was most helpful the way that he sought to explain biblical subordination which is different to absolute obedience.

JC 52 No 52

It is possible that we have had some of this before but I'd like to finish with Calvin on faith, from the Institutes.

The certainty which it requires must be full and decisive, as is usual in regard to matters ascertained and proved. So deeply rooted in our hearts is unbelief, so prone are we to it, that while all confess with the lips that God is faithful, no man ever believes it without an arduous struggle. Especially when brought to the test, we by our wavering betray the vice which lurked within. Nor is it without cause that the Holy Spirit bears such distinguished testimony to the authority of God, in order that it may cure the disease of which I have spoken, and induce us to give full credit to the divine promises: "The words of the Lord" (says David, Ps. 12: 6) "are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times:" "The word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him," (Ps. 18: 30.) And Solomon declares the same thing almost in the same words, "Every word of God is pure," (Prov. 30: 5.) But further quotation is superfluous, as the 119th Psalm is almost wholly occupied with this subject. Certainly, whenever God thus recommends his word, he indirectly rebukes our unbelief, the purport of all that is said being to eradicate perverse doubt from our hearts.

Importance of Confessions

I thought this post on the importance of confessions was quite thought provoking.