Another two good days at the Met Tab Days 2 and 3 2018

I managed to get most of the rest of the Met Tab School of Theology. Ibrahim Ag Mohamed gave a matching message to his one on Ephesians on the first day with something on Philippians. I missed Dr Masters on the Wednesday evening as I was at our own midweek meeting. He closed the conference with something on Leviticus to match his earlier message on Psalms. Once again we were reminded that Classical music is kosher but Rock is unclean.

Dr Kurt Wise gave a further four power point presentations on the young earth, creation and the flood adn its aftermath. These wer excellent presentations - popular but erudite and full of good things. I am an instinctive young earther but I had not really heard a proper presentation before but this was quite dynamic. I thought that the argument that if we take Genesis 5 and 11 as complete genealogies we not only learn the age of the earth but gain a rationale for inscipturation at the point it comes quite persuasive.

Scott Aniol gave both his second and third papers to Christian cultural engagement. The first was a word study but the second was an excellent presentation of the two kingdoms view.

Nick Needham is always worth hearing. This time on the Synod of Dort he wassurefooted and wise as ever. The first paper covering the history was the more demanding.

All the message were videoed and will no doubt will appear on the website in due time. (The Wednesday evening message is already up). I guess around 300 adn more were there in the day time sessions adn more in the evenings. A worhtwhile conference. Good to see lots of old friends.

Good day at the Met Tab 2018 Day 1

It was great to hear Kurt Wise at the Met Tab last night as he gave a PowerPoint presentation covering six areas where the Creationist view makes more sense than the Evolutionary one - things such as the anthropic principle, beauty, the origin of life, etc. Very encouraging.

We also had an excellent paper from Scott Aniol of South Western Baptist Seminary clarifying Isaac Watts and his Trinitarianism. That was helpful and good lessons were drawn - the difficulty of drawing doctrinal boundaries, the importance of historical creeds and the vital place of hymns in determining people's theology.

Ibrahim Ag Mohamed and Dr Masters himself also spoke helpfully on benefiting from Ephesians and Psalms. I was sorry to miss the pastor from Colombia speaking about the work there.

Met Tab Summer School 2017

I've not been to the Metropolitan Tabernacle in a little while but this year looked an attractive programme so I decided to go and was there for most though not all of it.
I was a little disappointed with Ibrahim ag Mohammed's first session on the vast and vital subject of Priesthood of all believers (OT) but the second from the New Testament (4 beauties and 8 duties) was fine. I only caught one of Roland Burrows' set of anecdotes from the Reformation period but that was a lovely session to be in on.
Dr Masters began with Reformations in the Bible but by the time I heard him he had given up on that theme and so we had messages on sincerity (Ephesians 6) and on John 17. Dr Masters has a way of presenting his material that slates half of evangelicalism and usually most of the Reformed constituency too. It has its strengths and you certainly can't listen in a complacent way.

I was surprised to know Vishal Mangalwadi was going to be speaking. It is unusual to see someone in the Met Tab pulpit without a tie but he carried it off in his attractive and apparently meandering conversational style. I must read his Schaeffer style book which has sat on my shelves too long.
Several found him the highlight but I would have to opt for the three messages from Dr Nick Needham on the Reformation, first on the two kingdoms then on Reformation seeds (giving more credit to Erasmus than is usually the case) and finally on the seeds that got lost, pointing out how Baptistic Zwingli, Luther and others were, early on.
Interesting things seen - Chris Cooper approaching a man at the front who didn't get the memo and so raised his hands in worship during the first hymn. It's good to have a clear policy. Also, poor Nick Needham being harassed by some poor man who had quite a shock when Nick suggested that Anabaptists were not Protestants.
I felt slightly more at home here than in the Barbican. The bookshop seemed to be in a slight time warp. I couldn't find anything to buy - always disappointing experience. The depth and breadth and consistency of the work at the Met Tab is stunning. As at the EMA most of the hundreds of faces were unknown to me, although there were a few familiar faces, including that of my father-in-law who made a flying visit and kindly treated me to lunch at the nearby Imperial War Museum.

Lord's Day April 27 2014

I was (virtually) in the Met Tab listening again this week. Dr Masters was back in his pulpit and preached from Philippians 3 to the saints and John 12:24 to sinners. It was decent stuff, though not that easy to listen to. The hymns are quite idiosyncratic (I'm sure I also spotted again a slight discrepancy between what was written and what was sung, somehow). It is still great to be able to tune in like this. (I believe that Tabernacle, Cardiff, do offer a similar facility but that was not a possibility this particular Sunday). Here in Childs Hill Robert Strivens preached again am on the Last Supper in Luke and pm Andrew King came across from Highbury to help us, for which we are very thankful.

Lloyd-Jones on Karl Barth

Here's an interesting link you may have missed

Last Week 4 Met Tab 02

The Met Tab Summer School is famed for its negativity and we had it in good measure this time. I didn't hear Peter Master's warnings against contemporary music worship styles on the Wednesday night but I did hear the first of Chris Hand's papers on Hip Hop and Rap and the reading of Dr Ted Williams's papers on the new Calvinism.

• Chris began with a potted history of Hip Hop leading up to the current existence of Christian rap performers. I was interested to learn that break dancing referred to dancing during the instrumental break in a song. I thought most of what he said made sense although I think he tended to see Hip Hop as a much more unified movement than it is. My sons wear their trousers low but they are hardly big rap fans. He also seemed to think there was something semi-sacred about the shirt and tie that rather escaped me. The statement that "different types of music have a moral value - good or bad" is simply incorrect and needs to be nuanced much more carefully. Obviously, the way music is played and presented can have moral content but surely not the notes themselves. I would be surprised if there were more than a handful of people present with any inclination to Hip Hop. I have tried to listen to the Calvinist Hip Hoppers. As Chris himself admitted the content is sound. I just don't like Hip Hop or rap I guess. Why anyone would want to introduce it into worship I cannot really see.    
• Ted Williams was present but having had heart surgery recently someone else read the paper itself. This was a very useful hatchet job on the new Calvinists who we are always hearing about but sometimes find it difficult to get the dirt on. Four men were denounced in varying degrees - Tim Keller, John Piper, Mark Driscoll and Al Mohler. There were no big surprises but it was nice to have things documented.

1. Keller is a theistic evolutionist who sadly more or less ducked a question on hell by Martin Bashir. See here. He has a rather ecumenical approach. 
2. John Piper is a Blaise Pascal and C S Lewis fan and friendly toward Rick Warren. His presentation of truths has a distorting effect. He claims that God spoke audibly to him with new revelation in 2007.
3. Al Mohler is rather ecumenical too being a big fan of Billy Graham.
4. Mark Driscoll I won't bother to pass on as it seems to me very difficult to defend such a man who comes over as rather immature.

The negative note does need to be sounded. Perhaps it should be done with more humility. The experience is rather depressing and enervating, nevertheless. Most people I talk to don't exactly agree with what is said but we are generally sympathetic and so feel rather caught. I have no time for Mark Driscoll but the others seem to me to have some merits despite their glaring inconsistencies. Keeping a balance is not easy.

Last Week 3 Met Tab 01

On Tuesday afternoon I was at the Metropolitan Tabernacle for the beginning of their Summer School of Theology. As well attended as ever, the line up of speakers was quite familiar. I missed Jack Seaton but was in my seat in time for John Thackway on the Spirit's work in times of trouble and distress, followed by Peter Masters on the indwelling Spirit. The room was too full to squeeze into to hear the news from China but I stayed for Joel Beeke who is always worth listening to. This time he spoke on cultivating holiness and on the Love of God.

On the subsequent days, I also caught Dr Beeke on living submissively and fighting unbelief. I had to miss Roland Burrows and the subsequent papers from Mr Thackway and Dr Masters but I did hear Chris Buss's messages on the tongue and on sensitivity and usefulness. I am not sure what the problem was but it was difficult to get much from these addresses beyond what one might have found by reading the passages quoted. Part of the problem may be is the skilful way the addresses are described on the programme. They rarely seem to satisfy the appetite that has been whetted. We will keep the other addresses heard for another post.

Summer School of Theology

The Summer School of Theology is currently on at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. I was not able to be there for the Wednesday meetings but was present for part of Tuesday. I missed Jack Seaton and much of what John Thackway had to say. The final afternoon session was taken by Dr Masters himself. One of the concerns this year is to attack the new Calvinistic movement because of its questionable stand on Reformed worship and traditional views of worldliness. Dr Masters, as so often, was quite negative and his message turned into something of a rant.

My ears perked up when he mentioned blogs. He described two Reformed ministers discussing on their blogs which was the better performer, Elvis Presley or another. I would guess it is a reference to something that took place between Martin Downes and Gary Benfold. As far as Dr Masters is concerned we should have nothing to do with such things. One can see his point even if one does not agree on his idea of guilt by association. I suppose it is the public nature of blogs that has brought the subject into sharp relief and I must confess that I had to ask myself a few questions (as I am often doing when blogging). If someone tunes into this blog and finds a Marc Bolan video here, it is possible that they could assume that I am supportive of everything the man ever did. That, however, is not the case, anymore than if I feature Mozart of Tchaikovski. Indeed, if that were not the case it would be difficult to do much. Just because Dr Masters gives a platform to paedobaptist Joel Beeke I don't assume he has abandoned his Baptist position. If he watched England play soccer and cheered for them, I wouldn't assume he was condoning the antics of John Terry and others.

I am reluctant to say anything but having sat through it I thought I ought to make some response, however much less holy I would guess I am than Dr Masters.

Anyway the evening session was an excellent one - much more positive and in the end much more searching. Joel Beeke took us to the puritans on holiness and was teeming over with good and challenging things to say.

It was good to chat with him and others in the tea interval. It is amazing who you meet. It was good to bump into friends from India, Romania, Guernsey and the USA as well as your usual more UK types. Rhodri was with me and he bumped into people he knew too, which was nice. We also had chance to hear about the work in Baldock under Jonathan Northern, an attempt to repeat the Met Tab approach in a much more rural Hertfordshire setting.

DMLJ 29 Forgotten foreword

Someone who listened to my lecture on forewords by Lloyd-Jones at the Evangelical Library recently kindly dug up this missing foreword for me. It is from the first edition of Peter Masters' Men of Destiny.

I welcome the publication of the articles, which have already appeared in the Evangelical Times, in this permanent form. I do so for many reasons. Throughout my Christian life I have found that, next to the Bible itself, nothing has given me greater help and encouragement than the reading of biographies of great Christians of various ages and countries.

Our danger is always to think that our problems are unique and our lot exceptionally hard. Thus we tend to become despondent and fearful. The finest antidote to that is to read the stories of great heroes of the faith of past ages. As we do so we are both shamed and also encouraged. That is what will happen to those who read this book.

At the same time it will serve what is a yet more important function, and especially at this present time. So many people today think ones attitude to Christianity is purely a psychological matter. If you belong to a certain type or group, or have a particular religious "complex", then you will be a Christian. They argue that it has nothing to do with objective truth but is purely a matter of our particular makeup.

Others fondly believe that it is purely a matter of intelligence and that no intelligent, educated, integrated person can possibly be a Christian. The simple answer to that is to be found, quite simply, in the history of the Christian church. Nothing is so amazing as the way in which people of every conceivable psychological type, and of all possible grades of intellect and knowledge have been found worshipping God together as Christians.

That is the thing that is brought out so clearly and unmistakably in the series of biographies found in this book. How different these men were on the surface, and by nature; but how united in their faith in the One Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Here, then, at one and the same time, is a challenge to the sceptic and a comfort for the saint. I wish it a very wide and large circulation

1968

D M Lloyd-Jones