The Westminster Conference 2014: Authentic Calvinism (Puritan Papers)

Description

The 2014 Westminster Conference was on the topic of ‘Authentic Calvinism?’ at which the following papers were given: \n \nHOLY WORLDLINESS? \n \nStephen Clark – Pastor of Freeschool Court Evangelical Church, Bridgend \n \nThe emphases of some believers have sometimes blinded them to the fact that the God of salvation is also the God of creation and the God of providence; others possess a more holistic appreciation of life as God’s children in God’s world. Stephen Clark will illustrate the problem of this dualism, and its remedies, by considering the lives, friendships and marriages of certain Christians, in which such tensions and reconciliations are often clearly revealed. \n \nTHOMAS CHARLES OF BALA \n \nAdrian Brake – Pastor of Bryngolwg Free Mission \n \nConverted as a young man under the preaching of Daniel Rowland, Thomas Charles faced stiff opposition because of his heritage in and commitment to evangelical truth. Renowned as a preacher and as a promoter of the Bible in Welsh, he became one of the architects of Calvinistic Methodism as it broke away from the Anglican church. In his day the rushing stream of experiential Calvinism was slowing and deepening, and Adrian Brake will trace its course. \n \nTHE INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON OF CALVINISTIC METHODISM \n \nAndrew Davies – Preacher & Retired Pastor \n \nThat expression of experiential religion sometimes called Calvinistic Methodism was not restricted to one part of the United Kingdom or to the United Kingdom alone. Whether we consider the various parts of the UK, what were then the American colonies, or even further afield, we find a variety of individuals in a variety of places, all preaching the same gospel and cultivating the same earnest and devotional spirituality. This paper will survey that movement. \n \nLAW AND GRACE \n \nMark Jones – Pastor of Faith Vancouver (PCA) \n \nA storm of theological conviction, personal experience and social unrest swept over the seventeenth century and created a battlefield on which men wrestled with profoundly different perspectives on grace and its relationship to law. Some more radical and other more nuanced approaches were the topic of seemingly-endless and often-fiery contention. Mark Jones will survey the scene and offer some insights into the antinomian disputes of the time. \n \nRICHARD BAXTER AND HIS LEGACY \n \nRobert Strivens – Principal of London Theological Seminary \n \nFew stand as prominently among the Puritans as Richard Baxter, yet few so embody the tensions of the seventeenth century. As a pastor and evangelist, he is lauded; as an author, he is voluminous, profitable, and provocative; ecclesiastically, he stands apart from many of his contemporaries; soteriologically, his neonomianism – informed by his civil war experiences – breeds a warranted suspicion. Robert Strivens will help us assess the man and his ministry. \n \nJOHN KNOX: AN INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN \n \nAndrew Young – Minister of Naunton Lane Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Cheltenham \n \nScotland, France, England, Switzerland, Germany, and eventually Scotland again: John Knox’s Christian pilgrimage was as much physical as spiritual. Andrew Young will trace the spirit and the travels of a man often known more by distant reputation than by intimate acquaintance – a preacher whose fear of the Lord robbed him of the fear of man, and whose Christian character, convictions and commitments still offer encouragements and challenges to modern believers.