Gandalf once said of Hobbits that "you can learn all their ways in a month and yet after a hundred years they can still suprise you." It also could apply (I suspect) to River and Rhett (ahem). In an effort to address this we are beginning a new regular feature known as "News From The Four Farthings" which we hope will stimulate our readership and our blogging.
The Motherland
There are fascinating developments going on in the Free Church of Scotland this week, which has just finished holding its annual GA on the High Street in Edinburgh. One notable event was a visit and address from a member of the Kirk (Church of Scotland) who talked up the need for reunion for the sake of the Gospel in Caledonia. You can read our good friend and London City Church pastor David Strain's thoughts here. He also has the Free Church's "Moderator's Address" here. Congrats goes out to St Peter's Dundee pastor (and fellow Twin Laker) David Robertson who was named new Editor of the Free Church's Monthly Record magazine.
T4G
Mark Dever has livened up the T4G blog considerably of late with his never ending attempt to convert Lig to credo-baptism. This has led him to Ravenna, Italy where he has been seen crawling around the bowels of Arian (and Neonian) Cathedral ruins taking pictures of early Christian baptistries. See his evidence here of early church immersion pools. We of course love Mark dearly at River and Rhett and were stimulated to do several google searches on the matter.
"Jumping the Shark" with the Federal Vision in the PCA
As interest in what the PCA should do with the handful of FV adherents at next month's GA builds the ugliness of the debate online got uncomfortable this week. Particularly after a convert to Rome (from a PCA seminarian background oddly enough) made known his "Catholic Perspective on the Federal Vision" here. After reading this I was struct at how dangerous this theological trajectory is for the PCA. It's a fairly convincing "exhibit A" for the slippery slope argument. Also of note a new anonymous blog entitled "Reformed News" has begun. I should note that while its helpfully informational it appears to be a "FV friendly" entree to the blogosphere. Nevertheless come on in the water is warm.
Greenvilliana
God is up to something in Greenville, SC. Within just a few months God has brought 3 remarkable new faces into the city scene. As was announced last month, Rick Phillips of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals has accepted the call to become minister of South Carolina's first PCA congregation, Second Presbyterian Church of Greenville. Last year Brian Habig, one of the PCA's most remarkable RUF campus ministers took up the charge of planting a new PCA work in downtown Greenville. And then in recent weeks word has come down River Street that Second's old mother church (First Pres. Greenville, PCUSA) has called an evangelical to be their next minister - from Scotland no less. The Rev. Richard Gibbons is a member of the Crieff Brotherhood and has done post-graduate studies at Highland Theological College. We are excited about the possibilities of what could happen in Greenville. Semper Reformanda!
The Gospel Coalition Conference
An interesting new "pan reformed" conference was held last week in Chicagoland made up of noted evangelicals including our own JLD3. Justin Taylor has some links to a "Philosophy of Ministry Statement" which came out of the event here. You can find a pdf version here.
My Ligonier Travels
In the last two months I've made trips to Los Angeles (Shepherd's Conference), Orlando (3 times-most notably for our National Conference), Jackson (Twin Lakes), Philadelphia's PCRT,
meetings with Joel Beeke in Grand Rapids and a fun Charlotte trip with Stu Epperson Jr of the Truth Talk Live Radio Network. I am now certainly enjoying being back in the South Carolina Upcountry. Where as Ben Robertson once said "Heaven will be like Carolina in the month of May."
Happy Memorial Day!
2 comments:
Mel,
Thanks for the link. It was wonderfull hooking up some at the PCRT.
I think God is working all over the place in rather exciting ways right now, both sides of the Pond.
In England there is a growing movement of young restless and reformed Anglicans planting churches all over the shop.
In Scotland there are hopeful signs in the Free Church of fresh vision (not Federal Vision!)and an openness to reform that has not been seen for an age. IN th4e Church of Scotland there is much to be concerned about but alos much to priase God for, not least the beginning of Cornhill Scotland. This is a Bible trianing course and internship programme coming out of St George's Tron (of Erik Alexander and Sincalir Fergusson fame), and borrows directly from the original Cornhill course in London. If it is of a similar impact norht of the border then the days ahead will be bright indeed for Scotland.
In the US there is a spate of reformed men gathering together around gospel essentials in conferences and church groups that can only bode well for the advancement of the kingdom.
Let's pray that these gentle breezes of the Spirit may grow into a fresh transatlantic wind of hurricane force!
Cheers
Dave Strain
I'm new to this blog, and have been reading it for a while. My name is Jordan, and I'm a presbyterian attending a baptist college in Northeast Pennsylvania. Quite odd, right? My Grandmother actually lives in Greenville, and Lord willing, my wife and I will be moving to Greenville in about a year and a half. I plan on going to Greenville Presbyterian Seminary, and am looking forward to visiting Second Presbyterian when I come down to visit this summer.
About the article on the Canterbury Tales Blog. On the one hand, this article clearly expresses what many non-fv's have been laboring so hard to prove: the fundamental tenets of federal visionist theology is not Protestant. It's a watered down form of Roman Catholicism which seeks to deviate from the theology of the Reformation, and still remain Protestant. The author of this particular article has clearly revealed the inherent compatibility of the the federal vision movement, and Roman Catholocism.
Yet still, the author's intellectual integrity comes into serious question as he mocks southern presbyterians, and makes extraordinarily ignorant claims concerning the orthodox reaction to federal vision theology. His comment about the three wesleyan hyms? Last time I checked, conservative Presbyterians have never regarded Wesley as an orthodox theologian, and have never actively celebrated his theology within the context of corporate worship. Southern Presbyterianism, and Arminian Wesleyism? Surely this man should know better. Some of his comments are subtle attacks against orthodox Protestantism, specifically those presbyterians who disagree with the federal vision movement. And I pray that people will be moved to see the dangers of federal visionist theology, especially in light of its obvious flirtation with the mother of harlots herself. Soli Deo Gloria.
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