PCRT 2008 - Day Two & Wrapup

Better late than never, it's the quick wrapup from PCRT this year. The sheer volume of teaching was a little overwhelming. I'm definitely planning to review my notes and listen to the messages again to gain a greater understanding of everything that was said. However, even what little I did manage to take out of it initially, really helped to flesh out my understanding of the different aspects of Christ's work on the cross.

1. Robert Godfrey - Redeeming Blood: Preached a sermon on redemption from Psalm 49, which is a text I hadn't heard tied into the atonement. He talked about the certainty of death for the wise and the foolish, rich and poor alike and the helplessness before God which is articulated by the psalmist. He noted that the language of redemption is throughout the law that God gives to Israel. Also, provided an excellent reminder about the power of Christ's blood. Our sins are not so great that they outweigh Christ's sacrifice for us.

2. Philip Ryken - Atoning Blood: Used to self-examination questions from a puritan writer to remind us how we can often have a light view of sin. Discussed the atonement in terms of redemption, justification and propitiation. Redemption is a picture of the atonement that comes from the marketplace, the procurement of a release by the payment of a price. Justification is a picture from a legal standpoint. It's not a making righteous but a declaring righteous. Propitiation is a picture of the atonement that comes from the Old Testament temple. It refers to the turning away of God's anger towards us. The application was to call us to be willing to sacrifice in every of our Christian lives.

3. Richard Phillips - Cleansing Blood: Preached on Hebrews 9:11-14. The message focused on expiation, the cleansing or removal of our sin. He mentioned the Old Testament laws regarding cleaness and noted that the priests did not have the power to make someone clean. However, Christ does not merely declare us pure but actually makes us clean from the stains of sin. He then went on to say that since Christ has cleansed us, we must be sure to accept ourselves as cleansed. Finally, in light of those facts, he encouraged us to draw near to God with confidence and that we would remember the cleansing of Christ's blood when our guility conscience is hesitant to draw near to God.

4. Carl Trueman - Seminar: I guess I should have known from reading his book, "The Wages of Spin", but Carl Trueman is fairly brilliant and essentially gave a seminary level lecture on a section of church history regarding the challenges to the atonement after the Reformation. I took some notes, but had a hard time following. I mostly understood what he was saying but keeping up with notes and side references was another thing entirely. I fully intend to listen to the recording to get more out of it, but what I most took away from being there was a good sense of humility in how far my knowledge really extends. I don't know very much at all, others out there are much smarter and more knowledgable and I still have a lot to learn.

5. Saturday Evening and Sunday Morning - I left the conference after the seminar on Saturday so I did not get to hear either Robert Godfrey's message on Saturday night or R.C. Sproul's message on Sunday morning. I plan to listen to them as soon as Julian lets me borrow the recordings.

Other highlights...

1. Qdoba - Peter and I stopped in for lunch. The shredded beef nachos were as delicious as always.

2. Book Purchases - Despite major temptation (and thanks to the help of friends), I refrained from buying any new books over the weekend. I guess that four volume set of "The Christian's Reasonable Service" will have to wait till next time.

3. Unity - It was great to interact and worship with people who are not from the same church family as I am. It is a joy to worship together with brothers and sisters in mutual gratitude and praise of God for saving us by sending his Son to die on the cross for our sins. Also, I become more aware of how much we have to learn from each other, despite our differences on some things outside the core beliefs of the gospel.

4. Expelled - I left the conference to see this movie. We had a lot of fun and the movie was very interesting. Ben Stein makes some good points about intellectual freedom, particularly in academia. However, I was actually more affected by some of the parts of the movie that reminded me of our sinful nature as humans and also how hard we can try to surpress the truth. This stuck out at me more than the whole Intelligent Design aspect of the movie, but overall it does make you think and if you bring someone along to see it, you're sure to have plenty to talk about afterwards.

PCRT 2008 - Day One

So, the sun sets on the first day of PCRT 2008. Here are the highlights...

1. God blessed the day with excellent weather. It was a joy to spend the day in the city.

2. It was fun to hang around with Julian all day and to get to know him a bit more.

3. Got to say hi to Steve Burlew at the Banner of Truth table.

4. A delightfully refreshing lunch. :)

5. Plenty of friends are attending so I'll get to spend some more time with them for the rest of the conference.

6. (With help) refrained from buying any books (including a particular sweet set, The Christian's Reasonable Service).

As for the teaching, it was excellent.

Joel Beeke presented several great messages and certainly did not disappoint. In particular, I appreciated the message on persevering in joyful humility and prayer. He made several good points in noting that we pray far less than we should and that we should be seeking to grow in our prayer. Also, he made an excellent point regarding keeping ourselves humble. While noting that we need to labor under the conviction that we are servants, he noted that we need to remember Christ's love for the church. He said that we can be too open in our criticisms of the church and that it can come out of a prideful heart. Not that we should refrain from criticism of the church, but that we should not be unable to criticize the church with dry eyes. In other words, we should be crying out to God that our church would reflect the character of Christ. Not out of a hard heart but out of a heart that desires to see souls conformed to the image of the Son.

Also, I was convicted regarding the lack of seriousness and priority I give to prayer. I desire to see prayer as something that is ingrained in my life. My action item for now is to seek to carve out more specific time around my morning devotionals so I am not so apt to finish my reading, do a quick prayer and get ready from work. I want to draw something out of Scripture and bring that to God in prayer.

It was cool to see R.C. Sproul preach. He has a good way of explaining things and yet, due most likely to fatigue, I haven't really processed his message too well yet. Hopefully tomorrow I can read over my notes and discuss it will some others who were there to get a firmer grasp on some of the ideas he presented in explaining why the cross was necessary.

PCRT... Yeah, I'm Excited

Coming up on this weekend is the Philadelphia Conference of Reformed Theology. This is my first time attending and I'll also be attending the pre-conference on Friday during the day. Here are some of the reasons I am excited (in no particular order)...

1. R.C. Sproul - Yep.

2. The City - I love walking around downtown Philly and it will be good to spend time there again. Plus, it's fun to ride the train into town.

3. 10th Pres. - 10th is awesome. I'm looking forward to great music.

4. Friends - Seems like a lot of familiar faces will be there (if you are coming, let me know in the comments so I can try and find you to say hi at some point). Julian and I are having breakfast on Friday, which should be fun. I'm sure there will be plenty of great opportunities for that never fail combination of food and fellowship. Plus I'll get to see some of my friends from 10th that I don't get to see as often.

5. The Atonement - This is the theme of the conference. I'm always eager to understand and gain a greater appreciation of Christ's work on the cross.

6. Joel Beeke - He doing most of the speaking at the pre-conference. I'm interested to hear from him since I appreciated his book, "Meet the Puritans".

7. Carl Trueman - He's teaching one of the seminars and is a professor of church history at Westminster. I've heard an interview with him on 9Marks, read some posts he's made and read his book "The Wages of Spin". I'm intrigued to hear more from him.

8. Differences & Unity - I'm always excited to join together to learn about and worship God with other Christians. It particularly affects me to join with others who have differences in some areas of thinking but are united in the foundational truths of the gospel.

9. Philip Ryken - I've interacted with some of Ryken's work and heard him preach once or twice but I am not too familiar with him. I'm excited to hear from this man who is doing the bulk of the teaching for all my friends at 10th Pres.

10. Books - While both my budget and my knowing friends are eyeing this reason warily, I am excited at the opportunity to pick up a new book or two (or three...) If you see me at the conference with more than 5 new books, please take my wallet.

11. Steve Burlew - Ok, this one isn't certain because I didn't ask him specifically if he would be there. However, Steve is the guy when it comes to Banner of Truth books in the US. And since he is often travelling around and attending conferences (particularly since this one isn't too far away from home), I wouldn't be surprised to see him there. And lest you think I am merely excited about the books he'll be bringing, the truth of the matter is that Steve is a godly man and a joy to talk to. I would definitely be excited to chat with him even if he wasn't dragging volumes and volumes of Christ exalting literature in tow. (If you want to find out more about Steve or Banner of Truth, check out Steve's blog Trophies of His Grace.)

12. The Day Off - Friday is the first full day I've taken off work this year. I'm looking forward to it.

13. Blogging - Blogging a conference seems like some obscure rite of passage for a Christian blogger. I don't necessarily intend to be your source for all things PCRT, but I will probably be posting some thoughts on what God teaches me during the conference. I've often found it helpful and encouraging when others post about conferences they've attended that I have not. But don't expect any live blogging, I've got a funny feeling that 10th Pres. doesn't have WiFi. Maybe I can post over lunch.

14. God's Faithfulness - Last and most importantly, I'm excited because God is faithful and he will meet those attending this conference and use it to grow us in our faith and help us in following him.

My prayer is that God would prepare my heart to receive this teaching even in the midst of a busy week and bless the opportunities I'll have to engage in fellowship with other believers.