On November 6th and 7th, Jerry Vines hosted the "John 3:16 Conference" from First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Georgia. The lineup was a veritable "who's who" of Southern Baptist speakers including: Johnny Hunt, Paige Patterson, Richard Land, David Allen, Steve Lemke, Ken Keathley, and Charles Stanley. Though a disclaimer was issued that the conference would not be a "Calvinist bashing" event, that is precisely what transpired. While I have had to rely on secondhand sources to learn what was said, it is quite apparent that no positive position was put forth at the conference. Most of the sessions denigrated to ad hominim attacks. Dr. David Allen accused James White of being a "Hyper-Calvinist" based on Phil Johnson's definition. Read Phil Johnson's response here . After all the material I have read, I have found no serious interaction with the Biblical text. Mostly the same old, strawmen arguments ("Calvinism kills evangelism", etc.) were employed but, alas, I guess such is the case when you define your conference by what you are against rather than what you are for.
Some of you may wonder why I did not consult firsthand resources. My response to that is that I would have loved to listen to the messages themselves if they had not had been fifty dollars to purchase! One blogger remarked that the fact that no Calvinist presence was represented (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Founders' Ministries were both turned down booths without justification) and that the materials were so costly stood in complete contrast to the free materials and welcoming format of such conferences like Together for the Gospel. Perhaps the John 3:16 conference should be more aptly titled, "Against the Gospel."
If you have the patience, you can read some live blogging from the conference at Tim Challies' site. For a critique of the conference, James White has provided several responses as well. Soli deo gloria!
3 comments:
This conference was a debacle. The aforementioned "pastors" and "theologians" should be ashamed. You may say, "Trevor did not respond to the arguments of the John 3:16 Conference," and I will say, "There were no arguments." It was simply a display of Arminian emotionalism, nothing more. I really do not know why any self-respecting Calvinist would want to be affiliated with the SBC simply because it seems to be dominated with this kind of stuff.
Logan,
That's a very interesting question posed: Why would any self respecting Calvinist be a Southern Baptist.
To simply state, I'm working on respecting myself, it's been a while and one day I may get back there but in the mean time I'd have to call myself a some what self-respecting Southern Baptist Calvinist.
I would be careful, none-the-less, on grouping all Southern Baptists as you have with Jerry Vines and the like as our head. There are close to 40 million of us (numbers are our specialty) and I'm sure the vast majority of them feel the same way these men characterized us during this conference but there are a growing minority that are fighting for our historical roots again.
Can you be self-respecting SBC'er and be a Calvinist - Yes!
Tim- I am truly grateful for movements within the SBC such as Founders' Ministries that seek to return the Convention to its historical roots. I am grateful for my Reformed brethren within the Southern Baptist denomination who are joyfully proclaiming the doctrines of grace.
With that said, I am vastly disappointed by the majority of Southern Baptist churches that continue to cling to a man-centered, synergistic gospel. I pray that God would do a massive, reforming work in the entire denomination and all of our denominations for that matter. I'm sure that is something on which all three of us agree.
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