Imagine talking about your Lord and Saviour with a few good friends. Biblical insight, mutual encouragement and the gentle humour of friends. Now imagine your friends are Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, Albert Mohler and C.J. Mahaney. What you have is Together For The Gospel. (Abbreviated to T4G)
These four enjoyed a personal friendship that they have sought to allow others to share. Their means of doing so has been the Together For The Gospel conference, which was initially conducted in 2006, then in 2008 with a third scheduled for this year. The conference sounds like a wonderful time. Dever, Duncan, Mohler and Mahaney invite a few other friends along (such as John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, John Piper and Thabiti Anyabwile) join with a few thousand others, give away piles of books, sing songs and hear talks. Bliss.
For those of us who can’t go to the conference various resources are available at the Together For The Gospel website. In addition, the singing from the 2008 conference was released on Live CD and the major addresses have been edited and released in book form. Which brings us to the addresses to the 2008 conference: ‘Proclaiming A Cross-Centered Theology’. (Crossway, 2009, 221pgs)
Mark Dever serves as editor of the volume and writes a comprehensive introduction. In it he notes that: ‘This volume is prepared with the assumption that there is widespread agreement about the gospel across denominational lines, but also with the conviction that the gospel is widely under attack.’ The tone of the addresses (and the book) is one of contention and defence. It seeks to encourage and equip church leaders to carry out a task to which they are already committed.
Among the eight essays, highlights for me included Ligon Duncan’s essay defending the biblically grounded task of having a sound systematic theology. The attention which has been given to biblical theology in some areas has resulted in the importance (and even the relevance) of systematics being questioned. Duncan identifies and addresses without denigrating the value of biblical theology.
Albert Mohler examines the disdain that is growing among some who would claim to be evangelical for the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement in an article entitled ‘Why They Hate It So’. A tendency toward affirming a breadth of meanings for the word atonement seems to be something of a code for rejecting the concept of penal substitution.
R.C. Sproul’s essay, which immediately precedes Mohler’s, points out that penal substitution is the only understanding which makes sense of the curse motif which runs through the Old Testament. The curses which God pronounces in the Old Covenant fall upon the Lord Jesus at the inauguration of the New Covenant. The reality of God’s just punishment and judgement should compel us to flee to the cross.
C.J. Mahaney’s pastoral exhortation ‘Sustaining The Pastor’s Soul’ reflects on the joy which marked the life of Paul the Apostle. It was a joy that often seems to exist in stark contrast to his circumstances. Mahaney graciously, yet firmly, challenges those who serve as pastors whether our lives are marked with joy. Particularly he confronts us about whether those who know us best (wives, children) would describe us as joyful.
So, in April 2010 I will not be in Louisville with thousands of others hearing the Word, enjoying the fellowship and receiving all the free books. (small sigh) But I look forward to perhaps listening to the talks, and sometime in 2011 purchasing a volume on The Unadjusted Gospel.
In the meantime, I’d love to go to something like this in Australia. It seems that most gatherings need to have some form of purpose to justify them. What a great idea just to get together, hear true and encouraging material from those who walk the path with us, and enjoy each other’s company.
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