Conference: God's Providence in the Founding of America

The church our friends the Breagy's planted, Moore Christian Assembly is doing a Conference next weekend. The speaker is Dr. Joe Morecraft, and the topic is the God's Providence in the Founding of America: The American Mind of 1776. We will be attending some of the time.

It is free, and you can read more information about it, and register here.

You can also preorder the CDs here.

Reformation 500: Day 3

On this day we got up and ate donuts. This day was full of sessions, until after lunch when we went on a mini-tour. We heard several different messages. Some of my favorites were by Dr. Morecraft. He gave one on the Five Solas of the Reformation. I also enjoyed the Impact of the Reformation of Art and Culture by Mr. Phillips. Here are some pictures:

Mr. Phillips

Mr. Serven

At 2:30 we had a tour on the great awakening by Dr. Morecraft. We could not find Stephen, so we left him to listen to messages. Just then we got an email about the treasure hunt. So then we called Mr. Breagy, and I told Stephen Breagy the clue. So while we listened to the tour, they worked on the treasure hunt. Dr. Morecraft's message was very interesting.

Dr. Morecraft

The clue that we had gotten told us to go to one of the reformers, and tell him a password. They did that, and he told them to go to another, and so on for about 20! When we got back, they were on about the fifth. Finally our parents left for dinner, but we kept working. We got stuck for almost an hour because one of the reformers had gone to dinner. When we got to her, we went through several more, until during one of the session breaks we got the last clue from Joshua Phillips. It was a poem which told you to go to one of the vendors and ask for something, which you would then give to the 5th trustee from Jamestown. The poem was very difficult, especially because you were not allowed to copy it. You had to remember it. Anyway, finally after all the sessions we figured it out. We were in 4th place, which we thought was pretty good, especially since we had no adults helping us. The person who won was Mr. Muse from our church! We had a lot of fun even though we did not win.

The evening sessions were a Charlie Zahm concert, and then a debate between John Calvin and Charles Darwin. During the concert, Mr Phillips played that harmonica for several songs. You can hear them below. It was very good. The debate was pretty good, but we thought Charles Darwin won even though he was wrong.

Musical Audio of Canonball & Orange Blossoms Performed at the Reformation 500 from Vision Forum on Vimeo.

Reformation 500: Day 2

The first message that we went to was by Dr. Paul Jehle on John Robinson. John Robinson was the Pilgrims' pastor while they were in Holland before coming to America. He effected the Pilgrims, and America, a lot. Next I went to hear Mr. Potter speak on The Influence of the Reformation on Global Exploration and Warfare. He spoke on two different battles. The first was the siege of Derry, when the Catholic Irish sieged the Reformed Christian Scotch-Irish. The other battle was the Battle of Blood River in South Africa, where 400 Christian Boers defeated thousands of Zulu Indians. This message was very interesting.

Paul Jehle

Bill Potter

At this point we had to send in the clues that we had gotten from the Reformers for the treasure hunt. We only got three of the five, but we sent it in any way. We thought the clues referred to the George Washington statue in the Boston Public Gardens. This was true, but we did not find any clues there. When we got back, we listened to the end of Mr. Swanson's message on Lessons for Homeschoolers from the Reformation.

Dan Ford

The next lecture we went to was by Dan Ford on John Calvin's legacy of liberty. He showed many original documents from that time. Next we heard Dr. Morecraft speak on Calvin's Doctrine of Worship.

Dr. Joe Morecraft

Reformation 500: Day 1

This was the first day of the Reformation 500 conference. We had two mini-tours scheduled before the opening ceremonies, so that later we would not miss any talks. The first thing we went to was a meeting for the treasure hunt. We were late, because we did not have time to check email the night before. We got a coded message to translate. Here are some pictures of the meeting on Mr. Phillips' blog.

After the meeting we left for our first mini tour. It was of the Granary and King's Chapel burying grounds with Dr. Joe Morecraft and Richard Holland. Dr. Morecraft is a preacher from Georgia and he knows a lot about the Reformation. He was on the Scotland Faith and Freedom Tour with us last summer. Richard Holland lives in Boston, and he does Christian history tours in Boston. First we went to the Granary burying ground. It is called the patriot's grave yard. John Handcock, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, James Otis and other famous people are buried here. Mr. Holland spoke on the people buried here, and Dr. Morecraft spoke on the War for Independence.

Park Street Church, where one of the evil Unitarian abolitionist
preached before the Second War for American Independence

Dr. Morecraft and Mr. Holland, in front of Benjamin Franklin's parents' grave

Next we visited the King's Chapel burying ground. It is known as the preacher's graveyard. John Winthrop was buried here, along with the first person to get off the Mayflower and the gravestone that was the inspiration for The Scarlet Letter by Nataniel Hawtorne, which was written against the Puritans.



Our next tour was the Old South Meeting House with Dan Ford. Mr. Ford has a lot of very old books and documents which were important, and he shows them on his tours. The Old South Meeting House was a church in the time of the War for Independence. It was where they met before the Boston Tea party. Mr. Ford talked about the beginnings of the War for Independence here. We next went to the Old State House, where the Boston Massacre took place. Here Mr. Ford talked about the Boston Massacre and the doctrine of interposition. The last stop on the tour was the Benjamin Franklin statue. Mr. Ford talked about his life, especially how he was a diplomat before the War for Independance.

Old South Meeting House

Mr. Ford

Benjamin Franklin

After the tour ended, we went with some of the Breagys to a bookstore that Mr. Holland recommended, Brattle Street Books. Daddy bought lots of books, which our friends the Damings brought back to NC for us since we flew. We went back to the hotel, and we went to "Meet the Reformers." Vision Forum had about 40 people who were re-enactors of the Reformers. If you got 30 of them to sign your program, you got a ten dollar gift certificate. We also had to ask them a certain question so that they would give us clues for the treasure hunt. After this there were the opening ceremonies. Mr. Phillips spoke, and each of the speakers gave a brief summary of their messages. Charlie Zahm also sang some songs.

The Book Store

Scotland - Day 6

Here are some pictures.

Right now we are on the bus driving to Fort William, a town in the highlands of Scotland. Last night Stephen got sick, and he has not been feeling well today, but he persevered. Since Stephen was sick, we got a taxi which took some of us and our luggage to the bus. Our first stop was the town of St. Andrews. There there is a castle and cathedral, and many Christians were martyred there. We went to the graveyard at the ruined cathedral, and saw the grave of Samuel Rutherford, a famous early reformer who wrote the book Lex Rex. There is a tower that is not ruined, and there are great views of the castle from the top.


Next we went to where Patrick Hamilton was murdered. He was the first man killed in St. Andrews. Next we saw where George Wishart was killed in front of St. Andrew's Castle, before all the students of the college. These men were killed for things like not believing in purgatory and not praying to the Virgin Mary.

After seeing these places, we were able to go in the castle. At one time the English and French were besieging a group of covenanters in the castle. They dug a mine to try to destroy the wall. The defenders tried to reach their mine, and after several false starts, they were able to break through. We were able to go into the mine and counter mine. I enjoyed this very much.

After this we went to the Ceres Highland Games. These games are the oldest continuous games, being founded by Robert the Bruce himself. There were several bicycle races, running races, shot put, hay bale throwing, pole throwing and wrestling. We really enjoyed them.


----
Joshua

Cromwell Done Right!

These are the notes Stephen took on Dr. Joe Morecraft's talk on Oliver Cromwell at the Chalcedon Conference. Book recommendations: The greatness of Oliver Cromwell (Collier books) The Great Christian Revolution
Cromwell was the greatest English man that ever lived. He created the English world of today. Many scholars of his time praised him, but now people despise him. We think that Cromwell and the Puritans did not like entertainment, but playwriting flourished under Cromwell. We cannot understand Cromwell without understanding Puritanism. When the reformation hit England, Puritanism was created. Puritanism was the idea of making England a Christian nation and changing the Anglicans to Christians. They were trying to clean England. When Cromwell heard of Charles' tyranny, he had no idea what he would do. He did not take up arms and fight till he heard about the slaughter of the puritans in Ireland. Cromwell would become one of the greatest generals ever.
Cromwell did something no one else had ever done. He made officers out of peasants. He saw value in the craftsmen. Cromwell's chaplain was the preacher of the church he had gone to. Cromwell was plagued all his life because the Puritan Scots still wanted a Stewart back on the throne. He knew he would have to stop these. If he did not, they would take over and place a Stewart on the throne, and all would be lost. Scholars charge Cromwell with attacking his subjects, but he did not. He fought with Ireland and Scotland only when they rebelled. Cromwell struck such a blow to Ireland that it never recovered. But he also did Ireland good. Before it was a desert, but afterwards it was cultivated. Cromwell fought Scotland when they tried to put Charles II on the throne.
Cromwell fought Scotland differently than he fought Ireland because they were Puritans. He fought them kindly. Cromwell went to churches with his army and listened to the preacher publicly curse him and his men, yet he did not attack the preacher. Cromwell wrote the first English written constitution. America took a lot from it in the founding. The catholics were afraid of his army. Once when the Catholics were persecuting Puritans in Ireland, he sent a letter to the pope and said that if the persecution did not stop he would burn Rome to the ground with his navy. The persecution stopped immediately. After Cromwell died his son took his place. His son was incapable of ruling. The leader of the army died shortly after Cromwell. Soon Charles II's followers took over and placed him on the throne.
My favorite speaker was Dr. Joe Morcraft because I thought he did the best job. Maybe it was because we heard him before. He used more scripture than the other speakers, although he was talking about a person.

The Great Comission

by Dr. Joe Morecraft

Some Introductory Observations

1. Three errors in interpreting the Great Commission
1. Thinking that the idea is to save the greatest number, no matter if they obey God.
2. Believing that there is not a free offer for anyone to be saved.
3. Finding excuses not to evangelize.
   
2. This helps us transform society with the gospel. John Calvin evangelized France. At the beginning, there were only 30 reformed churches. When he was finished, there were 30 million believers.
3. Universalism - in a good way. The target is ALL NATIONS. Racism stops the Great Commission. The target is the world - John 3:16

Now we will go through the Great Commission.

1. Universal Authority

Everything is under Jesus' power.
God gave him Authority to give everlasting life - John 12.
Jesus is the ruler of earthly Kings.
Ephesians 1:19-21
Christ is over us - not will be over us.

2. Mandate of World Discipleship

A disciple is a learner.
A disciple submits to Jesus.
Jesus says to make entire nations disciples, not just individuals.
Our mission is not complete until all the Nations are Christ's disciples.

A. Person Winning

Person to person witnessing.
Good books on evangelism:
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God J. I. Packer
Tell the Truth Will Metzger
Today's Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic?

B. Family Winning

Be an example in your family to other families.
Families should teach.
Parents need to teach the children.

C. Culture Winning

Disciple the nation.
Christian nations.
Christian Culture.
Politically Christian, Economically Christian, Educationally Christian, etc.
For 1000 years, Europe tried to be Christian. The modern historians call these the "Dark Ages."

We have to win the individual, the family and the nation - all three.
The Great commission is the dominion mandate taking into consideration that man is fallen.

3. The Promise of Christ's Presence

Here we see Christ claim deity.
Christ will be with faithful evangelists.
He echoes Deuteronomy 20 - Christ leads us into battle. He fights for us.
God says we will reap.

The 2007 Chalcedon Fall Conference

Last week we attended the 2007 Chalcedon fall conference which was called "The Relevance of the Reformed Faith". One of the speakers there was Dr. Joe Morecraft. He had two speeches which were called "The Great Commission" and "Cromwell Done Right!" We enjoyed these two speeches very much, so we have typed up our notes to put on the blog.