Reformed, Again!

Following this short introduction are a series of photos from Eric’s recent trip to the Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville, KY, during the week of April 14-18, 2008. Monday, April 14, and Friday, April 18, were travel days, and the conference itself ran from Tuesday through Thursday. It was an excellent experience and a great testimony to the amazing work of God, bringing over 5500 people from around the world to hear solid biblical teaching and to be inspired to dedicate their ministries to the unadulterated preaching and teaching of the Word of God.

As you read down through the captions, there will be links provided for learning more about the conference speakers and also links to download and listen to the conference messages right on your computer.

Monday, April 14, 2008, around 2:30 PM: Welcome to West Virginia
This marks Eric’s first time driving in this state.

	That’s all well and good, but Eric’s little foreign car doesn’t necessarily like to go that fast…

Monday, April 14, 2008, around 6:45 PM: Welcome to Kentucky
This marks Eric’s first time ever visiting or driving in this state.

Monday, April 14, 2008, around 7:00 PM: Kentucky’s state tourism logo at a roadside rest stop and welcome center

Tuesday, April 15, 2008, around 1:30 AM: Early morning trip to Wal-Mart
When you need something, it is always good to find your nearest 24-hour Wal-Mart. This one was just 4 miles out of Louisville, across the Ohio River in Indiana (marking Eric’s first time driving in that state as well).

Tuesday, April 15, 2008, around 1:15 PM: Approaching Downtown Louisville
The taxes are done, Eric is rested, and it is time for the conference to begin.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008, around 2:00 PM: The Kentucky Convention Center
After finally finding a place to park, the roof of this parking garage offered great views of Louisville and the Kentucky International Convention Center where T4G ‘08 was being held.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008, around 2:00 PM: Looking across the Ohio River
Just a few blocks away from the convention center is the Ohio River. (Picture taken from roof of parking garage)

Tuesday, April 15, 2008, around 9:50 PM: Louisville and Convention Center at night
After a great first evening of messages from Pastor Ligon Duncan (on Sound Doctrine - Essential to Faithful Pastoral Ministry; click to listen to the message) and Thabiti Anyabwile (on Bearing the Image: Identity, the Work of Christ, and the Church; click to listen to the message), a return to the parking garage offered a great view of Louisville at night.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008, around 7:10 AM: Oldest Ornamental Water Tower in the World
Unknown to Eric when he was taking this picture of what he thought was simply an interesting structure across from the Ramada Inn, this water tower is the oldest ornamental water tower in the world. Later research at Wikipedia (see article) would reveal this interesting fact.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008, around 8:15 AM: Session 3 begins
Albert Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and host of his own talk radio program, introduces John MacArthur, a long-time pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA, and a prolific author of books and bible study materials. (Al is standing toward the right, and John is sitting, near the left center.)

Wednesday, April 16, 2008, around 8:15 AM: John MacArthur Speaks
Dr. John MacArthur begins his address on The Sinner Neither Able Nor Willing: The Doctrine of Absolute Inability. Click to listen to the message.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008, around 9:20 AM: Break Time
Over 5500 pastors and other church leaders were in attendance at T4G ‘08. The facility for holding the sessions was a fairly large room.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008, around 9:20 AM: A view toward the stage

Wednesday, April 16, 2008, around 10:20 AM: Session 4 begins
Ligon Duncan (standing, right) introduces Mark Dever (sitting, left), pastor of Capital Hill Baptist Church, before his talk on Improving the Gospel: Exercises in Unbiblical Theology. Click to listen to the message.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008, around 2:20 PM: Lunchtime in Louisville
This pretty park is located along the short walk (a few blocks) between the Ohio River parking area and the Kentucky Convention Center.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008, around 2:40 PM: Session 5 begins
C.J. Mahaney (standing, right), president and leader of Sovereign Grace Ministries, introduces R.C. Sproul (sitting, left), chairman and founder of Ligonier Ministries in Orlando, Florida (and host of the Christian radio teaching program Renewing Your Mind). R.C. spoke on The Curse Motif of the Atonement. Click to listen to the message.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008, around 7:00 PM: Session 6 begins
Thanks to a reunion with some new Sovereign Grace friends first met on Tuesday night, Eric was able to get a much closer seat in front of the stage for the 6^th session. During this session, Al Mohler spoke on Why Do They Hate It So? The Doctrine of Substitution. Click to listen to the message.

Thursday, April 17, 2008, around 1:00 PM: Building in Louisville
After the final sessions on Thursday, it is time to return home, but not before a little sight-seeing around Louisville. The Thursday session included John Piper (of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minnesota and the Desiring God ministry) speaking on How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Radical Christian Sacrifice (click to listen to the message) and C.J. Mahaney speaking on Sustaining a Pastor’s Soul (click to listen to the message).

Thursday, April 17, 2008, around 1:25 PM: SBTS Chapel in Louisville
The chapel at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (where T4G speaker Al Mohler is president) in Louisville is surrounded by the beautiful foliage and grounds captured in this picture on this warm, spring day in northern Kentucky.

Thursday, April 17, 2008, around 1:25 PM: SBTS Motto on banner
The motto of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary reads: “For the truth, for the church, for the world, for the Glory of God”

Thursday, April 17, 2008, around 5:10 PM: Creation Museum
After some searching, Eric finally found the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky, just outside Cincinnati, Ohio.

Thursday, April 17, 2008, around 5:45 PM: Creation Museum
The Creation Museum has a great gift shop and book store with excellent resources on science and the Bible, looking at everything in geology, biology, nature, and history with a view to the literal understanding and plain-sense reading of Genesis.

Thursday, April 17, 2008, around 5:45 PM: Creation Museum
At the Creation Museum, there are gardens and walkways and other outside recreations on the grounds.

Friday, April 18, 2008, around 3:10 PM: Returning to Pennsylvania
After a much-needed night of rest in Columbus, Ohio, Eric returns to Pennsylvania by way of I-70 in the southwest part of the state.

Thanks for spending time reading over this online journal of Eric’s Together for the Gospel trip. In the upcoming weeks, return to Reformed, Again! for more articles and discussions on topics of reformed theology and Christian life, including Eric’s “story” of how he got here, to Louisville, in the middle of April, amidst a decidedly different crowd of brothers and sisters in Christ than would be found in common Lutheran circles in the Pennsylvania synods of the ELCA. (That is an interesting story for another, later entry in this online journal.)

In the meantime, browse down through the first few entries of Reformed, Again! including an interview with R.C. Sproul and Ben Stein, as well as our Welcome entry.

This fascinating interview with R.C. Sproul and Ben Stein was posted at the Ligonier Website (see full post here). If you have a fast-enough internet connection, it is well worth the watch. Be sure to look into Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed soon or now available on DVD.

We will post more on this fascinating look at the current debate between intelligent design and evolution in later posts. (Please note that Reformed, Again! espouses a biblical creationist view, which is more specific in its convictions on origins than a merely intelligent design view. We respect the work of those in the intelligent design community and share a common concern over the censorship of all other ideas currently being perpetrated by many holding to a Darwinian or evolutionary view of origins.)

Welcome to Reformed, Again! Eric and Elisabeth are two married individuals living in Altoona, PA, born and raised as Lutherans, yet recognizing that the popular definition of “Lutheranism” according to today’s ELCA and true, classic Christianity (that Luther himself would espouse) are not necessarily the same things. It would seem that the once-reformed would need to be reformed, again.

We welcome all readers along for this journey of discourse as we look at classic writings, biblical doctrine, biblical implications, and current topics of importance, all relating to the need of today’s typical protestant churches to return to the reformed distinctives espoused by those such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others. In our discussions, we count God’s Word, the Bible, as inerrant and as the only source of true, specific revelation from the Most High, Creator God of the universe.

We hold to the same affirmations and denials made available at the 2006 and 2008 Together for the Gospel conference, held in Louisville, Kentucky. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (ESV, 1 Corinthians 15:1-8)

Despite denominational differences, the true church of Christ must hold to these things of first importance, and it is amazing to see certain Baptists, Presbyterians, independents, and others who hold to a solid, biblical world view agree on the very important matters of classic Christianity. These are truths which have not changed for 2000 years, which all too many “mainline” protestant churches are giving up on for a merely “social” gospel or for a slick “market-driven” approach to church building.

Similar to Luther, those of us in biblical Truth must stand against the tide of post-modernism, legalism, works-righteous salvation-ism, and other theological and philosophical ills of our current age, to defend “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (ESV, Jude 3). You are invited to read along as we tackle these issues, with a few of our closest friends hopefully contributing their own thoughts as well.

Until more is posted here, please enjoy the blogroll and links available in the column to the right. There is a great wealth of solid biblical teaching online from these trusted sources.

Please check back for more posts as our discussion continues…