t4g - Day 2

I feel fed. Mental exhaustion is not in my vocabulary. We could have had four more sessions today, and I'd be on the edge of my seat, but it is my whole soul that is stuffed. First, John MacArthur talked about the doctrine of total depravity and Mark Dever followed up with five popular ways that the gospel is added to, or "improved" upon. When we broke for lunch, I couldn't help but hear much conversation that revealed the value of this conference. A lot of "Wow, never thought of that!" or "Hey, do you believe that?" or "No, I think what he's really saying is..." In other words, there's a lot of people here who are not quite where we're at--and that's reason to celebrate, since pastors are being won over to what R. C. Sproul calls the Reformed faith.

Incidentally, his interchange with C. J. prior to his talk was hillarious! Everyone there may have a sense of humor, but clearly R. C. and C. J. are the biggest characters by far. As to Sproul's talk, it was moving. It was second only to Piper's '06 message. He talked about the curse motif in the biblical doctrine of the atonement, and wrapped it up with one of the most profound (yet clear) demonstrations of the gospel any of us have ever heard. Al Mohler wrapped things up tonight with an explanation of why they (you know who 'they' are) hate the substitutionary aspect of the atonement so much. It started off a bit slow from my perspective, but he gave a good survey of atonement theories and categories--theological, moral, biblical, and cultural--for the opponents' objections. The panel discussion which ensued from that was the best, though probably a bit thick for the "average pastors" to which C. J. refers. By the way, I met him afterwords and thanked him for being a long-distance pastor to so many of us. I also sat next to a fellow Covenant Life leader Gary Ricucci who wrote a marriage book which my wife and I have read. You get the vibe from the Sovereign Grace guys that they're just really excited to serve and humble. Good stuff.

And, yes, more books....a lot more. I hope we get all these things on the plane.