Passion Conference - Atlanta January 1-4, 2007

The Passion conference in the past years has been an exciting time of hearing the word preached and being challenged to live holy lives. The conference is for those 18-25 years old and some of the best worship leaders and preachers/teachers around.

The Passion web site announced that as the price would increase for the conference on the 15th the following, "As the price nudged higher at midnight September 15, registration crossed the 13000 mark with over three months to go... and more of you snagged a spot today at the new price. Exciting."

Register now for the conference at Passion. This is a fun web site to visit.

Christianity Today

The title is: "Young, Restless, and Reformed: Calvinism is making a comeback and shaking up the church." The September issue of Christianity Today. The article is by Collin Hansen. Worth picking up a copy of this issue.

Fighter of Liberalism - Geerhardus Vos 1862-1949

Geerhardus Vos, the father of Reformed Biblical Theology, was born in 1862 in the Netherlands. He attended the theological school in Grand Rapids, Michigan, (Calvin College today) then went to Princeton Seminary, and eventually received his doctorate at Strassburg.
After a brief teaching stint at Grand Rapids Vos returned to Princeton as the first chair of Biblical Theology. He remained at Princeton for 39 years, where he taught such eminent men as J. Gresham Machen, John Murray, Ned B. Stonehouse, and Cornelius Van Til (mp3 sermons by Van Til). Throughout his career Vos fought against liberalism at every step, especially on such issues as the kingdom of God and Jesus' Messianic self-consciousness.
After retiring, Vos lived in California before returning to Grand Rapids, where he died in 1949 at the age of 87.

A number of links that herald Vos and his works are as follows:
Monergism
Biblical theology
Kerux
Futher biographical information is available at the Calvin College web site.

Desiring Gods 2006 National Convention "Above All Earthly Powers: The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World" featuring David Wells will touch on the fight that Vos, Machen and other waged in a postmodern world.

"We are called to see that the Church does not adapt its thinking to the horizons that modernity prescribes for it but rather that it brings to those horizons the powerful antidote of God's truth. It is not the Word of God but rather modernity that stands in need of being demythologised."
-- David F. Wells No Place For Truth, p.100

Pipers World Magazine articles

John Pipers, World Magazine feature artilces are found at this link. You can go to World Magazine by checking out the links locatesd on the sidebar.

Hero For Humanity - William Wilberforce

Hero For Humanity by Kevin Belmonte has had a significant influence on my life. "This book invites you on a journey through the life and times of William Wilberforce. Explore his childhood, his troubled youth, and his departure from Christianity. Learn about his early political ambitions and the process of his reunion with evangelical faith - an inner transformation that prepared Wilberforce to embrace his destiny. Experience his triumphant emergence from a forty-six year battle to abolish the slave trade and, ultimately, slavery itself in Britain. And discover how, in forsaking his own success and living for something greater than himself, Wilberforce bolstered the cause of human dignity amidst the turmoil of war and impacted the lives of millions across the globe."

An interview with Kevin Belmonte titled A Faithful Steward is worth checking out.
William Wilberforce is the model of Christian perseverance in abolishing a social evil.

Belmonte recently published through Day One Publishers, Travel with William Wilberforce 'The Friend of humanity', I have personally read others in this series of travel books on Bunyan, Spurgeon, and Knox finding them all very insightful even if you are not traveling to the UK.

Regarding the new movie Amazing Grace which ischeduleded to release in 2007 some interestinconnectionsns in the enterainment industry. Through their production company, FourBoys Films, Heaton and her husband, David Hunt, co-produced Amazing Grace. Along with Walden Media, Heaton and Hunt are producing the feature film detailing the life of William Wilberforce, which is being directed by Michael Apted. Many may know Patricia Heaton in her role as Debr on Everybody Loves Raymond. She has been honored with two consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her portrayal as Debra Barone on CBS' top rated series, "Everybody Loves Raymond."

The Mission Statement of "FourBoys Films seeks to provoke and entertain audiences with stories that illuminate the human condition in all its terrifying glory. The evidence of Man's eternal struggle between his desire to do good and his capacity for evil is all around us. It is within this conflict that one finds tales of the majesty in the mundane, the honor in failure, and nobility in victory. FourBoys Films is committed to writers who can find both the humor and the drama in these subjects without resorting to either sentimentalism or nihilism."

For further information on William Wilberforce check out this web site which has great indepth insite into a Hero for Humanity.

Amazing Grace - William Wilberforce coming February 2007

Walden Media to release movie about William Wilberforce titled Amazing Grace in 2007.

About the movie as described by Walden Media:
"Walden Media is passionate about bringing William Wilberforce's inspiring story to theaters and chronicling a crucial, but little-known, legislative battle in which justice and morality prevailed in the battle against slavery.
Filming of Amazing Grace will begin on October 29, 2005 on location across England. In our commitment to faithfully recreating Wilberforce's life, we will shoot at locations across England, including the Gloucester docks, Trafalgar Park, Hampton Court, and Parliament Square. The locations are not only historically accurate, they are also visually stunning. Near the beginning of production, we will film inside Parliament, and we will wrap the production at Westminster Abbey in January.
Amazing Grace will be in theaters in 2007."

Enjoying God Ministires and Jonathan Edwards

Sam Storms has a put together a great series of 46 articles on the theology of Jonathan Edwards. Storms ministy web site Enjoying God Ministries has a wealth of information on many subjects. Hours of reading enjoyment to help you delight in God.

Read Biographies - Jonathan Edwards 1703 - 1758

Murray has put together a very readable biography of one the the great theologians of all time in this work. If you can only read one biography this year read this one!
An American Congregationalist clergyman, was the outstanding theologian and scholar of colonial New England in the 1700's. In his most famous book Freedom of the Will (1754), he upheld such Calvinistic doctrines as predestination. But he insisted that man had freedom to choose alternative courses when forces outside him "inclined" his will to choose. Edwards was born on October 5, 1703, in East Windsor, Conn. He received A.B. and A.M. degrees from Yale University. In 1727, he was ordained and installed as assistant in the church of Solomon Stoddard, his grandfather, at Northhampton, Mass. When Stoddard died in 1729, Edwards became pastor. The religious revival, a part of the Great Awakening, came to his church in 1734. His famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God"(1741), was preached during his revival. Edwards' discipline of young people for reading "immoral" literature and his refusal to give communion to unconverted church members caused dismissal in 1750. He then served as a missionary to the Indians in Stockbridge, Mass., from 1751-1757. Edwards became president of the college of New England (now Princeton) in 1758, but died later that same year of smallpox.

For more information about Edwards and works by him, about him go to Monergism.