8/12/2019 1994 Issue 9 - 1994 A.C.T.S. Conference, A Birthday Celebration We Will Never Forget - Counsel of Chalcedon

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halcedon Presbyterian

Church

turned 20 years

old this year. The

journey

from a

bank

meeting room to 7901 Roberts

Drive, Atlanta, Georgia,

h s

not

been an

easy one. The session of

Chalcedon decided that the best

way to celebrate God's faithfulness

to

us

would be

to host a

conference, the likes of which

North

America

has

never seen.

The party was a roaring success.

through

his

Word and Spirit, she

may once again be a city set on a

hill, a light

to

the nations.

Several hundred Christians

came from

aU

over the continent

to be

a part of

this

celebration.

They drove

aU

night, slept

on

the

floor and on sofas, and parked in

the grass. They greeted fellow

Christians with tremendous joy

and enthUSiasm, as they

discovered

how

their brothers and

sisters were doing in other parts of

the battlefield. Throughout the

was

to

issue a birthday blessing

that would provide vision,

direction, and motivation for

Chalcedon as she moves boldly

into the future. They

accomplished their mission

Dr.

Francis Nigel

Lee,

Professor

of Systematic Theology

at

Queensland Presbyterian

Theological Seminary, spoke

on

the reformation of prayer. Dr.

Lee

's moving testimony

to

the

power of prayer in his

own

life,

leading

to

the conversion of the

Chalcedon has a

unique

history

and

place in the Reformed

community.

Her

conception 2 years

ago and

subsequent

growth closely

parallels

that

of

what

has come to

be

called

the Christian

Reconstruction

movement. While oft

maligned,

misrepresented, and

rejected, this faithful,

~ man that murdered

his father, humbled

growing,

and

influential group of

Christians seeks

to

stand

for

the

Lordship ofJesus Christ over all

men and institutions. In

an

age of

pluralism, compromise, and

defeatism, this

h s

not been a

popular

stance. Nevertheless,

by

God's

omnipotent

arm, Chalcedon

has

stood

at the forefront of this

movement.

Through

her pulpit,

worship, various ministries, and

magazine, she has issued a clarion

call to the

church and

nation: let's

return

to the God

of our

fathers

and

the principles of the Protestant

Reformation. God alone can save

our

culture from Impending

judgment and

oblivion. God alone

can

revive his

church

so that

weekend, we literally pitched a

tent

in

our own front yard, filling

it

with great literature,

representatives from various

Christian organizations, and an

unending supply of

hot

coffee,

fruit, and other goodies. For

three days, the party continued

under

the bigtop It was a

weekend of worship, preaching,

fellowship, and planning that

neither we nor the world will ever

forget.

Chalcedon's birthday party,

however, was about more

th n

simply fun and fellowship.

At

the

top of the guest list were Reformed

pastors and teachers from around

the country. Their responsibility

1

THE

COUNSEL of Chalcedon

:;

December,

1994

and thrilled our

hearts, encouraging

us to recommit

ourselves to daily,

fervent,

Christ-centered

prayer.

Rev.

Walter Bowie,

Pastor of KOinonia

Baptist Church, in

Clinton, MisSissippi,

reminded us that it

takes mountain

conquering faith

to

fightthe Lord's

battles. Given the obstacles before

us today, we

need men

like Caleb

who will boldly storm the gates of

God's enemies. In his second

message,

Rev.

Bowie warned

us

about "wamring our hands at the

sinner's fire. Nothing can take us

out of the battle like blurring the

antithesis between the church and

the world.

Dr.

Rousas]. Rushdoony,

Founder and President of the

Chalcedon Foundation, longtime

friend, mentor, and favorite of

Chalcedon, encouraged a renewed

emphasis

on

the role of the

diaconate.

As

modem man has

forsaken God's law, the

8/12/2019 1994 Issue 9 - 1994 A.C.T.S. Conference, A Birthday Celebration We Will Never Forget - Counsel of Chalcedon

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foundations of society have been

crumbling away. Many people are

left homeless, sick, and desolate in

the modem world. Modem wars

to them. How? (1) We must

begin thinking long tenn. Victory

takes decades of faithfulness and

obedience to God's

have made

orphans of

tens of

thousands of

the world's

children.

The Church

of Christ

must

respond

immediately

to this crisis

She has the

opportunity

to rebuild

(front I-r) Nigel Lee, Paul Jehle, Ken Gentry, Gary DeMar

(back I-r) Byron Snapp, Gr eg Bahnsen

the old waste places and become

great in the eyes of the nations

through service Deacons playa

vital role

in

this area. They must.

be men of initiative, vision, and

commitment who do all in their

power to make the Church of

Jesus Christ an agency of mercy to

the lost.

f

they

fail

to do their job,

it is not surprising that

men

slavishly look to the arm

of

the

state.

commandments. (2) Our vision

must include all generations. We

must avoid the

modem

practice

of

separating the parents from their

children. There is no generation

gap between parent and child (3)

Covenant children must learn

what is expected of them. Teenage

rebellion should not be the

Gary DeMar, Founder and

Head of American Vision, helped

us see how our school of thought,

is perceived

by

the outside world.

Some of the treatments were good.

The bad portrayals were based

on

poor scholarship,

misrepresentation, and in some

instances, outright lies. Sadly, this

is the treatment we continue to

receive from many within the

evangelical community. Gary also

gave us a qUick review of the

apologetic method we must utilize

in this culture war. We

must

answer the fools according to their

folly

He reminded us of 2 Tim.

3:7-9. Those who oppose God

will

go

from

bad

to worse.

Christians must expect those who

continue to

tum

away from Christ

to make progress in their

foolishness, darkness,

and

confusion. In defending the faith,

Christians expose the foolishness

of unbelief. They must stand for

the Lordship

ofjesus

Christ

s

the

only hope in this life, as well as in

that which is to come.

PaulJehle, Principal of the New

Testament Christian School, in

Plymouth, Massachusetts, a

newcomer to Chalcedon, gave a

powerful message on the

importance of a multi-generational

vision. The quality of our work,

he told us, will be seen

in

the

commitment of our children's

children to those beliefs we hold

dear. They, more than our books,

preaching,

and

numbers, will

demonstrate the value of our

Christianity. Accordingly, we

must work to ensure their

faithfulness to God's covenant.

The torch of faith must be passed

Dr. Mrs. Rousas J

Rushdoony

Dr. Ken

Gentry,

Pastor of

Reedy

River

Presbyterian

Church

in

Greenville,

South

Carolina,

has

been

one

of the

leading

advocates

expected norm for the pillars of

God's house. (4) Discipline and

education must be refonned

according to the Bible.

in

our day

for a return to the victorious

eschatology of our Reformation

and Puritan forefathers. Dr.

Gentry demonstrated the biblical

December

994 TH

COUNSEL of Chalcedon

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foundations of our postrnillennial

hope. During the reign of Jesus

Christ, the preaching of the

gospel

will

gradually transform

the hearts and lives

of

men. The

nations will e converted, and the

kingdom

of

Christ will fill the

earth. It is this

hope

that

motivates us to stand boldly for

the interests

of

King Jesus

in

the

midst of this antagonistic society.

We are thankful for Dr. Gentry's

faithful teaching in this area, and

pray

that God would use

it

to

instill a victory-orientation in

generations to come.

Dr. Greg Bahnsen, Scholar in

Residence at the Southern

California Center for Christian

Studies, took us on

a guided tour

of

two reformed neighborhoods:

those who oppose theonomy and

those who endorse it. The

anti-theonomists' neighborhood is

in

shambles. Nevertheless,

it

doggedly clings to a lawless grace

that has virtually guaranteed the

destruction of

our

culture. The

theonomic neighborhood needs

some

work as well. They must

learn to apply God's law with

wisdom. Dr. Bahnsen concluded

the birthday party with a

sound

exegetical lesson on the grace

of

law. The law, he .maintained, is

not opposed to God's grace. The

law, properly understood, is itself

gracious, and will always lead to

Jesus Christ. Many in the

audience

said

it

was

the finest

explanation of the subject they

ever heard. We praise God for

r

. Bahnsen's ministry among us,

and

pray for God's blessing on his

heal th, family, and teaching.

qur birthday party generated

tremendous excitement among

all

participants. Many, exposed

to

the movement

and

its speakers

for the first time, were powerfully

moved and purchased enormous

amounts of literature. Finally,

here was a group of Christians

who believed that Christ is Lord

of all areas of life, and

would not

confine their light to the four

hundreds of college students with

the distinctives of the Reformed

faith. We must pass the vision

on

to the next generation. By God's

grace, they will be stronger, more

influential, and wiser than we

have been. it

is

up to them to

continue the work of their fathers

in the application of God's Word

to every area

of

life.

.,

.

. '

. . .

-

,

. ,

Amonth has passed

since the party ceased, but

the excitement is

not

dwindling. Out of the

conference, the

foundations of a

Cha1cedon Center for the

Arts were laid. Hundreds

of books were purchased,

and

are now being read'by

those who attended or

heard about the

conference. Christians

from all over the country

walls of the church. Those who

have been participants in the

movement for many years

rejoiced in the fellowship,

enthusiasm, and looked forward

to the future . God

was

truly

working in our midst,

and

through our influence, in the

world outside.

Of particular encouragement

to us, was

the

number of

young

people that wanted to come

to

our party. At each segment, one

could find junior and high school

students taking notes, catching

the vision, and being prepared

to

take their places of leadership in

the future . College students came

from all over the Southeast. They

are taking the message of Christ's

comprehensive Lordship to their

respective campuses, influencing

are ordering taped sets of the

conference. Other conferences

are being organized in different

parts of the country. This

birthday party, thrown in praise

to God, has served as a wake-up

call to Christians everywhere. In

an age

of

pessimism, defeat, and

cultural chaos, God's people are

beginning to realize that there are

answers to our problems. We

must return to our God and his

law. It is our prayer that

Almighty God would greatly use

the 1994 A.C.T.S Conference to

further the cause of truth

in

churches

all

over America. It was

a birthday party we will never

forget May God

be

praised, his

kingdom advanced, and his will

be done on earth through the

continuing influence of Chalcedon

Presbyterian Church. Q

12 THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon December, 1994