The conference is scheduled to run from 10.00 am until 4.30 pm on Thursday, 3 February 2011.
The speakers are Robin Parry (author of The Evangelical Universalist - under the pseudonym Gregory MacDonald, of course!), Derek Tidball (formerly Principal at London School of Theology), Nigel Wright (Principal at Spurgeon's College) and Graham Watts (Tutor in Christian Doctrine and Ethics at Spurgeon's College).
If you're interested, feel free to contact me for more details and a booking form by emailing me here.
Hello!
ReplyDeleteSounds fascinating!
If I'm allowed a shameless plug, I've been doing some restling with evangelical approaches to annihilationism and universalism at http://davidwilliamson.blogspot.com/2010/10/plea-for-hope-and-humility-when-talking.html
All the best!
David
Shameless plugs of this sort are welcome, David!
ReplyDeleteThat's good news indeed!
ReplyDeleteAny chance you could video it for those of us further afield ???
I doubt that, but it may be possible to get mp3s.
ReplyDeletemp3s would b gr8 !
ReplyDeletethank you !
This is a fascinating doctrine and debate. My BA Diss was on this because I was intrigued as to how many other doctrines it had an impact on. It is certainly growing in evangelical circles. I don't agree with it but would like to. Thanks for highlighting this conference.
ReplyDeleteProf David Fergusson (not a universalist) says that ‘one of the more perplexing aspects of the current controversy is the way in which critics of the universalist case concede that it would be nice if it were true". He cites Stephen Davis and William Lane Craig as examples of those who would like to believe that ‘universalism were true, but it is not’. He then comments: ‘Such remarks are puzzling. Are we saying that God’s final scheme is undesirable? Are we even suggesting that our own moral preferences are somehow better than God’s. Can we claim to be evangelical if we hold that it would be good if universalism were true while also lamenting wistfully that it is not what God has on offer?
ReplyDeletePersonally I believe it is what God has on offer as his wonderful "final solution". But before we get there, there is a pilgrimage for all of us to make. And as Robin Parry says, one way or another, we shall all be salted by fire -- or (I should say) as Mark 9:49 says: "For everyone will be salted with fire".
My prayer is that the Church can see this more and more clearly.
I so agree with 'anonymous'! May I suggest that the 'modus operandi' of universalism could be a form of reincarnation? In the light of this, the 'pilgrimage' we have to make can take many generations. In this way we do 'reap what we sow', not as punishment but as 'natural consequence', which is all part of the learning curve we have to follow.
ReplyDeleteI would love to come to the conference and maybe will.
Jacqui Poole