Final day interview with Hugh Palmer, Richard Cunningham and Don Carson talking about New Word Alive and the future…

Click here to download as an MP3

So here’s the latest news on New Word Alive 2009…

A new website has been launched with all the info on.

First, a correction on what I said a few weeks ago, New Word Alive 2009 will be in Pwhelli, NOT Prestatyn, as far as I know the Pwhelli site wanted us back and made a better offer than Prestatyn, which is annoying because Pwhelli is sooo far away!

There are still two weeks:

30th March - 4th April… mainly for students and adults without children (there is a crèche I believe)

4th April - 9th April… mainly for adults, families, young people

In week 1, the main speaker will be Vaughan Roberts. In week 2 it will be Liam Golligher.

Also, because they obviously loved it so much Don Carson and Terry Virgo will be back, proving the rumour that Richard Cunningham has a crush on Terry Virgo… or not.

Booking lines open on the 16th June for week 1, and on the 23rd June for week 2.

See you there!!

Currently going up online are a series of video interviews between Adrian Warnock, and Don Carson, John Piper and presumably Terry Virgo. You can see them on the Youtube UCCFMedia page. Here’s my favourite little bit, last part of Piper, there’s a question in here that I submitted to Adrian, all about longevity in ministry…

Good news that there will be a New Word Alive in 2009, at sunny Prestatyn… but what will it be like? Well, in light of this, this, and this, I thought I would share my wishlist for Word Alive 2009…

Morning Bible Readings - Alec Motyer on Isaiah… loved him last year at Keswick on Exodus, heard he has a fine commentary on Isaiah, would love to find out what that’s all about…

Leadership seminar - Mark Dever… you could call it 9 Marks of a Healthy Church or something…

Apologetics seminar - Tim Keller… It would be cool to hear him give some practical ways to engage with culture, friends, family, colleagues in light of ‘Reason for God’

Evening Celebrations 1 & 2 - Mark Driscoll on Radical Reformission… would love to hear what he has to say about students and young people being missionaries in their culture in the UK

Evening Celebrations 3 & 4 - CJ Mahaney on Humble Orthodoxy… hadn’t really listened or read anything by CJ up until a few months ago… love it now

…and presumably Adrian Warnock will lead the Band of Bloggers seminar…?

Oh, and Team Strike Force leading the music!!

This is all a little optimistic, but just getting one of these guys would be a scoop! Look forward to hearing the details when they happen…

So for those of you who don’t know New Word Alive is happening in 2009, but not in Pwllheli. New Word Alive will be holding two weeks - 30th March-4th April, this is going to be primarily for students, young adults and anyone without school age children (there is stuff for under 5s). The second week, 4-9th April is a family week with full young people’s programme. All this will be taking place at the luxury seaside resort of Prestatyn…

Final New Word Alive 2008 summary post, the morning Bible readings… what a privilege to have Don Carson, arguably the best living New Testament scholar to come and teach the book of 1 John to us. I usually get bored after the first one, the seats are uncomfortable (and not wide enough) and the big tent is always stuffy, the big Don managed to keep my attention though.

Carson began by saying that removing a small piece of the gospel will distort it (making subtle allusions, more subtle than Piper, about why NWA exists), it was the distortions of Gnosticism which John was facing. DC then went into a 25 minute, unscripted critique of Gnostic beliefs and how they had subtly distorted the gospel. In the first section (1 John 1 - 2:2) he has 3 points; What John longs for, what gets in the way of that, and what brings it about… John longs for fellowship, a partnership with God, and a joy in knowing Him… Sin gets in the way, it breaks the fellowship, we can’t face God’s justice… ultimately fellowship and joy in that is brought by the cross, by Jesus our propitiation.

The big Don dodged 1 John 2:2 on the first day and set out to explain it the next, he basically just said that the atonement is sufficient for all, but not effective for all… John says it in this way to say there are no barriers to atonement, unlike in gnosticism where hierarchical barriers were erected. Carson then took us though 1 John 2:3-27, he exposited the various antitheses throughout the passage - obedience vs. disobedience, love vs. hate, God-centredness vs. world-centredness, and Christians vs. antichrists.

Third talk… I’d stopped making notes by this point… was a bit tired and just needed to listen… got a Coke and a muffin to help! I think it was this talk where he said - “Christians don’t sin” (1 John 3:6)… so I start to wonder if I’m actually a Christian, after all this is coming from the big DC! Helpfully and amusingly he told a story of his rebellious school days chewing gum… the point was the although Christians do things they mustn’t, they can’t in the sense that they shouldn’t… what a strong call to resist temptation and submit to God’s will.

On the final morning he spoke (via video link, we couldn’t get in to the main venue) on perseverance and assurance. DC was a great choice of speaker, you know he’s got a massive brain and could destroy you in any debate, theological or otherwise, but he made things easy, he still made a few jokes, was genuinely funny (not just cause of his weird accent). The thing I love most is humility… I heard that he went to the 14-18’s meeting to be interviewed, when asked “What’s the hardest thing about being a Christian?” he said something along the lines of… I always mess up, I don’t do what God wants me to do… that’s not a quote, but it was something like that, but it’s reassuring to know that a godly man who has been used mightily by God gives the same answer as me!

I think this was probably the highlight of New Word Alive for me. Partly because I’m a bit of a preacher groupie, actually it’s more than that, Piper’s preaching through its freeness at DesiringGod.org has really helped me during my time at Uni, really shaped my view of God, and although I haven’t read much of his writings, Don’t Waste Your Life was great! So getting to see him preach live (yes we were sad and made it to nearly the front row) was just great, he is a great communicator, passionate and dynamic, visibly in love with Jesus and deeply influenced, to the core by a massive view of God in His sovereignty . More importantly, it was the highlight because of the topic and passage.

Piper spoke from Romans 8 (in two parts) under the title ‘Treasuring Christ and a call to suffer’, it really needed 3 messages as he spent 30 minutes of the 2nd giving qualifications and expansions on the 1st, my solution is let him preach for as long as he likes! I didn’t take any notes, I just wanted to listen (you can find some notes on Adrian Warnock and Tim Chester’s blog).

Three big points on the first night were; first, suffering is universal, everyone suffers (except God and non-fallen angels), second that suffering is historical, it had a beginning and will come to an end, and third that all suffering is judicial, God’s judgement on a rebellious world. For the non-Christian that suffering is the foretaste of eternal condemnation, for the Christian there is now no condemnation, so all suffering is purifying.

The second message was the why and how of the first message, it’s aim was to try and be practical response to the theological grounding of the first, in reality he still had much theological grounding that he wanted to give - which is good, you need a robust theology of suffering to be able to in God’s grace, stand through the storm. The big point here was Ephesians 1:5-6 - “He predestined us… to the praise of his glory” - Piper passionately explained that this groaning world exists to give glory to God, and ultimately this is displayed through Christ on the cross, the suffering of which we will sing FOREVER!

Piper concluded with a quote from ‘Shining Like Stars‘, which is sourced from Howard Guinness (in the book Sacrifice. A call to faithful suffering, and obedient service…

Where are the young men and women of this generation who will hold their lives cheap and be faithful even unto death? Where are those who will lose their lives for Christ’s sake – flinging them away for love of Him? Where are those who will live dangerously, and be reckless in His service?

Part 1, Part 2

So, after about a nine hour trip we finally made it back from Pwllheli and the anticipated excitement was not disappointed! The site we were staying on isn’t as good as Skeggy, but in contrast to the Lincolnshire coast we had some sun, you could describe the scenery as beautiful and having Snowdon in the background is a plus.

First night we kicked off with Terry Virgo speaking on God’s Grace from Romans 5. It was a great start to the week to be reminded of our status before God based on his Grace mediated through Christ’s work on the cross. At the same time some of us felt he didn’t really give a balanced picture, yes we are under grace, but what about disciple, how does sanctification work? Terry Virgo did mention these things but had no time to explain - a shame. Nevertheless it was great to glory at God’s lavish grace.

Don Carson spoke in the morning Bible readings from 1 John, and the next two evenings formed a two-part message from John Piper - Treasuring Christ and a call to suffer… these two features deserve separate posts.

What else was there to do… Chronological Bible overview with Jason Clarke, a guide to understanding, interpreting and applying the whole Bible (using Daniel) with Vaughan Roberts, Trinity with Mike Reeves (mind blowing as ever), Humanity and Creation, 3 studies with Mike Ovey… Giving a Bible talk with Richard Coekin, Good News to the poor with Tim Chester… and loads of other practical seminars with great speakers like; Graham Daniels, Mark Ashton, Wallace Benn, Dave Bish, Andrew Sach, Jim Paul, Melvin Tinker, Jon Hobbs, John Benton, Roger Carswell… and loads more!

And if that’s too much for you then there’s go karts, crazy golf, swimming, peddlos, and a nice beach to walk on. In fact that usually is too much, I went to the main meetings and Mike Reeves on the Triune God… that’s more than enough! The rest of the time it’s good to just chillax, enjoy people’s company, think about what we’re learning, and to enjoy the beauty of Wales (and Sarah), more thoughts to come…

So this morning (at 8am) we start the long journey from Brighton to Pwllheli. It’s going to be great, NWA that is, I doubt the journey will be fun, I reckon it’s at least a 7-hour drive in our minibus… Don’t think I’ll be live blogging but I’ll certainly have some thoughts and feedback to share afterwards, maybe a few little extras too… I’m excited, as is Si-Fi…

At Word Alive this year, in his talk on Atonement (from Hebrews 9), Richard Cunningham (Director of UCCF) said: “God does not forgive sin, he only punishes it”. He also went on to concur with my thoughts on sin and sinners. This is a bold statement to make, but if true, I believe it cuts to the heart of lots of issues I’ve been blogging on recently; PSA, hell, depravity etc. This post has been sitting uncompleted in the Wordpress system since coming back from Word Alive, unfortunately delayed due to more pressing things. In that time it’s been discussed elsewhere; by Cat and by a less supportive “Speaker of Truth” who accuses RC of heresy (now retracted).

Now the obvious thing to say is that this statement is clearly false, after all the Bible and creeds clearly state that God forgives sin. But is it that simple? What does Joshua 24:19 mean “..he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins”? What about those who advocate a PS (thoroughly Biblical) view of atonement - have we got it wrong? So what is forgiveness? I think part of the problem is that we may have a wrong view of what forgiveness actually is… generally the view seems to be of God ‘forgetting’ sin or simply saying it ‘doesn’t matter’ anymore. These are nice ideas, they make God sound like a big dad in the sky who really wants us to come and say sorry so he can simply ‘forgive’. Biblical forgiveness is not some kind of ‘cosmic insomnia’ but is administered through sacrifice, through blood. Not very popular, makes us sound ‘pre-Christian’! Whatever we think, the Bible states two truths - God forgives sin (1John 1:9) and God punishes sin (Gen 3).

Firstly (in response to Joshua 24), we know that God does punish the sin of the non-Christian, “the wages of sin is death…” Rom 6:23, sin has to be paid for, if all sin is forgiven then there is no punishment to face, no penalty to be paid - no hell - sounds nice, but that belief leads to Universalism, a heresy, the Bible teaches against that belief. But how is the sin of the believer dealt with? Yes, it’s forgiven, but what does that mean??

Biblical forgiveness is the diversion of God’s wrath, propitiation - it’s what we see at the Passover, the temple sacrifices and at the cross. Not diversion into some spiritual void, or diversion that just eventually fizzles out, but diversion in the full force of God’s wrath, his holy anger against sin being placed upon a substitute - a perfect lamb (Exodus 12). The overviews of the passages in ‘Pierced for our transgressions’ (Ex 12, Lev 16 and Isa 53) superbly present the case for God’s wrath being taken on the lamb (not hard as it’s a simple reading of the text) - Jesus our substitute.

And what about Hebrews 9, the text for this talk in question, what does this text have to say?

v.1-10 There’s a problem, despite all the ritual of the OT temple sacrifices, they “…were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper.” , these ceremonies were a picture, waiting for the “new order”, for Jesus and his cross.

v.11-28 The blood of the goats is a picture of the blood of Christ, but Christ achieved far more than animal sacrifices ever could. He cleanses believers from sins and secures the eternal inheritance.

There are two key verse which help to answer our questions:

“In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Heb 9:22

“so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people..” Heb 9:28 - it is the sacrifice that takes away (forgives) sin

So what?

How can sinful people come into relationship with a holy God? - our sins need to be dealt with, by God

How are our sins dealt with? - at the cross

What happened at the cross? - Jesus, the Lamb, took up the sins of his people and bore the punishment for them, he was our sacrifice and our substitute

Why did it have to happen like this? - God’s holiness and justice demands that sin is punished, Jesus was fulfilling the OT law, God did it so it was the best way

What does this mean for me?

1. Sin is serious, it invokes a death sentence
2. God is big, sometimes we misunderstand him when we try to fit him into our mould of what and who we want him to be
3. Forgiving sin isn’t an easy thing, it required the blood of Christ - be overflowing with thankfulness to God for his gift of forgiveness and eternal life in Christ