SOME 200 pastors, elders and Bible students gathered at Willingdon Church in Burnaby April 14 – 16 for the second annual ‘reFocus’ Preaching & Theology Conference.

It presented a distinct ‘stream’ of evangelical thought, as exemplified by the stated goal: “to unite pastors around a resurgent historical evangelicalism,  and equip them to preach the full counsel of God in an age of relativism.”

This year’s speakers included noted academic and author D.A. Carson, whose topic was ‘Biblical Authority.’

Carson said:“One of the challenges we face today is the redefinition of tolerance and intolerance. Over the last 200 years or so, but up until about 25 years ago, we were shaped by a principle attributed to Voltaire: that though he may detest what someone said, he would defend to the death his right to say it.

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“But today, increasingly, tolerance is being described as the refusal to say that anyone is wrong.”

David Short, rector of St. John’s Shaughnessy Church, spoke on ‘Christ’s Authority,’ stating: “The resurrection is not just an event in history, but the decisive event in the history of the cosmos, and a decisive stage in salvation history. It is Jesus Christ’s enthronement . . . What God is doing in history – what he is doing in the world today – is placing all things at the feet of Jesus Christ.”

 Complete presentations are available: refocusblog.com.

– David F. Dawes

May 2008