kellso.com

Yesterday I drove up to L.A. with several men from our church to attend John MacArthur’s Shepherd’s Conference. I hope to blog a few times while I’m here to update on what I’m learning.

The blogs will not include an outline of the lesson or even a summary of the main points. It will include the lines / statements that impacted me and key impact notes I know I want to remember.

Let’s start with the first sermon that we heard. John MacArthur gave a sermon titled, “Why Any Self-Respecting Calvinist believes in a 6 day Creation”

He summarized this lesson around 3 points.

1. Fidelity of the passage:
   I love this quote,
   

   Ask any Christian what they believe about Genesis 1, if they don’t believe in a literal interpretation of that, then ask them at what point do they start believing the Bible

2. Simplicity:
   By taking another stance on this passage, you’re complicating something that isn’t complicated. The Bible says a 6 day creation. Other parts of the Bible talk to the creation poetically and this passage doesn’t follow any Hebrew poetic structure. There is no Biblical reason to believe anything else, so trying to fit science to Scripture isn’t how we do it. Sola Scriptura!
   

   If you deny this account, you diminish praise to God

3. Priority:
   Macarthur looked at 2 Cor 4:6. He showed us that Gen 1 is analogized to salvation. Salvation / Justification is not a process that happens over time. Why should creation be?

He then went on one of the best descriptions and lessons on what we as Christians should be doing to the Earth and with the Earth as God who created it, cursed it and commanded us to tame it. This section will be blogged about in more detail later. It was the highlight of the day to me.