Jerry Vines Ministries is hosting a “John 3:16 Conference” at First Baptist Church, Woodstock on November 6-7, 2008. While the final schedule of the meetings will be posted later, according to the website, the following lineup is listed.
- John 3:16 – Dr. Jerry Vines
- John 3:16 to the entire world – Dr. Charles Stanley
- Total Depravity – Dr. Paige Patterson
- Unconditional Election – Dr. Richard Land
- Limited Atonement – Dr. David Allen
- Irresistible Grace – Dr. Steve Lemke
- Perseverance of the Saints – Dr. Ken Keathley
No explanation or elaboration is given about the rationale for the conference. All of the speakers are gifted, competent ministers. Hopefully the messages will be made available online. This has the potential to be one of the best contemporary engagements of the so-called five points of Calvinism by those who, generally, disagree with them (or at least most of them).
While, given what I know about the preachers, I do not expect to agree with many of their conclusions, I welcome this kind of theological dialogue. Isn’t it great that Southern Baptists are talking about important matters of biblical theology rather than whether or not to ordain homosexual men to the gospel ministry?