Last week, for the thirteenth consecutive year, I journeyed down to Orlando, Florida, in order to attend the national conference held annually by Ligonier Ministries. Although I had known some of Dr. R. C. Sproul's writings it was not until I was invited by my pastor to join a group of men on a "road trip" in the spring of 1997 to attend this conference. That year the topic happened to be on essential truths of the Christian faith. I was hooked. The content and conduct of the conference was like raw meat to a starving tiger. By the grace and provision of God I have managed to make it back every year since. Two years ago I took the step of becoming a regular supporter of the ministry. As a consequence I now get invited to participate in events held in advance of the actual conference schedule. This year Ligonier held a dinner offsite on Wednesday evening in order to introduce ministry partners to the organization's new capital campaign. Dr. Sproul also give a short message rather than conduct a Q&A session as he usually does for these events. The following are the notes I took while listening to him speak.
His text was Hosea 4:1-6 and his theme was that "the people lack knowledge." Hosea here records a call to a solemn assembly: "Hear the word of the LORD, you children of Israel." This summons was for the purpose of delivering God's indictment against the nation. The Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land. The word translated "charge" can also be read as "controversy," as it is in the KJV. God has a controversy with Israel. God is angry; there is a conflict here. So what's the big deal? There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. How can this be said? Recall Romans 2, where Paul insists on the advantages Israel had because she possessed the oracles of God. Here in Hosea the nation seems to have lost all this.
Dr. Sproul applies this indictment to our contemporary situation. There is a famine for hearing the word of the Lord in the land. We often shy away from controversy and conflict. Truth divides, is the complaint. It also unites like-minded believers. He quoted Francis Schaeffer, who thought that the church had lost all sense of antithesis in his day (and that was around thirty years ago--we certainly haven't regained lost ground since then) and had retreated from naming falsehood and opposing it.
What are the consequences of vacating the knowledge of God? In this passage, Hosea says the restraints are gone and there is unbridled wickedness. The land will mourn. God judges in kind. He blessed America with remarkable prosperity but now he may be removing that blessing. It is always perilous to apply prophetic warnings originally given to national Israel to other nations at other times but God's unchanging character suggests that we as a nation not in possession of a specific covenant with him have no reason to expect exemption from judgment.
"I will destroy your mother." In context, that meant Israel. A fearsome thing. The people perish for lack of knowledge.
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4 comments:
Okay, now we have a problem. I know you're lying because I was at that conference and I never saw you once.
Just kidding, of course. I wouldn't have known you had I seen you. But I do wish I had had the opportunity to meet you and shake your hand and thank you for the blessing you've been to me in your blogging. And ... just to say "Hi" and put a face to the words.
Yeah, this conference tends to attract a crowd. Always amazes me just what 4000+ people look like.
I, too, wish we'd had the opportunity to meet. Perhaps next year? Orlando in June is not fun (the 2000 conference was held in June at the Convention Center and the memories linger on from that one...) but I've seen next year's conference site in person and it is a Very Nice Place Indeed.
I've already decided to skip next year's conference. 1) Orlando in June. 2) Last year's West Coast conference (down the street from me) was the exact same topic. 3) Staying at a nice conference venue is nice, sure, but far more expensive than what I have been doing. (My parents have been driving their motorhome to the site where we can stay, sleep, and eat much more economically.)
Another time, perhaps.
Ah, well. All good reasons. For my part, I didn't have the opportunity to attend the 2008 west coast conference (in fact, I haven't been to any non-national event for Ligonier in a few years, since the "east" coast conferences haven't been anywhere close to me). I did notice in the bookstore the design for next year's event is exactly the same as that for the event you mentioned. Maybe the graphics design budget has been cut or something...
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