Successful 2018 Answers for Pastors Conference

Dr. MacArthur spoke twice for the conference. On Tuesday, he spoke about the Clarity of Scripture, reminding us that God’s Word means what it says. “It’s not what you think it means, it means what God meant it to say!” He exhorted his listeners to interpret Scripture within the context. “Faithful interpretation of Scripture demands that you create the context. That’s why we talk about a contextual, literal, historical-grammatical interpretation.” This is the message we preach about the first 11 chapters of Genesis.

On Wednesday, Dr. MacArthur spoke again on the Sufficiency of Scripture. He reminded us that the Scripture is our guide to interpreting the world around us. “In contrast to the muddied thinking of the world . . . as Christians we look at the world; we see the reality. Everyone is trying to figure out what is wrong with the world. We know exactly what’s wrong . . . We know about the comfort of Scripture, don’t we? We look at the world and we see clearly because we see it through Scripture.” This acceptance of the Scripture is foundational to the Christian faith.

I spoke multiple times throughout the conference as well on the importance of the Bible as our foundation. I’ve often found that in Christianity we’re trying to do things backwards. As I said in my talk on Tuesday, “We’re trying to build the roof and the walls of Christian doctrine, but the foundation is not there for it . . . which is why eventually the roof and the walls collapse.” At Answers in Genesis, we are emphatic about the authority of the Word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ, because once you abandon the basis for absolute authority, anything goes. We teach that the Bible is foundational to Christianity, to basic morality—to our Christian worldview. Remove the Bible and you remove the foundation.

The conference has received rave reviews, with many pastors giving us great feedback on how encouraging the conference was. Here are some of their comments:

• I thank you so much for all the preparation, the people, the praise & the preaching—it ministered to my heart and brought a new focus to my mission
• The progressive dinner was a great experience. Food was out of this world, I tried things I normally wouldn’t.
• The knowledge presented was priceless.
• The staff are amazing, and the resources invaluable.

Answers for Pastors 2019: One Race, One Blood

We are thankful for the opportunity granted us to equip pastors to boldly stand for the faith. If you weren’t able to attend this year’s conference, or if you came this year and enjoyed it, you should consider attending next year’s conference. The topic will be One Race, One Blood. Many of the attendees at this year’s conference signed up in advance for the conference next year.

Learn more and register on the events page of our website.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.