Radical Reformission Conference

Over the last few days I downloaded the talks from the November 2004 Radical Reformission Conference, popped them on my mp3 player, and walked my way through five fascinating messages. John Piper, the key note speaker, delivered three sessions saturated with Christ-centered, God exalting, relevant, practical theology. I admit being already partial to Piper as a recent enthusiastic convert to Christian Hedonism, but I must say I don’t think I’ve ever heard Piper more radically poignant. He tackled current issues such as Greg Boyd’s Open Theology, N. T. Write’s New Perspective on Paul, popular misconceptions about Calvinism and Evangelism, communicating the truth of the gospel in a postmodern culture, and more. He titled his three messages, “The Whole Glory of God: Governing and Knowing All that Will Come to Pass,” “The Whole Glory of Christ: Imputation and Impartation of His Righteousness,” and “The Whole Glory of the Gospel of God: From Him, Through Him, and to Him.” Well worth the listen.

Chris Seay, author of “The Gospel According to Tony Soprano,” and pastor of Ecclesia in Houston spoke on “The Studious Saint.” Mark Driscoll hosted the event and traced eleven false gospels attempted by man as seen in the first book of the bible. He demonstrated that faulty hermeneutics, feminism, male chauvinism, family, community, government, self rule, spirituality, or even a virtuous dead guy can’t overcome the sin problem. Only Jesus Christ, sovereign of the universe, can crush the dragon’s de minion over our lives and bring us to worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.