Doctrine Under Great Duress in Postmodern Era

By Lillian Kwon Christian Post Reporter

Friends, fans and bearers of doctrine and theology got together this past week to confront the many skewed representations of the Gospel they've seen even among evangelicals and to reaffirm the centrality of doctrine in a postmodern era.

"We live and minister in an anti-doctrinal age or at least an age that thinks that it's anti-doctrinal. We live and minister in an age which is anti-theological or at least it claims it's anti-theological," said Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III, senior minister of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Miss., during the T4G (Together for the Gospel) conference, which concluded Thursday.

"And so we need to look to the Scriptures to learn how doctrine ... is essential for faithful pastoral ministry if we are going to effectively respond to the anti-doctrinal, anti-theological spirit of the age," he added.

The April 15-17 conference in Louisville, Ky., was the second time well-known and respected theologians came together to encourage thousands of other pastors to stand for the Gospel of Jesus Christ at a time when more people are rejecting absolute truth...

...T4G began with Dever, Duncan, C. J. Mahaney, who leads Sovereign Grace Ministries, and Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. They hold a conference every two years to encourage pastors to "stand together for the Gospel." MacArthur and John Piper, senior pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minn., are among other friends who were invited to speak at this year's event.

Editor's note: Visit the Together For The Gospel website for audio messages from this year's conference. See Challies.com for additional audio / video and read the daily summaries of the conference there as well.