Sola Scriptura Conference

By Ian Clary

This past weekend Vicky and I attended the annual Sola Scriptura Toronto conference. The speakers were Bruce Waltke, Derek Thomas and James White. The topic had to do with issues in hermeneutics. All in all, I thought it was a great conference. We both had a great time, although it was a lot of work for us. Myself, Vicky and students from TBS were volunteers and worked quite a bit, missing some parts of the lectures.

Highlights for me included both of Dr. Waltke's lectures (interpreting the Psalms and interpreting OT narrative). They were absolutely phenomenal, both in terms of content and delivery. Although he wasn't as dynamic as Dr. Thomas, who in my opinion is one of the best preachers around, Dr. Waltke went above and beyond my expectations.

Another highlight included the opportunity we volunteers had to have lunch with Derek Thomas and Bruce Waltke. What a delight to hear these men so used of God recollect stories of their teaching experiences. It was a treasure indeed.

Derek Thomas had accidentally left his lecture notes at home in Jackson, Miss., so he had to wing much of his lectures. Both were excellent, especially the last one on interpreting apocalyptic literature. In particular when he preached an overview of Revelation. I must admit that you could tell that he had to scrounge together his notes from memory in his first lecture on the Spirit and hermeneutics. But I didn't mind, it was still great.

I did feel, however, that Dr. White rambled quite a bit. Admittedly, I did miss much of his lectures due to work, but from what I gather, his lectures weren't quite relevant to his topic of postmodernism and hermeneutics. I've seen Dr. White speak before and have thought the same thing. He is an outstanding debater and a great radio commentator and author, but I haven't really enjoyed him as a lecturer. I do, however, thank God for him for the work he has done in the kingdom.