Our guest overseas speaker was Dr David Beale, for 35 years Professor of Historical Theology at Bob Jones University, USA, whose principal subject was ‘From Keach to Carey’, the golden period of Baptist church expansion that saw the fall of hypercalvinism and the shaping and championing of the universal tender of salvation through Fuller, Sutcliff, Carey and others. Among reformed Baptists today more of their clarity and blessedness needs to be recovered.
The School of Theology of the Tabernacle has been held annually since 1976, with large numbers of pastors, Christian workers and church officers attending, together with many younger people seeking a more biblical and committed style of Christian life and service. In some years Days of Special Study on particular topics are held in place of the School.
Over the years both the School of Theology and Days of Special Study – in contrast to many other Reformed conferences – have focussed on topics of great relevance and concern to the contemporary church. These include the necessity of Gospel persuasion and regular evangelism, the importance of traditional biblical worship, the principle of the ‘working’ church, principal arguments in favour of Creation, the error of New Calvinism, the Baptist doctrine of the covenants, and the traditional system of Bible interpretation.
In addition to Dr Peter Masters, the Pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, we have been pleased to welcome many international speakers over the years, including Dr Jeff Riddle, Dr Kurt Wise, Dr Vishal Mangalwadi and Dr Scott Aniol.
Recordings from recent Schools and Days of Special Study may be found via the link below, together with some rare lectures by the highly-regarded Bible commentator Dr William Hendriksen from 1979. [Please note that there was no School in 2020 owing to the coronavirus pandemic.]