Calvary Reformed Presbyterian Church in Hampton, Virginia

� A week of fun and thought �provoking speakers.� -- Illinois

�It was a remarkable experience because the level of maturity of these young people, coming from a background of being trained like this was startling. I came to realize that we are going to have a very superior population in another generation with these young people taking over the leadership.� -- R. J. Rushdoony, Chalcedon Foundation (past CWSC instructor)

�Engaging, exciting and well worth the trip!� -- Tennessee

�A thoughtful and stretching agenda, with as bright and responsive a group of students as I have encountered in several years!� -- Joel Belz, World Magazine (past CWSC instructor)

�Enlightening, inspiring, wonderful fellowship and totally awesome.� -- Florida

�This conference stands alone in its self-conscious effort to build up covenant youth in a comprehensive Biblical worldview. It�s the best thing going for Christian young people today.� -- Steve Wilkins, Pastor & Historian (past CWSC instructor)

�I came to last year�s conference and I loved it. The speakers were insightful and the topics were interesting. I expected this year to be more of the same. I was wrong. It was even better.� -- West Virginia

� A wonderful opportunity to shape your worldview.� -- North Carolina

�A blast of learning, fellowship and fun!� -- New Hampshire

�This conference is not for wimps; it is a heavy dose of teaching that will help you form your worldview. -- Minnesota

�CWSC is a wonderful place to grow spiritually, meet fellow believers and have a great time.� -- West Virginia

�An intense time of deep theological study and warm Christian fellowship.� -- Richard Ganz, Author of Psychobabble (past CWSC instructor)

Comments from Ben House -- Pastor, Teacher, Author

This conference is sponsored by Calvary Reformed Presbyterian Church and is directed by Associate Pastor Byron Snapp. This year will mark the 13th occasion for this conference.

"One of the most uplifting events in my life occurred last summer when I attended the Christian Worldview Student Conference in Newport News, Virginia. The speakers and the fellowship were tremendous. My mind was overwhelmed and my heart was greatly encouraged."

Why is this event so important? First of all, it is directed toward Christian students. While there are plenty of reasons to be fearful for young people today--temptations, cultural dangers, the future itself -- I find myself envying young people. Last summer I witnessed young people hearing lectures and learning things that surpassed much of what I received in college. God has been doing great works of reformation in our society for some decades now. Christian thinkers are expanding into such areas as movies, music, art, literature, government, history, and other cultural topics with amazing success and insights. The cultural stranglehold on Christian thought has been broken. We have a wealth of books and scholars and teachers and schools that are educating a whole new generation of thinking Christians. And the movement is increasingly catholic (little c), so Christian students are not simply being primed in their own doctrinal traditions, but are gleaning from all across the Christian spectrum. We can set Dostoevsky on the shelf next to Calvin, Flannery O'Connor alongside Rushdoony, Gordon Clark and Cornelius Van Til juxtaposed with Dante. All of those groupings may not be faithful to the Dewey Decimal System, but it indicates the rich intellectual, artistic, and cultural heritage we have as Christians. And the Christian youth are being taught these things.

Last year I took three young men with me to the conference. They had all been students of mine at Veritas Academy. Names: Ryan Brown, Eli Ramsey, and Graham Alexander. They especially noted a great benefit at such conferences: Not only were there Reformed speakers and Calvinistic books, there were also lots of Calvinessas or Reformettes. Our young people need the opportunity to meet other Christian young people. I would like for my own children to develop a network of Reformed Christian friends from all over the country. I am not opposed to the idea that someday one of my sons marry some pretty young Calvinessa or that my daughters marry a handsome Reformed fellow that they first met at a Christian conference.

The other great feature about this conference is that it focuses upon a Christian Worldview. There are quite a few conferences these days that are emphasizing the Worldview aspect of Christianity. I rejoice at seeing so many such conferences, with emphases on Christian thinking, apologetics, cultural dominion, and the like. Loving God with our minds is an incredible blessing. Of course, much of Christian worldview thinking traces back to Abraham Kuyper's 1898 visit to Princeton University where he delivered the Stone Lectures. These lectures are still around under the title Lectures on Calvinism. These lectures form the basis for a broad Christian application of the Sovereignty of God to all areas of life.

Cornelius Van Til wrote, "The Bible is thought of as authoritative on everything of which it speaks. Moreover, it speaks of everything. We do not mean that it speaks of football games, of atoms, etc., directly, but we do mean that it speaks of everything either directly or by implication. It tells us not only of the Christ and his work, but it also tells us who God is and where the universe about us has come from. It tells us about theism as well as about Christianity. It gives us a philosophy of history as well as history. Moreover, the information on these subjects is woven into an inextricable whole. It is only if you reject the Bible as the word of God that you can separate the so-called religious and moral instruction of the Bible from what it says, e.g., about the physical universe. "

Working out those direct and indirect principles is a life-time dominion task. At points, it is the primary task of the Christian family. At other points, the purpose of Christian education. It must be Trinitarian (See Ralph Smith's Trinity and Reality and comprehensive. It is certainly reinforced and developed at conferences like this one.

So, I look forward to the blessings that many people will receive from the Christian Worldview Student Conference.