J. I. Packer

J. I. Packer
JamesInnell Packeris a British-born Canadian Christian theologian in the low church Anglican and Reformed traditions. He currently serves as the Board of Governors' Professor of Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is considered one of the most influential evangelicals in North America. He has been the theologian emeritus of the Anglican Church in North America, since its inception in 2009...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionClergyman
Date of Birth22 July 1926
god character men
Nothing can alter the character of God. In the course of a human life, tastes and outlook and temper may change radically: a kind, equable man may turn bitter and crotchety: a man of good-will may grow cynical and callous. But nothing of this sort happens to the Creator. He never becomes less truthful, or merciful, or just, or good, than He used to be.
book character needs
God's Word is not presented in Scripture in the form of a theological system, but it admits of being stated in that form, and, indeed, requires to be so stated before we can properly grasp it - grasp it, that is, as a whole. Every text has its immediate context in the passage from which it comes, its broader context in the book to which it belongs, and its ultimate context in the Bible as a whole; and it needs to be rightly related to each of these contexts if its character, scope and significance is to be adequately understood.
character giving ministry
The Holy Spirit's main ministry is not to give thrills but to create in us Christlike character.
character heart reality
The point here is not just that an image represents God as having body and parts, whereas in reality he has neither. But the point really goes much deeper. The heart of the objection to pictures and images is that they inevitably conceal most, if not all, of the truth about the personal nature and character of the divine Being whom they represent.
character today character-of-god
The character of God is today, and always will be, exactly what it was in Bible times.
weaker
Evangelical churches are weaker than we realize because we don't teach the confessions and doctrine.
indirect lewis
The books of C.S. Lewis had a very profound, indirect effect on me.
appears change doctrines god means reality stayed understanding walk worship
Christianity has stayed stable, as it must do. The doctrines don't change. The understanding of what it means to walk with God doesn't change. The reality of worship doesn't change, not at heart, anyway. So Christianity appears to be stuck.
counts editorial gave god inspiring material preparing
I'm saying that an editorial process that is preparing the material for publication counts as part of the inspiring process whereby God, in his sovereignty, gave every word.
editor evident quite testament work
In some Old Testament books, it's very evident that an editor has been at work. That's quite all right. It's part of the process.
prayer spirit sin
I must ask the Lord to direct the Holy Spirit within me to drain the life out of sin and in prayer.
taught endeavor response
Evangelizing includes the endeavor to elicit a response to the truth taught.
christian life-changing ignorance
Optimism is a wish without warrant; Christian hope is a certainty, guaranteed by God himself. Optimism reflects ignorance as to whether good things will ever actually come. Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of his life, and every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth, on the basis of God's own commitment, that the best is yet to come.
christian greatness church
The Christian's instincts of trust and worship are stimulated very powerfully by knowledge of the greatness of God. But this is knowledge which Christians today largely lack: and that is one reason why our faith is so feeble and our worship so flabby... When a person in the church, let alone the person in the street, uses the word God, the thought is rarely of divine majesty.