J.I. Packer – Technology, Reading, and Biblical Ignorance

I picked this up from a site called The Scholar’s Corner.  I italicized some of Mr. Packer’s comments below :

An Interview With J.I. Packer

Last November the executive officers of SC had the distinguished opportunity for a private interview with the well known lecturer and author, Dr. J.I. Packer. Rev Packer was born in Gloucestershire, England in 1926, educated at Oxford University (degrees in classics and theology; D.Phil. 1954) and ordained in the Church of England. He has held numerous teaching positions and has preached and lectured widely in Great Britain, America and Canada. He is well known by his writings, among which are: Knowing God, 1973; God’s Words, 1982; Hot Tub Religion, 1987; and Rediscovering Holiness, 1992. He is a Senior Editor and Visiting Scholar of Christianity Today and is currently working on a number of books.

SC: As you can see, Dr. Packer, we are concerned about the crisis of Biblical illiteracy in the Church and society today. How would you estimate, or evaluate this condition? Do you see a problem?

Packer: I certainly think there is a problem. In our churches there is little emphasis on the importance of getting to know your Bible. Whatever else people do in between church services, they don’t “soak” themselves in the Bible in order to get to know it well. I think it gets worse year by year; that is people are reading the Bible less and less as each year passes.

SC:. Where would you put the blame for this problem? Is it in the ministry, the seminaries, the congregation?

Packer: I hesitate to allocate the blame specifically on one group alone. But I would start by saying Christian parents simply haven’t stressed to their children the importance of the Bible being their favorite book. That’s where it starts.

Then, in the churches I’d blame pastors who are not stressing the fact that if you are to be a Christian, you should, as I like to say, have the Bible ‘running out of your ears’. Most people only read a certain number of verses for some devotional thoughts, not to know what the book is actually saying.

And then I’d blame modern culture which aggressively distracts the people from becoming really literate in anything, not just the Bible. It is partly due to modern life being filled with so many things, you know, but also the attitude that you can get by in this world with only a smattering of knowledge about anything. As Christians, we are to be different than the world around us. In particular, we are to attain a fuller knowledge of the Word of God, whereas the world around us hasn’t got a fuller knowledge of anything.

SC: It is not difficult for us to diagnose the real problem of Biblical illiteracy in our modern culture. Do you have any recommendations as prescriptions for a cure?

Packer: The idea of a fuller knowledge simply doesn’t register in the minds of a majority of believers. Comprehensive Bible study is difficult to start today. It draws a negative reaction. Yet, it is so very important that all of the books of Scripture, particularly all of the books of New Testament, are meant to be read as units.

The epistles of Paul, for instance, are actual letters written personally to fellow believers about genuine concerns of welfare and spiritual growth. Letters (consider your letters to your friends) are not written simply for someone to pick out single sentences. They are written to be read as units. So let’s see what it is like to read a New Testament letter as a unit.

While I was a student I heard it said that repeated reading of the same scripture is a wonderful way to grasp the real meaning of its content. So, one Sunday, I read Hebrews ten times. Well, Hebrews remains one of the richest books of Scripture to me. The insight that I caught of the sense of the whole truth of the glory of the priesthood of Christ became wonderfully vivid. That wasn’t simply the result of a discipline; that was the Holy Spirit blessing the Word.

Now if I was a pastor, perhaps I would offer my people an experiment. We would spend the first week with a covenant that we would, all of us, read the book ten times. Then come together and ask them to tell what the repeated reading has done for them. I believe a strong interest in all the scriptures would arise out of the impact of such a reading.

SC: We are working hard to present Biblical studies using the latest high-tech tools for Distance Learning. Do you consider the “Information Superhighway” a valuable method of increasing Biblical literacy?

Packer: Well it could be, if people are motivated to use it. The basic problem is motivating people that don’t read much to read more, and motivating people that don’t read at all to start reading. See, I’m a historical theologian. I know very well that in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries there were more people who wanted to learn to read than there were people to teach them. Neither do you have a problem with wanting to read in primitive tribal situations; they beg visiting moderns to teach them to read.

You have enormous problems nowadays with illiteracy in the modern world because so much is done for us by our technology. People find that life is easier, that they can get along without the “sweat” of reading, and so they choose instead to watch the television, read the cartoons. You don’t have to read, except to fill out a form.

The first thing you must do is convince people that it is a wonderful thing to read. Competing with the MTV generation is difficult, if not impossible. Somehow you must make people aware of the benefit of reading, the excitement of reading, the fun of reading — strike whatever note is going to motivate them. Start there.

Contentment – By the Performance of the Work of His Circumstances!

The Mystery of Contentment continues…

Burroughs burrows deep.  I have heard someone (I believe it was J.I. Packer actually) say that the Puritan writers often wrote in such a way as if they were turning a screw into the conscience.  He remarked that they seem repetitive at times, but they are not really repeating themselves; they are exhaustive in the manner in which they will present their arguments, but although it may seem a little repetitious, the careful reader will note that each argument is carefully angled.  And this is why he said to read them and to read them well would have an effect like someone turning a screw into the very conscience of the reader.  I know that reading Owen and Watson are like this.  And this analogy quickly sprang to mind today as I continued reading it Burrough’s Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.  Burroughs burrows deep indeed.

Today I read how contentment should be lived out practically by the believer, the one who trusts that the providence of His sovereign God carrying out His sovereign will is both just and merciful, wise and good to those He has called His own.  I realized how infantile and ignorant I am in much of this, and I know I’m not alone.  Today we will hear what Mr. Burroughs has to say about our attitudes in living wherever God has us.

A CHRISTIAN COMES TO THIS CONTENTMENT NOT BY MAKING UP THE WANTS OF HIS CIRCUMSTANCES, BUT BY THE PERFORMANCE OF THE WORK OF HIS CIRCUMSTANCES.

This is the way of contentment. There are these circumstances that I am in, with many wants: I want this and the other comfort-well, how shall I come to be satisfied and content? A carnal heart thinks, I must have my wants made up or else it is impossible that I should be content. But a gracious heart says, ‘What is the duty of the circumstances God has put me into? Indeed, my circumstances have changed, I was not long since in a prosperous state, but God has changed my circumstances. The Lord has called me no more Naomi, but Marah. Now what am I to do? What can I think now are those duties that God requires of me in the circumstances that he has now put me into? Let me exert my strength to perform the duties of my present circumstances. Others spend their thoughts on things that disturb and disquiet them, and so they grow more and more discontented.

Let me spend my thoughts in thinking what my duty is, ‘O’, says a man whose condition is changed and who has lost his wealth, ‘Had I but my wealth, as I had heretofore, how would I use it to his glory? God has made me see that I did not honor him with my possessions as I ought to have done. O if I had it again, I would do better than I did before.’ But this may be but a temptation. You should rather think, ‘What does God require of me in the circumstances I am now brought into?’ You should labor to bring your heart to quiet and contentment by setting your soul to work in the duties of your present condition. And the truth is, I know nothing more effective for quieting a Christian soul and getting contentment than this, setting your heart to work in the duties of the immediate circumstances that you are now in, and taking heed of your thoughts about other conditions as a mere temptation.

I cannot better compare the folly of those men and women who think they will get contentment by musing about other circumstances than to the way of children: perhaps they have climbed a hill and look a good way off and see another hill, and they think if they were on the top of that, they would be able to touch the clouds with their fingers; but when they are on the top of that hill, alas, they are as far from the clouds as they were before. So it is with many who think, If I were in such circumstances, then I should have contentment; and perhaps they get into circumstances, and they are as far from contentment as before. But then they think that if they were in other circumstances, they would be contented, but when they have got into those circumstances, they are still as far from contentment as before. No, no, let me consider what is the duty of my present circumstances, and content my heart with this, and say, ‘Well, though I am in a low position, yet I am serving the counsels of God in those circumstances where I am; it is the counsel of God that has brought me into these circumstances that I am in, and I desire to serve the counsel of God in these circumstances.

There is a remarkable Scripture concerning David, of whom it is said that he served his generation: ‘After David had served his generation according to the will of God, then he slept.’ It is a saying of Paul concerning him in Acts 13:36. In your Bibles it is, ‘After he had served his own generation according to the will of God’, but the word that is translated will, means the counsel of God, and so it may be translated as well, ‘That after David in his generation had served God’s counsel, then he fell asleep’. We ordinarily take the words thus, That David served his generation: that is, he did the work of his generation-that is to serve a man’s generation. But it is clearer if you read it thus, After David in his generation had served the counsel of God, then David fell asleep. O that should be the care of a Christian, to serve out God’s counsels. What is the counsel of God? The circumstances that I am in, God has put me into by his own counsel, the counsel of his own will. Now I must serve God’s counsel in my generation; whatever is the counsel of God in my circumstances, I must be careful to serve that. So I shall have my heart quieted for the present, and shall live and die peaceably and comfortably, if I am careful to serve God’s counsel.

A GRACIOUS HEART IS CONTENTED BY THE MELTING OF HIS WILL AND DESIRES INTO GOD’S WILL AND DESIRES; BY THIS MEANS HE GETS CONTENTMENT.

This too is a mystery to a carnal heart. It is not by having his own desires satisfied, but by melting his will and desires into God’s will. So that, in one sense, he comes to have his desires satisfied though he does not obtain the thing that he desired before; still he comes to be satisfied with this, because he makes his will to be at one with God’s will. This is a small degree higher than submitting to the will of God. You all say that you should submit to God’s will; a Christian has got beyond this. He can make God’s will and his own the same. It is said of believers that they are joined to the Lord, and are one spirit; that means, that whatever God’s will is, I do not only see good reason to submit to it, but God’s will is my will. When the soul can make over, as it were, its will to God, it must needs be contented. Others would fain get the thing they desire, but a gracious heart will say, ‘O what God would have, I would have too; I will not only yield to it, but I would have it too.’ A gracious heart has learned this art, not only to make the commanding will of God to be its own will-that is, what God commands me to do, I will do it-but to make the providential will of God and the operative will of God to be his will too. God commands this thing, which perhaps you who are Christians may have some skill in, but whatever God works you must will, as well as what God commands.

You must make God’s providential will and his operative will, your will as well as God’s will, and in this way you must come to contentment. A Christian makes over his will to God, and in making over his will to God, he has no other will but God’s. Suppose a man were to make over his debt to another man. If the man to whom I owe the debt be satisfied and contented, I am satisfied because I have made it over to him, and I need not be discontented and say, ‘My debt is not paid and I am not satisfied’. Yes, you are satisfied, for he to whom you made over your debt is satisfied. It is just the same, for all the world, between God and a Christian: a Christian heart makes over his will to God: now then if God’s will is satisfied, then I am satisfied, for I have no will of my own, it is melted into the will of God. This is the excellence of grace: grace does not only subject the will to God, but it melts the will into God’s will, so that they are now but one will. What a sweet satisfaction the soul must have in this condition, when all is made over to God. You will say, This is hard! I will express it a little more: A gracious heart must needs have satisfaction in this way, because godliness teaches him this, to see that his good is more in God than in himself. The good of my life and comforts and my happiness and my glory and my riches are more in God than in myself. We may perhaps speak more of that, when we come to the lessons that are to be learned. It is by this that a gracious heart gets contentment; he melts his will into God’s, for he says, ‘If God has glory, I have glory; God’s glory is my glory, and therefore God’s will is mine; if God has riches, then I have riches; if God is magnified, then I am magnified; if God is satisfied, then I am satisfied; God’s wisdom and holiness is mine, and therefore his will must needs be mine, and my will must needs be his.’ This is the art of a Christian’s contentment: he melts his will into the will of God, and makes over his will to God: ‘Oh Lord, thou shalt choose our inheritance for us’ (Psalm 47:4).

Book Review – Evangelism & The Sovereignty of God

I recently determined to read some books on evangelism because it is both an area of conviction and personal weakness for me. I am ashamed to admit that most of my evangelism to date has been done electronically on my blog site or in the comments section of other people’s blogs or discussions. But there is a growing burden on me to share the gospel with the people God has placed in my life, and it is a burden I am praying God increases until there is no escaping it within my conscience.

“Evangelism & The Sovereignty of God” is the first of a handful books I have purposed to read to strengthen my resolve. I liked this little book by J.I. Packer. It was not overly long or verbose, about 125 pages in length. It is broken up into four chapters:

1) Divine Sovereignty

2) Divine Sovereignty & Human Responsibility

3) Evangelism

4) Divine Sovereignty & Evangelism

Packer begins with the premise and presupposition that God is sovereign, which may or may not be a point of contention for some. I liked the way he dismantled any argument against God’s sovereignty in the first few pages of the book, and I appreciated the little story about Charles Simeon’s account with a conversation he had with John Wesley in December of 1784. I won’t take the time to reprint it here. I enjoyed it all the more because I picked this book up and started reading it just a few days after a friend of mine from church related the story to me; I believe he had heard it on the Way of the Master radio program.

Packer focuses on the Apostle Paul and what we can learn from him concerning evangelism. Chapter 3 points out some of the different ways that Paul referred to his role of an evangelist: steward, herald, ambassador, preacher, and teacher. Packer gave some insight into the Greek words and meanings inferred, which I found pretty interesting.

The last chapter really made the book, though. He gave several scripture references along with his explanation of man’s sinful and spiritually dead state, and drove home the point that even if we are saved and sharing the gospel like we have been commissioned, we are still incapable of producing results by our own efforts. That does not mean that we should not make an effort, but it underscores both the underlying and overriding need for God to perform the work of bringing the dead to life. He does a good job of demonstrating both our responsibility and God’s sovereignty in the work of evangelism, and he also makes an excellent point that our evangelistic efforts need to be sustained and steeped in prayer. He writes:

“For about a century now, it has been characteristic of evangelical Christians (rightly or wrongly—we need not discuss that here) to think of evangelism as a specialized activity, best done in short sharp bursts (‘missions’ or ‘campaigns’), and needing for its successful practice a distinctive technique, both for preaching and for individual dealing. At an early stage in this period, Evangelicals fell into the way of assuming that evangelism was sure to succeed if it was regularly prayed for and correctly run.”

He adds a bit later on how we should be empowered by a proper understanding of God’s sovereignty, and that it should result in our being more bold, patient, and prayerful. He speaks to each one of those briefly but powerfully. In speaking of patience, I think he touched on something that is perhaps the most challenging work of true evangelism in our society today. Packer writes:

“We need to remember that we are all children of our age, and the spirit of our age is a spirit of tearing hurry. And it is a pragmatic spirit; it is a spirit that demands quick results. The modern ideal is to achieve more and more by doing less and less. This is the age of the labour-saving device, the efficiency chart, and automation. The attitude which all this breeds is one of impatience towards everything that takes time and demands sustained effort. Ours tends to be a slapdash age; we resent spending time doing things thoroughly. This spirit tends to infect our evangelism (not to speak to other departments of our Christianity), and with disastrous results. We are tempted to be in a hurry with those whom we would win to Christ, and then, when we see no immediate response in them, to become impatient and downcast, and then to lose interest in them, and feel that it is useless to spend more time on them; and so we abandon our efforts forthwith, and let them drop out of our ken. But this is utterly wrong. It is a failure both of love for man and of faith in God.”

He goes on to say, “The idea that a single evangelistic sermon, or a single serious conversation ought to suffice for the conversion of anyone who is ever going to be converted is really silly.” He discusses the need for persistence and patience with those whom you are evangelizing. But persistence and patience by themselves are still not sufficient; there must be prayer. As the last chapter draws to a close, Packer writes:

“We said earlier in this chapter that this doctrine does not in any way reduce or narrow the terms of our evangelistic commission. Now we see that, so far from contracting them, it actually expands them. For it faces us with the fact that there are two sides to the evangelistic commission. It is a commission, not only to preach, but also to pray; not only to talk to men about God, but also to talk to God about men. Preaching and prayer must go together; our evangelism will not be according to knowledge, nor will it be blessed, unless they do.”

Good book. I have a few others in the same vein to read, but I will most likely come back to this and read it again because I’m sure I will benefit from a second time around.

Peace & Blessings,

Simple Mann