DR. JAMES I. PACKERRediscovering HolinessMiles J. Stanford Have you ever wondered why (I know you have) most Doctors of Theology, both Covenant and Dispensational, are seemingly blind to the growth truths that are so plain to you? And why is it that they talk grace, while teaching law? The intent of this Polemic Paper is to supply the doctrinal explanation and answer to this deadly anomaly. DR. JAMES 1. PACKER is probably the best known and most popular Covenant theologian of the day. He is professor at Regent College, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Regent was originally founded by the Plymouth Brethren--today it is a Neo-Evangelical/Covenant stronghold. Dr. Packer is also a senior editor, Visiting Scholar, and Institute Fellow for the Neo-Evangelical Christianity Today. His associations and preferences go even further astray. He is one of the signers of the disastrous document titled "Evangelicals & Catholics Together." He is a member of the Steering Committee of COR ("Coalition on Revival") , a Reconstruction-Dominion-Theonomy organization. All of this makes it only natural for him to be a member of the Board of Reference of Richard J. Foster's Renovaré [to make new, spiritually] movement. This is a Quaker-spawned organization promoting such drastic techniques as guided imagery, visualization, astral projection, Zen meditation, and Jungian psychology. Our primary concern here is to look into Dr. Packer's book titled Rediscovering Holiness (Servant Books, Ann Arbor, 1992, 276 pages). Like all Covenant theologians, being Puritan--and law-oriented, the author is a facile writer of error, especially in the realm of the Christian life. In this book he cites several contemporary authors who also center upon his basic theme, law-based discipline:
Dr. Foster is presently a faculty member of the charismatic Azuza Bible College. The Navigators have sponsored him several times for family conferences, held at Glen Eyrie. His drastic and dangerous teachings are critiqued in our Polemic Paper titled Navigators Sans Compass.
Dr. Whitney's book is published by NavPress, and is totally Covenant law teaching. The Foreword was written by none other than Dr. J.I. Packer, in which he wrote:
Dr. Whitney, being Covenant, does not understand that the Lord Jesus lived His life--and lives that life in the Christian--by the nature of His being, not the "workout" of regulatory discipline and habits.
Dr. Packer, in his book under review here, mentions another writer of discipline:
Then he moves on to yet another disciplinarian:
Dr. Willard is a Southern Baptist minister, and professor and past director of the School of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. He writes:
Dr. Packer recommends a fourth example of discipline, in a book by the present pastor of my first church home (1941-1945)--College Church, in Wheaton:
There will be further comment on Dr. Hughes' writing, below. The Covenant theologian fails to realize that the Christian life is lived by the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus--the life of Christ. Hence Dr. Packer seeks to regulate and discipline the Christian life by the law as his "rule of life"--with the Spirit's help. The Spirit of Christ will neither "help" nor "enable" one to keep the law unto which he has died (Gal. 2:19). He allows the believer to be put under, or put himself under the law in order to subsequently bring him down to the "Oh, wretched man" condition, so that he may turn from his law-effort and say, "I thank God through Jesus Christ" (Rom. 7:24,25). His ministry to the believer is to give him "the things of Christ," not the law. Now to see what Dr. Packer really means by Rediscovering Holiness. We shall see that the author thoroughly "out-laws" the above-mentioned disciplinarians:
THE ANSWER -- Israel's law was abrogated at Calvary. It will be reinaugurated as the law of the theocratic millennial Kingdom. To enter into a relationship with the law during this age of grace--the dispensation of the Church--results in spiritual blindness of the mind:
Take up the things of Israel, and that is what you get. Taking the law into the life of the Christian causes spiritual blindness in two primary areas--that of Grace, and that of the Law itself. Law is applied to Grace, and Grace is applied to Law--thereby obliterating both:
(1) First, the law-blindness concerning grace. The legalist, especially the Covenantist, makes a great show of grace for justification. But by that he does not mean pure grace--grace alone. His law-blindness causes him to be in terror of pure grace--actually having a hatred of it. To him, sheer grace is antinomianism (lawlessness), and "easy-believism." His Lordship Salvation adds "dos" and "conditions" to justification--hence it is no more of grace. But the Word of Truth simply says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31). As for sanctification of the believer in his life and walk, the law-blinded place him under the unauthorized law as a "rule of life," adding grace via the Spirit's "help" for them to keep the law--for which He never helps, and they never accomplish. Thus grace is no more grace. To watch their Romans Seven struggles and battles, and listen to their moans and groans, it is quite evident that they are receiving no "help" from that Quarter! The glorified Lord Jesus Christ's message to His Bride via Paul, whether for justification or sanctification, is all of grace, pure and simple:
The Spirit of Christ does not minister the law to a member of the heavenly Body of Christ, nor does He help him keep it:
It is not a matter of "imitating," or "conforming," or "being like," etc., but rather a restful dependence upon the Spirit of Christ for the liberty of spiritual growth, both as to the negative, and the positive:
(2) Second, the law also blinds the law-oriented Christian concerning itself. He does not realize that the law ministers Calvary death:
The law-bound believer is blinded to the fact that the penalty of the broken law has been fulfilled and satisfied by its condemnation of him to the death of the Cross, thereby freeing him for the liberty of grace. Rather, he seeks to use the law as a regulator and developer of his Christian life. Moreover, the law binds him to the earth, blinding him to his position in heaven. He is therefore mainly limited to the Jewish realm of the OT, the Synoptics, and the earthly Kingdom to come. He adulterates grace by adultery with the law--the struggles of the law deprive him of the restful reckoning of grace. Not blinding, but blinded brilliance describes the abilities of most Christian leaders today--all the way from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia to Dallas Theological Seminary and beyond. From in between (Illinois) we take Dr. R. Kent Hughes as an example: Longtime senior pastor of prestigious College Church (across the street from Wheaton College campus), Dr. Hughes earned his M.Div. at Talbot Theological Seminary, his D.Min. at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and his D.D. at Biola University. Over and above a number of books, he has written nine volumes in the Preaching the Word commentary series--all based upon Covenant theology. It is noteworthy to note how these Covenantists make their legality become "legal." In his Discipline of a Godly Man, Dr. Hughes writes:
Motivational manipulation. Whether doing it for self, or for God, it is still law--and neither pleases the Father of the Bride! One of Dr. Hughes' books is titled Disciplines of Grace (Crossway Books, 1993, 214 pages). Written for the believer, it actually consists of a chapter for each of the Ten Commandments--each a "Discipline of Grace." On page 22 he states:
Our critique of this book is the Polemic Paper titled Pauline Grace Versus Covenant Law (Jan. '94), and consists of an Open Letter to Dr. Hughes--to which he did not respond. Back now to Dr. Packer, the law-leader of them all, and his book Rediscovering Holiness, where he erroneously speaks, among other things, of adoption:
The law-blinded are so enamored of the legal that they would fain choose it every time over pure grace. "Oh, how love I Thy law! It is my meditation all the day" is one of their most quoted texts (Ps. 119:97). They tend to enter into a love relationship with the law to the point of an illegal, legal marriage. A positionally established, Christ-centered believer knows that he was born into the family of God, recreated in Christ Jesus in an eternal union of life and nature--His life and nature. "Christ, who is our life" (Col. 3:4). He is a living member of Christ's Bride-to-be, and although he loves God's "holy, and just, and good" law, he, having died to it, cannot enter into any type of relationship with it. When the believer experiences his full redemption, including his redeemed and glorious body at the Rapture, he will realize his full legal standing as an adult son before the Father. But he always has been a Blood-bought, life-related child of God since the moment he was re-created in Christ Jesus, by grace alone.
Adoption into a family is "a legal action by which one takes into his own family a child not his own, and usually of no kin to him, with the purpose of treating him as, and giving him all the privileges of, his own son." A far, far cry from being born into a family! One-Naturism --The erroneous teaching that the believer possesses but one nature has its source in Covenant theology, hence it would naturally be the teaching of Dr. Packer:
Dr. Packer's conception of the scriptural two natures is unreal and bewildering in its own right. Not realizing that death amounts to separation, not annihilation, one-naturists consider the old crucified nature to have been eradicated, now extinct. Hence they look for change in their remaining nature:
Typically, the author describes the activity of what is actually the indwelling old Adamic life and nature, as behavior patterns learned in pre-conversion days. Habits -- Unaware of the exchanged life, the life of Christ within, which functions by its essence, according to its nature, Dr. Packer and associates seek to develop new good habits in order to overcome the old bad habits:
Think of the spiritual blindness and ignorance, to consider the fruit of the Spirit of Christ to consist of habits! Not to mention the sad humanistic behaviorism of trying to produce character by developing habits!
Killing Sin! -- Those who are blind to the finished work of the Cross upon which to reckon, find that their only recourse is to try to do away with sin in hand-to-hand battle and struggle:
You will probably never encounter a more pathetic paragraph concerning the Christian and sin, than the above. Dr. Packer would pray that the Holy Spirit may impart strength to him for "negating," "wishing dead," and "laboring to thwart," sin. Repentance --And it doesn't get any better. Blindness never does. Instead of reckoning upon the fact of what God has accomplished at Calvary, Dr. Packer's method is to repent of sin, after the fact:
Holiness -- We mercifully close this chronicle of blind reasoning and effort with Dr. Packer's summation of the holiness which he is in futility seeking to rediscover:
The only hope for these blinded ones is that the law will bring them all the way down to Romans 7:25: "I thank God through Jesus Christ"--the One who is their very Christian life. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Light of life; the Law is the darkness of death. The one thing the law-blinded need is light. If they can look away from the law long enough to see the light in its Source, via the Word, all will be well.
Strange Contradictory Statements Over the past decades, James. I. Packer has proven himself rather chameleon-like. Consider the fact that in 1957, he helped produce a translation of Martin Luther's The Bondage of the Will, Fleming H. Revell Company, and co-authored with O.R. Johnston the book's excellent, 61 page Historical and Theological Introduction. This work stunningly explained the quintessential gulf between the Reformation and Roman Catholicism, focusing on the sovereignty of God, the Fall, determinism versus indeterminism, etc. In 1995, nearly 40 years later, he is a leading contributor to the ecumenical publication, Evangelicals & Catholics Together (ECT), Word Publishing, and makes this outrageous statement:
Forty years ago according to Mr. Packer, the Lord Jesus Christ sovereignly found individuals...and even, contrary to his fellow travelers, outside the Roman Catholic system! But now he embraces a humanistic view (Arminianism) and shifts culpability from heretical Catholicism to those whom the Lord rescued out of spiritual darkness. A very low, and nasty blow indeed! No, nearly 30 years ago, without a priest or sacrament, positive self-image, or elevated state of consciousness; the Lord found me and I was born-again as a new-creation Christian. DRS |
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