Anglican Mainstream

One of the most influential evangelical theologians in North America lives in Vancouver. Unknown to many Canadians, James (J.I.) Packer, 83, has for 50 years led evangelicals on the  "right theological path in 60-plus books, including the influential Knowing God (which has sold two million copies)," says a new profile in World Magazine.

Packer recently left the Anglican Church of Canada because of what he considers its increasing liberal values, particularly the willingness some dioceses have been showing to bless same-sex relationships. He continues to attend St. John's Shaughnessy Anglican Church in Vancouver, which has also split away from the Anglican Church of Canada.

 

 

Unlike many clergy and theologians today, Packer is not abundantly cautious in sharing his views with the wider, secular world, which he judges, along with liberal Christianity, infected by Satan, the arch-foe of God who appears in many New Testament passages. Packer does not pull his punches. Like it or not, and many don't (including most mainline Christians and even many evangelicals), with Packer you know exactly where you stand.

"What has happened to the Anglican Church of Canada makes me sick. Our diocese had enmeshed itself in heresy. Homosexual partnerships were not just tolerated but celebrated. And that was just one of several important issues," Packer said in the recent issue of World Magazine, a large North American publication with head offices in North Carolina that promotes conservative Protestantism and the inerrancy of the Bible.

But Packer is upbeat about the future of conservative evangelicalism in North America. He believes conservative evangelical Christianity is the force for goodness, leading the charge against the evil unleashed by Satan.

"Evangelical seminaries are full. Liberal seminaries are half-empty. That steady flow of evangelical clergy is getting stronger. Of course, the secular culture is getting stronger as well, and everything that evangelicals do to further the gospel is opposed by Satan. Sometimes that gets the attention of the media. So even with Satan and secular culture aligned against us, when I see what God is doing in the lives of many of the young people I teach, I have much reason to hope."

Though officially retired from Regent College, on the UBC campus, Packer still teaches classes there and keeps a teaching assistant busy with his projects, says the World profile, headlined "Patriarch." Two of his favorite pastimes are listening to jazz music—especially pre-World War II masters such as Jelly Roll Morton—and reading mystery novels. A mild stroke, or TIA, in late October temporarily limited his travels, but he has continued to preach.

As the World article says, Packer remains an active churchman. Packer now works closely with the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA), a group of theologically conservative Anglicans that has separated from the Anglican church. Recently, AMiA joined with other biblically conservative Anglican groups to form the Anglican Church of North America. One of the leaders of that movement, Bishop Chuck Murphy, studied under Packer in England in the early 1970s.

Go here for the full World article.