Listening to the Giants

Do you think you were a “bad kid”? Maybe you were, but so was George Müller. Here is a look at his early years: “His own brief account of his boyhood shows a very bad boy and he attempts no disguise. Before he was ten years old he was a habitual thief and an expert at cheating. In time, card-playing and even strong drink got hold of him. The night when his mother lay dying, her boy of fourteen was reeling through the streets, drunk; and even her death failed to arrest his wicked course or to arouse his sleeping conscience. And—as must always be the case when such solemn reminders make one no better—he only grew worse.” (pgs. 18-19) Yet God is in the business of rescuing lost sinners and being patient with them, as this account below will show: “Of course a man that had been so profligate and prodigal must at least begin at conversion to live a changed life. Not that all at once the old sins were abandoned, for such total transformation demands deeper knowledge of the word and ...

Throughout this month, this blog will examine certain “snapshots” of George Müller, which I hope will bring a deeper appreciation for this servant and a greater love for the God whom he gave his life to. Why should you care about the life and ministry of George Müller?     1.    He lived a raunchy, drunken and immoral life before his conversion to                     Christianity.     2. His conversion to Christ was a process, with occasional setbacks.     3. He committed himself (and his wife) to voluntary poverty at 25 years old.     4. He endured a lifetime of bodily struggles and ailments.     5. He built five orphanages and brought into his family over 10,000 orphans.     6. He never told anyone of the needs of the orphanages or the orphans themselves          expect asking G...

There is nothing new under the sun (Ecc. 1:9). This applies to the unfortunate conflict and subsequently separation of two “redwoods of the Christian faith”, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and J.I. Packer. The issue that ignited the separation was important; this was NOT two Christians arguing about the “color of the carpet”. Yet the question I want to ask and answer in this blog post is: “Was this conflict avoidable?” The excerpt below will set the historical context and the issue of contention. “Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones had become increasingly concerned over the theological liberalism of the World Council of Churches. By 1965, he was convinced that it was impossible for an evangelical to belong to a denomination which was affiliated to the WCC. Evangelicals who were members of such churches would be contaminated by others within the denominations who openly denied or challenged key tenets of the Christian faith. Evangelicals who remained within doctrinally mixed churches—such as th...

Packer was a man of the times. He seemed to always have his thumb on the issues of the day. This is one of the reasons why he was profoundly influential in the 20 th century. This quote gives the reader some insight into Packer’s “thumbprint”. “Packer’s views on predestination and election were strongly Reformed, stressing the sovereignty of God in creation and redemption. Not all students at Tyndale Hall were entirely sympathetic to Packer’s views in this area, particularly in relation to predestination. One issue which emerged as particularly important in the late 1950’s concerned a tension between the sovereignty of God and the need to evangelize. If God was sovereign, why bother to evangelize? It was an issue which had emerged as important at several points in church history. For example, when the Baptist missionary William Carey announced his intention to found a Mission Society, he met with the following response from one of those whose advice he asked, ‘When God is pleased ...

In 1950, J.I. Packer, O. Raymond Johnston and the legendary D. M. Lloyd-Jones began what would be known as the Puritan Conferences. These conferences lasted for roughly 20 years and are undoubtedly the reason for the resurgence of puritan theology and puritan reprints. Here is an excerpt from the mouth of Packer himself: “The interests of the Conference are practical and constructive, not merely academic. We look on the Puritans as our fellow-Christians, now enabled to share with us, through the medium of their books, the good things which God gave them three centuries ago…And the question which we ask is not simply the historical one; what did they do and teach? (though, of course, that is where we start); our questions are rather these: how far is their exposition of the Scriptures a right one? And what biblical principles does it yield for the guiding of our faith and life today? The second half of each session of the Conference is devoted to discussing the contents of the paper ...

Bullying is a serious thing. Nowadays, kids are able to bully other kids verbally, physically and now virtually. For James Innell Packer, bullying changed his life forever. “He was always being bullied. Another boy chased him out of school grounds on to the busy London Road outside. A passing bread van could not avoid hitting him. He was thrown to the ground with a major head injury. The young boy was taken to the Gloucester Royal Infirmary and rushed into the operating room. He was discovered to have a depressed compound fracture of the frontal bone on the right side of his forehead, with injury to the frontal lobe of the brain. After surgery, the boy was left with a small hole in his right forehead, about two centimeters in diameter. The injury would remain clearly visible for the rest of his life.” (p. 1) So what can we learn from this unfortunate circumstance? Packer’s injury was used by God to mold him and stretch him. How did it mold him? As a boy, Packer was qu...

Throughout the next few weeks, this blog will examine certain “snapshots” of J.I. Packer, which I hope will bring a deeper appreciation for this servant and a greater love for the God whom he gave his life to. Why should you care about the life and ministry of J.I. Packer? 1.   His book Knowing God is a Christian classic. 2.   His book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God is a Christian classic.  3.   His love for the Puritans helped ignite a resurgence of 20 th century interest in Puritanism.   4.   His disagreement with D. M. Lloyd-Jones is a good example of a bad example.   5.   His balance of Calvinism and ecumenicalism is unique and refreshing. 6.   His facial deformity did not limit his usefulness in Christian ministry.   J.I. Packer (1926—present), J ames Innell Packer (born in Gloucester, England) is a British-born Canadian Christian theologian in the Calvinistic Anglican tradition. He currently serve...