Dr. J. I. Packer (1926-2020)
Regarded by Time magazine as one of the twenty-five most influential thinkers of the world, Dr. James Innes Packer went to heaven a few hours ago. He was without question the most respected theologian in the world today. I have to pinch myself to believe I actually knew him and that I had him as a friend and mentor.
Indeed, I am possibly the luckiest man in the world. Jim would not approve of the word “luck” but he would be gracious enough to say, “I know what you mean”. Reason I say this: I had Dr. Packer as a supervisor for my DPhil at Oxford and Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones as a weekly tutor for my first four years at Westminster Chapel – greatest theologian and greatest preacher. Who could match that?
Dr. Packer’s book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God was a formative influence on my life in the 1960s. A strong five-point Calvinist, he used the word “antinomy” which meant “theologically” that “two parallel principles that appear to be contradictory but are both true”. He applied this to mean that God predestined the elect but equally predestined evangelism to save God’s elect.
I first met Jim Packer in person as a guest in his home in Bristol, England in 1972. He served me Dover Sole for dinner. Months later he was our guest at our home in Salem, Indiana. He preached for me at Blue River Baptist Church. The next day I introduced him to the faculty at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where I was a student. He then lectured to the students and got into a public quarrel with Dr. Dale Moody over the doctrine of eternal punishment (which he believed but Dr. Moody didn’t).
A pivotal moment in my life was when Dr. Packer read my essay while in our home in Headington, Oxford. I argued that John Calvin believed that Christ died for the whole world but interceded for the elect only at the right hand of God. He looked at me and said, “You’ve done it. You’ve done it”, namely I convinced him that I got it right about Calvin, although he was never convinced that Calvin was right!
He preached for me at the Calvary Southern Baptist Church in Lower Heyford, Oxfordshire. While at Westminster Chapel I did a rather controversial thing by having him preach for me there on a Friday night. It was regarded as a bit controversial because Dr. Lloyd-Jones had openly rejected Dr. Packer because of a book Packer wrote with a Roman Catholic. The two never made up. I understood both sides of the issue but managed to maintain a friendship with both men. “Dr. Lloyd-Jones thought he would sink me”, Jim said to me. But It didn’t. Far from it, although most people I know admire the two men with equal respect.
Louise and I had a memorable meal with Dr. Packer in Vancouver a few years ago. He and Louise got on like a house afire – talking mostly about Shakespeare and C. S. Lewis. When describing C. S. Lewis, he said of Lewis: “He believed in biblical inspiration but not infallibility, justification by but not imputation, atonement but not propitiation”. I will never forget a question I put to him that evening: “Do you think that what is going on in Israel today has anything to do with Romans 11?” His answer: “No”.
I phoned him last Boxing Day, just to say one thing: “To tell you Jim how much I love you”. He seemed very moved by my word. I am so glad I called him. I had planned to go to Vancouver to see him one last time when we were to be in Seattle in November.
He would not recommend my book The Anointing – which hurt me deeply, but afterwards recommended my book Totally Forgiving Ourselves (although referring to me as “flamboyant”). He was no cessatonist, but, knowing him as I did, was probably a bit uneasy with some of my teaching on Word and Spirit.
I would be stretching it to say we were extremely close friends, but I treasure knowing that he would phone me once in a while – especially when needing someone to meet him at Heathrow Airport. He would then come to our home for a cup of hot tea, only to complain that it was not hot enough! I said, “Jim, I burnt my tongue just now on this”, but obediently turned the kettle on and then poured boiling water on his tea bag. He immediately put this boiling tea to his lips – and looked as though he had gone to heaven – and said, “When I say I like it hot, I mean that I like it hot”.
I don’t know how he did it!