James Packer on the Church and Schism

http://anglicansinthewilderness.com/point-of-view/article-6

J. I. Packer on The Church and Schism
Oct 21 Hudson Barton.
Comments: 1

Video Presentation: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

J. I. Packer is an elder statesmen of Anglican Orthodoxy. In this speech he sets forth a controversial Anglican ecclesiology that he has held since at least 1966. It is controversial in this sense... that Packer does NOT advocate schism from the Anglican Communion on the basis of:

The Anglican Communion's re-appropriation of Roman Catholic practices that it had formerly anathematized

The Anglican Communion's continued reluctance to insist upon other teachings that it had formerly considered essential to Christian doctrine and which are laid out clearly in its confession (the 39 Articles), namely

Original Sin (total depravity)

Election (unconditional)

Atonement for the sin of a chosen people

Grace (irresistible)

Power (sufficient to accomplish God's plan of salvation)

The Anglican Communion now permitting it to be said from highest authority of its ranks

that Christ is not alone in His power to save men

that the Bible is not alone in holding final authority in the Church

that Faith is not the only guarantor of our salvation in Christ but also works.

In this, J.I. Packer and John Stott parted from the late Martyn Lloyd-Jones whose called (1966) for evangelicals to part company with the Church of England and the Anglican Communion over these issues.
In retrospect, given the history of the Anglican Communion since the death of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, J.I. Packer is proven to have erred in his assessments.

Anglicans were unable to reverse course once they had abandoned the above principles

Anglican ecumenism toward "Christian" churches that do not subscribe to these principles accelerated the process of apostasy, and was used by those other bodies for their own purposes rather than for the good purpose of Anglicans.
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D. Philip Veitch
Jim could never decide:

1. If he was a culture warrior, trying to shift the Evangelical Anglican movement to the centre, rehabbing its image, or,

2. He would be faithful to the Reformation tradition as a matter of principle. ECT was his greatest failure and it hangs like a foul odour over everything else. He failed in both respects.

The eivdence is in.

October 23, 2009