Puritan Papers, Volume 5: 1968–1969
Overview
Volume 5 concludes the Puritan Papers—a compilation of papers originally given at an annual conference that played a vital role in reinvigorating evangelicalism in Great Britain and beyond. This final volume contains 11 chapters, two by editor J. I. Packer: “Arminianisms” and “The Doctrine of Justification among the Puritans.” This volume also includes John R. de Witt’s “The Arminian Conflict and the Synod of Dort” and David R. Smith’s “John Fletcher: An Arminian Upholder of Holiness.” The final chapter, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ “Can We Learn from History?” is a fitting conclusion to the five volumes. He notes, “it is always essential for us to supplement our reading of theology with the reading of church history.… if we do not, we shall be in danger of becoming abstract, theoretical, and academic in our view of truth; and, failing to relate it to the practicalities of life and daily living, we shall soon be in trouble.”
Top Highlights
“Calvinism without Methodism tends to lead to intellectualism and scholasticism—that is its peculiar temptation. The result is that men talk more about ‘the Truth we hold,’ rather than about ‘the Truth that holds us.’” (Page 121)
“First, the Bible forbids us to take a single step along the Arminian road. It” (Page 39)
“Calvinism of necessity leads to an emphasis upon the action and the activity of God the Holy Spirit. The whole emphasis is upon what God does to us: not what man does, but what God does to us; not our hold of Him, but ‘His strong grasp of us.’ So Calvinism of necessity leads to experiences, and to great emphasis upon experience; and these men, and all these older Calvinists were constantly talking about ‘visitations,’ how the Lord had appeared to them, how the Lord had spoken to them—the kind of thing that we have seen Toplady expressing in the hymn already quoted and in his Diary.” (Page 123)
“What is the value of an assurance that you can lose? I mean by that, what is the value of an assurance of salvation if you can lose your salvation? If your persistence in grace and in salvation is dependent upon you, where is your assurance? Can you rely upon yourself? Would any man be eventually saved if it were left to us to persevere in grace? It is not a doctrine of assurance. It leaves it all back with me, and I am in all the uncertainty that I was in before.” (Page 120)
“Luther’s account of justification was not analytical. His concern was to declare the fact that the living God justifies sinners through the cross as the heart of the gospel, and he expounded justification as God’s gracious answer to man’s desperate question, ‘How may I find a gracious God? What must I do to be saved?’” (Page 150)
- Title: Puritan Papers, Volume 5: 1968–1969
- Author: J. I. Packer
- Series: Puritan Papers
- Volume: 5
- Publisher: P&R
- Print Publication Date: 2005
- Logos Release Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Puritans
- ISBNs: 0875524702, 9780875524702
- Resource ID: LLS:PURITANPAPERS05
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:31:36Z
J. I. Packer (1926–2020) is regarded as one of the most influential evangelicals in North America. He was Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, and his writings include books such as Knowing God, A Quest for Godliness, Growing in Christ (Crossway) and Rediscovering Holiness. He preached and lectured widely in Great Britain and North America and served as general editor of the English Standard Version of the Bible published in 2001, and theological editor of the Study Bible version. In 2014, Packer was named Author of the Year by the Association of Logos Bookstores. He was a frequent contributor to and an executive editor of Christianity Today and wrote numerous articles published in journals such as Churchman, SouthWestern Journal, Reformation Revival Journal and Touchstone. He received a BA, MA and PhD from Oxford University.