By David W. Virtue in Vancouver
www.virtueonline.org
4/27/2008
He made it official on the weekend. The most famous orthodox Anglican theologian in Canada, and one of the world's most renowned, relinquished his orders in the Anglican Church of Canada, one of 11 priests to surrender their licenses. The Rev. Dr. J. I. Packer was then officially relicensed by the Most Rev. Gregory Venables, Primate of the Southern Cone into his province.
It was an historic moment for the modest, humble 81-year old theological warrior, author, and one of the most compelling voices for evangelical Anglican Christianity of the late 20th Century. Time magazine hailed him as one of the planet's most influential evangelicals. He deserves it.
It all took place in Vancouver at the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) conference, where some 400 Anglicans in the Anglican Church of Canada made it official, renouncing an apostate denomination for the fresh spiritual pastures that affirmed the ancient faith and the gospel that goes with it.
Packer did not mince his words. In surprisingly harsh words, but acknowledging the realism of the occasion, he called many of the Anglican Church's bishops "arguably heretical" for adhering to "poisonous liberalism."
It's doubtful one could find tougher language. Dr. Packer has no axe to grind except the gospel. He is frighteningly aware of St. Paul's dictum that if anyone preaches "another gospel, let him be declared anathema." Jim Packer, as he is affectionately known, did precisely that. He did it without arrogance, pride or pedantry. He did so and said those words because in his heart and mind he knows he is right and he has the support of 2,000 years of Christian teaching to back him up. He is amazingly humble, free of the arrogance that afflicts self-righteous liberals, simple in speech and form, and although he is slightly stooped for his years, his mind is still razor sharp.
In words reminiscent of so many who have declared the church to be apostate from time to time, Packer said Michael Ingham, the Bishop of New Westminster, "is a bishop who appears heretical" and compared him to America's equally heretical bishop, John Shelby Spong whose 12 Theses castrates Christianity, denuding it of transcendence, hope and meaning. He also compared Ingham to the Church of Scotland's heretical Primus Bishop Richard Holloway who felt compelled to write a series of articles with such heady titles as "The Danger of Sincere Religion", "What's the use of the Bible?" What's the Use of Jesus?" culminating by his saying that "claims to absolute truth result in exclusivity. The better route to truth is passionate questing - that's what 'God-botherers' do!" he said. Perhaps someone will one day write a book, "What's the Use of Richard Holloway, and why was he made the leader of the Scottish Church if he couldn't believe in anything remotely Christian?"
At one point, Packer opened his Bible and read I Corinthians 6:9-11 where the Apostle Paul compares "men who lie with men to drunkards, thieves, slanderers and adulterers, none of whom will inherit the Kingdom of God."
Tough words indeed, but Packer feels compelled to quote them because he believes in the authority of St. Paul. Liberals long ago abandoned that notion and say the apostle was a man of his times, but his words ring hollow in today's world of science and human genetics.
For Packer, the blessing of same-sex unions is anathema. He will have none of it. Either marriage between a man and a woman or celibacy is the church's historic position. He is not about to imperil his soul by changing it to suit the fashions of the times in which we live. Naturally, he called homosexuality "a grave sin."
Packer is a member of the evangelically driven parish of St. John's Shaughnessy whose rector, the Rev. Dr. David Short is under siege from Ingham. The orthodox priest recently took his parish, the largest in Canada, out of the Anglican Church of Canada to come under the Province of the Southern Cone saying that the denomination had deboned truth turning the gospel into being nice, being compassionate, recycling "and we will even bless your pets."
Packer is adamant on how human beings should behave sexually. "I'm simply being an old-fashioned mainstream Anglican. The Bible teaches that people who feel erotic attractions to people of the same gender are called by God to remain chaste, avoiding sexual relationships."
The liberals will have none of it. Despite no formal resolution by the national church on same-sex blessings, Ingham has allowed eight out of 67 parishes to perform them. That is a bridge too far for orthodox Canadian Anglicans. They have watched similar moves made in the American Episcopal Church with devastating consequences.
There are 15 parishes under the ANiC and four more affiliated with the Anglican Essentials Network (AEN), also affiliated with the AniC, that have been formed in three provinces across the country. More are expected to leave the Anglican Church of Canada in the months that lie ahead. A total of 28 parishes have voted to split from that denomination.
Packer did not expect, in the twilight of his years, to be banished from the church, but other great saints and church fathers have gone before who have experienced similar expulsions. Packer stands with a great "cloud of witnesses". The writer of his official biography will no doubt note this historic moment in this great man's life.
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