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J. I. Packer

J. I. Packer Quotes

Christian Theologian

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Famous J. I. Packer Quotes

“It is Deism which depicts God as the passive onlooker rather than the active governor of His world, and which assures us that the guarantee of human freedom lies in the fact that men's actions are not under God's control. But the Bible teaches rather that the freedom of God, who works in and through His creatures, leading them to act according to their nature, is itself the foundation and guarantee of the freedom of their action.”

MenWorldHumansFactsActionLyingTeachCreaturesFoundationActiveGuaranteesGovernorsPassiveHuman FreedomDeism
Book:Fundamentalism
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“The biblical authors wrote of God's sovereignty over His world, and of man's experiences within that world, using such modes of speech about the natural order and human experience as were current in their days, and in a language that was common to themselves and their contemporaries. This is saying no more than that they wrote to be understood. Their picture of the world and things in it is not put forward as normative for later science, andy more than their use of Hebrew and Greek is put forward as a perfect model for composition in these languages.”

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Author:J. I. Packer
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“Nothing can alter the character of God. In the course of a human life, tastes and outlook and temper may change radically: a kind, equable man may turn bitter and crotchety: a man of good-will may grow cynical and callous. But nothing of this sort happens to the Creator. He never becomes less truthful, or merciful, or just, or good, than He used to be.”

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Author:J. I. Packer
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“The Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as this truth of the Incarnation.”

ThinkingHumansChildrenEarthFictionChangedTaughtBabyChristmasFantasticFedsAlmightyHelplessIncarnationStaggeringChristian Christmas
Book:Knowing God Devotional Journal: A One-Year Guide
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“God was happy without humans before they were made; he would have continued happy had he simply destroyed them after they had sinned; but as it is he has set his love upon particular sinners, and this means that, by his own free voluntary choice, he will not know perfect and unmixed happiness again till he has brought every one of them to heaven. He has in effect resolved that henceforth for all eternity his happiness shall be conditional upon ours.”

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Author:J. I. Packer
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“Has the word propitiation any place in your Christianity? In the faith of the New Testament it is central. The love of God, the taking of human form by the Son, the meaning of the cross, Christ's heavenly intercession, the way of salvation-all are to be explained in terms of itand any explanation from which the thought of propitiation is missing will be incomplete, and indeed actually misleading, by New Testament standards”

WayHumansFormTermChristChristianityMissingSonStandardsCrossesSalvationGod LoveExplanationHeavenlyTestamentNew TestamentMisleadIncompleteIntercessionHuman FormPropitiation
Author:J. I. Packer
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“The Christmas spirit does not shine out in the Christian snob. For the Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor -- spending and being spent -- to enrich their fellow humans, giving time, trouble, care and concern, to do good to others -- and not just their own friends -- in whatever way there seems need.”

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Author:J. I. Packer
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“It is not for us to imagine that we can prove the truth of Christianity by our own arguments; nobody can prove the truth of Christianity except the Holy Spirit, by his own almighty work of renewing the blinded heart. It is the sovereign prerogative of Christ's Spirit to convince men's consciences of the truth of Christ's gospel; and Christ's human witnesses must learn to ground their hopes of success not on clever presentation of the truth by man, but on powerful demonstration of the truth by the Spirit.”

MenHumansHeartSpiritChristPowerfulChristianityImagineHolyProveConscienceArgumentCleverWitnessHoly SpiritConvinceImagine ThatAlmightySovereignPresentationDemonstrationBlindedPrerogativeHope Of Success
Book:Knowing God Devotional Journal: A One-Year Guide
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