The most universally awesome experience that mankind knows is to stand alone on a clear night and look at the stars. It was God who first set the stars in space; He is their Maker and Master . . . such are His power and His majesty. J. I. Packer More Quotes by J. I. Packer More Quotes From J. I. Packer Infallible denotes the quality of never deceiving or misleading and so means wholly trustworthy and reliable; inerrant means wholly true. Scripture is termed infallible and inerrant to express the conviction that all its teaching is the utterance of God who cannot lie, whose word, once spoken, abides for ever, and that therefore it may be trusted implicitly. J. I. Packer teachingmeanlying God then does not profess to answer in Scripture all the questions that we, in our boundless curiosity, would like to ask about Scripture. He tells us merely as much as He sees we need to know as a basis for our life of faith. J. I. Packer scripturecuriosityanswers ...love and pity for hell's occupants will not enter our hearts. J. I. Packer pityhellheart Confidence that one's impressions are God-given is no guarantee that this is really so, even when they persist and grow stronger through long seasons of prayer. Bible-based wisdom must judge them. J. I. Packer guarantees-thatprayerlong The essence of God's action in wrath is to give people what they choose, in all its implications. J. I. Packer wrathessencepeople But to read all Scripture narratives as if they were eye-witness reports in a modern newspaper, and to ignore the poetic and imaginative form in which they are sometimes couched, would be no less a violation of the canons of evangelical literalism than the allegorizing of the Scholastics was. J. I. Packer narrativeeyewould-be Fanciful spiritualizing, so far from yielding God's meaning, actually obscured it. The literal sense is itself the spiritual sense, coming from God and leading to Him. J. I. Packer literalspiritual 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. J. I. Packer godcharactermen But that is not because these principles are traditional; it is because they are biblical. There is certainly an arrogant, hide-bound type of traditionalism, unthinking and uncritical, which is carnal and devilish. But there is also a respectful willingness to take help from the Church's past in order to understand the Bible in the present; and such traditionalism is spiritual and Christian. J. I. Packer biblicalspiritualchristian Wherever Christianity has produced what historians call a 'popular piety' claiming to be part of the national heritage, anti-Christian reaction among the intelligentsia has followed. J. I. Packer heritagereligiouschristian What is less often noticed is that it is precisely the kind of moral instruction that parents are constantly trying to give their children — concrete, imaginative, teaching general principles from particular instances, and seeking all the time to bring the children to appreciate and share the parent's own attitudes and view of life… The all-embracing principles of conduct J. I. Packer teachingattitudechildren 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. J. I. Packer biblicalmenorder One of the many divine qualities of the Bible is that it does not yield its secrets to the irreverent and the censorious. J. I. Packer yieldbiblicalbible Evangelizing includes the endeavor to elicit a response to the truth taught. J. I. Packer responseendeavortaught I must ask the Lord to direct the Holy Spirit within me to drain the life out of sin and in prayer. J. I. Packer sinspiritprayer In some Old Testament books, it's very evident that an editor has been at work. That's quite all right. It's part of the process. J. I. Packer oldsomeprocesswork Christianity has stayed stable, as it must do. The doctrines don't change. The understanding of what it means to walk with God doesn't change. The reality of worship doesn't change, not at heart, anyway. So Christianity appears to be stuck. J. I. Packer walkchangegodheart
