This is where Dr. Packer endorses the "Anglican Quadrilateral." I am assuming by this that he means the Anglo-Catholic "Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral." It is indeed disheartening to hear Dr. Packer endorse a document meant to undermine the Evangelical and Reformed theology of the Church of England, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the 39 Articles, the Ordinals and the homilies.
Martyred for the Gospel
The burning of Tharchbishop of Cant. D. Tho. Cranmer in the town dich at Oxford, with his hand first thrust into the fyre, wherwith he subscribed before. [Click on the picture to see Cranmer's last words.]
Monday, June 15, 2009
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10 comments:
Thanks for the links. I'm not and never have been Anglican, but I've always been grateful for Packer's writing. Reading "Knowing God" when I was a new Christian saved me from many errors, I'm sure.
On a different not, based on your profile, it appears you've had an interesting journey so far!
RE Packer, this must be said; like Anglicanism, the visible church has strayed from Reformation truth. It is indeed problematical to hear a sound evangelical fail to call Anglo-Cathyolicism the Romish erro0r that it is.
I completely fail to see the anglo-catholicism you say exists in this post by Packer. Can you clarify?
Yes, I read Knowing God back in my bible college days. It was the first time I had heard of Dr. Packer. His legacy will be a mixed one. On the one had he has upheld the doctrines of grace and argued strongly for the Evangelical faith. On the other hand, he has been too willing in his later years to compromise with those who preach another gospel. The "catholic" faith is the Protestant faith as it is expressed in the Reformed and Augustinian confessions of faith in the 16th century.
Billy, I spelled it out clearly enough. Dr. Packer assumes that the "Anglican quadrilateral" is the basis for being a member of the "Anglican Communion." The fact of the matter is that the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral was the invention of Anglo-Catholics with an agenda to undermine the Evangelical/Protestant witness of the Anglican Communion as it was founded during the English Reformation. Anglo-Catholics, like John Henry Newman and others, are brilliant revisionists, dissimulators, and propagandists. Unfortunately, their theology has absolutely nothing to do with Scripture, the 39 Articles, or the English Reformation. For more on the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, see my article at http://reasonablechristian.blogspot.com/2009/05/sola-fide-protestant-doctrine-of_31.html#links.
I also take exception to Dr. Packer's oversimplication of Evangelicalism as holding to an Evangelical "quadrilateral" of Scripture, the cross, the new birth, and evangelism. Any Roman Catholic could hold to the Evangelical quadrilateral that Packer proposes. The reality is that Evangelicalism has a five-fold essentials list which I contend would be the 5 solas of the Protestant Reformation. Those solas include Scripture ALONE (not simply the authority of Scripture as Packer proposes), Christ alone, grace alone, faith alone, and glory to God alone. Sola Scriptura, Solus Christus, sola gratia, sola fide, soli Deo gloria.
The "fundamentals" of the Christian faith would apply as well: 1) Inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture; 2) Sola Scriptura; 3) the virgin conception/birth of Christ; 4) the substitutionary atonement; 5) the physical and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ; 6) the imminent/impending personal return of Christ to judge the world.
In addition, true Evangelical Christians should have a written and formal statement of faith or "confession of faith." For Baptists this might be the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. For Augustinian Evangelicals in the Anglican Communion this is the 39 Articles of Religion interpreted absolutely as Protestant and no Anglo-Catholic spin. The Augsburg Confession for Lutherans might be expressive of Lutheran theology after Luther's death. And I could point out the Dutch Reformed documents like the 3 forms of unity, etc. The Swiss Reformed confessions also express a biblical and Reformed understanding of Christianity.
Anglo-Catholicism, like Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, teach a form of pelagianism which undermines the sovereignty of God and instead places man on the throne.
The doctrines of grace all flow from the sovereignty of God, not the sovereignty of man's "free will."
Packer's compromise with Anglo-Catholics is obvious in this clip. I might also mention that he has, along with Gerald Bray, signed the Evangelicals and Catholics Together document, which is a complete sellout to Roman Catholicism.
Sincerely.
Sorry, I didn't see you had left that note...all I can see is two paragraphs under the youtube video.
I wouldn't take too much offense from Packer's evangelical quadrilateral..wasn't he just repeating what someone else had written? He probably thinks more highly than that of evangelicals.
But I don't see why the CL quad. is a sell out to any kind of Catholicism. The historic episcopacy is completely scriptural and not the same as Apostolic Succession...it references only two sacraments, not seven, and endorses the authority of Scripture and the Creeds in the same way the 39 Articles do.
I mean I think what the Quadrilateral is not saying is "this is all we believe" but rather these 4 things are must for us to consider union or greater unity with you.
Can you clarify what about that is anglo-catholic? all of those things are endorsed by the articles of religion, are they not?
Billy, The Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral was sponsored by an Anglo-Catholic, William Reed Huntington, who had the express purpose of reunion with the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Packer and Bray both signed the Evangelicals and Catholics Together with the same goal in mind. Check this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago-Lambeth_Quadrilateral
I would contend, however, that the only basis for a reunion would be the Protestant 5 solas. The Protestant faith is the catholic faith as Archbishop Thomas Cranmer would have put it. The 39 Articles say that Rome and the eastern churches are in severe error. So they should be moving toward a Reformed view, which IS the catholic faith and not vice versa. Likewise, Anglo-Catholics need to reject Tractarianism and return the Gospel and to the Protestant/English Reformation. Anglo-Catholics should also accept the 1662 BCP as THE standard liturgy instead of modern liturgies or even the 1928 BCP, which essentially re-interprets the 1662 liturgy to fit A/C biases.
Compromise is out of the question.
Billy, I overlooked your confusion or conflation of the Anglican Quadrilateral with the Evangelical Quadrilateral. Packer clearly distinguishes between the two.
In fairness to Dr. Packer, he does limit the Anglican Quadrilateral to "two sacraments" and not "seven".
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