Packer - Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God

1. Divine Sovereignty

, Preface: i.xvii-xviii.

2. Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility

, Lk 22:22: For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined (to his death), but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed! Cf. Acts 2:23.

argues in Conversions: Psychological and Spiritual (I.V.F., 1959), against the thesis of Dr. William Sargant.

of Num 4:5.

3. Evangelism

Comforting Afflicted Consciences , 3rd. ed. (1640), p. 185.

the 1959 reprint of The Death of Death in the Death of Christ by John Owen. Owens book is a classical discussion of the complex questions that the controversy about limited atonement involves. The central issue does not concern the value of the atonement, considered in itself, nor the availability of Christ to those who would trust him as their Savior. All agree that no limit can be set to the intrinsic worth of Christs death, and that Christ never casts out those who come to him. The cleavage is over the question, whether the intention of the Father and the Son in the great transaction of Calvary was to save any more than actually are saved. There is no room here to open up this elaborate question; and in any case, nothing in the text depends one way or the other on the answer that one gives to it.

Reconciliation , p. 287; my italics.

4. Divine Sovereignty and Evangelism

, e.g., Gen 1:20; 14:3ff. Gods thel e 4ma is spoken of in this sense in Rom 1:10; 15:32; Rev 4:11, etc.

, Ye Sinners, Hymns II ( Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1976), p. 169. The whole hymn is a magnificent statement of the gospel invitation.

by John Bunyan.

, The Glory of Christ, in The Works of John Owen, ed. William Goold (1850), 1:422.

, Old Paths , p. 468.

God in this text is the act of believing, or the fact of being-saved-through-believing (commentators divide), does not affect our point.

, 10:1; cf. Ezek 36:26-27; Jn 6:44-45; 1 Cor 2:10ff.; 2 Cor 4:6; Phil 2:13.

, p. 327; cf. Acts 13:48.

Be, Hymns II (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1976), p. 88.

J. I. Packer is Board of Governors' Professor of Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. He also serves as contributing editor to Christianity Today. Packer's writings include books such as Knowing God (IVP Books), A Quest for Godliness (Crossway), Growing in Christ (Crossway) and Rediscovering Holiness (Servant), and numerous articles published in journals such as Churchman, SouthWestern Journal, Christianity Today, Reformation & Revival Journal and Touchstone.

In 2006, Christianity Today voted this title to be one of the top 50 books that have shaped evangelicals!

During the past 20 years, J. I. Packer's classic has revealed to over one million Christians around the world the wonder, the glory and the joy of knowing God. This anniversary edition is completely retypeset, with Americanized language and spelling, and a new preface by the author.

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ISBN 978-0-8308-6674-8

Evangelism and
the Sovereignty of God

J. I. Packer

Foreword by Mark Dever

www.IVPress.com/books