I want to introduce this article by taking us back some forty-one
years to the initial publication of what soon became an evangelical
classic: J. I. Packer's Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God
(IVP, 1961). The book was an expansion of the address Packer delivered
to The London Inter-Faculty Christian Union (LIFCU) on October 24, 1959,
at Westminster Chapel. What makes Packer's book so instructive for us
today is the utter incredulity on his part, in 1961, regarding a
theological perspective that today, in 2002, is widespread and pervasive
in its influence.
Packer begins his defense of divine
sovereignty in salvation by appealing to what he believes is, or at
least should be, an evangelical consensus on the practice of prayer. He
appears to assume that no one who embraces a high view of Scripture
could possibly think otherwise. It is more than simply that we pray, but also how and what we specifically ask God to do that Packer believes supports his understanding of the activity of God in saving a human soul. Continue at Sam Storms
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