Euangelion: J.I. Packer the “failure”?.

My first instinct was to say what I think about Trueman, but I’ll let that pass.

History always seems inevitable, like a series of falling dominos.  But you never know what might happen if a dominoe is taken out of the series.  Are the two on either side close enough to keep the chain going?

Certain kinds of dominoes look essential.  Book-writing dominoes.  John Calvin was relatively unknown until he sold a short (six chapters) book on the Christian life.  It became a best-seller and made him a celebrity.  It got him enough clout to be taken seriously–too seriously since he was expected to reform Geneva rather than go to Strassbourg where he wanted to be.

Not wanting to tamper with a good thing, and following the marketing plan since used by the college textbook industry, Calvin kept expanding on his book, until it became a huge four-book, magnum opus.

And that plan has more or less settled in the minds of men as the way forward, the way to be an essential domino in the series.  Write a big book.

But what about someone like Martin Bucer?  He wrote some books but they are not remembered now.  Was he a failure?

He used to not get as much attention, but now people realize his influence on John Calvin and many others means that he was a leading figure.  History isn’t exactly like dominos. When you take one domino out of line, another doesn’t grow thicker or higher, but remove Calvin and his book and who is to say another wouldn’t have been written or was was written but would have sold better?  It is impossible to know now, but it may be that Bucer was more important to the Reformation than Calvin.

I’m not writhing this to make us choose between the two, but only to get it in our minds that book writing is not the only way one succeeds.  And the fact of the matter is that we have no idea yet, and maybe never will, at how much J. I. Packer has changed the world.  One student, one disciple, may make all the difference.  One boy or girl who read one of those pop-level books may change the planet.

Passage: Jeremiah 12 (ESV Bible Online).

I don’t have time to research this, but it seems that God’s voice is, at some point, mourning his own disinheritance.  Israel’s sin despoils his heritage leaving him impoverished.  (So at the end he says that he won’t allow it to last).

Also, at the end, in the ESV, I’m getting confused about who gets put in the midst of whom.  Is there a hint here that Israel scattered among the nations means the nations are within Israel in a way?

Just questions for later…

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

via Passage: Luke 18.9-14 (ESV Bible Online).

What is this passage?  I will tell you.

This passage of Scripture is the official rationalization for Reformed zealots who trust in themselves that they are righteous and treat others with contempt.

That was an observation; here is a question:

Is God’s only problem with the Pharisee that he didn’t truly measure up?  Is God’s word to the Pharisee, “Well, if your righteous behavior was as great as you say it is, then your attitude toward yourself and the tax collector would be completely justified and I would approve of it”…?

Was it morally indifferent to Jesus whether to have mercy on people like the tax collector or to justly condemn them?

Is Jesus’ mercy a true revelation of God’s character?  Is it a revelation of God’s eternal righteousness that we are supposed to emulate in order to conform ourselves to God’s righteousness?