When Lloyd-Jones Cancelled J.I. Packer

I love J.I. Packer's writing. A friend gave me Knowing God as a groom's gift (a splendid idea), which created an unexpected theological shift in my life. His dense, purposeful prose led me to a joyful, kind, humble reformed theology. 

I had little familiarity with the doctrine of adoption, and his chapter Sons of God reduced me to tears on more than one occasion. He explained how Christians were able, through the substitutionary atonement of Jesus, to call God Father.

This perspective may seem elemental and not so lofty for everyone, but it certainly was for me. Growing up in a typical evangelical environment during the late '80s and early '90s, I knew that Jesus died for me, but I also knew that I had to be good or God would be displeased with me and drop the hammer in some area of my life. God accepted me, but that was a contractual reality because I had walked an aisle and prayed a prayer. He had to take me, but he didn't want me around. I was a problem. Packer cleared up the distinction between justification and adoption, and I wept. 

"Justification is a forensic idea, conceived in terms of law, and viewing God as judge. But contrast this, now, with adoption. Adoption is a family idea, conceived in terms of love, and viewing God as father. In adoption, God takes us into his family and fellowship—he establishes us as his children and heirs. To be right with God as the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.” 

It was staggering. The judge of the universe declared me righteous, took off his robe, stepped down from his bench, and brought me home as a son—what a delight! Packer opened many more theological doors to me in Knowing God that profoundly shaped my life. 

From there, I read more of his writing. Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God provided a rootedness to my budding reformed understanding of the gospel and the power of God to save. Concise Theology introduced me to systematic spirituality in a way only the profound simplicity of Packer could achieve. His examination of Puritan spirituality in  A Quest for Godliness was a glorious journey with theological giants, drawing me deeper into doctrine and further along in church history. In sum, I owe an outstanding spiritual debt to J.I. Packer. 

Packer's Life and Thought

I was thrilled to get my hands on Alister McGrath's biography of Packer shortly after he passed away in 2020. I wanted to see the chronological trajectory of this man that had so dramatically altered my own. Some insights were surprising. For example, he was captain of the Wycliffe Hall table tennis team while at Oxford. Packer playing table tennis was a delightfully startling image. But no surprise was as great as McGrath's discussion of Packer's relationship to the famed Welsh preacher, Martyn Lloyd-Jones. 

In 1969 Packer was announced as the Principle of Tyndale Hall, Bristol, an evangelical theological college in the Church of England. He had to weather theological storms as he sought to reform the institution but still appointed theological talents such as Alec Motyer and Anthony Thiselton early in his tenure. But in October of 1969, a paper was released from the school written by two evangelicals (Packer being one) and two Anglo-Catholics. McGrath explains the reasoning for such a work.

"Packer...felt that it was necessary for evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics who were theologically orthodox to challenge the liberal ideology that seemed to lie behind proposals for a union between the Church of England and Methodists in England.”

Cancelled by "The Doctor"

The paper received harsh criticism, the most damaging coming from Lloyd-Jones, who, according to McGrath, thought it was a compromise and a weakening of evangelical convictions. Lloyd-Jones then led the way in (using modern terminology) cancelling Packer. He used his influence to get Packer to cancel the Puritan Conferences he helped found, renaming them the "Westminster Conferences." Packer was out. McGrath even noted that Packer was "frozen out of Lloyd-Jones' circle." Those still in that circle disseminated the idea that Packer could no longer be considered an evangelical. 

"Packer had been one of the relatively few influential evangelicals within the Church of England to champion links with Lloyd-Jones. With that connection so publicly broken by Lloyd-Jones himself, the scene was set for the further marginalization of [Packer's] influence within the English national Church in general, and evangelical Anglicanism in particular.” 

Lloyd-Jones was a titanic figure. He is still revered and should be. He stood for expositional preaching and theological conservatism at a time when few would. Still, was such a stand against Packer necessary? Lloyd-Jones thought it was. He scuttled the influence Packer could have used at that time for reformation over a secondary issue. 

We're Still Doing This

When I read this section of McGrath's biography, I was struck by how familiar it all seemed. A respected conservative pastor polemically engages a fellow conservative academic over secondary issues to prove the intellectual is a traitor, a defector, an imposter amongst the faithful. Through our lens now, we can see the absurdity of suggesting that J.I. Packer wasn't an evangelical. Lloyd-Jones had been right in so many areas. He was a stalwart champion of Scripture in the face of genuine opposition. But that opposition wasn't coming from J.I. Packer. Will there be a time when we regret establishing conferences, slandering reputations, labeling heretics, cancelling voices that are just as theologically conservative as we claim to be? Might we take a lesson from the lives of Packer and Lloyd-Jones? Even in theological disagreement, there doesn't need to be a full-scale termination of friendship. It is sad to think about Lloyd-Jones and Packer no longer in fellowship, and I believe our children will consider it equally unfortunate that we froze people out of our circle over secondary issues. 

A Happy Providence for a Groom's Gift

McGrath notes that even though Packer's reputation in England had suffered, his impact in North America was significant. The chief reason for his popularity? Knowing God. After leaving his role in academic administration, Packer wrote the book, focusing on teaching and serving St. Edyth's Church, Sea Mills. The work propelled him to a level of influence he hadn't previously known. I am one beneficiary of that influence, and I rejoice. I pray evangelicals will think deeply before cancelling anyone from our tradition with whom we disagree. What would it have looked like for Packer and Lloyd-Jones to link arms and cooperate for the sake of the gospel and the kingdom?