Theologian J.I. Packer reflects on sharing his faith

Q: But some people believe that every word written and every "i'' dotted came strictly from the hand of God to the author. At the other extreme, atheists and liberal Christians say, "No one knows what's true in the Bible because it's been changed so much." How do you see this?

A: I'm saying that an editorial process that is preparing the material for publication counts as part of the inspiring process whereby God, in his sovereignty, gave every word. Some people ask for trouble by not allowing for the reality of editorial processes. The editorial process is very important for preparing the work for public consumption. It's part of the inspired process.

Q: Recent surveys show that spirituality is on the rise but that Christianity is decreasing or stagnant. Why do you think that is?

A: Non-Christian forms of spirituality have had such a massive run for their money in the last half-century. It's not just the spirituality of major religions, but spirituality of all sorts of complexes and variations on particular aspects of inner life that particular teachers have come up with. Christianity has stayed stable, as it must do. The doctrines don't change. The understanding of what it means to walk with God doesn't change. The reality of worship doesn't change, not at heart, anyway. So Christianity appears to be stuck.

I think that the number of lively evangelical Christians in North America is, in fact, increasing. I think that if overall statistics show that churches are losing ground, it's because the deadwood is dropping off the branches. Amongst younger people, there is a very great deal of evangelical Christianity. It's not always deep, but it's there.

Having said all of that, there's a great divide between all the spiritualities of the world and Christian spirituality because Christian spirituality is at every point a relation to the triune God of the Bible. Secular spirituality isn't focused on God, if God even comes into it, but on me and my fulfillment. My self-discovery. My inner peace. The more you look at that gap, the wider it gets. It's the difference between self-centeredness and God-centeredness. It's unhelpful, actually, that both sorts of concern are called spirituality.

Q: In the United States, there's a great split between the Episcopal Church and evangelical Anglicans. This has led to the national church suing departing dioceses and parishes over their property. What about your parish in Canada, which has also left the national denomination?

A: The first thing to say about our parish [St. John's in Vancouver] is that it is the largest and liveliest parish in the Canadian Episcopal Church, called the Anglican Church in Canada. And our property, all of which we use at the moment, is worth something like $15 million, perhaps rising.

Of course they want it back. In court, what we will argue is that property that was built, land acquired, buildings put up and maintained ever since 1926, without the diocese contributing a penny to any of that, that equipment is held by trustees for the benefit of the users, rather than held by trustees for the benefit of the diocese. This has never been settled by law in Canada. There's no canon in the Canadian church, as in the States, declaring that the diocese owns all church properties in all church parishes. So the claim has to be decided.

I'm glad to say the congregation -- between 800 and 1,000 attend regularly on the Lord's day -- knows we may lose the property. We're prepared to lose the property rather than losing the Gospel.

Q: You've been a priest and a biblical scholar for decades. What keeps your faith fresh?

A: I suppose the fact that I know God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and God remains alive. That is testified to in Scripture, and it comes through when I read the Bible. Understood in that way, it's reading the Bible that keeps me fresh. The living God keeps coming through in all sorts of ways. You're always in process of seeing things that you never saw before.

-- McClatchy Newspapers