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Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God

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The relationship between God's sovereignty and man's responsibility is a very confusing one. On the one hand, we see in the Bible that God is sovereign over even the actions of man, since God has "mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth" (Rom. 9:18). Even Christ's death on the cross was not done outside God's control, but He was "delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 3:23). This is all good and glorious as we can rest assured in God's providence and care for us, knowing that nothing will separate us from the love of Christ, not even our own sins.

But some people lean too far toward God's sovereignty and forget all the places in Scripture that refer to commands to *do* something. "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12). "Give diligence to make your calling and election sure" (2 Peter 1:10). Though we know that Christ is sovereign over our works, we also know that we are entirely responsible for our works, and we mustn't forget either principle.

Having said all this, I really enjoyed this book because J.I. Packer helped me understand all this. He showed that divine sovereignty and human responsibility are really not at odds with each other, but both promote sanctification in God's people. He showed that there is an antinomy between the two (which has been mentioned in another comment) and even though we don't entirely understand this paradox, we must accept it as God's Word shows it to be true.

Having dealt with this issue, Packer then applies it to evangelism. He shows that only assurance of the sovereignty of God can give us true success in evangelism, because then we will not have to come up with clever methods to get people into church, or to entice them into the faith. When you are assured that God is the one that brings people to faith, you can simply proclaim God's gospel with love, and God will bring converts.

Packer also shows that a proper understanding of human responsibility helps in evangelism as well. The burden of evangelism is still pressed upon you, and you don't sit back as the hyper-calvinists do. In addition, you can be confident in your calls for repentance and for your audience to be baptized and enter God's Church.

Only when you hold to both sides of this paradox can you understand evangelism properly. Packer gets the paradox, and he explains and defends it *very* well.

Packer does an wonderful job of bringing together two subjects which on the surface would seem to be at odds with each other. As he points out in the book, God's Sovereignity and man's call to evangelize are both Biblical principles and therefore have to be considered by Christians. Dr. Packer has a way of clearly explaining both subjects and showing how God's sovereignity drives the Christian to be a witness for Him.

A little book that will help the reader understand the relationship between the sovereignty of God and man's free will. Dr. Packer wrote this book as many young preachers in England were leaning towards hyper-Calvinism as a consequence of their discovery of the Puritan writers and reformed theology. Far from diminishing evangelistic zeal, the sovereignty of God empowers our efforts to proclaim the gospel!

An Antinomy Explained. Antinomy: a contradiction between two apparently equally valid principles or between inferences correctly drawn from such principles. This is what this book is all about. I used to constantly struggle with this issue and I'm glad to say that Packer helped me put it to rest in a logically and biblically consistent manner. If you don't believe that God is in total control of his creation your prayers are futile, and if you don't believe men/women are responsible for their actions it follows that we all should converge into a common destiny. This book will clearly teach you both, that God is Sovereign and that mankind will have to give an account. More specifically, Packer treats this issue in regards to evangelism (the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ), as an activity for which each believer is responsible, and the gift of salvation (or gift of faith), as an activity that belongs to God. If you have not read it in five years, you should read it again, it is that good. EGM.

That God allows a sinfull and fallen creation to join Him in the accomplishment of His eternal plan is an awsome privilege and an irresistable proposition!! J. I. Packer does a very good job of explaining the irrefutable and plain teaching of Holy Scripture, that although God has elected from eternity who shall be saved, it is our responsibility and awsome privilege to be the means which bring that salvation about. We are simply God's mouth-peice, proclaiming the glorious gospel of Christ to a lost and dying world, it is up to God to make it effectual in the hearts of the elect. This is both comforting and encouraging in that: 1.) It assures us that our work is never in vain for God's word will always accomplish exactly what He wants it to accomplish, and 2.) It takes all the pressure off of us in that we do not have to judge the quality of our work by it's success. Every evangelistic encounter is a success because we have been obedient in proclaiming the gospel. This deep truth runs contrary to pathetic and shallow human minds. However, those who truley know God (that is: the God of the Bible, as opposed to a god of their own making), will love and cherish this wonderful truth and come to appreciate God and His amazing gift of grace in a brand new demension that unfortunate and worldly Christians tragically fall far short of. If you are a truth seeker and not just out to validate your own oppinions about God and the Bible, this book will be of eternal blessing to you. God Bless. SM

JI Packer has long been a prominent voice in evangelical theology, and many of his writings reflect solid teaching and wisdom. This book is no exception. This book makes an attempt to deal with one of the principle objections to Reformed theology particularly, and the sovereignty of God generally - if God is in control of everything and has already determined who will be saved, what purpose does evangelism serve? This book provides one of the more substantive responses to this objection.

Packer makes clear early on that it is impossible to get around two clear Biblical teachings without jettisoning whole sections of the Bible. Those two clear teachings are that God is absolutely sovereign and fully in control, and that man is responsible for his own actions and will be held accountable for his life. These two truths, which appear to be in competition with each other, have long proven to be a formidable theological question for theologians of all stripes. Arminians are often accused of elevating man's responsibility and thus forcing a watered down version of God's sovereignty that appears to be in contradiction with Scripture. Calvinists are often accused of elevating God's sovereignty to the point where human beings necessarily become little more than puppets, and that this seems to be in conflict with Scripture. Finding a reconciliation of the two truths that continues to preach the two truths in a way that's faithful to what Scripture actually says is where the rub has been. In this book, Packer does not offer a detailed compatibilist proposal, but indeed affirms the classic Reformed understanding that God's complete sovereignty is undeniably expressed in Scripture, and that this is a significant issue when it comes to the topic of evangelism.

The best section of the book is where Packer discusses the actual practice of evangelism and what it should look like. I think many readers will gain fresh insights about what evangelism actually is, and that Scripture is rather clear about what it is. Readers who are in the missions field or are in a heavily evangelistic role in their church or community will find this section to be very helpful, in addition to laypeople who are likewise called to evangelize the territory that God has given them.

Packer concludes by eloquently discussing how evangelism, without the recognition that God is sovereign, is a worthless enterprise that will yield no fruit. Packer persuasively argues that those who believe that winning converts is based upon their own evangelism techniques or charisma are utterly out of touch with what Scripture clearly says about the human condition in its natural state and its complete unwillingness to grasp or accept the things of God absent a work of God in unregenerate hearts. And it is here that Packer proposes that the sovereignty of God, contrary to eliminating the need for evangelism, is actually the one sure-footed basis upon which to conduct fruitful evangelism. Packer repeatedly comments that regardless of one's views on election and predestination, God's sovereignty is not only complementary, but a necessary precondition to the human responsibility to evangelize effectively. He effectively shows that if we water down or compromise the sovereignty of God, Arminians and Calvinists alike have no Biblical basis to believe that evangelism will be worth anything, and this line of thought is quite helpful for Calvinists attempting to deal with the mainly Arminian objections to the impact the sovereignty of God has on evangelism. A good book.

In this very intriguing topic, Packer clearly shows that Evangelism and The Sovereignty of God indeed walk side by side. Furthermore, he explains that the right understanding of Sovereignty of God will help us to face the seemingly impossible task of evangelism. I highly recommend this book specifically for those who are still trying to find an explanation for this topic.

When it comes to evangelism, it seems that Calvinists have quite a poor reputation in the church today. Most of the largest and seemingly most successful mission organizations were founded by Arminians and continue to be based around Arminian theology. Arminian churches seem to grow much faster than churches based on Calvinist principles. It seems that part of the reason for this is that Calvinists have such a high view of God's sovereignty that it is easy for them to assume that there is no reason for Christians to evangelize. After all, if God truly is sovereign, if He does control absolutely everything, what reason is there to evangelize? If God has ordained someone will be saved, they reason, that person will be saved regardless of my efforts. Perhaps evangelism is even sinful, for is it possible that it actually denies God's sovereignty?

It is against this backdrop that J.I. Packer wrote Evangelism & The Sovereignty of God, a classic study on the relationship between God's sovereignty and the necessity of evangelism. A short but exceedingly powerful book, Packer shows that rather than precluding evangelism, God's sovereignty provides the most powerful incentive and support for it.

Packer begins by presenting the concept of antinomy, which he defines as "an appearance of contradiction between conclusions which seem equally logical, reasonable or necessary." An antinomy we face as believers is that of God's sovereignty and human responsibility. Somehow, although God is absolutely sovereign, He has ordained that we would be responsible for our involvement in His plans. Our obedient response to this antinomy is to accept it for what it is and learn to live with it. Any other response would be to minimize something God deems important and even necessary to a godly life. We cannot see Divine sovereignty and human responsible as opposites or principles that are in conflict with each other, but rather as principles that complement each other and are equally true.

The author turns to a lengthy discussion of evangelism where he defines what evangelism is and what it is not. He speaks of the message of evangelism as well as the motive and means for it. He concludes with an examination of how God's sovereignty affects evangelism. Packer's conclusion is that "We would not wish to say that man cannot evangelize at all without coming to terms with this doctrine [God's sovereignty]; but we venture to think that, other things being equal, he will be able to evangelize better for believing it."

For a book weighing in at a mere 126 pages, this one contains impressive depth and contains a thorough and satisfying treatment of the subject. I highly recommend this book for all believers and trust anyone will be able to learn and grow through it.

This book has been around quite along time (I recall reading it in college in the late '70's) and decided to pick up a newer edition and read it again. The book does a great job defining man's role in God's sovereign plan. I know that Jim Packer is a Calvinist and this book minimizes the conflicting viewpoints between Calvinists and Armenians regarding monergism and synergism in the context of conversion and salvation. To Packer's credit, he does a great job finding a common ground between the two mindsets and goes from there stating man's responsibility in God's eternal plan. My favorite part of the book was Packer's overview of what are good ways and bad ways of evangelizing.

I highly recommend this book because of the invaluable message, but my only minor critism is the way that the topics are presented. There are only three chapters in this 126 page book. Some of the chapters should have been divided up into additional chapters so that it would be easier to reference certain ideas and concepts.

The book by respected Bible scholar J.I. Packer titled Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God is an excellent book on the subject of evangelism, originally published in 1961. I prefer this book over the others I've seen and read because, even though it's relatively short (126 pages), he takes the time in the first section to establish the biblical truth of the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation. Packer shows that God planned the redemption process and, of necessity, carries out the entire plan from start to finish. Packer therefore establishes his reference point for the book by concluding from the beginning that "salvation is of the Lord."

In section 2, Packer explains how the doctrines of God's absolutely sovereignty and human responsibility are both true. Instead of trying in vain to "reconcile" the two seemingly contradictory truths, he shows how the two are both true and don't require reconciliation. Packer states that they are not a contradiction, but rather an "antinomy." They are what he calls an "apparent" or have the "appearance" of being incompatible. In fact, this is the way God involves mankind, both Christians and non-Christians in his eternal plan; through obedience and rejection. Just think about it for a moment. The Almighty God has chosen to honor us, his children, by allowing us to participate in his eternal plan of redemption. Scripture says, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

With the foundational truths established, in Section 3, the longest part of the book, Packer addresses what most other books on this subject dedicate nearly their entire books to, the "nuts and bolts" or the "how-to" evangelize information. In this section, Packer does often stray into his own personal preferences regarding the "do's and don'ts" of evangelism. In most cases, he does take the time to give the reader his rationale for his preferences.

In the last section, Packer effectively merges the two parts of evangelism, the absolute sovereignty of God and human responsibility. He reminds the reader that in true evangelism, human responsibility comes down to two important ingredients--the proclamation of the complete gospel and an obedient servant. We are reminded that the Great Commission is to go and preach the gospel, make disciples, and teach them to obey the commandments of God. Nowhere is it written to go out and give your testimony. A testimony can certainly be encouraging, but it is no substitute for the pure gospel message.

"How then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they beliee in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"

Packer's book is a classic road map for evangelism. I highly recommend it.