Crumbs from the Master's Table

What is "doctrine"?  And, specifically, what is Christian doctrine? What follows are some orienting definitions from two of the mo...

Packer: The notion which the phrase "penal substitution" expresses is that Jesus Christ our Lord, moved by a love that was deter...

In his course notes for a lecture on systematic theology that J. I. Packer gave in 2009 at Regent College, he says that "theology as an...

Packer on the "sassiness" of theology: "I define the sassiness of theology as an unwillingness to keep quiet when God is mi...

J. I. Packer: "The conclusions supposed to have been established by last-century biblical criticism were really the presuppositions o...

J. I. Packer: "It is vital to realize that truth is for people, and therefore, the pastoral function of theology is ultimately primar...

Packer on the Calvinistic salvation of Scripture: God saves sinners . God —the Triune Jehovah, Father, Son and Spirit; three Persons worki...

"A successful hermeneutic is a consistent interpretative procedure yielding a consistent understanding of Scripture that in turn confir...

From Calvin's will, made on his deathbead: I give thanks to God who had mercy on me. . . . He delivered me out of the deep darkness of...

Here are a few answers. J. I. Packer succinctly gives us the standard stuff: Typology . . . looks into Old Testament patterns of divine ...

Packer on inauthentic interpretation versus the real deal: Historical exegesis is only the preliminary part of interpretation; application...

What are revivals ? Here's one way J. I. Packer puts it: Revivals are "animatings and deepenings of the awareness of God, of the se...

In a chapter on "The Reformational Revivalism of George Whitefield," J. I. Packer records these sentiments by Benjamin Franklin ab...

In a chapter titled "Richard Baxter on Heaven, Hope, and Holiness," J. I. Packer expresses three convictions: The first is that ...

"That is the best doctrine and study which maketh men better and tendeth to make them happy." — Richard Baxter,  culled from J. ...

Packer on the essence of Puritanism: Puritanism . . . was a total view of Christianity, Bible-based, church-centered, God-honouring, liter...

What does the doctrine of justification primarily or fundamentally address? This question is important. If we answer that it addresses first...

Speaking of the "God-given liveliness and authority" that used to be called unction , J. I. Packer gives this tribute to Martyn Ll...

From J. I. Packer's classic Knowing God (pp. 63-64): We talk glibly of the "Christmas spirit," rarely meaning more by this tha...

Packer on faith: "Faith is . . . an empty hand stretched out to receive Christ, grasping him and holding him fast." Luther on fa...