愛戀 ‧ 情曲 ‧ 神の語

        James
I. Packer’s Keep in Step with the Spirit: finding fullness in our
walk with God is a treatise on the Holy Spirit in view of the doctrine of
sanctification and the thriving charismatic movements of the 20^th
century and the early years of the 21^st century.[i]
The outline of this book review is divided into four major sections:
introduction, description, evaluation, and conclusion. Background information
of the author and the book is provided in the introduction, which includes this
prefatory paragraph. The author’s writing style, the book’s purpose and scope
are also discussed in the introduction. A general overview of the book and a
description of its contents are in the second major section. The book’s
strengths and weaknesses are assessed in evaluation. Lastly, a summary of the
overall analysis of the book and some final comments are offered in the
concluding portion of this review.

        Packer
identifies his personal and theological perspective in the preface of the
second edition. This is a real plus for the book inasmuch as a good
understanding of a book can never be apart from a good understanding of its
author. James Innell Packer was born on July 22, 1926 in Gloucester, England.
He is a British-born Canadian Christian theologian in the Calvinistic Anglican
tradition.[ii]
He currently serves as a Board of Governors' Professor of Theology at Regent College
in Vancouver, Canada (where I live!). Being a
prolific writer, his best-known book is probably Knowing God.[iii]
His theological persuasion is Reformed; hence he often appeals to the writings
of John Calvin and, especially, the Puritan theologian John Owen. In portraying
himself, Packer writes that he found himself at the same time a “theological
pietist and a pietistic theologian.”[iv]

The background information
of Keep in Step with the Spirit is mostly given in the two prefaces of
the first and second editions of the book. The first edition was published in
1984 when the Vineyard Movement and charismatic-like Third Wave Christians were
on the rise.[v]
A revised and expanded second edition was published in 2005 since much has
happened in Christendom and the charismatic circles worldwide during the
in-between twenty-one years timeframe. The book was born out of a number of
doctrinal and methodological issues in the charismatic and Pentecostal
movements that, as Packer observed, gave rise to concerns. The book’s title Keep
in Step with the Spirit, taken from Galatians 5:25b (NIV), is vivid in
portraying the author’s intent. Its subject is on the Personhood and ministry
of the Holy Spirit in New Testament times as it relates to topics such as the
doctrine of sanctification, the charismatic life, and revival. Its style, in
Packer’s own words, “picks up not on contemporary academic pneumatology, but on
questions facing those who seek to live by the Bible with faith and a good
conscience.”[vi]
He feels modern-day theology is “not pastoral and catechetical,” and is “less
forthright [than him] in affirming the Spirit’s divine Personhood.” Its central
themes are wars with sin and temptation as they relate to sanctification, personal
charismatic piety, and the Holy Spirit’s work in revivals. According the
Packer, the book’s purpose is fourfold: to emphasize Christ-centeredness as the
heart of the Holy Spirit’s ministry, to reaffirm and present his view on
sanctification, to evaluate the charismatic movement, and to show that it is
not synonymous with Biblical revivals, thus exhorting readers to look beyond
it.[vii]
He tries to show that these purposes serve to usher believers into a fullness
of their walk with God in true purity and power. Therefore, the book is not
only intended for charismatics and Christians who practice similar type of
renewal spirituality, but also for all sincere Christians seeking spiritual
depth and fullness because they “mean business with God and are prepared to be
dealt with by [H]im.”[viii]

        Keep
in Step with the Spirit contains two prefaces, eight chapters, an appendix,
endnotes, and Scriptural and topical indices.[ix]
The two prefaces, as stated above, deliver the author’s personal background and
the aims of the book. In the opening chapter (Getting the Spirit in Focus),
Packer begins by putting forth his view of the Holy Spirit’s New Covenant
ministry. He believes that the focus of the Spirit’s ministry has frequently
been blurred by misplaced emphases on themes such as power, performance,
purity, and presentation. In assessing them, Packer affirms their biblical
validity and importance as aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit; however,
they will always be out-of-place and inadequate as long as the centerpiece is
absent. In short, Packer believes that the main work of the Holy Spirit is to
mediate the presence and life of Christ to believers. This works out in terms
of fellowship with Jesus, transformation to Christlikeness, and assurance of
God’s love, redemption, and adoption. Consequently, every facet of the Spirit’s
ministry functions to serve this purpose. On the other hand, when this focal
point is not highlighted, a fuzzy and shallow pneumatology will result. All
subsequent chapters of the book seek to develop this thesis.

        In
the second chapter (The Holy Spirit in the Bible), Packer tries to show the
reader what the Bible teaches about the Holy Spirit and His assignment.
Firstly, he confirms the Trinitarian doctrine by establishing the fact that the
Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Godhead, not a force or influence,
coequal and coeternal with God the Father and God the Son in essence and
majesty. The Spirit was sent to the earth to dwell within believers by the
Father and the Son as the second Paraclete to guide and empower them when the
earthly ministry of Jesus, the first Paraclete, was completed.[x]
The Spirit’s main task now, therefore, is a floodlight ministry to make people
aware of Jesus’ presence and glory. The Spirit’s works in conviction,
regeneration, Spirit-baptism, assurance, spiritual gifts, inner sealing, daily
guidance, evangelism and other activities, are all means in which the Spirit
helps individuals to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ—and this in turn
will bring one closer to the Father. Packer also defines certain key
charismatic terms in the second chapter. He identifies charismata[xi],
spiritual gifts, as “actualized powers” in which Christ works through His Body,
the Church, to the Body. He believes that charismata are for
edification. Hence, Christians may perform with their “giftings,” but if God
does not bless them to bring regular benefits to the Church, then they cannot
claim to have spiritual gifts. On Spirit-baptism, Packer believes that this
occurs at the same time as regeneration. He denies the Pentecostal two-stage
post-conversion baptism of the Spirit. Simply put, all genuine Christians are
baptized in the Spirit into Christ the moment when they are born again; thus,
there is no need to seek another Spirit baptism after one is saved. Packer
interprets John 20:22[xii]
as a prophetic act of Jesus rather than an actual and literal incident of the
disciples’ receiving the Holy Spirit.

        Chapter three (Mapping the Spirit’s Path:
The Way of Holiness) engages the topic of holiness. The author defines
“holiness,” in a word, as “Christlikeness.” He lists four reasons why he thinks
it is a much-neglected priority. First of all, today’s evangelicals are
preoccupied with controversy. Secondly, evangelicals are disillusioned with the
holiness teaching such as Keswick, or other second-blessing idea of
sanctification. Thirdly, gifts and talents preempt the holiness theme.
Fourthly, evangelicals are insensitive to the holiness of God Himself. Packer
then gives seven principles about holiness in regard to its: (1) nature; (2)
context; (3) root; (4) agent; (5) experience; (6) rule; and (7) heart. This is
a chapter that expresses the significance and urgency of recovering biblical
holiness in the lives of Christians today. In the fourth chapter (Mapping the
Spirit’s Path: Versions of Holiness), as the title suggests, Packer delineates
three prominent sanctification views and approaches: Augustinian Holiness
(Reformed), Wesleyan Perfectionism, and Keswick. Then he examines their
teachings in light of the Scriptures and discusses their strengths and
weaknesses. Although he points out and affirms the positive contributions of
Wesleyan and Keswick holiness, in the final analysis, he favors the Reformed
view of holiness—he sees it as the only biblical teaching concerning the
doctrine of sanctification.

The fifth chapter (Mapping
the Spirit’s Path: The Charismatic Life) attempts to assess the charismatic
movement. He outlines five general distinctives of the charismatic life:
post-conversion spiritual enrichment, speaking in tongues, spiritual gifts,
worship in the Spirit, and link to revival. In regard to theology, most
Protestant charismatics interpret their experiences in terms of restoration
of biblical truths. Catholic charismatics, on the other hand, tend to view the
renewal as a realization of biblical promises, which is the position
Packer takes. The positive aspects of the movement are twelve: (1)
Christ-centeredness; (2) Spirit-empowered living; (3) emotion finding
expression; (4) prayerfulness; (5) joyfulness; (6) every-heart involvement in
the worship of God; (7) every-member ministry in the Body of Christ; (8)
missionary zeal; (9) small-group ministry (10) attitude toward Church structures;
(11) communal living; and (12) generous giving. The negative aspects are ten:
(1) elitism; (2) sectarianism; (3) emotionalism; (4) anti-intellectualism; (5)
illuminism; (6) “charismania” (measures one’s spiritual health and growth by
the impressiveness of gifts and manifestations[xiii]);
(7) “super-supernaturalism” (constantly expects God to work miracle of all
sorts that transcends natural laws[xiv]);
(8) eudaemonism (characterizes the value of life in terms of happiness); (9)
demon obsession; and (10) conformism (peer pressure to perform certain
charismatic practices). Packer ends the chapter by arguing that charismatic
experiences are not unprecedented—there have been several charismatic-like
occurrences throughout the history of the Church.

        Chapter
six zooms in particular charismatic issues that Packer deems problematic. He
tries to show that Spirit Baptism is not separate from regeneration, and it
does not require any sign gift, normally tongues, as evidence. Though he
believes God can work supernatural miracles, but they are only similar
to the gifts that operated in the first century and are not the same (i.e. the
miraculous gifts are not the same as the gifts mentioned in 1 Cor 12, Eph 4,
and Rom 12). He views the gift of prophecy as primarily a sanctified natural
ability to share the Word of God in God’s wisdom and power, and not a divine
utterance of God’s direct revelation. Many who claim to speak in “tongues” are
actually not tongues at all, and the interpretation of tongues is almost
non-existent. In conclusion, Packer believes that charismatic theology is
immature, and it is quite flawed in its ideology, methodology and practice.
Chapter seven (Come, Holy Spirit) is an exhortation to Christians to seek for
revivals. Packer holds that the key to revival is the return to the heart of
the ministry of the Holy Spirit: Christ-centeredness. When believers turn from
their sins and seek to live a sanctified life continually, they will have hope
in witnessing God-send revivals in a lukewarm age of Christianity. The last
chapter (Heaven on Earth: A Pentecost Exposition) is a general exegesis of the
Pentecost event in Acts 2 and onward. Packer clarifies that what occurred on
that particular Sunday was a “Tower
of Babel in reverse.”[xv]
The Holy Spirit’s Christ-pointing ministry is seen in the Apostle Peter’s
sermon. The Spirit enlightened the audiences as well as the speakers’ hearts to
understand that Jesus is the Messiah, Savior and Lord of all. He ends the book
by bringing Romans 5:5[xvi]
and encourages the readers by reminding them of the incredible love of God
being poured out into the believers’ hearts by the Holy Spirit.

        Keep in Step with the Spirit has
many strengths and they are spread out all through the book. The construction
of the book is mostly coherent—its organization of chapters and thesis
development is well systematized. Packer’s method of argument is consistent
throughout the book. He does not use way too many technical jargons, thus it
appears fairly understandable to the average reader. The quality of notes and
references are good. The major strength of the book is it rightly brings out
the Spirit’s Christ-centeredness ministry back to center stage. The Spirit came
to glorify Jesus by declaring what He receives from Jesus to Christ’s followers
(John 16:14). I believe this book has done an excellent job in exposing the
superficiality of many present-day concepts of the Holy Spirit. In analyzing
the charismatic movement, the book placed equal emphases on its positive
contributions, subtle pitfalls and extremities. The list of ten negative
aspects of the movement is especially helpful for those who are seeking balance
in the surging movement. The other significant insight of the book is its
constant and strong stress on repentance, sins, and God’s sovereignty (as
expected from a Reformed theologian). These are topics often absent or treated
lightly in charismatic sermons and literatures. Only the “pure in heart,”
individuals or corporate bodies, can see God (Matt. 5:8). The chapter on
revival (Come, Holy Spirit) is right on target when Packer says that the
“Scripture shows that there is more to the renewing of the church than the
common charismatic emphases cover.”[xvii]
It is evident in reality that the charismatic movements are by and large not
synonymous with revivals. Only as one grasp this truth, will one continue to
seek and ask for greater renewals that are Heaven-born. Lastly, the book ends
well by encouraging its readers that “the love of God has been poured out in
[all believers’] hearts by the Holy Spirit,” leaving them hopeful and
forward-looking.

To my observation, the book has two main weaknesses: the definition
of perfection and the interpretation of charismatic theology. Firstly, Packer
does not really define what “perfection” is from the biblical perspective,
except that it is not “absolute perfection” and that one is “not perfect”
because one “can always do better or improve.” It seems that he just assumes
his own or common Christians’ idea of “perfection” (whatever it is) when
critiquing the various sanctification views. It might seem unnecessary to
define what “perfect” is—after all, “perfection,” in common terminology, means
“without fault or defect.”[xviii]
However, it would not be altogether improbable if God’s definition of
perfection diverges from that of finite, created human beings (Isai. 55:9).
This is not trying to play cute on semantics, seriously. There are numerous
Scriptures that seem to directly or indirectly indicate a type of perfection.
Packer lists twenty-six of them on p.230 in the notes, but he does not talk
about them much, which I think is a notable flaw. He does mention a few of them
when assessing the Wesleyan and Keswick holiness teachings, in which He uses
Romans 7:14-25 to counterclaim. However, it is not hard to see that a different
definition of perfection would probably result in a different Romans 7:14-25
exegesis. In my judgment, it would have been better to leave open the question
of which version of sanctification is most biblical open instead of
categorically rejecting both Wesleyan and Keswick as being unscriptural. He
could well argue that the perfectionist and Keswick views do not seem to
represent Bible sanctification, but it seems too narrow a view to leave the
readers with practically only one option when, in the first place, he does not
define perfection adequately (see Appendix: A Perspective on Christian Perfection).

The book’s second shortcoming is on its charismatic theology
appraisal. Packer comments that its common distinctives are “deeply unbiblical”
(p.161). However, I do not think he is, first of all, the best candidate to
critique the subject. How can someone who has never spoke in tongues judge
tongues speaking rightly? How can someone who is not very involved in the
charismatic ministry and practices see the whole picture just by looking from a
spectator’s perspective? A person is not going to teach others how to swim
effectively if he only has intellectual knowledge from books and consulting
others but has very little actual swimming experiences. It is like a non-Christian
writing a book on “knowing Jesus” trying to prove to Christians that their view
of Jesus is “deeply nonsensical.” In the same way, Packer is evaluating the
charismatic distinctives with his own measuring line. The reason why this
theology does not seem “straight” to him is because he is, in the first place,
not in the right position to judge it. He occasionally has an insight or two
throughout its review, but the bulk of it is, in my view, an unfair treatment
on the subject. For instance, he does not believe that the healing gifts of the
Spirit have been restored. In other words, charismatic healing ministries might
demonstrate a healing once in a while, but they are not the same as the healing
gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:9, 28, 30. His main argument is that
because many healing miracles are not instantaneous like those through the
hands of Jesus and the early church apostles; therefore, they are not the same.
Also, these healings never relapsed and almost every attempt to heal the sick was
successful. However, Packer fails to note that there are many instantaneous
healings throughout the entire 20^th century and the early years of
the 21^st century worldwide. Just because he does not witness
many instantaneous healings in his own environment, it does not mean
that this type of work is not being demonstrated. In fact, there are abundant
immediate healings happening all around the world in places such as China,
Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Korea, just to name a few. In my own
church, there are also instantaneous healing testimonies. When this happens in
a small or medium-sized church, it will probably not get much public attention.
Packer never brings these into his analysis properly. One also needs to see
that Jesus, the apostles and the early church were much more mature than the
church today in general. Therefore, it should not be a surprise if there were
more instantaneous cases in the Scriptures. It would probably be right to say
that generally the Scriptures only recorded extraordinary healing incidents
(Acts 19:11) by virtue of their unusual element, since to record every little
single healing would produce a much larger volume (John 21:25). Furthermore,
careful readers will discover that there are notable gradual healing cases or
times when a healing is not successful instantly in the Bible (Mark 8:22-25; 1
Tim. 5:23; 1 Cor. 11:30; Phil. 2:27; 2 Tim. 4:20). The bottom line is we cannot
interpret the Bible by the “silence argument.” Just because the Bible only
recorded three dead persons raised by Jesus, it does not signify that this is
the total dead people that He ever raised in His ministry.[xix]
Another important aspect that Packer does not discuss is that unbelief plays a
pivotal role in receiving miracles (Matt. 8:13; Mark 11:22-24; James 5:15).
Could it be that because one does not believe in the gifts of the Spirit so
s/he does not receive the manifestations? The Bible is clear in that when the
people of God do not believe a particular Scripture to be true, that truth will
not become a reality to them. In conclusion, Packer is actually, at least in
some considerable portions, examining experiences to interpret Scriptures when
he should have examined the Scriptures to interpret experiences. This erring
principle is also subtly applied to his analysis of other subjects such as
Spirit-baptism, tongues and interpretation, and prophecies. Even if Packer has
rightly observed some charismatic phenomena, partial truths are still not the
whole counsel of God—sometimes it can even end up with the exact opposite
meaning.

In summary, Keep in Step with the Spirit is a good and
informative book for those who have a comprehensive understanding and
experience of charismatic theology, practices, and also the various views of
sanctification. The book is clearheaded in pointing out many Pentecostal
extremities and rightly tries to re-focus the Holy Spirit’s work back to
Christ-centeredness. On the other hand, I do not think it is as beneficial for
those who do not have much experience and knowledge in the topics discussed in
the book. Many readers in this category will likely just concur with Packer’s
arguments simply because of his academic credentials, intellectual giftedness,
and ability to convey his ideas in eloquence. I do not doubt the author’s God-given
talents in these areas, but without proper experiences, it is hard to exercise
discernment in charismatic subjects. In the original preface of the book,
Packer outlines his book like serving a meal: chapter one the appetizer;
chapter two the soup, chapter three to six the meat; and chapter seven and
eight the dessert (p.16). It would seem, in my opinion, that if the meat
portion were cut down somewhat, that is, the parts where he evaluates the
charismatic theology, the overall meal would be “healthier.” Also it would have
been a really valuable piece if the author provides a deeper study on biblical
perfection. However, all been said, the author’s intent for the book and his
brave attempt to bring some light to the Body of Christ is unquestionably worthy.
Taken as a whole, it is a work that has some useful insights if the readers can
apply a high level of wisdom, discernment, and humility to learn from the
book’s strengths as well as weak spots.