Calvinism's Strange Connections To Roman Catholicism | Part 1 - J.I. Packer

J.I. Packer is an author virtually all Calvinists have heard of. He wrote a famous treatise attempting to reconcile evangelism with Calvinism (well, he didn’t use those exact words, he actually instead portrayed it as an “antinomy”, but you get the point). His book is called “Evangelism And The Sovereignty Of God”.

But just who is J.I. Packer? In his book, he quotes not out of the King James Bible, but out of the Vatican’s own English Standard Version.

The ESV is, of course, based on the Nestle-Aland 27th Greek text. The same Greek text made under the approval and supervision of the Vatican.

That makes the ESV a Vatican Version. And J.I. Packer uses it to defend his Calvinism.

But to make matters worse, Packer describes himself openly as an “ecumenical” Anglican.

And to seal the deal, J.I. Packer signed his name in endorsement on a 1994 document called “Evangelicals & Catholics Together” outlining the heresy that Roman Catholics are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

This document was cosigned with names such as Pat Robertson, and openly Jesuit Bishop Carlos Sevilla.

It’s obvious J.I. Packer is working to get Evangelicals and Catholics together, in preparation for the coming antichrist — the pope of Rome (Daniel 9:26 KJB). Could Calvinism play a part in his goal? Absolutely. Here’s why: Calvinism goes hand in hand with Lordship Salvation. Lordship Salvation is the teaching that we must turn from all of our sin (stop sinning) for everlasting life. That is obviously works for salvation (Jonah 3:10). But, Calvinism “solves” this problem by having someone be saved before they do those good works for salvation. Thus, the argument goes from the Lordship camp, we can do these good works for forgiveness because we are already saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8) before we do those works (which are unto salvation). Calvinism prepares the road for a works salvation message that can be easily molded into the works-based system of Roman Catholicism.

Bill Bright's Contrived Statistic

Over and over again, I've seen this statistic: Only 2% of Christians share their faith on a regular basis. And yet, I never have seen the actual data for such a statistic. Every website and book that makes that statistic refers to it being made by Dr. Bill Bright. But even then, most websites don't give any citation to where Dr. Bright said that. Although, I did find a book that did give a citation. It cites The Coming Revival for the support of this statistic. In that book, Dr. Bright made this statement on page 65:

"According to numerous surveys, 50 percent of the hundred million who attend church each Sunday have no assurance of their salvation. And 95 percent are not familiar with the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Only two percent of believers in America regularly share their faith in Christ with others." (emphasis added).

This is the origin of this commonly cited statistic. Yet, in the book, absolutely no footnotes or citations are given to back up any of these statements. Dr. Bright either made them up on the spot, or simply repeated rumors that he heard.

So what is the truth on this matter? The number of professing Christians who share their faith on a regular basis is more like 14%, not 2%, according to a LifeWay Poll. This is still, no doubt, a very low number of Christians who share their faith on a regular basis. But the contrived statistic by Dr. Bill Bright, and parroted by nearly everybody is simply flat out wrong with nothing to back it up.