J.I. Packer Stands Firm on Inerrancy

January 12, 2017

To Whom It May Concern:

       I called J. I. Packer at about 1:50 pm. EST today (Thursday, January 12, 2017).  We had about a 15 minute talk on ICBI, inerrancy, and Mike Licona.  I told him that rumors had come to me from Licona supporters that Packer may have changed or modified his view on inerrancy.  He denied flatly that he had changed his view on the topic.  As for my specific question as to whether or not he still supported the ICBI statement on inerrancy, he said that rumors to the contrary were “categorically and absolutely false.”  He gave the same answer to my second question as to whether he had changed his view about Mike Licona’s view expressed in Packer’s letter (of  5/8/2014) which declared that Licona’s position was contrary to the  ICBI statement on inerrancy.  The statement reads:

As a framer of the ICBI statement on biblical inerrancy and once studied Greco-Roman  literature at advanced level, I judge Mike Licona’s view that, because the Gospels are semi-biographical, details of their narratives may be regarded as legendary and factually erroneous, to be both academically and theologically unsound.

      Packer insisted that he strongly stands by both his affirmation of the ICBI statements on inerrancy and that Licona’s views were categorically contrary to it.  He described Mike’s view as “muddled” and illogical, but wished to keep the door open to discuss the issue with him.

Sincerely serving,

Norman L. Geisler

J.I. Packer is one of the great  theologians of our time.  He is author of “Fundamentalism” and the Word of God and or Knowing God.  Packer is one of the founders of The International Council on Biblical Inerrancy and a chief framer of the famous “Chicago Statement” on biblical inerrancy.  He is 90 year old and lives in British Columbia, Canada.