Jim Packer: can women teach in mixed congregations

"Teaching, in other words, is a different exercise today from what it was in
Paul’s day. I think it is an open question whether in our day Paul would
have forbidden a woman to teach from the Bible. It is an open question
whether he would have regarded what happened to Eve in the Garden of
Eden as sufficient reason for forbidding a woman to teach from the Bible.
When you teach from the Bible, in any situation at all, what you are saying
to people is, “Look, I am trying to tell you what it says. I speak as to wise
men and women. You have your Bibles. You follow along. You judge
what I say.” No claim to personal authority with regard to the substance of
the message is being made at all. It seems to me that this significant
difference between teaching then and teaching now does, in fact, mean
that the prohibition on women preaching and teaching need not apply."
J. I. Packer

Jim is a honorary canon at St Andrew Cathedral Sydney.

Now, I've heard at least one member of that church say that if anyone says that women can teach, they are a false teacher, a heretic, and should not even be eaten with, they deny the authority of the scriptures, are misleading the church etc etc.
He has come under quite an attack in Canada recently.
So I was really happy to see this affirmation of Jim Packer by ACL president Mark Thompson




The ACL notes with alarm the Bishop of New Westminster’s threat to revoke Professor J I Packer’s ‘spiritual authority as a minister of Word and Sacraments’.

Professor Packer, one of the leading Christian voices of the twentieth century, is amongst those who have voted to stand with authentic and orthodox Anglicans rather than those who have undermined biblical truth over many decades and most recently by their innovations regarding homosexual practice. As one of these he has now become a target for revisionist aggression. Once again the intolerance and anti-liberal heart of liberal Christianity has been exposed.

Professor Packer continues to be held in the highest regard by all those who seek to live in faith and obedience to the Scriptures as the written word of God. As a disciple of Jesus Christ he has provided a remarkable example of faithfulness and steadfastness for more than fifty years. We in the ACL assure him of our love, support, and continued prayer for him at this difficult time.

This latest incident highlights what has been happening to authentic and orthodox Anglican men and women in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom in the past few years. Ministers have been deprived, congregations have been forced to leave their buildings, law suits have been instigated and campaigns of misinformation have been launched in the religious and secular press. Others have simply been threatened with these things and more in an attempt to silence them.

This use of coercion by revisionist bishops has not been publicly addressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury or by those who champion the so-called ‘Windsor Process’. Their silence is deafening and shameful. In the light of this it is little wonder that so many of us have very little confidence in this process or in the resolve of those behind it to focus on the most important issues.

We look to the Lord of heaven and earth, who is more than able to protect his people and vindicate his own word. If even the gates of hell will not prevail against Christ’s church we need not fear ecclesiastical bully-boy tactics.

The ACL also give thanks to God for those who have begun to act to bring about genuine reformation and a renewed vision for the gospel mission in world Anglicanism and eagerly anticipate much good from the forthcoming Global Anglican Future Conference in Jerusalem.

Mark D Thompson
President
Anglican Church League

March 2, 2008.