A Second J. I. Packer Quotation, this time he's sure.

Why cite Packer at all? J. I. Packer's writings don't seem to demonstrate
that he has expertise in either the fields of science nor ancient Near
Eastern mythology. He probably is aware however, that scientists have
discovered evidence of the earth's vast age, and evidence of a progression
of forms in the fossil record, and that even Evangelicals remain split
over the issue of what Genesis "teaches," as seen in the book published by
Zondervan, Three Views on Science and Creation. So naturally, Packer
hedges his bets, and tells fellow Christians that he is "unsure." An
irenic gesture, but it still doesn't answer what Packer may personally
suspect that Genesis is "teaching."

What IS interesting however, is that regardless of his irenic gesture
concerning what Genesis "teaches," Packer appears quite certain about how
Christians will feel in heaven knowing that others are suffering in hell.
We have Packer's undisputed opinion on this question, for Packer wrote,
“Love and pity for hell’s occupants will not enter our hearts.”

How can Packer be so "unsure" about Genesis yet so "sure" about the
internal feelings of people's hearts in a realm none of us has ever yet
visited?

Here's an article that references the Packer quote:

I read in Christianity Today (“Hell’s Final Enigma,” April 22, 2002) that
the Reverend J. I. Packer (professor of theology at Regent College in
Vancouver, Christian author, and executive director of the aforementioned
magazine) was asked, “How might those in heaven feel about those in hell?”
To put it another way, how might Christians feel when they are in heaven,
knowing that multitudes of people they once loved (fellow human beings
with similar feelings, joys and fears, and whom they were taught they
ought to love with an “unconditional love” and “forgive
seventy-times-seven times”), would be suffering eternally?

Reverend Packer replied (if I may paraphrase) that heaven’s occupants
would be busy loving each other and praising God. (I wondered if he meant
that in the same sense as “winning teammates patting each other on the
back for eternity?”) So their attention would be focused on heavenly
glories. (I wondered if he meant that in the same sense as children so
immersed in playing a video game that they cannot be distracted by
anything outside of the game?) Then, only after describing how heaven’s
occupants would feel about God, heaven, and each other, Reverend Packer
replied to the original question of “How might heaven’s occupants feel
about those in hell?” The Reverend’s reply consisted of ten words: “Love
and pity for hell’s occupants will not enter our hearts.”

But doesn’t such a reply beg the question: “What kind of ‘heart’ could
find neither ‘love nor pity’ entering it, knowing that the greater portion
of mankind, including former wives, children, and friends, were all
suffering in hell?”

Perhaps Rev. Packer ‘s next column should be about how to reconcile the
following two statements, the first one being his own:

“Love and pity for hell’s occupants will not enter our hearts”

“Love is patient… it keeps no record of wrongs…. It always protects,
always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails…. These
three remain: faith, hope and love.” (1 Corinthians 13:4,7,8,13 -- NIV
translation)

_________________________

HELL’S FINAL ENIGMA… A SECOND OPINION
A Christian brother told me that when we are in heaven we will have no
concern for those who will be burning in what he believed to be eternal
hell. But if we are to “love our neighbors as ourselves,” how can this be
true? God has said that He will have “all” come to Him. Is any heart so
dark (and without the slightest flaw or crack) such that the light of
Christ could never penetrate it? Does not emptiness abhor a vacuum, and
what could be more vacuous than a heart trying to keep itself pumped up
with lies and deceit which have no substance of and by themselves. Surely
such vacuous hearts cannot avoid being eventually filled with the only
solid and substantial Truth that is, was or ever will be?

Something written by the 19th-century univeralist Christian, George
MacDonald, recently encouraged my own heart… Jesus said for us to love
even our enemies. We were His enemies at one time and He came down into
our hell.

"And what shall we say of the man Christ Jesus? Who, that loves his
brother, would not, upheld by the love of Christ, and with a dim hope that
in the far-off time there might be some help for him, arise from the
company of the blessed, and walk down into the dismal regions of despair,
to sit with the last, the only unredeemed, the Judas of his race, and be
himself more blessed in the pains of hell, than in the glories of heaven?
Who, in the midst of the golden harps and the white wings, knowing that
one of his kind, one miserable brother in the old-world-time when men were
taught to love their neighbor as themselves, was howling unheeded far
below in the vaults of the creation, who, I say, would not feel that he
must arise, that he had no choice, that, awful as it was, he must gird his
loins, and go down into the smoke and the darkness and the fire, traveling
the weary and fearful road into the far country to find his brother? --
who, I mean, that had the mind of Christ, that had the love of the Father?"

Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Will He not continue to seek out and
save all of the lost? Will we have the love of Christ in heaven?
MacDonald’s words were a blessing for me to read.
- Shana (First-Grade Teacher, Therapist for Autistic Children, and creator
of a universalist Christian website) [Three sentences were edited by
E.T.B.]
http://www.webspawner.com/users/nicky0/index.html

Another quotation from George MacDonald

"I believe that justice and mercy are simply one and the same thing…

"[I believe] such is the mercy of God that he will hold his children in
the consuming fire of his distance until they pay the uttermost farthing,
until they drop the purse of selfishness with all the dross that is in it,
and rush home to the Father and the Son, and the many brethren, rush
inside the center of the life-giving fire whose outer circles burn. I
believe that no hell will be lacking which would help the just mercy of
God to redeem his children.

- George MacDonald (19th-century universalist Christian), excerpts from “I
Believe,” Unspoken Sermons
Received on Thu Oct 14 10:42:17 2004