J. I. Packer - Reformation rather than conglomeration

We agree that no single human formulation of God's truth can be final or exhaustive; we agree that it will take the combined insight of the whole Church to grasp the whole truth of God, and that all groups within Christendom have much to learn from each other; we know that we are all prone to misunderstand the views of others, and to do so in an unfavourable sense; we recognise that there is at least a grain of truth in every heresy, and that views which are partly wrong are also partly right. It is indeed important in theological discussion to remember that the essential step in sound theologising is to bring all views - one's own as well as others - to touchstone of Scripture. This is a step which much ecumenical theology seems to overlook. It tells us that older theology was woefully one-sided in its habit of treating opposing views simply as forms of error; but it is itself no less one-sided in its own habits of treating them simply as aspects of truth. Indeed, the last state is worse than the first; for the older theology, whatever its faults, was at least vividly conscious of the difference between truth and error, whereas the modern determination to judge the doctrinal disputes of Christendom as the Dodo judged the caucus-race (Everybody has won, and all must have prizes') seems to show a degree of theological agnosticism and indifference to truth which is, to say the least, disturbing. The truth is that it is not enough to labour at assimilating the various views to each other. Such labour may serve to promote better mutual understanding; but we are not entitled to infer from the fact that a group of people are drawing nearer to each other that any of them is drawing nearer to the truth. Our first task must be to test all the words of men by the authoritative Word of God, to receive only what Scripture endorses, and to reject what is contrary to it. The essence of right theological method is thus reformation rather than conglomeration. For we may not assume in advance that all views are simply aspects of truth. Some of our fancied insights and cherished traditions may prove to be radical perversions of truth when tested by Scripture. We must take seriously what the Bible says about the reality of error in the Church (c.f. Matthew 7:15; 1 Timothy 4:1 ff.; 1 John 4:1 ff.). So, when the Evangelical is assured by his critics that they do in fact approve  of most of what he says and does, and is asked on that account to come and join them in further ecumenical enterprise, he declines. He thinks that the differences are being minimised and that the unity to which he is invited would prove a hollow pretence. Instead, the Evangelical asks his critics to come and join him in submitting the methods and conclusions of their respective theologies to the judgment of the written Word of God.


- J. I. Packer ("Fundamentalism" and the Word of God, Chapter 1)