J. I. Packer likes to say of himself “Packer by name, Packer by nature.” By this he means that he can pack a lot into one sentence. We all know this is true theologically, but it is less recognized in his biographical summaries. (See, for example, his punchy descriptions of Francis Schaeffer and Martyn Lloyd-Jones.)
Here is his summary of George Whitefield, whose 299th birthday is today:
The ‘Grand Itinerant’, as his contemporaries called him, was, more than anyone else, the trail-blazing pioneer and personal embodiment of the eighteenth-century revival of vital Christianity in the West, the revival that shaped English-speaking society on both sides of the Atlantic for over a hundred years and that fathered the evangelical missionary movement which for the past two centuries has been taking the gospel literally round the world. . . .
First to preach the transforming message of the new birth, first to take it into the open air and declare the world his parish, first to publish journals celebrating God’s work in and through him, and first to set up societies for the nurturing of those who came to faith under his ministry, Whitefield proclaimed Christ tirelessly throughout Britain and colonial America, drawing huge crowds, winning thousands of souls, impacting myriads more, and gaining celebrity status. . .
Wesley’s influence as a renewer of popular religion is sometimes credited with saving England from an upheaval like the French revolution; if there is substance in such reasoning, Whitefield should receive greater credit, for his ministry ranged wider and his pulpit power was greater.
(This quote is from Packer’s introduction to Henry Scougal’s The Life of God in the Soul of Man.)
Keep your eye out next year for Thomas Kidd’s biography of Whitefield, to be published by Yale University Press in time for the 300th anniversary of his birth. I expect it to be the definitive treatment of the man and his time.
