Packer came from a lower middle-class background and a nominal Anglican family that went to St Catharine\u2019s Church in Gloucester but never talked about the things of God or even prayed at meals. As a teenager Packer had read a couple of the new books coming out by C. S. Lewis (fellow and tutor in English literature at Oxford\u2019s Magdalen College), including The Screwtape Letters (1942) and the three BBC talks turned pamphlets that would later become Mere Christianity (1942-44). During chess matches with a high school classmate\u201d\u201dthe son of a Unitarian minister\u201d\u201dhe had defended Christianity.<\/p>\n
Packer thought of himself as a Christian. But the events of that evening would convince him otherwise.<\/p>\n
On this cool autumn evening, he made his way west across Oxford, past Pembroke College, and into St Aldate\u2019s Church, where the Christian Union occasionally held services. The lights in the building were dimmed so that the light emanating from the building would be no brighter than moonlight\u201d\u201da recent relaxation of England\u2019s \u201cblackout\u201d\u009d regulations to avoid air-raid attacks in World War II.<\/p>\n
He entered the doors of the church a dead man walking and was to leave later that night as a resurrected man, knowing himself to belong to Christ.<\/p>\n