Customer Reviews

Knowing God

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Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. (Romans 1:25 AV)

Packer refers to the word of God throughout this book. Those who challenge the inerrancy of the Bible will find this work useless. God chose to teach us humans through the word of God. Therefore the Bible is where individuals learn about God.

J.I. Packer sets out by differentiating between God and His creatures (man). In what ways man has nothing in common with his creator. Packer at length describes as being self existent, infinite, eternal, unchangeable, omniscient, and omnipresent. After these aspects of God are fully described, Packer continues by clarifying analogies between man and God. These are called perfections. Man can be holy, Man can love, man can show mercy, man can be truthful, man can be good, man can be patient, and man can be just. Packer describes how God is perfect and these aspects about any man is imperfect.

The first 137 pages of this book will not offend today's
Christian. Page 138 starts a discussion about Grace and how many miscomprehend the term. Why? Because some deny God as judge, they deny the wrath of God, and do not comprehend that God is a jealous God. That God is good because He is severe about sin. Someone must take the punishment for sin.

After an explanation of God, man, and sin, Packer teaches the heart of the Gospel. That only those who repent accept Jesus as Savior are heirs of the Father and are adopted sons of God. Only then does discussion turn to the more popular themes: how God is our guide, how the repentant sinner is helped through his trials and the adequacy of God.

The width of our knowledge of God is no gauge of the knowledge of God. (pg. 39) Notional correctness (best biblical scholar with presume accuracy) may/may not obtain the closer relationship with God. Packer argues knowing God is a matter of involvement. Prayer - corporate, private and without ceasing. Bible study - corporate, private devotional, and scholarly
Obedience out of love for God and people. Only then Friendship with God may occur. Trying a mouthful of God and enjoy it.

O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the
man that trusteth in him. (Psalms 34:8 AV)

Early in the book is a discussion about the Trinity
complete with scriptural proofs.

a simple explanation of biblical theology. easy to read, easy to understand.
simply put, a must read.
Knowing God has become one of my favourite books of all time.

When people ask me what I believe, I always refer them to this book as the best summary of my "statement of faith."

Greetings;

I have known Christ as my Savior for almost 50 yrs and found that this book changed my life leading me to a greater appreciation of our God and his Son Jesus Christ. God is infinite in all his attributes, thus we cannot weight love as being more important than his righteouness.

I would challenger any Christian to read this book prayfully and carefully, in combination with this book and his precious Word, God has a blessing for you which will draw you into a closer and personal relationship with God.

We read the words of Jesus "And this is life eternal, that they may know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3) Is it no amazing that the God of the universe desires to know us! Praise his name
Robert Nicholson

This book you will find Dr. Packer at his finest. The book is written for the average church-goer, but there is much here for the pastor or serious Bible student. Jesus says in John 17:3 that eternal life is knowing the only true God. Well, this book seeks to set out for the reader who that God is and what He is like. Packer, with the skill of an artist and the insight of a trained theologian who truly know his subject puts God's attributes on display for the reader. The Bibical data of God's own self-revelation is laid out for everyone to read and enjoy. One way to evaluate a book, especially in today's profit driven book market, is how many reprints it goes through. Already a Christian classic, his is one that people will be reading for generations to come.

This is a book for Christian idolators. You're probably scratching your head and wondering what I mean by that phrase, since it seems oxymoronic. How can a person be a Christian and an idolator at the same time? Very simply, by worshiping God as something other or less than he truly is. We all do it to a greater or lesser degree, depending on our theological and doctrinal "upbringing." Every Christian, whether a truly born again believer or a merely nominal professor of Christ, knows a certain amount of truth about God, some of us very little, others rather alot by comparison. Regardless of where you fall on the spectrum, your knowledge of the infinite God is forced to pass through the filter of your finite, sin-tainted human mind. The result is a false or incomplete notion of God's nature and character. In other words, we worship something other than the One True and Living God -- i.e., an idol.

Packer writes to alert complacent Christendom to this seemingly little-recognized phenomenon. He astutely points out, though, that this occurs not simply in ignorance or as a function of limited human capacity to comprehend the infinite. Rather, there is a certain degree of willfulness involved, as many of us choose to disregard or downplay those aspects of God's character which we find less pleasant than others. For example, western Christians love to talk about God's mercy, love and providence. We extol his kindness, longsuffering and forgiveness, as if these "good" attributes were the only ones worthy of mention. But what about those qualities which get fair less play in the Christian bookstores -- things like wrath, justice, righteousness and holiness? When was the last time you saw a bestseller about the wrath of God? Yet wrath is just as much a part of God's makeup as his mercy. He is no less holy and righteous and just than he is good and forgiving. It is to these unpopular and oft disregarded qualities that Packer redirects our attention.

The author also reminds us of the vast difference between knowing "about" God, and actually "knowing God". In other words, our heads can be filled with theology, but if it doesn't translate into a life-altering relationship of love and obedience toward God, we cannot say that we know God. And so Packer sets out to teach us something about how to know God by exploring his attributes, and in particular the "unhappy" ones. He also, in what I think is one of the best portions of the whole book, spends a fair amount of ink expounding the crucial doctrines of propitation and adoption. Even better, he gives the most succinct and eloquent summary of the gospel which I have ever read, by linking these two concepts in a simple three-word phrase: the gospel is the good news of "adoption through propitiation." The theological depth of that statement is simply mind-bending, and Packer's formulation of it, by itself, makes this book worth reading.

My only criticism would be of the book's undue (in my opinion) verbosity. The author could have communicated the same truth with the same impact in a much more concise presentation. I found some of the chapters toward the center of the volume to be a bit labored and dry, and even occasionally redundant. Nonetheless, this has been and will continue to be a classic, and I commend it to the reading of every believer who is serious about diving deeper into the unfathomable depths of God's nature and character. Let us be idolators no more!

Packer has written an excellent book that has impacted people world-wide!

Among the points Packer covers include:

1. We are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in the world without knowing God.
2. We cannot know God unless He speaks to us. Do not elevate your thoughts of God over what He has said about Himself in the Bible.
3. God had to bring Abraham and Jacob to the end of themselves.
4. The goodness, patience, and discipline of God.
5. While God is love, He is also a God of judgment.
6. Do not be concerned about your rights - let God vindicate you!
7. God will justify and not condemn us through our relationship with Jesus Christ.

Read this great classic and be encouraged!

It is so wonderful for someone like me - the generation that was at University when this magnificent, wonderful and totally life changing book came out, over 30 years ago now, that it is still in print and changing lives, as it did with countless of us at university back in the 1970s. Let it change your life in 2003 as it certainly did mine in 1973 and the thousands in between. A classic by a genius! Christopher Catherwood, author of CHRISTIANS MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIC RAGE (Zondervan, 2003) and the now out of print FIVE EVANGELICAL LEADERS (of whom JI Packer was of course one)

This book was a tremendous book on the attributes of God by a tremendous theologian. My favorite part is when Packer quotes the Puritans. He quotes them a lot, too. The Puritans are an often forgotten group, except for the negative things that happened. Packer shows that the Puritans were amazingly following after God and His statues.

This is the only devotional-type book that I have ever enjoyed. While it was fairly devotional in content, Packer put Theology into it. He doesn't just put milk in the content, but also adds meat to it. I love it when he talked about such things as the atonement, election, etc. These are topics that most devotional writers will not even touch, because they are "too controversial". But, Packer tackles the issues with tenacity.

I love the chapter on the Grace of God. That was my very favorite chapter. Packer talked about how most Christians today really don't believe in the grace set forth in the Word. He also quotes a bunch of hymns that the Puritans wrote. This just shows how amazing they really were. This is a great read for someone wanting to study the attributes of God.

This book's greatest gift is a singular focus on God. It skillfully strips away much of the culture and dogma that encumbers the spirit and offers practical advice for modern Christians on how to get back to the simple truth of our faith.