Knowing God (Book Review)

There is only one reason why a Christian book on theology (not fiction, not self-help, not vapid devotion, not popular eschatology) has been in print for almost 40 years and has sold more than a million copies.  The reason is that it is a classic.  Knowing God by J.I. Packer is a classic that has introduced all its readers to the God of the Bible through Jesus Christ.  This book is widely read, reread, praised and loved precisely because it takes readers by the hand and gently guides us to the foot of the cross where we can know the God who is unchanging, majestic, all-wise, truth, loving, gracious; but also a righteous judge, wrathful against sin, good and severe, jealous for his own glory, and altogether beautiful and worthy of worship.  Apart from the Bible, this is a book that every Christian should read again and again.  It will teach you and remind you why God is God, why we ought to seek him as an end in himself, and how we may find him in Jesus Christ.

Packer divides this journey on which he guides us to know God into three stages: (1) Know the Lord; (2) Behold Your God; and (3) If God Be For Us.  The first stage of the journey is composed of six chapters which prepare us what it means to know God, that there is only one true God, that God has revealed himself through his written word (the Bible) and his incarnate Word (his Son Jesus Christ).  In the second stage of the journey Packer describes what God is like as he reveals himself in the Bible and in Jesus.  The third stage of the journey explains the gospel (the good news Jesus proclaimed about himself) and its effect on the Christian life.  Throughout the book Packer couples his conversational style with a generous selected on famous hymns written by believers of past ages that were enraptured by God and his love for his people.  This feature of the book gives the journey a warm personal touch.  This is not a theological textbook, but a meaty devotional journey for travelers walking the same path in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.

Discerning readers rarely agree with everything an author writes.  It has been said that if you find nothing disagreeable in a book then you haven’t begun to think about its message.  There is one aspect of Knowing God with which I have concerns—and I am certainly not alone in this particular objection.  In chapter 4 (The Only True God) Packer addresses the sin of idolatry and follows the puritan doctrine that images (even mental images) of Jesus are transgressions against the 2nd commandment of forbidding the worship of God using images.  Packer’s case is not simplistic nor disrespectful toward Christians who differ in this application of the commandment against idolatry.  But I find myself disappointed that he chose to respond to a subset of letters he received over the years objecting to artistic renditions of Jesus without addressing the more robust theological objections to this distinctly reformation and puritan era application.  Nevertheless, Packer is in highly respectable company in holding this particular position on idolatry and images of Jesus (see Westminster Larger Catechism #109).  This being said, I have absolutely no other quibbles with anything in the book.  It is simply a evangelical masterpiece!

Knowing God is the kind of book that you will finish no matter how long it takes to read (it took me almost a year!).  Knowing God is the kind of book you’ll want to reread frequently and revisit its various parts.  Knowing God is the kind of book you’ll want to pass on to seekers, new Christians, and those who have walked the path of Christian discipleship for decades.  In a word, it is a classic.  Read it to Know God and be changed for the better.

Genesis 1-4 (Book Review)

C. John Collins has written an insightful commentary on the first four chapters of Genesis.  The book, Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literary, and Theological Commentary, is an attempt to approach the foundational chapters of the foundational book of the Bible (which is the foundational book for Western civilization).  The author follows what he calls a “discourse-oriented literary hermeneutic” that serves to answer some of the questions that higher criticism has leveled against the OT.  Discourse analysis means he pays careful attention to the ancient text as an act of communication and how the text accomplishes its communicative purposes.  Literary analysis means he recognizes that all authors “use aesthetic devices to a greater or lesser extent, both to make their works interesting and to help the audience focus attention on the main communicative concerns” (p. 9).  This is not the same as the postmodern reader-response school of interpretation that can give the reader license to mold the text’s meaning like a wax nose.  Collins also gives attention to historical and expositional issues, all for the purpose of interpreting and expositing Genesis for the benefit of the Church and for the glory of Jesus Christ.

Does God Judge Fairly?

This is a sermon on Genesis 19:1-29.  Download sermon outline/commentary, and audio.

God has proven that he always judges fairly by destroying the wicked but delivering the righteous from his sweeping judgment, therefore rejoice in God’s perfect justice and seek deliverance in the Righteous One who was judged in your place.

Introduction – Have you heard of these common objections to Christianity regarding the existence of evil, suffering, and judgment?  “Why would a good God permit evil?  Why would a compassionate God allow suffering? Why would a merciful God send people to hell?”  These are all thoughtful questions, and I think they have satisfying answers.  But notice that all these questions assume something about God—that he is good, compassionate, and merciful.  In our culture this description of God is no longer assumed to be true.  Today people are beginning to doubt whether the God of the Bible is righteous at all.  Richard Dawkins, in his book The God Delusion writes, “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.  Those of us schooled from infancy in his ways can become desensitized to their horror.”  Many people have effectively put the God of the Bible on trial as a moral monster, doubting whether God judges fairly.  Some ask these questions to satisfy philosophical curiosity, others to justify their personal beliefs and lifestyle, others to make sense of life’s difficulties, still others to salvage their personal faith hanging by a thread.  So often in this life it seems that good people share in the consequences of oppressive people’s actions.  When God finally judges wicked people, will he be fair to the righteous?  Has this question crossed your mind?  You’re not alone.

New Living Translation Study Bible

For 2011 I chose to read through the New Living Translation Study Bible.  The NLT is now in its 2nd edition, and it seems a significant improvement over some of the translation deficiencies of the 1st edition of 1996.  While I don’t think the NLT is a good translation for doing detailed textual study, this is also not its purpose.  The NLT was designed to be a highly readable translation that smooths the “rough edges” off the more literal translations to achieve clarity and elicit more “eureka” moments in those non-scholars (most regular folks) seeking understanding of God’s holy Word.  The NLT hits what it aims for.

This Study Bible is an excellent resource for students of the Bible.  While it contains some theological reflections, some resources that connect the Bible to the history of Christianity, and some archaeological notes, its focus in on explaining the text in its narrative and canonical context.  Its study bible approach is to consciously emulate “being led through Scripture by a caring Bible teacher.”

A Threatening Personal Testimony

Paul's (Saul's) encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ

This is a sermon on Acts 21:37-22:29.  Download sermon outline/commentary, and audio.

Christians are sometimes called upon to defend their faith and obedience to Christ, and if their personal character and actions are also in question, it is appropriate to give this defense in the form of a “personal testimony”.

Introduction – As we leave the joyous holiday season behind and begin a new year, I’d like to remind us of the acid tone of our culture’s religious environment.  Prominent American atheist Dan Barker of the Freedom From Religion Foundation commented on the winter solstice and the Washington DC nativity display.  “We have a holiday. Before even this country started this time of year is the winter solstice. It’s a natural season. The Christians basically stole the season from us human beings by using the hate speech of the nativity scene which [condemns] all of us to hell if we don’t bow down to that little baby who became the dictator.”  Wow!  Happy New Year Mr. Barker.  In our culture, telling others about your personal religious beliefs can be scary because you don’t know whether you will be yawned at, laughed at, relativized, scorned, or welcomed.  You may doubt (as the world does) whether following Jesus as a Christian is actually obeying God.  You may be tempted to keep your most deeply cherished beliefs, and the source of life’s meaning and purpose, to yourself.  Nevertheless, Christians are sometimes called upon to defend their faith and obedience to Christ, and if their personal character and actions are also in question, it is appropriate to give this defense in the form of a “personal testimony”.

How to Be Truly Thankful

This is a sermon on Luke 17:1-19.  Download the sermon audio and outline.

You can only be truly thankful when you receive by faith undeserved mercy from God (simply trusting in Jesus Christ and his work for you).  Being thankful to God for his mercy will enable you to be a thankful person, especially when you are tested to give mercy to difficult people.

Introduction – Recently I heard on the radio that global economic news looks promising, therefore a good stock market is coming (never mind that a week later the global economic news and the stock market tanked!).  On top of this, the weather forecast is for pleasant conditions!  The commentator said, “So we’ll have something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving”.  Is our thankfulness conditioned on the size of our wallet and the temperature outside?  When the money disappears, and the weather gets wet and cold, are you unable to give thanks?  Are you able to give thanks only when life is trending up?  Or is there a better way?

When Following God Gets Serious

Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom: "This is SERIOUS!"

This is a sermon on Acts 20:36-:21:16.  Download the sermon audio and outline.

When Christians strive to follow God’s will by pursuing self-denying, cross-centered lives, they should expect Christian fellowship to be encouraging but sometimes emotionally painful and confusing.

Introduction – There is a scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom when the hero is following a hidden path deep into the bowels of an ancient palace.  So far it’s been an exciting adventure with the promise of “fortune and glory” awaiting him.  But then he finds himself trapped in a room where the stone ceiling begins to slowly roll down toward the floor threatening to crush him.  About half-way down rigid spikes appear from the ceiling and the floor.  Indiana, who up to this point has remained calm and kept his wits about him, screams “This is serious!”  In a flash, the adventure turns potentially deadly, and suddenly he’s not having fun anymore.  Obeying God’s will for me can be difficult because following him is sometimes confusing, and often causes pain for me and the people I love.  When Christians strive to follow God’s will by pursuing self-denying, cross-centered lives, they should expect Christian fellowship to be encouraging but sometimes emotionally painful and confusing.

Background – Why did Paul feel compelled this time around to go to Jerusalem which was a dangerous place for him?  Paul realized there was a growing division in the church between legalistic Jews and the believing Gentiles.  (Note that many times the church today only sees enemies of the gospel on the far left wing of the church and society.  But the primary enemies of the gospel in the early church were on the far right wing of the church and society.)  Ever since the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15), the division had grown as the legalists trailed Paul on his missionary journeys seeking to convert the new Christians to their own faction.  Paul understood the gravity of the situation.  He saw that since he was part of the problem (being the chief apostle to the Gentiles and the most successful foreign missionary), he should be part of the solution.  A substantial love offering collected from the Gentiles churches for the mother church in Jerusalem, delivered by Paul himself, could help to heal the division between the Jews and Gentiles in the church.

How Different Christian Denominations See Each Other

This is hilarious in so many ways.  But for me it is also biographical since I’ve been a charismatic, an evangelical, and now a reformed Christian.  I remember how the views of the charismatic and evangelical Christian were my views of others!  Funny how our theological team changes our perceptions.  (Click the image to enlarge)

The English Act of Supremacy

King Henry VIII--"a most intolerable ruffian and a blot of blood and grease on the history of England" - Shakespeare

In the year 1534 the King of England broke the church in his country away from the Roman Catholic Church.  On the surface it may appear that Henry VIII was a few years late to the Protestant party and thus a blip on the screen of history, upon further examination the creation of the Church of England is a major turning point in the history of the Church.  King Henry, who desperately desired a male heir to his throne, was willing to usurp headship of Christ’s Church for the English Crown so he could secure a divorce from his aging wife who had thus failed to birth a surviving son.  Although the motive that led to the Protestant Reformation coming to England was not theological but political, the Reformation came just the same.  With the passing into law of the English Act of Supremacy in 1534, Henry declared that the head of the Church was the State.  Church-State relations have never been the same, with some church revolting against this new arrangement and others embracing it.  History shows us the unintended effects of such placing the State in charge of the Church.

Mark Noll’s book Turning Points addresses this historic moment, explaining some of the factors that led to the Act of Supremacy and detailing many of the consequences that followed.  See below for a summary of Noll’s chapter, along with a few links for further reading.

The English Act of Supremacy: Breaking from Rome, the English Parliament declared King Henry VIII “the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England.”

Henry VIII: “Defender of the Faith”

Catholic Counterpoint: What was it like to be on the losing side of England’s Reformation?

The Diet of Worms (Martin Luther’s Trial)

Martin Luther was The Man.  Regardless of whether you are Protestant or Catholic or Orthodox, Lutheran or Reformed, Calvinist or Arminian, man or woman, (or whatever!) everyone must admit that Luther was a force to be reckoned with.  He was the “renaissance man” of the 16th century church.  None other than John Calvin deferentially referred to him as “the Apostle.”  He led a reform movement to bring the European church of his day back to purity of faith, righteousness, holiness.  He wrote volumes of theology, debated scholars, taught at a university, translated the Bible into German, wrote music, catechisms, liturgies, preached sermons, revolutionized marriage and family life in Germany, defied Church and Empire by standing by his principles and on Scripture, lived with a price on his head, and drank enough beer to enjoy it all.

Mark Noll, in his church history book Turning Points, does a fine job of getting at the important ideas and movements that preceded and followed the Diet of Worms in 1521.  Martin Luther lived a very full life amid turbulent changing times, and the turning point was his civil-ecclesiastical trial where he put his life in God’s hands when he famously said of God’s Word, “Here I Stand, I can do no other, so help me God!”

See below for a few articles on Martin Luther and a slideshow that highlights some of the key points in Luther’s life and thought.

Martin Luther: The Accidental Revolutionary.  In his quest for spiritual peace, Luther had no idea he’d leave his world in turmoil.

Martin Luther’s “Evangelical” Breakthrough: When, where, and how did Luther make his astounding discovery of justification by faith?

What Martin Luther Said: When Martin Luther stood up for his ideas at the Diet of Worms, did he really say, “Here I stand”?