![]() ![]() Packer wrote, “How should we view the onset of old age? The common assumption is that it is mainly a process of loss. Aging is one of the stages of life that our youth-fixated culture doesn’t prepare us for. ![]() Some good, something for his glory, is going to come out of it.” And I’ve had enough experiences of his goodness in all sorts of ways not to have any doubt about the present circumstances. Packer continued, “God knows what he’s up to. Now that it’s no longer possible I acknowledge the sovereignty of God.”ĭescribing what he called Christian realism, Dr. Packer told interviewer Ivan Mesa that “in the days when it was physically possible for me to do these things I was concerned, even anxious, to get ahead with doing them. He was sustained during the last several years not by his feelings, but by what he knew to be true about the God he knew. The eminent pastor-theologian – who authored more than 300 books, book reviews, journal articles, dictionary entries, and forewords, and preached and lectured around the world – was losing his vision. Packer announced the end of his public ministry. And if you’ve never studied theology, or even think that theology gets in the way of personal devotion to Christ, I’ll wager that Packer’s classic will convince you otherwise.Ī few years ago, Dr. Even though Packer was one of the brightest theological minds of our time, he never forgot what theology was all about. That’s why I recommend this book, even for those who have studied theology deeply. We must know the God revealed in Scripture and clarified by proper theology. Too often, the God Christians claim to know is One made in our own image. Throughout the book, Packer clarifies that God must be known on His own terms. And finally, those who know God have great contentment in God. In Knowing God, Packer describes four characteristics of those who truly know God. ![]() First, “One can know a great deal about God without much knowledge of Him,” and second, “One can know a great deal about godliness without much knowledge of Him.” Two statements which this Oxford-trained theologian made in the second chapter of the book hit me like a ton of bricks. The book is best described as a work of “devotional theology.” For many Christians, “devotional” and “theology” are two incompatible words, as if diving deep into theological truth is the stuff of the “head,” while walking with God is more a matter of the “heart.” Packer, in a thoroughly biblical way, destroys that false dichotomy in Knowing God. Each was along the lines of: “This is one of the most important books I’ve ever read other than the Bible itself.” So, I picked it up, read it, and I’ve been recommending Knowing God ever since. However, the name of almost every Christian leader I did know (like Chuck Colson, Joni Eareckson Tada, Chuck Swindoll, Elisabeth Elliot, Billy Graham, and others) was on the dust jacket, offering their endorsement of the book. ![]() Actually, the title of the book caught my eye: Knowing God, written by someone who, at the time, I’d never heard of… J.I. One fall afternoon in 1994, as a not-new but newly serious believer, I wandered into a small Christian bookstore in a small town in Tennessee, and a book caught my eye. ![]()
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