J. I. Packer presents a compelling summary of how believers should know God through Scripture as well as experientially in living the tenets of Scripture, a true experience of Christ living in us. Packer illustrates God’s nature through Scripture and His character of wisdom, majesty, personal unfailing lovingkindness, yet righteousness, judgment and wrath which do not diminish God’s nature or righteousness. In God’s judgement His wrath is justly shown against sin and those who reject Christ. While reading, a love beyond measure, God’s love becomes self evident. However this divine love is characterized in His terms and not ours. Packer’s key question is not asking if God is for us and again not solely for us on our terms but rather, are we for God? His question is also quality over quantity do we know much …show more content…
success, love, family, power) to satisfy their deepest needs rather than trust in their Creator.”
This blindness by infinitesimal idols held close to our heart’s eye, blocks out God. Whatever the escape motive, the idol has to be ID’ed and then removed. Packer helps us to shed idolatrous thoughts by knowing God more thoroughly and he does this with quite a broad support of the Christian community.
Conclusion Saints should all be encouraged and their hearts moved by Packer’s work in Knowing God. One of Spurgeon’s sermon excerpts (Spurgeon, 2010) captures part of what Packer wishes to give us in the grand scale of God’s majesty and holiness.
"There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity...But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it... Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the
... reflects the original logos while also maintaining a separate identity, so too must faith be both reflective and inventive. It should strive toward perfection like Reverend Maclean devouring Norman?s papers with a red pen, with the intention of reflecting God?s already established likeness. Yet it must also be careful not to close off unexpected, new avenues, for as Paul demonstrates through his fishing, the most arbitrary human actions can accrue religious resonance. Essentially, human faith faces the ultimate balancing act: it must strive to understand and believe and love all of God and His creation, while at the same time realizing that such complete knowledge is impossible, and that humanity is called to ?love completely without complete understanding? (103).
The Gospel of John, the last of the four gospels in the Bible, is a radical departure from the simple style of the synoptic gospels. It is the only one that does not use parables as a way of showing how Jesus taught, and is the only account of several events, including the raising of Lazarus and Jesus turning water into wine. While essentially the gospel is written anonymously, many scholars believe that it was written by the apostle John sometime between the years 85 and 95 CE in Ephesus. The basic story is that of a testimonial of one of the Apostles and his version of Jesus' ministry. It begins by telling of the divine origins of the birth of Jesus, then goes on to prove that He is the Son of God because of the miracles he performs and finally describes Jesus' death and resurrection.
their goals by meeting their needs in life by using what was given to them.
Revelations of Divine Love is a 14th century masterpiece written by Julian of Norwich. This book is an account of St. Julian’s sixteen different mystical revelations in which she had encountered at a time of great suffering and illness. St. Julian focussed on the many “mysteries of Christianity.” Through her many revelations she encountered God’s vast love, the existence of evil, God’s heart for creation, the father and mother-heart of God, and the need to obey her Father in Heaven. Amongst these revelations the most powerful was the revelation of God’s love and character. Revelations of Divine Love is a wonderful source of revelation to connect a reader to the Father.
All people seem to want the same basic things out of life regardless of race or religion. Universally, people want a good job, a healthy family, and a chance for their children to have a better life than the one they have. Families that already possess these things, whether through their own hard work or merely by way of inheritance, rely on the existing power structures within society to ensure that their future happiness continues . But what do people who do not belong to existing power structures turn to in order to secure these things for their families and children?
The continuous reading of Cornelius Plantinga Jr.’s book Engaging God’s World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living, has left me lingering on a lot of thoughts towards my relationship with God. In the conclusion of his book, Plantinga focuses on the redemptive qualities of God as well the the redemptive possibilities of mankind. Another main subject is the vocation in the Kingdom of God, correspondingly the Bible says in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God- what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Plantinga (2002) states clearly, “given Jesus’ summons, his followers have always understood that to be a ‘Christ person’
“The King James Bible was 400 years old in 2011, and it remains one of the most favored translation used today” (“At 400, King James Bible still No. 1”). “Some statistics from a newspaper said, that out of the people polled thirty-one percent said the King James language was beautiful, and twenty-three percent said it was easy to remember” (“At 400, King James Bible still No. 1”). When the King James Bible was published in 1611 there were many ways it could have been improved. The King James Bible has had a huge impact on the world of today. The King James Bible was published by scholars that King James I gathered from 1604 to 1611. King James did this in order to create a
N.T Wright (2008) stated that “When we read the scriptures as Christians, we read it precisely as people of the new covenant and of the new creation” (p.281). In this statement, the author reveals a paradigm of scriptural interpretation that exists for him as a Christian, theologian, and profession and Bishop. When one surveys the entirety of modern Christendom, one finds a variety of methods and perspectives on biblical interpretation, and indeed on the how one defines the meaning in the parables of Jesus. Capon (2002) and Snodgrass (2008) offer differing perspectives on how one should approach the scriptures and how the true sense of meaning should be extracted. This paper will serve as a brief examination of the methodologies presented by these two authors. Let us begin, with an
.... In my opinion it is clear that we do not understand God, but despite that fact, it has not prevented us from trying on his crown through our own magical, mystical and political ways. When these questions are answered in full, in a equnamious and engaged in the nature of a commonality, our need for theology and philosophy will disappear as we will no longer need man to define the undefinable, or to shed the light of God on our minds, as the answers will be clear to all, and our human spirits will commune. Can we say now in retrospect that through singing the praises of 'God' on the battlefields, in the majestic cities built by mankind, or by those who have claimed enlightenment – that any of this bumbling in the night has brought us closer to God? Have we detected the root of our origins through our bids at piety, or have gotten too close and our wings melted away?
There are several aspects to consider when exploring the Christian worldview. There are many facets or denominations and they each have their own distinct beliefs and practices, but they all share the same fundamental beliefs. In this Paper we will explore the character of God, His creation, humanity and its nature, Jesus’ significance to the world, and the restoration of humanity, as well as my beliefs and the way that I interact with Christianity and my personal worldview.
...s distributed in Theology 101 at the University of Notre Dame, Fremantle on 22 April 2008.
W. Andrew Hoffecker. Building a Christian World View, vol. 1: God, man, and Knowledge. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., Phillipsburg, New Jersey : 1986.
"It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the ...
Class notes. Man’s Desperate Need of Righteousness and God’s Glorious Provision of Righteousness. Faith Christian University. Orlando, Florida. August 2011.
Answering these questions is the purpose of this essay. I begin by arguing that the Bible cannot be adequately understood independent of its historical context. I concede later that historical context alone however is insufficient, for the Bible is a living-breathing document as relevant to us today as it was the day it was scribed. I conclude we need both testimonies of God at work to fully appreciate how the Bible speaks to us.