knowing god book report[1]

8/6/2019 Knowing God Book Report[1]

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BIB4360 Christian Theology - Book Report 1

Name: Ian BrownDate: 15 Feb 2011Student ID#: 0097179

Knowing God - J.I. Packer

Instructions: Answer the following questions carefully. The first section of the questions is to beanswered on this sheet. The second section will require answers to be placed on separate paper.Please attach your answers to these questions, and mail to the Center for Distance Education.

Section OneA. Did you read all of Knowing God? (Mark with an ‘X’)Yes X No

Note: The questions did not cover the entire book. You are to have read the whole book, not just those portions necessary to answer the questions.

B. On a scale of 1 to 10, how carefully do you feel you read this book? 8 Note: “1" signifies that you were adjacent to the book for occasional periods; “10" signifiesthat you memorized the book completely.

C. Briefly describe your reaction to this book, whether regarding its strengths, weaknesses, areaswhere it was especially helpful, style of writing, and so on. This book was pretty awesome,intense, direct, full of conviction, and then came the hope through grace. I like how itcommented on the reason why the church is weak, and what we as individuals can do toreflect that change. Chapter 18 was indeed the best chapter of the whole book, it reallytouched me like it was God’s direct message to me!

Section Two Chapter 11. Watch for Packer’s definition of meditation and copy it out: “Meditation is . . .” What is therelationship between the study of God and meditation?Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying tooneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promisesof God. The relationship between the study of God and meditation is we turn every truth that welearn about God while studying into meditation, prayer, and praise of God.

Chapter 22. What does knowing God have to do with contentment? The main verses in this section were

Philippians 3: 7-11. If we truly know God we will be content with where we are in our lives. Allof the ups and downs of life will not effect how we fill about life because we will have our focuson the promises of Christ and what he has done for us. One way of showing that we know God isif we can count all gains as lost in order to know Christ.

Chapter 33. What does Packer mean when he says that our knowledge of someone depends more on them



than on us? What does this have to do with our knowledge of God? People are very decisive andcontrol how well we get to know them. Lots of people hid their past or internal secrets. This isexcellent when it comes to the knowledge of God. God wants us to know everything about himand he put it in his word the Holy Bible. It is up to us to read it, accept the claims of truth in it,take hold of it, and live our life acting it out. This encourages me to seek the Lord full hearted,

and now I understand why the Bible says "Draw Near to God, and He will draw near to you".

Chapter 44. Simplify this chapter and answer this question in your own words: Why does God not likeidols–even beautiful ones? God does not like any idols no matter what the case. The main reasonis that us as humans full of fallacy cannot fully comprehend the glory of God, and by us trying torepresent God’s glory we are corrupting it. We know Jesus was a human yet God. When heresurrected he ascended in resurrected body in glory. For us to try and depict it or use it to helpus worship him is causing an idol. Sooner or later we would start to look at the picture to help usworship, while all along we should be worshipping because of his character, nature, and the fact

that he laid down his life for us. That in itself is hard to understand so I see no point of trying to picture Jesus and the Father until we see them face to face.

Chapter 55. What is the “kenosis theory” and why doesn’t Packer like the term? The kenosis theory is thetheory of Jesus emptying himself of his divine attributes. This theory refutes itself since if Godhas his divine attributes taken away but only was given moral attributes then he would not beGod. We know that God is without fault, spotless, and without blemish. Jesus had to be without

blemish in order to be the perfect sacrifice. He made himself low and submitted himself to thewill of the Father, so the Father could accomplish all things he wanted to accomplish through hisSon in Jesus Christ. Jesus is God in the flesh. He submitted and chose to set aside his attributesthough he still had them. I’ve learned that we should do the same thing, pour ourselves out andsubmit ourselves to God’s will for our life so he can accomplish everything he wants toaccomplish through our lives personally before we meet him.

Chapter 66. Note where Packer says, “. . . Many Christians have really no idea what difference it wouldmake if there were no Holy Spirit in the world.” Reflect on this statement a moment. Howwould your life be different if there were no Holy Spirit?If there was no Holy Spirit I would be ignorant of the saving knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ.All of me and my family would be destined for eternity away from God. I would not feel myconscious or the Word of God tugging on my heart when I'm doing something wrong, it would

be impossible to live in a state without compromise, and I would have no authority behind mewhen trying to tell people about Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is here to fill the work of Christsince he is not here physically. Life would be even more chaos without Him and there would betotal lawlessness.



Chapter 77. Why is it impossible for God to repent according to Packer? It is impossible for God to repent

because he is unchangeable in nature. He has always existed, is perfect, lacking in nothing, hischaracter never changes, and he has already pre-destined everything by His will. According toPacker repenting is revising a person’s judgment or changing their plan of action. God’s plan is

simple he is in the business of saving souls and changing life’s and his judgment is written in plain clear of the Bible.

Chapter 88. The idea that God is personal is true, says Packer, but possible harmful. Why? The idea thatGod is personal is a dangerous idea because we can start to make our God small. We are small,feeble, weak, and sometimes forget about the majesty of God. He is up close and personal

because he wants to be close to us, and have a personal relationship with us. He also is majestic,created the whole word. We are just a little portion of his creation yet he still call us by name,and he knew everything about our existence thousands of years before we were born. It is ok to

think of God as personal but only that he wants to personally know you and that he is His own person, and there is none like Him. The best thing in this chapter said was “ We need to waitupon the Lord”. Meditating on Him, His Word, until his promises are written on our heart, andwe’re living out His promises with confidence.

Chapter 99. How do biblical narratives evidence God’s wisdom? They evidence God's wisdom becauseevery last one of them brought someone to glorify Christ. God in His ultimate wisdom knewexactly what situations would cause people to see how much they need Him,and how they arehelpless without him. He also used these people's situations to bring others to Christ when theysaw this person glorifying Him while their life was in shackles. The best one for me is Job. Hiswife and his friends told him to curse God and die, but he purposed in His heart that God lovedhim and that God in his omnipotence was doing a great work in His life.

Chapter 1010. What is the main point of Ecclesiastes according to Packer? What does this have to do withwisdom? The main point of Ecclesiastes it to understand that this world course is enigmatic.Wisdom is to realize that because of this there must be something better than to have wisdomthat is not eternal. Real wisdom is to revere God and to follow his commandments and live thelife his Word calls for. If you look at how things are happening in the world you can’t understandwhat God is doing and what is his whole purpose. Real wisdom is to trust and know God is incontrol in the midst of this world full of chaos.

Chapter 1111. What do you think of Packer’s answer to his own question: “What is a Christian?” Is hisanswer too broad or too narrow–or just right? A Christian is one who lives under and



acknowledges the Word of God. His answer to me is right on the button. If we acknowledgewhat the Bible tells us and live believing it’s promises we will have a victorious life in Christ. Itmight not be easy but like Packer states “constant attention to the promises, and a firm belief of them, will prevent solicitude and anxiety about the concerns of life”. This book and of course theBible is daily transforming me and opening my eyes up to what it means to truly be a Man of

God.

Chapter 1212. What does the statement “God is light” mean according to Packer? God is light means that heis full of holiness and purity. To walk in the light is to seek and gain God’s holiness and purity inour lives.

Chapter 1313. List the four crucial truths which the concept of grace presupposes. What relationship do they

have to salvation? 1. The moral ill-desert of man, 2. The retributive justice of God, 3. Thespiritual impotence of man, 4. The sovereign freedom of God. All of these crucial truths are tiedto God’s grace. Grace is receiving something beneficial which you do not deserve, and this iswhy salvation is a gift of grace not by works lest any man could boast. We deserve to be lost, wedeserve God’s justice, we deserve to be spiritually ignorant, and God is God so he has the rightto do whatever he chooses. It is because of these four things that we had salvation given to us.He knows best, and that is why we put our lives in His hands!

Chapter 1414. As you read the chapter, note how God is not like a modern judge. Look for more than oneanswer. God is not like a modern judge because his judgment is not split in two between theexecutive and judicial. He is a judge, an executioner, and he has all the power in the universe

plus foreknowledge to correctly judge us of righteousness or unrighteousness. He is a judge butcan also be a savior depending if you choose to ignore him, or if you choose to face him now. Heis an eternal judge who cannot be by-passed, and we are all guaranteed to meet him whether wewant to deny it or accept it. He is a judge who not only knows us by the way we conductourselves outwardly, but knows the inner most secrets of our heart. He is going to judge thewhole world, and will not play favorites. He will judge the righteous and the non-righteous.Truly he who is God, Man, Omnipotent, and righteous has the right to judge us.

Chapter 1515. How have we incorrectly attributed wrath to God? When we attribute wrath to God we try tocompare it to our human wrath. We think that God is throwing a fit while he’s not. We weremade in his image and have emotions like God has but we cannot think of his emotions beinglike ours since He is God. His wrath and anger are fully justifiable because all of creation missedthe mark of perfection once sin entered into the world. We also take away from the wrath of God

by trying to avoid it. People in the Old Testament faced it so we in the New Testament must alsoface it if we choose to deny living for Jesus and if we deny surrendering our lives to Jesus.



Chapter 1616. Note where Packer discusses the relationship of goodness and severity. Put his thoughts intoyour own words. Behind every act of God displaying his goodness is God’s severity if his

goodness is taken for granted, or abused. This severity should draw us to God, and to seek himfor mercy/grace. If we do not turn to him it is our fault when the severity of God turns around tomake things tough. If we look for faults in people to judge them by, and we do not handle thesame issues in our personal lives we are storing up His wrath for us due to hypocrisy and beingun-repentant. God’s goodness is the reason why we have not been judged yet. He is long-suffering not wanting anyone to live in eternity without Him. We should appreciate Hisgoodness, patience, and discipline since they are ALL designed to draw us closer to Him!!

Chapter 1717. Why should we consider God's jealousy a virtue when it is a vice for us? In other words, why

shouldn't we strive to be jealous when God says that he is jealous? We shouldn’t strive to be jealous because we don’t fully understand the jealousy of God, and our fallible version ends up being something that is sinful. Ex: I get jealous because someone has something that I want, andI end up doing something out of God’s character to obtain what they have. The only jealousy thatis justifiable is if we are jealous for our spouses if we feel someone is trying to put themselves inthe middle of that relationship.

Chapter 1818. Why is it important to note the distinction between propitiator and expiation when definingthe gospel? It is extremely important. Let me know this chapter is the best chapter in the whole

book very eye opening, convicting, and encouraging! Expiation is half of propitiation. Itacknowledges the rubbing out/covering of sin so that it no longer supports a friendly barrier

between man and his maker. Propitiation covers all of expiation, and the calming of God’s wrathtowards us. The idea of propitiation is that someone had to die for sin no matter what, and God inhis omnipotent knowledge, justice, and love decided to sacrifice himself for us. He took on thewrath of God so that we should be spared His wrath. It gave us a way to escape the wrath of Godas long as we accept the sacrifice for our propitiation which is Jesus Christ. I must say if God isthe ultimate judge, and offers a way to escape justice, why would you accept anything less thanhis requirement to escape justice?

Chapter 1919. Copy out the words which Packer wants you to "say over and over to yourself the first thingin the morning, last thing at night, as you wait for the bus, anytime when your mind is free..."“ I am a child of God. God is my Father; heaven is my home; every day is one day nearer. MySavior is my brother; every Christian is my brother too”.

Chapter 20



20. What does Packer mean by putting limits on our use of inward divine guidance? A lot of times we put limits on how God speaks to us through inward divine guidance. Many people look for a sign, or a supernatural event to confirm what their feelings are telling them, while manytimes God is wanting to speak to us through His Word. We limit His divine guidance when wedecide that we will only accept it if it comes the way that we expect it to. This is putting God into

a box using our fallible mind.

Chapter 2121. Why does God sometimes allow the Christian to go through hardship? As we grow stronger in Christ He allows us to be stretched more so we may become stronger in His promises. TheBible does not promise a care-free life without troubles but actually the opposite. As we getcloser to Him it is normal for temptations to increase and outward influences to take us awayfrom Him to get stronger or happen on frequent occasions. This builds character, stretches our faith, and prepares us to help others. He states that His grace is sufficient for us in our weakness.

Chapter 2222. What is the "Mt. Everest” principle of Bible study according to Packer? The Mt. Everest

principle of Bible study is to read the Bible like it’s God’s own spiritual love letter to us. The Mt.Everest experience cannot be obtained by overlooking the Mountain from above, but the wholemountain must be climbed before we can truly understand it. Romans is the Mt. Everest of theBible, and Chapter 8 is the highest point of Mt. Everest. Chapters 1-7 are the thousands of mileswe climb up to the top of the Mountain and prepare us for the experience at the top. Romans 8 isthe top and once we fully understand Chapters 1-7, Chapter 8 becomes that much more glorious.

knowing god book report[1]

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