Knowing Christianity (2024)

First sentence: Knowing God. Is there any greater theme to study? Is there any nobler goal to aim at? Is there any greater good to enjoy? Is there any deeper longer in the human heart than the desire to know God? Surely not. And Christianity's good news is that it can happen!

J.I. Packer is the author of Knowing God. If you haven't read Knowing God yet, then you should. That book is absolutely a must read. It focuses on the attributes of God.

Knowing Christianity has a different focus or slant. While in some ways it's still about knowing God, it's main focus is on answering a few basic questions: what is christianity? what do christians believe? which doctrines are key to the christian faith? how should christians live? In other words...Christianity has CONTENT. (It isn't a label that you can just slap on a person or slap on yourself.) That content should be learned/taught. It should be known. Doctrines should be informing how we live.

So essentially it spends a few chapters on HOW we know what we know and why we should live accordingly. OR to put it in its simplest terms: Christians should be people of THE BOOK. The Bible is true and authoritative. It is the Word of God for the people of God. Culture. Society. Polls. Traditions. Or own selfishness and self-centeredness. Or own love of pet sins. Or fears. NOTHING should have more authority than the Word of God in our lives. The Bible is trustworthy and true and Christians should hold it close and dear--live by it, be empowered by it, transformed by it. You cannot know God apart from knowing the Word of God. You just can't. You can't claim to want to know God and dismiss the Bible. You can't claim to want to live "in" God's will and never open the Word of God. You can't claim to be in right relationship with God but pick and choose which verses are true.

The book is also about God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, the cross, regeneration, prayer, worship, church fellowship, heaven, hell, etc.

"Christianity proclaims that Jesus of Nazareth, the Galilean preacher, was a divine person, the incarnate Son of God.Christianity calls him "Christ" because that is his official title. It identifies him as the long-awaited Messiah, the divinely anointed Savior-King of all humanity. Christianity interprets the criminal's death that he suffered as fulfilling a divine purpose the salvation of sinners. And Christianity affirms that after his death Jesus came alive again, in human flesh, mysteriously transformed, and has from that time been exercising full supremacy over the entire cosmic order.

Invisibly present to uphold us as we trust, love, honor and obey him, he supernaturalizes our natural existence, remaking our characters on the model of his own, constantly energizing us to serve and nurture others for his sake. When life ends, whether through the arrival of our own heart-stopping day or through his public reappearance to end history with judgment, he will take us to be with him. Then we shall see his face, share his life, do his will and praise his name with a joy that will exceed any ecstasy of which we are now capable and that will go on literally forever.

That is the gospel. It is indeed good news." p. 54

Excellent primer on Christianity. The stuff on doctrine of God and Christian citizenship was particularly good.

Wow! What an encouraging little read. Strong, orthodox theology, clearly written in less than 200 pages. My favorite chapters:The Holy Spirit & Christian Growth, Some Lessons in Prayer, Christian Citizenship, The Untruth of Universalism, The Reality of Hell, and His Ascension-Our Future Hope. Packed with scripture and great insights.

Read this a long time ago, it was okay.

Excellent follow up to Knowing God.