J. I. Packer [Packer - Knowing God

The books and essays Dr. Packer has written could fill shelves, but he is still known best for his fine work in Knowing God. Others may have followed with books about desiring, loving, serving or seeking God, but Dr. Packers volume says it simply, says it best.

Joni Eareckson Tada

If any work of Christian literature deserves the title of contemporary classic, I believe that J. I. Packers Knowing God qualifies for that distinction. It is my hope that this edition will introduce many new readers to the spiritual depth, the wisdom, and the abiding faith of this great scholar. He has discovered and shares with the reader the secret that knowing Gods Word is the most direct route to knowing God.

D. James Kennedy

I first read the book in 1977 in what was then the ninth American printing. I was discipled by that book before I knew what discipleship was! As I reread it recently, I was embarrassed by all the ideas I kept coming upon that I thought were mine. Then I realized that through his book Packer had made them mine. It dawned on me that bad books try to tell us what to think, while good books help us to think. But truly good books shape the way we think. Thats what this book did for me. There isnt a song Ive written that hasnt been impacted by the point of view in this book.

Knowing God not only points to the door, it provides the key, helps us open it and prepares us for the One we shall discover waiting for us on the other side. In his book Packer rescues us from the private religious hunches of our theologically fickle age, from the gigantic conspiracy of misdirection that would rob us of the deep simple joy of knowing God.

Michael Card

As long as I am able to read I hope to read Knowing God by James I. Packer each year. It is so basic, scholarly, warm and reverent, I wonder how I managed without it for so long.

Stuart Briscoe

A readable book both theologically competent and practically enriching.

Gordon R. Lewis

Excellent biblical exposition in restating scriptural doctrines as well as an application to the needs of our age.

Christianity Today

A rare treasure.

Bookstore Journal

[Packers] style is succinct, vivid and epigrammatic. His perspective is mind-stretching, as he surveys the whole biblical scene. And the truth he handles fires the heart. At least it fired mine, and compelled me to turn aside to worship and to pray.

John R. W. Stott

This is a book I shall try to read every year and one of the few I shall mark up for constant reference.

Gerry Davey

This book is strong meat. To read and digest it is an experience no discerning reader is likely to forget.

Church Times

I have never come across a book that expressed and extolled quite so well the mightiness of God and placed in good perspective the attributes of God and their relevance to our own living. As you read the book the fact that youre a child of God thrills you.

Alliance Witness

I need a new edition of Knowing God.... Ive worn my original copy out!

Bill Hybels

To keep any splendid book in print is a worthy project. Keeping Dr. Packers classic, Knowing God, alive is reason to celebrate. The people of God will be superbly served by this wonderful gift. I congratulate InterVarsity Press.

Lewis Smedes

For years I have been asked to list the top twenty Christian books I have read. Knowing God has been on that list since the mid-1970s. This volume is Packer at his very best.

Chuck Swindoll

Here is a theologian who puts the hay where the sheep can reach itplainly shows us ordinary folks what it means to know God.

Elisabeth Elliot

The thing that makes Dr. Packers writing so vital, practical and credible is that the man lives what he writes. Knowing God is the work of a man who doesknow him; and which makes us want to know him, tooand shows us how.

Jack Hayford

Knowing God is a masterpiece by a master theologian. It serves as a wake-up call for those who are asleep to the majesty of God.

R. C. Sproul

Few writings deserve to be called Christian classics but this is surely one of them. With the heart of a pastor, the understanding of a theologian and the passion of a prophet, J. I. Packer brings the reader face to face with the living God.

Chuck Colson

A hundred years from now only a handful of books written today will still be widely read and accepted as Christian classics. Dr. James I. Packers Knowing God may well prove to be one of them. A gifted theologian and writer, Dr. Packer has the rare ability to deal with profound and basic spiritual truths in a practical and highly readable way. This book will help every reader grasp in a fuller way one of the Bibles greatest truths: that we can know God personally, because God wants us to know him.

Billy Graham

Knowing God is must reading for any Christian who is serious about their faith. While it is theology, it is practical, and while it is profound, it is easy reading. I highly recommend it.

John Perkins

Those who know God have great contentment in God. It is no wonder so many are so discontented! They dont know God. Oh if only they would use Knowing God as a devotional study. It would create such a thirst for more of God that they would keep on coming to him in his Word and drinking of him. This book is the classic God used to launch me into a study of the sovereignty of God. Ill never be the same!

Kay Arthur

For Kit

Preface

1993

W hen I sent the manuscript of Knowing God to the publisher just over twenty years ago, I thought of it as a study book that could hardly be of general interest. I was wrong. It has sold more than a million copies; it has gone into more than a dozen languages; it has become a nurture book for the Christian world. Other nurture books, including some of my own, have fallen by the wayside, but this one keeps going, and a steady flow of letters shows me that it keeps on helping people. I am amazed, awed, humbled and constantly moved to thank God.

The person that Shakespeare would have described as the onlie begetter of Knowing God was the editor of the now defunct Evangelical Magazine, who asked me for a series of articles on God angled for honest, no-nonsense readers who were fed up with facile Christian verbiage. The articles flowed out at two-monthly intervals, prompted each time by the question, What do I tell them next? and coalesced into a book with very little trouble. Wise editors know how to strike sparks off writers, and the existence of