Desiring God book by John Piper

Yes, you should read Desiring God. Good read...

 

I am reading this as of now. Some have criticized Pipers usage of "Christian Hedonism" as being a negative. To me it is a positive, and sheds light upoon the fact we do get the most joy and satisfaction out of knowing and enjoying God, more than anything else this world could ever give us.

 

Packer's is the best work of all three (and I've read them all), not to mention he's the best scholar hands down. Christians don't know it because they're not taught theology for the most part. You won't be disappointed.

Piper is a good man with a lot of good things to say, but his tone can be so arrogant, especially in this book, I can hardly stand it.

 

I am not a Calvinist; and I thought Desiring God was a gook book. For me, it promoted drawing closer to God and a personal relationship with God, rather that many books that only stress our service to God.

Another good book that stresses our relationship with God more than stressing service, is "The Pressure's Off", by Larry Crabb.

 

I'd say "Knowing God" is a better work than Pipers. It is in fact excellent.

As far as Piper "coming across" arrogant, I've seen none of this in his writings, in fact I've noticed quite the opposite. Such opinion that he is arrogant is most likely a presupposition and "pre-bias."

 

I agree, Piper is not an arrogant man. He is very humble and modest. Obviously we disagree on our soteriological views, but there is no questioning the man's sincerity and humility in my opinion.

Sometimes doctrinal works written with a since of certainty can come across as arrogance... we should all be acutely aware of that on this board.

 

Packer is a first-class theologian. Piper isn't really in the same conversation, and Stanley and Jeremiah are far below him. As far as the weight that these men carry, all of them pale in comparison to Packer, especially little guys like Stanley and Jeremiah and the like.

 

I have heard David Jeremiah speak live on a few occasions, and he definitely has a pastors heart, and has good things to say.

That said, I don't tend to read or listen to people who write and speak a lot on prophesy; I just tend to thing there are so many unknowns in eschatology that a pastor/author's efforts might be better spent elsewhere.

 

I'd read them both if I were you. I think you can get "Desiring God" for a free download off of Pipers website. It's in pdf format:

http://cdn.desiringgod.org/pdf/books_bdg/bdg.pdf

There are other free books there as well:

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/online-books/by-title

As to Packer and "Knowing God" I personally don't find that he is hard to understand, nor repetitive at all from what I remember. I actually intended on reading "Knowing God" again but I gave the book to someone who was sick to read. I also tend to believe if you have to figure things out as you read, it makes it that much better.

Stanley I find to be too simplified, or simplistic. It reminds me of the line of a country song; you hear the first half, having never before heard it, and you can predict the second half. I used to really enjoy him, now, not so much.

Reading some older reformed books I'd say fall into a "hard to understand" catgegory; (Owen, Edwards, Watson &c) probably making other reads not so difficult, and some other too simplistic.

- Peace

 

Several by each, and I've listened to them preaching many, many times.

Look, I'm not trying to attack them here. I'm really not a big Stanley fan because he's so short on theology. Jeremiah actually is a pretty good teacher and preacher and I've learned a number of things from him, although his eschatology is different from mine.

The issue is that neither of them are in the same conversation with a scholar like J.I. Packer. It's not that they're horribly deficient in some way (necessarily), but Packer is a first-rate evangelical scholar and is respected the world over by academics and pastors.

The others tend to write books that are intended to be practical, but end up being a bit light on substance.

If it seems I'm attacking, I'm really just trying to make a point that Packer's work for a student of the Bible and theology is going to be more substantial and rich, especially the work we're talking about, which is probably his greatest work.

As far as my comments on Piper, I do enjoy listening to him and have enjoyed several of his books (several more than "Desiring." The issue is that he's one of these pastors that has become a larger than life figure, and I believe that his popularity influences his decisions. I've heard him pretty blatantly say so.

 

knowing God was one of the very best books ever read, and our friend would undoubtly benefit from a thoughtful reading of that text!

 

just curious, which doctrines do you hold to in calvinism?

Asking , as I too hold to their doctrines of Grace as it applies to salvation, yet not holding to the entire system of theology, hence me not being "reformed"...

 

Would say that all are really good, its just that Stanley and jeremiah write to a more "popular" general levels, while packer as a theologian writting!