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To many, the only remaining certainty in our world is uncertainty. Can we really know anything for sure? We all enter the marketplace of ideas with presuppositions that need to be challenged before we can see what is trueand what is not. Philosophical and religious pluralism have convinced us that unchanging truth, if it exists at all, is entirely beyond our graspunknowable. Into this cloud of doubt and confusion comes the authoritative voice of Holy Scripture. David Garner shows us that, by the powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit, not only can we know biblical truth, we can know it with a confidence deeper than any logic could ever provide and with an assurance that no human expression could ever instill. God's Word is true, and by the vital ministry of the Holy Spirit we can know the truths of God's Word truly, quietly, assuredly, and eternally.… (more)
User reviews
How Can I Know For Sure by David Garner covers the
“The pervasive weakness in philosophy and religion is that they tender merely human proposals. They operate in vicious circularity, because the answers all come from us. Even the confluence of the most brilliant human minds lacks the resources to deliver definitive answers to the harassing questions of our souls.”
Garner argues that we are in desperate need of divine revelation, not just because of the deficiencies of human efforts at ultimate truth, but because of why human approaches are so perpetually limited.
“The answers to our ultimate questions will never come from us because they cannot come from us. We are both finite and fallen. We are dependent and depraved. We are small and sinful. We are creature and corrupted. Self-sufficiency wholly fails to address matters of ultimate importance before the creator God to whom we are wholly accountable. In the vicious circle of our stubbornness, we are left devoid of hope before God, barring his intervention. If there is to be an answer, it must come from God exercising mercy. For there to be any hope at all, he must act and speak to us savingly. And though under no obligation, he has done precisely this.”
Garner then uses the rest of the work to argue for the Scriptures, as God’s revelation to man, as the source of ultimate truth, and covers quite a bit of territory, especially given the length of this work. He covers the self-authenticating nature of Scripture, the need for illumination from the Spirit, the evidence of historical belief but the inherent limitations of that evidence, the reason that holding to the testimony of Scripture as it relates to Scripture is not negatively circular, and more.
This is a work worth investing an hour or two in and growing in your confidence of the word. Also, this would couple nicely with Kevin DeYoung’s new work, Taking God at His Word. While both deal with the Scriptures, the overlap seems to be minimal and I feel each would help the reader to appreciate the other work.
I received a review copy of this book from P&R Publishing.