Knowing God’s Truth: An Introduction to Systematic Theology by Jon Nielson

I was drawn to reading an introduction to systematic theology, as I felt the adage ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’ might apply to my knowledge of Christianity, or at least Christian tenants. And let’s admit that even looking at Grudem’s key work in the area of systematic theology is daunting at 1,472 pages! So, when I had the opportunity from Crossway to read a free advance copy, I thought I’d give it a try. These opinions are my own, and I receive no compensation for this review.

Style

Knowing God’s Truth is written in an approachable style, even billing itself as ‘a highly accessible guide to studying God.’ The author looks at 12 different areas of the study of God, or ‘God talk’ as the word theology is explained. The style goes a step further, I’m afraid and seems to be written for a young audience – perhaps teens or college age. I got this impression from the style of writing and simplicity.

The 12 areas of study seem to cover most of the major topics that I would expect in an introduction to theology, starting with Scripture as the foundation and then man, Christ, church, sin. Each chapter opens with an exhortation to memorize a related verse and offers prompts for prayer throughout as well. Each topic seems well balanced and broken into different areas of study, subsections if you will.

Protestant Balancing Act

The book is written from a protestant view, not naming any one in particular. It balances various opinions about eschatology in the protestant churches but does not acknowledge that there are variances in the practice of ordination (of women) and teaches that the Holy Spirit does not continue to act in miraculous ways as during the time of the apostles in the book of Acts. These two issues are variances in the protestant viewpoint, so while acknowledging some variation in another portion of the book and not on these issues, the discrepancy is worth noting.

Drawbacks

There were a few other points that were not as I’d expect. I was quite disappointed to see the topic of angelology and demonology were discussed before the Holy Spirit. The importance of the Trinity was mentioned in earlier chapters, but by placing it last, it seemed to lose that importance. The church teachings as well discussed two sacraments but again left out that some denominations or believers have more than two. This repetitive lack of acknowledgement of variations in a book that purports to be ‘protestant’ weakens that stand. It seems to have leaned more toward a specific protestant denomination or denominations.

The book does present a number of Bible verses in each chapter, however, does not state or show verses which support each of the theological topics. So, while stating that studying and memorizing the Bible is important, there was little attempt to support those points with the biblical references. This too is rather disappointing.

3/5 stars for the introductory text

As an introductory text, the book gives a decent overview if the church that chooses to use it agrees with these teachings. The book sets out to be for new believers, but I cannot recommend the book for those who are still trying to understand what the Bible says on specific issues. Perhaps the book should be labeled ‘evangelical’ rather than ‘protestant’, but that too can be a confusing label. I’d encourage anyone who was interested to move forward with caution and read the Bible looking for what it says and not just how it is interpreted by Mr. Nielson. 3/5 stars