THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GOD by R. Albert Mohler, Jr., starts off in the preface letting us know there is a spiritual problem in America, which is really no surprise to anyone in tune with where this nation is headed. But the problem is not necessarily the nation, but the church and the lack of doctrine and Biblical foundation.
The first thing Mohler, the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, calls for is a theological triage - in other words, emergency surgury. As part of this theological triage, Mohler gives three levels of theological urgency. Level 1 is the doctrines that are “central and essential to the Christian faith” (3). In his explaination of this level, Mohler points out, “The essential truths of the incarnation include the death, burial, and bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who deny these revealed truths are, by definition, not Christians” (4). Other first level doctrines include the Trinity, justification by faith, and the authority of scripture. Mohler ends the discussion of first level doctrines by saying that “these first-order doctrines represent the most fundamental truths of the Christian faith, and a denial of these docrines represents nothing less than an eventual denial of Christianity itself” (5). He then goesinto second-level doctroines, which are issues that Christians do not agree upon are are reasons for different denominations and churches. One example of this level is the “meaning and mode of baptism.” Just because churches disagree on these types of issues doesn’t mean that either is more or less Christian. Believers have to agree to disagree and attend the church that matches that belief. The third-level issues are doctrines which Christians in the same congregation may disagree on but remain in fellowship. One example is not agreeing on the interpretation of difficult texts.
I agree with Mohler’s assessment of the three-levels and I think he explains them well. He also talks about the problems with liberalism in the church, because liberals disrespect “biblical authority and the church’s treasury of truth” (7). He goes on to give the problems with liberals and fundamentalists. “Liberals treat first-order doctrines as if they were merely third-order in importance, and doctrinal ambiguity is the ineveitable result. Fundamentalism, on the other hand, tends toward the opposite error. The misjudgment of true fundamentalism is the belief that all disagreements concertn first-order doctrines. Thus, third-order issues are raised to a first-order importance, and Christians are wrongly and harmfully divided” (7-8). What the church needs is to sure up its beliefs and, as the saying goes, major on the majors and minor on the minors.
I could go in detail on all of the chapters, but that is not the purpose of a review, but I do want to give you some of the insights I gained from reading this book. Chapter 2 talks about the assurance of faith and how that is important to our Christian walk. Assurance is key to the Christian walk, because without it, a Christian lacks “confidence in their salvation and are troubled by nagging doubts, perplexing questions and a lack of clarity about whether assurance of salvation is actually possible” (10). Mohler gives Biblical example after example of assurance. Satan will use this disbelief to hinder our Christian walk. Chapter 3 asks the question - can we be good without God? This is a question that often comes up in my class when we talk about truth and if there are any universal truths. Without God, there are no moral truths. Our nation has tried to be more and more secularized and one way of doing that is by pushing God out of the way. All goodness comes back to God and the Bible. Chapter 4 discusses the disappearance of sin and how we have changed our terminology to make people feel better about their sinful acts. Chapters 5-6 discuss Hell and how the modern mind has tried to do away with that concept. Whether people want to believe in it or not does not make it any less real. It is a place of eternal punishment for not accepting Christ, and not only are non-Christians missing the point, Christians are not doing enough to save their fellow man from this terrible place. If Hell were a reality in the church, we would be out witnessing more.
Chapters 7-9 discuss the Christian vision of beauty. We have bought into the beliefs of popular culture and their definition of beauty. We need to get back to a Biblical view of beauty and what God tended for us. Chapters 10-11 is a very interesting look at the emerging church and the problems with it. Using the published words from the emerging churches’ leadership, Mohler shows the inaccuracies and moral delimas caused by a belief system that tries to be more open to the world and push aside the first-level doctrines that I discussed earlier.
Chapter 12 discussed orthodoxy and how true orthodoxy must stand on its beliefs and not accomodate beliefs that are contrary. Chapter 13 points out the connection between liberalism and atheism. Chapter 14 goes into evangelical theology and how minor shifts in beliefs are moving us further and further away from God. Chapters 15-18 discuss a topic that I haven’t always been big on and I think that is because I was raised in a post-modern society that says, “Who are you to tell me what to do? Who are you to judge me?” And because of these beliefs and saying, the church has lost the concept of church discipline. Before reading these chapters, I would have said that church discipline is an old concept, but after seeing it from an historical and theological perspective, I see the importance of church discipline and why the church needs to get back to it.
Chapters 19-21 talk about the darkness that is coming over society and how things are going to get harder and harder for evangelicals. Not only is it hard to share our faith, it is hard to break through the concepts that have filled the post-modern mind. Because of this prevailing darkness, there are two key components that are at risk and those two key components make up the last two chapters of the book - missions and preaching. Missions is in danger because churches are pulling support of the missionaries and denominations are sending fewer and fewer missionaries into the field. The last command of Jesus was to preach to all of the nations and without missionaries, that is not going to happen. Preaching is also in danger because there are fewer and fewer Biblical preachers. Preaching has turned more to social problems and less on the Bible. In way too many pulpits today, the Bible is being discussed too little and the issues of the day too often. As Mohler points out, “Authentic expository preaching takes the presentation of the Word of God as its central aim. The purpose of the preacher is to read the text, interpret the text, explain the text, and apply the text. Thus, the text drives the sermon from beginning to end. In fact, in too many of today’s sermons, the text plays a subordinate role to other concerns” (194).
As you can tell by my in-depth review, I highly recommend this book.
Here is the blurb from the publisher:
More faulty information about God swirls around us today than ever before. No wonder so many followers of Christ are unsure of what they really believe in the face of the new spiritual openness attempting to alter unchanging truth.For centuries the church has taught and guarded the core Christian beliefs that make up the essential foundations of the faith. But in our postmodern age, sloppy teaching and outright lies create rampant confusion, and many Christians are free-falling for “feel-good” theology. We need to know the truth to save ourselves from errors that will derail our faith. As biblical scholar, author, and president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Albert Mohler, writes, “The entire structure of Christian truth is now under attack.” With wit and wisdom he tackles the most important aspects of these modern issues: Is God changing His mind about sin?Why is hell off limits for many pastors?What’s good or bad about the “dangerous” emergent movement? Have Christians stopped seeing God as God?Is the social justice movement misguided?Could the role of beauty be critical to our theology?Is liberal faith any less destructive than atheism?Are churches pandering to their members to survive?In the age-old battle to preserve the foundations of faith, it's up to a new generation to confront and disarm the contemporary shams and fight for the truth. Dr. Mohler provides the scriptural answers to show you how.
Adam Blumer lives in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with his wife, Kim, and his daughters, Laura and Julia.
An amateur magician, an unassuming family . . . a fatal illusion Haydon Owens wants to be the next Houdini. He has been practicing his craft and has already made four women disappear. All it took was a bit of rope and his two bare hands.
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