The Disappearance of God
R. Albert Mohler Jr.
Reviewed by Teresa Konopka
“The Disappearance of God: Dangerous Beliefs in the New Spiritual
Openness” by R. Albert Mohler Jr. is a thought-provoking book. It
tackles the tough issue of twenty-first century Christianity.
Unlike
most books of its kind that merely attack certain televangelists and
pseudo-Christian scam artists, this one is different. Mohler Jr.
goes
after the key doctrinal issues in general that plague many churches,
not just the ones broadcasted on television.
Heavily discussed
is how the Church has become too inclusive. In an effort to gain
more
parishioners, many preachers have tweaked their sermons, so to
speak.
What is truly scriptural is now seen as offensive, and some topics are
ignored entirely. For instance, many churches avoid offending
homosexuals, divorcees, alcoholics, etc. Instead of pointing out
people’s sins and urging them to repent, sin has almost vanished from
their vocabulary. Also, the notion of hell is suddenly
off-limits.
Priests often steer clear of this and put on a facade of “everyone dies
when they go to heaven.” Instead of preaching about repentance
and
dependency on Jesus Christ, the preachers feel they need to hush up as
to not upset those that sin frivolously. Also, the notion of
beauty
comes up in the book. Mohler Jr. points out how prettiness has
replaced beauty. In a sense, instead of looking to what it pure
and
good, people have turned to focus on what attracts them, giving it the
misnomer of beautiful.
Several hot topics are covered in “The
Disappearance of God.” Full of Bible quotations, the author
encourages
readers to read the Bible and listen to the Word of God over the word
of cajoling preachers. However, Mohler Jr. does not condemn going
to
church; he merely yearns for their improvement, some of which he asks
on the reader to facilitate. In the end, Mohler Jr. wants
Christianity
to be Christianity--not some watered-down faith that unrepentant
sinners can claim for a supposed facade of righteousness.