A subtitle to Erwin Lutzer’s latest book sums up the entire content of all 291 pages. Here, the author of the best-selling, “We Will Not Be Silenced,” sets out to uncover “our nation’s disastrous search for a more inclusive deity (and what we must do about it.”) That says it all. That summarizes Lutzer’s entire purpose.
In Part One, Lutzer chronicles mankind’s ageless and endless search for light in a world of darkness. Here the author sets out to prove that the so-called “moon of radical secularism” today obscures the light of God, just as the moon from time-to-time comes between the earth and the sun. In the first chapter, Lutzer spells out his three objectives in publishing this expose: (1) to help us better understand the intellectual roots of (our) present darkness; (2) to help us rejoice that God is sovereign and stands ready to give us the blessing of His presence, no matter our predicament, and (3) to remind us that only a repentant and submissive church can shine the light of the gospel with confidence and strength. It is worth noting that Lutzer closes each of his eleven chapters with “a declaration of dependence” followed by an “action step,” suggestions on how to put the teaching of each chapter into practice.
For this reviewer, Lutzer’s second chapter contained a gold mine of information in which the author identifies the three so-called gravediggers in world history who prepared a metaphorical coffin for God. Launching off the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzshe’s late 1800’s proclamation that “God is dead!” Lutzer identifies three “influential thinkers, who, figuratively speaking, tried their best to put nails into God’s coffin.” Among the many gravediggers, the author introduces the reader to just three: “Karl Marx, whose economic revolution attacked God as ruler; Charles Darwin, who attacked God as creator; and Sigmund Freud, who attacked God as lawgiver.” Lutzer suggests here that perhaps more than others, these three philosophers, Marx, Darwin and Freud, “created . . . a debilitating virus, which has infiltrated every one of our institutions, our lives, and our families.” In short, Lutzer observes, “these three (men) wrongly believed we could replace God with man and be better off for it.”
In subsequent chapters in Part One, Lutzer documents how the cathedrals of Europe became the tombs of God, how modern man worships at the shrine of self-made deities, how we can come to grips with the so-called “violent” God of the Old Testament and answers the question, are the abominations of the Old Testament still abominable?
Lutzer’s Part Two is a call to return to the God of our fathers. Here the author challenges the reader to speak the truth in a world of lies. Further, Lutzer explores the devolution of man and the way back. Later, the author issues a call to return to the God of moral absolutes rather than our personal preferences. Finally, Lutzer calls for a return to God as lawgiver, not as a vacillating ruler, and a return to the God of wrath and grace, not the God of unconditional love.
In his final chapter, in answering the question, what about those who have not heard the gospel? Lutzer suggests that “there is scriptural evidence that all children of all religious or nonreligious backgrounds who die will be in Heaven.” Without going into what specific scriptural evidence Lutzer was referring to, the author admits that “the subject of the justice of God in condemning sinners who did not have the privilege of hearing the gospel deserves a much longer discussion.” That said, Lutzer’s statement regarding the eternal destiny of children, on the surface at least, without any qualification or explanation, sounds vaguely like limited universalism. If Lutzer is correct about “all children of all religious or nonreligious backgrounds” being guaranteed a place in Heaven, that begs the question, at what age do children become responsible for their own sins, and therefore non-exempt from God’s eternal judgment?
In exposing the lies of today’s culture, Lutzer has produced an extremely valuable reminder of the two doctrines that destroy the mission of the church: the belief in the essential goodness of mankind, and the belief in the endless tolerance of God. Sadly, Lutzer suggests that still today, as in the past, “these (two) errors are the default position of the human heart.”