{"id":1036,"date":"2009-06-15T08:00:39","date_gmt":"2009-06-15T12:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danielgoepfrich.com\/?p=1036"},"modified":"2022-10-24T21:16:49","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T01:16:49","slug":"the-disappearance-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/the-disappearance-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Disappearance of God"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Disappearance of God
<\/em> by R. Albert Mohler, Jr.<\/h3>

When I first picked up this short book (23 chapters in only 194 pages), I expected another treatise on how God has disappeared from the culture and the church, and how we\u2019re all in trouble if the church doesn\u2019t get in shape.<\/p>

Even the first paragraph seemed to confirm my assumption:<\/p>

The tragic reality is that we are living in an age that is marked by so much spiritual and theological confusion that the God of the Bible has largely disappeared from view \u2013 replaced by less imposing deities that are more amenable to the modern mind. (p. xiii)<\/p><\/blockquote>

However, what followed was less a church spanking and much more a primer on the basics of a biblical theology and worldview that is necessary to reclaim the culture. It\u2019s one thing to say that we need a change; it\u2019s a whole different thing to show where changes need to be made and what to do about it.<\/p>

That\u2019s where The Disappearance of God<\/em> shines. In these short chapters, Mohler tackles a dozen major doctrines or mindsets that need to be taught again, believed, and lived by God\u2019s people. And these aren\u2019t minor issues either. Mohler discusses things like assurance of salvation; sin; hell; open theism; and more. And he doesn\u2019t hold back in standing for the truth of the Scriptures.<\/p>

I can\u2019t recommend this book enough. In fact, if you are part of OTCC<\/a>, don\u2019t be surprised if this is an upcoming small group option.<\/p>

Here are just ten<\/span> eleven<\/strong> of the many sections that I highlighted in my copy:<\/p>

\u201cGod\u2019s truth is to be defended at every point and in every detail, but responsible Christians must determine which issues deserve first-rank attention in a time of theological crisis.\u201d (p. 2)<\/p>

\u201cThere are no insignificant doctrines revealed in the Bible, but there is an essential foundation of truth that undergirds the entire system of biblical truth.\u201d (p. 7)<\/p>

\u201cThe Church of England and its sister church in America, the Episcopal Church (USA), are competing in a disbelief derby to see which church can produce more heretical bishops.\u201d (p. 22)<\/p>

\u201cWhere sin is not faced as sin, grace cannot be grace. \u2026 Weak teaching on sin leads to cheap grace, and neither leads to the gospel.\u201d (p. 28)<\/p>

\u201cSin had been redefined as a lack of self-esteem rather than as an insult to the glory of God.\u201d (p. 43)<\/p>

\u201c\u2026beauty is achieved when the thing created most closely and most perfectly glorifies its Creator.\u201d (p. 55)<\/p>

\u201cThe doctrine of God is the central organizing principle of Christian theology, and it establishes the foundation of all other theological principles. \u2026 A redefinition of the doctrine of God leads immediately to the redefinition of the gospel.\u201d (p. 116, 119)<\/p>

\u201cThe decline of church discipline is perhaps the most visible failure of the contemporary church.\u201d (p. 121)<\/p>

\u201cThe identity of the church as the people of God is to be evident in its pure confession of Christ, its bold testimony to the gospel, and its moral holiness before the watching world. Nothing less will mark the church as the true vessel of the gospel.\u201d (p. 136)<\/p>

\u201cWe hear the language, we listen to the discourse, we see the laws, we hear the judgments, we watch the culture at work, and we realize that this is what a nation, a people, an ethnos, a generation that once knew Christianity but knows it no more, looks like and sounds like.\u201d (p. 161-162)<\/p>

\u201cLet me put it this way \u2013 in a truly post-Christian age, the saddest loss of all is a loss of the memory of what was lost.\u201d (p. 164)<\/p><\/blockquote>

The Disappearance of God<\/em> is available directly from Random House here<\/a> or from Amazon here<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Disappearance of God by R. Albert Mohler, Jr. When I first picked up this short book (23 chapters in only 194 pages), I expected another treatise on how God has disappeared from the culture and the church, and how we\u2019re all in trouble if the church doesn\u2019t get in shape. Even the first paragraph […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"gutentor_comment":0,"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"widget-thumbnail":false,"rpwe-thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_single":false,"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Daniel Goepfrich","author_link":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/author\/dgoepfrich\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The Disappearance of God by R. Albert Mohler, Jr. When I first picked up this short book (23 chapters in only 194 pages), I expected another treatise on how God has disappeared from the culture and the church, and how we\u2019re all in trouble if the church doesn\u2019t get in shape. Even the first paragraph…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}