THE COMING EVANGELICAL CRISIS
John H. Armstrong, Editor
Moody Press, 268 pages, $17.99

The irony of this book, which is filled with insights into the current problems in the evangelical Church, is that Moody Press, which has published a number of questionable books of late, is part of the problem.

The 14 contributors (including R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur, Michael Horton and Dave Powlison) skillfully and with documentation diagnose the state of the Church today. With Scripture and Church history they make their case showing the serious drift from doctrine and theology.

Not everyone who reads the book will agree with the strongly stated Calvinistic statements of some of the contributors. However, that should not deter one from getting great insights from the bulk of the book. Most readers will applaud the strong appeals to return to orthodox Christian theology and the sufficiency of Scripture.

In the second section of the book, R. Fowler White addresses the crisis of Divine Revelation and examines the subject, “Does God Speak Today Apart From the Bible?” It is a masterful critique of the fanciful ideas of John Deere, formerly with the Vineyard movement.

John Armstrong looks at the current trend of exorcisms, renunciation prayers and ancestral bondage (repeatedly promoted in Moody books). He denounces this type of sensationalistic practice. He titles his very helpful and practical chapter, “How Shall We Wage Our Warfare?”

Robert Strimple does an excellent job in showing us that Clark Pinnock’s Process Theology and defective view of God is simply a revival of the ancient heresy of Socinianism.

Evangelicalism is in dire straits and is capitulating to culture and mass-marketing techniques and is rapidly drifting from the sufficiency of Scripture. Thank God that these men have addressed the current decline in a clear fashion.

--GRF

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