"No Place For Truth"

Horray! My laptop is finally back with me after three weeks at the computer doctor. It needed a new start button because the priginal one collapsed. And here is the sad part - I have only had this laptop for only 10 months and, I bought it new. Lately I've noticed that things are breaking down within a year. The DVD part of my TV/DVD combo stopped working two months ago after only 7 months. It used to be that things lasted ten or 20 years. Sigh......

Well, now onto the blog post for today.

I read a review of David Wells' book, No Place For Truth (published in 1993) in this month's issue of Modern Reformation magazine. I thought he had some very good things to say, and I was surprised to see him so ahead of the times so many years ago.

Here are some snippets which are exceptionally pertinent:

*As many others are pointing out, Wells also says that the evangelical church has plunged into theological illiteracy. He writes,
"It is a change so large and so encompassing that those who dissent from what is happening are easily dismissed as individuals who cannot get along, who want to scruple over what is inconsequential, who are not loyal, and who are, in any case, quite irrelevant."

Does this remind you of what so many who were in the seeker (PDC) churches have said? When they approach their elders and pastors about not going off the Bible so much, they are often made fun of and and almost always criticized.

*Wells argues that theology is not just for the academic world, but also for the laity in the church. It happens in three places, according to Wells:
--the academy (seminary, journals, books, etc.)
--the church
--and the middlemen-that is, pastors and teachers getting it to the laity in the church.

He says that these are being broken down, i.e. the academy is often disputing the need for a systematic theology; and, pastors often have minimal theological knowledge.

I think this is a book I would like to read. It's certainly a prophetic book, in that Wells seems like he wrote it just yesterday instead of 15 years ago..