As the
title suggests, there is something wrong in evangelicalism today.
Christians are forsaking our God-given responsibility to love the Lord
with the mind. By this, Noll means that evangelicals are not
making significant contributions to the arts and sciences in the world
today. As a result, evangelicals will be less and less successful
in attempting to lead the lost to Christ. Noll believes
evangelicals need to wake up and nurture the mind so that they can be a
significant influence in the world.
One would
find it hard to argue with Noll's belief - Evangelicals, by and large,
do not use their minds anywhere near as much as they could. The
problem with Noll's book is that he is utterly repulsed by any viewpoint
that smacks of fundamentalism. It is true that many
fundamentalists are guilty of neglecting the development of the mind in
favor of clinging to blind (or mostly blind) faith. Nevertheless,
Noll is quick to dismiss any view that is usually attributed to
fundamentalism.
Of primary
concern to Noll are two issues that are very popular among evangelicals:
premillennialism and young earth creationism. About one-third of
the book consists of an extended tirade against these two views.
First, Noll attacks premillennialists for their emphasis on the study of
end times events. It may be true that some premillennialists are
so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good but that certainly
cannot be said for all of them. Neither are postmillennialists and
amillennialists immune from criticism on this point. All
eschatalogical views have adherents who are guilty of neglecting the
Christian mind and all have those who have become outstanding scholars.
Noll's criticism on this point is simply unfair and misguided.
By far the
biggest problem with Noll's book is his unrelenting assault against
young earth creationism (YEC). He sees YECs, like myself, as being
ignorant of science and guilty of forcing a new method of interpretation
on the Genesis text. Relying heavily on Ronald Numbers (University
of Wisconsin), whom Noll calls "first rate scholars who write with
sympathy for their subjects" (p. 14). He continues by adding,
"Numbers describes how a fatally flawed interpretative scheme [young
earth creationism] of the sort that no responsible Christian teacher in
the history of the church ever endorsed before this century came to
dominate the minds of American evangelicals on scientific questions" (p.
14). Apparently, this first rate scholar and Noll (a leading
evangelical historian) are completely ignorant of the truth on this
matter. That is, unless, Noll does not consider Luther or Calvin
to be responsible Christian teachers in church history. Both of
these men held to a young earth creationist view. So did the
"scriptural geologists" who studied and wrote at the start of the 19th
century. These men used essentially the same biblical arguments
utilized by YECs today in their attempts to stem the tide of
uniformitarian geology's impact on the church. Yet, Noll, again
quoting Numbers, has the audacity to claim that young earth creationism
was invented by the Seventh-Day Adventists (p. 189). This is
nothing but a bald-faced lie.
Noll's
chapter entitled "Thinking About Science" is a pathetic attempt to trash
YEC. His old earth bias constantly shines through as does his
ignorance of science. He quotes Davis Young, a geologist and
fellow OEC, who makes the ridiculous claim that there is no evidence for
a worldwide flood. Worst of all, Noll seems to completely
disregard the biblical text.
I gave this
book a rating of four out of ten because Noll rightly highlights some
problems among evangelicals today. However, his rants against
premillennialism and young earth creationism are completely off base.
Tragically, it seems that Noll would be much more comfortable with the
Roman Catholics he continually praises in this book even though they
hold to a different Gospel.
For a more
detailed critique of this book, please see Andrew S. Kulikovsky's
outstanding review
here.
(01/26/06)
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