No Reason to Hide-Erwin W. Lutzer

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer's No Reason To Hide-Standing for Christ in a Collapsing Culture is the most articulate and accurate summation of what it feels like to be a Christian in modern times.

This book leans very heavily to the right. It is authored unabashedly with no regard for the fragile feelings that serve as the impetus for those who cling tightly to the bedrock of inane Democratic values. And I don't mean to dip into the waters of universal declarations (as that is a habit I largely detest). Still, one needn't search far and wide for evidence that points to the fact that Conservative Americans favor God and genuine Christian principles over Democrats who seem to bind their cord of allegiance with one compromise after another as they go about life.

The major plague that hovers above Republicans who profess to vote and live according to Christian values is that of self-righteousness. Which, thankfully, Erwin W. Lutzer addresses this pretty deeply and offers some sage advice.

This stout read covers the whole spectrum of addled Lefty values and dissects them from the surface down to the roots to expose what the true goal is of those who espouse such ludicrous ideologies and shows how we as Christians, by remaining silent and giving in to the pressure, are working in tandem to usher in Satan's kingdom. Which, if one has read the Bible in its entirety, one would correlate the current state of affairs across the globe and surmise that it has already arrived.

It can be a tough pill to swallow when you sit back and realize how far away, we as a society, have drifted from the beatitudes and rules God had laid out for us as humans.

Today, residing at the top of the food chain isn't enough and we demand the ability to alter our sexual organs and morph into whatever make-believe creatures we have created within the fantasy playgrounds of our minds. It isn't enough to celebrate the miracle of reproduction and what we have sired has been reduced to nothing more than an inconvenient nuisance, a parasite, that, more often than not, out of spite, must be extinguished. Physical money is disappearing into the digital realm along with community and self-esteem. Condemnation is favored over forgiveness and people have equated the fear of being ostracized from online communities and the workforce to a fate worse than death and no longer hold their values sacred.

It can be a little exhausting when you catalog it all together and almost a bit delusional at times to force a smile and remember that Jesus is at the helm and God is in control of it all.

Dr. Erwin's book was published on September 6th of 2022 and, as hard as it may be to believe, in the scope of two years, in retrospect, it may feel a bit antiquated. But before the gavel of the American people fell on November 5th of 2024, which was one of the most incredible fireball-rejections of woke theology Marxist movements since the publication of the communist manifesto, we could have easily been headed down a road to oblivion—where everyone across the board would be forced to submit to all of the aforementioned affronts to God that deluded sectors of society champion as progression towards utopia.

But now that we have won that battle does it mean that we simply quit the war and enjoy the spoils by rubbing it in the faces of those who suffered such a defeat at the ballot box?

No.

True Christians who have stared face to face against those consumed by evil know that the moment calls not to replicate condemnation, but to find it within ourselves to echo the prayer of Jesus in Luke 23:43 "Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do!"

This bell rings all the more true today, and I know that for a fact because I used to find myself wandering down similar paths that were opposite of the direction God had in mind for me while searching for the ever-elusive gift of happiness.

Instead of going to church, I went to the bar. Instead of compassion for my enemies and seeking to forgive them of their trespasses I would slander their name to anyone who had a set of ears and revel in their misfortunes. I turned to scrolling through social media instead of opening my Bible. Rather than reading the Song of Solomon and respecting God's parameters for sex within the confines of marriage, I would engage in sexual liaisons with women I never intended to marry and for the large part didn't respect. I lost sleep at night because of my sinful ways and the station of my life was always sitting in the bowels of a sinful abyss and I could never figure out why it was so difficult to breach the surface and achieve the bliss everyone else but me seemed to have.

In short, condemning those who are stuck in the rut that we once were in is not the route to take. Not if we're hoping to round up lost sheep back into the flock. Self-righteousness was one of the integral sins that nailed Christ to the cross and only serves to validate the apprehensions of those who oppose Jesus' harvest within themselves.

It is a difficult task in modern times to puncture the barrier of obstinance that people have created for themselves against God's love for them.

I once knew a co-worker who was very sweet, nice, tender, and caring. During one of our company pot-lucks she had brought a batch of brownies that had a tiny Reese's cup in the center and within the batter, there were strings of gooey peanut butter that were like a slice of heaven when it soaked into the palate. Every chance encounter I had with her I reminded her of how much I enjoyed her culinary creation and complimented her wizardry in the kitchen. A couple of weeks later she let me know that there was a gift waiting for me in the cafeteria and on my next break I went down and looked in the refrigerator and there within a small plastic bag with my name on it was a Tupperware container with a batch of brownies that she had made just for me. I was overjoyed and it left an impression upon me that I will never forget.

Unfortunately, today, twelve years later, after having adopted all of the most radical of leftist theologies, in comparison to that sweet woman who took the time out of her day to perform a good deed out of the charity of her giving spirit, she is barely recognizable. Since then she has dyed her hair into a kaleidoscope of colors, identifies as a non-binary individual, and has become a very edgy person. I don't follow her on social media platforms anymore, but the comments she makes upon posts by mutual friends are authored with severe embitterment and it seems as if she has created a shell for herself in defense of a society that she views as nothing more than a bunch of racist, sexist bigots that she has grown to loath and hate.

I know the potential that is there to rescue someone such as this because I have experienced it firsthand. And the road to recovering that beautiful spirit stuck in limbo with the self, beneath the well-fortified walls of hatred and confusion, is not through waving a superior finger in the face of those we disagree with and ostracizing them from a high horse. To echo Erwin's advice from page 207: "As Christians—and especially if we're parents or grandparents—we must try as best we can to graciously and truthfully engage our culture on this issue; a judgmental spirit only turns people away."

It is through active listening and responding absent of a moralizing tongue that true recovery can begin.

This read was a monumentally articulate work on what the current issues are of today and provides a great many truths that need to be heard as well as sage advice with how to work against the roaring tide of Satanic endeavors that wishes to swallow us whole.

But with this book, we have a way of saying "Not on our watch!"

Grade: A

Verdict: Read