God In the Whirlwind - David Wells
"However
it happened, the external God has now disappeared and has been replaced by the
internal God. Transcendence has been
swallowed up by immanence. God is to be
found only within the self. And once
that happened, the boundary between right and wrong - at least as we had
thought about these things - went down like a row of falling skittles. Evil and redemption came to be seen as the
two sides of the same coin, not the two alternatives in life." Or as he also put it, "We want God's love without his holiness…" Wells addresses this erroneous viewpoint by
explaining who God really is, and what His love is really like. I really liked his critique of our culture,
how it has a 'therapeutic vision'. As
Wells indicates, sadly, the 'church' has been going this way as well, following
the spirit of the age they adapt the gospel to be about the fulfillment of our
needs, our self-promotion and about our happiness now. The church needs to actually live like a
community of 'aliens' and 'strangers' not assimilating the cultures of this
world but living as citizens of Heaven, proclaiming God's Word accurately. We are to live as sanctified people, not
worldly ones, as Wells puts it, we are to "work out what God, in his
grace, has worked in" us, living as citizens of Heaven.
God in the Whirlwind by David Wells is an explanation of God's holy love, how God is so different, even opposite, from how our society has imagined Him to be.
God in the Whirlwind by David Wells is an explanation of God's holy love, how God is so different, even opposite, from how our society has imagined Him to be.
I'm sorry to say
that there are several things in the books that prevent me from giving this
book a higher rating. First, the
author's view of Israel and covenant theology, or reformed theology bothered me
too much, . I have read books before
where I have disagreed with the author's 'Reformed' eschatology and yet have
still liked the book, but that was not the case with this one. Here are a couple of instances, first, his
statement that"…Paul argued that being a
'Jew' was no longer a matter of ethnicity….'is one inwardly…(Romans 2:29)' The
logic here is inescapable. Those who
have been justified on the basis of Christ's work, be they Jew or Gentile,
constitute the one 'Israel of God'(Gal. 6:16)" Yes, being
a Jew was not JUST a matter of ethnicity but it includes ethnicity, the true
remnant of Israel is the elect descendants of Israel, the Israel of God. But Israel never becomes Jews and Gentiles. The
Bible does not teach this. Jews and
Gentiles do not cease to become ethnically Jews and Gentiles before God and on
this earth just because they are united in salvation. Just as men and women do not cease to be men
and women before God and on this earth because they are united in
salvation. God saves Jews, Gentiles, men
and women indiscriminately, He has not chosen to save only one people group,
like the Jews, or one sex, or only people who are not slaves, He saves all
kinds of people Galatians 3:28.
Another instance is the author's view of
types….for example, he thinks that the Exodus of Israel from Egypt is a type of
Christ and his work. I just don't see that connection made in the
Bible, rather if there is any pictorial connection, I see the event mentioned
in support of the view that God will one day bring all of the physical
descendants of Israel back to their land(Jeremiah 16:14-15) and that they will
be able to stay there because, unlike the first exodus of Israel and the Mosaic
covenant God made with them, God will make their hearts new, will make the new
covenant with them(Jer. 31:31-35,Ezek. 36:22-38). So when this mass exodus(initiated by God)
from the countries where they have been scattered happens, they will return to
their land for good(Amos 9: 14-15)because they will then be righteous, which
was the requirement for their staying in the land.(Ezek. 36:22-38).
Besides the
eschatology/Reformed typological view that kept clouding things, it was also
mentioned three times that Abraham stumbled over the promises of God. This view is blatantly contradicted by Romans
4:20-21, speaking of Abraham, "yet, looking
unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong
through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had
promised, he was able also to perform." Even in the event with
Hagar, God's word does not say that that was a wavering of belief on Abraham's
part. Of course, he was mistaken in how
God would give him an heir, but it does not seem as though he struggled with
unbelief of the promise.
To sum this up,
these things, especially the typological views, just bothered me too much and
were too distracting so I can only give this book three stars.
I'll end with one of
the quotes/points that I Iiked, here he is critiquing recent and modern
society, "When God was displaced from the
center of life, revelation was replaced by natural reason, salvation by
psychology and eschatology by social progress.
However, even as this worldview was becoming dominant, it also began to
disintegrate……What has lingered on is the substitution of psychology for
salvation, and therefore the main thread of continuity across these decades,
the thread that links the older modernist culture and our current postmodern
culture, is the autonomous self. This is
the self, the person in his or her inner being who is unrestrained by the past,
by any authority, or social convention, or community, or any truth as something
other than his or her own private opinion.
They are not restrained by any God external to themselves. This is what our culture is validating all
the time."
Many thanks to
Crossway for sending me a free review ebook(My review did not have to be
favorable).
This book may also be purchased at Amazon.com
"They are not restrained by any God external to themselves." They are free from the authoriy of the God of Scripture, but also free from the comfort which comes in knowing a Sovereign so dependable in that He IS outside of ourselves!
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