Journal: Conservative Theological Journal
Volume: CTJ 01:3 (Dec 1997)
Article: Article Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

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CTJ 1:3 (December 1997) p. 281

Article Book Reviews

By the faculty of Tyndale Biblical Institute & Theological Seminary and others
Mal Couch, Editor

No Place for Sovereignty by R.K. McGregor Wright, Downers Grove, IL, InterVarsity Press, 1996, 249 pp., paperback, $17.99.

Wright has stuck his neck out to affirm again for this present generation the strong theology of basic Calvinism. Though not all may believe in every detail of Reformed thinking, the sovereignty and providence of God is now a step-child in the practical cogitations of most “theologians” and pastors. The sheep who are grazing in the pews rarely, if ever, hear of the awesome plans and decrees of God and the fact that, though evil is present, He is still in charge of His universe!

Wright returns us to these sovereign and majestic doctrines. He describes how modern Arminianism is smothering the evangelical world like a wet blanket. And with Arminianism comes humanism, followed by a non-biblical free will that then gives us an impotent and passive God. In fact, the book’s subtitle is “What’s Wrong With Freewill Theism.”

Wright, who heads up the Aquila and Priscilla House Study Center in Lakewood, Colorado, writes that one of the purposes of his book is to show the contrast between the principles of grace, dominant in Reformation thinking, and modern evangelical Arminianism. The author correctly attacks today’s “syncretistic combination of secular methodologies and superficial biblical language aimed at ‘felt needs’ rather than hell-bound sinners.” As well, he writes against the “user friendly” gospel that ignores Paul’s tough teaching about the power of the gospel to transform sinners. Wright notes that syncretism has always been around for every period of Church history. It combines the “unique blessings of scriptural revelation with the vagaries of whatever currents of thought are happening to capture the popular imagination.” He makes his point by quoting the Church Father, Tertullian: “What has Athens [Greek thought] to do with Jerusalem [God’s thoughts]?”

CTJ 1:3 (December 1997) p. 282

Wright shows the history of Arminianism and its destructive humanism. He gives a good review of Calvinism and its strong biblical teaching against a false freewill. In the chapter entitled “Depravity & Election,” the author does an excellent job restating biblically the scriptural grounds for sovereign grace in contrast to mankind’s helplessness through his lostness and depravity. (Many present day younger evangelicals are wandering in the fog, when it comes to these biblical truths.)

Other outstanding chapters in this volume deal with “Grace & Pe...

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