No Reason To Hide - Book Review

By JIM THOMPSON
Exclusive for The Response
02/08/2023

Lutzer’s No Reason to Hide offers hope for Christians and Conservatives who are under attack

Dr. Erwin Lutzer is the retired pastor of Moody Bible Church in downtown Chicago and a popular and prolific author. Three of his most recent books – The Church in Babylon (2018), We Will Not Be Silenced (2020) and No Reason to Hide (2022) all deal in various ways the church and individual Christians are dealing with increasing persecution in a secularized world.

The books deal with trends in secular morality, in particular transgenderism and gay indoctrination, but also with intolerance from the secular world that includes naïve tolerance within Christian institutions. From the dates of publications, readers see that the riots and unrest surrounding the presidential election, and the restrictions due to the COVID emergency reflect conditions described in the last two books.

These books deal with our current situation from a religious perspective. Particularly impressive with Lutzer’s books is his appreciation of word use and the importance of propaganda in projecting a world view—whether Christian or secular. His perspective includes reference to George Orwell’s 1949 political novel 1984. Orwell describes a totalitarian society ruled by verbal propaganda using "doublespeak," a form of verbal confusion.

I read 1984 while in college and appreciated the way people were easily confused by the propagandists. On page 28 of No Reason to Hide, Lutzer discusses the use of the word “Woke.” We hear that word used constantly today. Some people used the word to indicate some sort of awareness of injustice, often racial. But it has obviously been expanded to include radical leftist views.

One danger of using this word at all is that two people can be in a conversation using the same word but with opposite definitions. Thus, they may think they are agreeing on something when they are not. For example, what about discussing which candidate to vote for?

Lutzer specifies that he is using the word ‘Woke’ to refer to the radical left. My own observation is that, even using slang words like that when we are in a culture with mass media, creates a dangerous situation because the media masters can persuade the unwary.

The 2020 shutdown due to COVID disrupted personal networking. The riots and the media coverage created further divisiveness. The various demands and agendas appeared out of nowhere. In We WiIl Not Be Silenced, Lutzer uses various catchy chapter titles to highlight some of the tactics used. For example, "Rewrite the Past to Control the Future," "Freedom of Speech for Me but Not for Thee," and "Vilify! Vilify! Vilify!".

The violence used to produce shock and awe was reinforced by the media broadcasting support for the violence and portraying it as news. The election was carried on with mass media delivering the news by showing mobs shouting slogans. This cleverly prevented intelligent discussion and resulted in a narrow victory for radical Democrats.

In his third book, No Reason to Hide, Lutzer had time to reflect on the mob policies and see some patterns between highly theoretical books and enacted policies. Marxism originally was economic and divided people into bourgeoisie (business owners) and proletariat (workers) and specified a conflict between them only resolved by a revolt.

There was no compromise—always a dynamic of the oppressor and the oppressed. Some contemporary intellectuals converted this to other conflicts—gender, family and racial. They adapted the conflict to male versus female or transgender and white to other.

I found the third chapter especially succinct – “Will We Expose the Greatest Lie That Is Our Nation’s Most Cherished Delusion?” He explains that in the Bible, Satan tempts Eve (Gen 3:5) that by eating the forbidden fruit she and Adam will be like God. This is like defining our own understanding of good and evil with no external input (page 59). One thing leads to another, and Marx replaces religious authority with the state.

Lutzer reminds us on page 64 that Mussolini defined fascism as “Everything with the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state”—essentially the same as Marxism.

Marx also said objective truth must be abandoned – truth is whatever the state determines it to be. Marxism was associated with the Revolution of 1848 and since then has been associated with a violent approach. We saw violence and shock tactics in 2020. But what if the results could be achieved in another way? Lutzer has perceived that there is another way for Marxism to succeed.

Welcome to Marxism by “deconstruction of culture.” Try to capture various institutions—education, law, media, economics and entertainment. This requires gaining control of positions of power. On page 66, Lutzer writes, “It seeks to vilify our past and rebuild our nation on a Marxist foundation.”

One crucial item in this deconstruction is the US Constitution. This is the basis of our political culture and a source of unity and limitation of power. It was composed in the past and regarded as a work of wisdom to control our government and guarantee our freedoms. Today the ‘Woke’ people point out the constitution was composed by white males, some of whom were slaveholders. At best, are their actions suspect?

For them same reason the Bible and Western laws and social institutions are increasingly questioned as designed to “protect their ‘power – specifically white power.’” (Page 66)

Contemporary ‘intellectuals’ have put considerable thought into the idea that ‘whiteness’ requires condemnation. Their names would mean little to the average reader. Lutzer’s book provides details that will help. For the modern young reader, who may have a short attention span and prefer a simple style, Lutzer cleverly balances the need for documentation with the need for brevity by using extensive footnotes at the end of the book.

No Reason to Hide is a short paperback under 300 pages. If people ask pointed questions, references are easily found in the appendix at the back of the book.

In Illinois today, ‘Wokeness’ has manifested as state mandated Leftist sex education (SB 818). The way our children are sexualized is covered in various parts of Lutzer’s latest work, including Chapter 8, ‘Will We Oppose the Fiction of a Gender-Neutral Society?’ and Chapter 9, ‘Will Our Children Be Indoctrinated by the Enemy?’

In summary, the new “woke” techniques of infiltrating our cultural institutions, especially education, make awareness of this problem a matter of urgency.

No Reason to Hide is listed on some Websites as a paperback for $18.99. But it’s also available for under $12 at Hobby Lobby. Or, click the cover image above.

Its readability and relevant footnotes make it a useful resource and discussion-starter that no one should be without.