"No Place For Truth"

                The demise of the Christian bookstore has been a disaster for the church....and thus for America. I've posted on this many times. Thirty years ago or thereabouts there were five Christian bookstores within a ten mile range of where I live. If you include the Christian bookstore that my wife and I owned then it would be six Christian bookstores. I don't like admitting this but I used to criticise a lot of these stores because they sold so many Christian knickknacks and wall coverings and music. I was majoring in minors on this....and didn't realize how valuable these stores were until they were no longer there.
                Here is what you would find if you walked into one of those stores from way back when. There would be books everywhere....in-between and around all the knickknacks....and all shelved in categories....Christian Living....Classics....Prophecy....Bibles.....Bible Reference and Helps....Devotionals....Biographies....Men's Issues and Women's Issues....Apologetics....and....New Releases. There was a rack with Christian magazines. Two stores near me actually had a Puritan book section. Our store was nothing but Reformation or Reformed theology.
                There was good stuff in the typical Christian bookstore...and there was bad stuff...and there was great stuff. Excellent Christian books were coming out literally all the time. Hank Hanegraaff usually had something out there....as did R. C. Sproul and John MacArthur and Michael Horton and David Wells....and the list goes on and on! I'll give you one example....as I have the book in my hand....and used the title of it for this post. It's left over from our stock of books....David Wells....No Place For Truth....Or Whatever Happened To Evangelical Theology. This was 1993 folks. Since then almost all has been lost.
                 Here is the key to the necessity of these bookstores. The average Christian...and back then there were new 'born agains' all the time....that average Christian needed the choices....the good the bad and the ugly....to eventually see the good. That is exactly what happened to me. I walked in a Christian bookstore called....It Is Written....back in 1982....with nothing else to do as my wife was shopping at Penney's....and I asked if they sold rosaries....because my rosary had snapped. They didn't....and all praise to our merciful and loving God....I walked out with Josh McDowell's....Evidence That Demands A Verdict! Not that long after this a neon orange paperback cover caught my eye....William Gurnall's....The Christian In Complete Armour....Volume I. You are not going to find books like that today even in the Christian bookstores that still exist.
                 Our supply lines have been cut! I research Christian bookstores when on vacation....as I did recently on a trip to Tennessee....and go out of my way to visit them....and I am thankful for what is there....but it is not much. The great and necessary books are not being published for one thing.....at least not many of them. No one is going to stumble into anything today! So forget the average bloke....that was me....stumbling across the gospel while their spouse is at Penney's. Forget Barnes & Noble. I'm in there almost every Tuesday....news releases day....and while there are hundreds of 'Christian' books....they are 99% pablum at best! You can find a good one but it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.
                The loss of Christian bookstores is not the only problem that we have in the church today. Back then we had a dozen or so nationally known Christian leaders or pastors or teachers and authors. Once again there was the good the very good and the not so good....but their voices were present and very vocal in America. Billy Graham was the big one....John MacArthur right behind him....and R. C. Sproul behind him....John Piper after him....and plenty more after that. David Wilkerson could warn the sheep as well as any of them....and even Pat Robertson was a loud discerning voice. Just about all of these men are gone. John MacArthur was missing from his pulpit today for health reasons....and this for the thirteenth straight week! I hope you are praying for his voice to return because we need it. John Piper is still here....but retired as a pastor. Alistair Begg recently announced his retirement as pastor of his Cleveland church. Since when do Christian pastors retire short of having to be helped in and out of the pulpit?
                 So in these two very important areas we are in big trouble. We have gone politics....and followed a wolf in sheep's clothing....and there is no one on a national stage to warn us. The transition to the megachurch has hurt. People were leaving small churches with pastors who very humbly preached the gospel and warned of the wrath of God....and going to these fancy churches that are starting to resemble more....basilicas....functioning for the public good...and providing a pulpit for an eminent pastor.
                 These are end-times changes. Christians used to listen to Christian radio all the time....even in the background. We wanted conversation. We wanted to be told why we were a peculiar people. We rejoiced in the surety of hearing about how one has to be born again. There was stimulating talk on serious issues....and the Bible Answer Man challenged the cults. We don't seem to care what a cult is today....and many of us are actually a part of a cultic political movement.
               We need pastors to pack their bags....and then go into their pulpits....ready to move on if there is no place for truth in those pulpits.