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Rating: 
Summary: Where there is no sin, there can be no salvation.
Review: As a child, adolescent, young man, and, yes, even as an adult, there stood ever before me one whose teachings and opinions guided my life. Although short in physical stature and of limited formal education, this man was and always will remain a giant in my eyes. In fact, my admiration and respect for him and that for which he stood grows greater with each passing day. That man was my Dad. In his book, The Vanishing Conscience, John MacArthur, Jr. reiterates those teachings which I have both loved and hated throughout the majority of my life. My Dad, from my earliest recollection, taught my brother and I that regardless of what those around us might say or do, we were always, always to do that which we knew to be the right thing to do. We were instructed that we were, as individuals, personally responsible for that which we spoke, did, even thought and felt. There was made no mention of self-esteem, of political correctness, of compromise, of shades of gray; the moral rainbow consisted solely of two colors: white and black (right and wrong). That truth exists today as it has always existed, despite mankind's attempts to philosophize it into oblivion. In this, the latter portion of the twentieth century, it has become fashionable to preach the gospel of self-esteem while eschewing the principle of personal responsibility. Psychology and Science appear to be able to place the blame for any deviant, aberrant, bizarre and/or socially unacceptable behavior on virtually anything or anyone excepting, and thereby pardoning, the individual who commits the breach of what was once considered reasonable behavior. Nothing and no one is safe from the finger of reproach with the single exception of the perpetrator. Perhaps the individual in question was abused as a child, was reared in poverty, deprived of love, and so on and so forth, ad infinitum. Blame, guilt, and retribution have given way to pity, leniency, and forgiveness. Where there were once credible norms, there now flutters in the societal winds an increasing tendency toward latitude and acceptance, regardless of the malignity of the act and the resulting impact on society as a whole. It seems that no behavior is to be demonstrated that is worthy of personal blame or public condemnation. The perpetrator of a crime has now become the victim while, alas, the true victim receives but cursory and transient empathy with no attendant justice nor equitable recompense. Has this policy of moral liberality proven of benefit to society? One has but to peruse the daily newspapers to be made painfully aware that this standard of personal blamelessness has, to the contrary, proven empirically to be an abject and abysmal failure. Personal bankruptcies rise each year in a society where per capita income and personal standards of living have also risen. Murders, rapes, tortures, muggings, arsons, drug usage have increased at an alarming rate during this same period of improved self-esteem and public acceptance, liberality, and forgiveness. In The Vanishing Conscience, MacArthur addresses, from a biblical perspective, the issues of self-esteem, personal guilt, and individual responsibility. How does modern psychology's obsession with personal forgiveness, high self-esteem, and the love of self stand in the light of Holy Scripture? What became of the little word sin with all of its grave implications, ramifications, and negative connotations? In an age of self-absolution, it would appear that Jesus Christ suffered and died in vain, for, if we are to believe the modern self-proclaimed and self-ordained prophets of the "feel good" philosophy, we are to forgive, each his or her own, transgressions and iniquities by blaming our environment, our genetic predisposition, our parents, our teachers, our political leaders, our role models, anything or anyone but our individual selves. The Vanishing Conscience is an extraordinarily germane work in that MacArthur not only elucidates the church's adoption and endorsement of this secular abomination as well as the inherent dangers of this heretical philosophy, but does so in such a manner that the reader is made knowledgeable of that which a just God demands of His children. Of far greater importance than self-esteem is our relationship to a God who will hold you and I accountable for each act, thought, word, and deed. On that Great and Terrible Day, conscience may be either a dear friend or a damning foe, but it will not claim neutrality. Self-esteem, that placebo of modern psychology, will not be a factor.
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Summary: Vitally important for our time
Review: John MacArthur's 'The Vanishing Conscience' is a pivotal work exposing the insidious sham of modern psychology's band-aid approach to the metastasizing cancer of sin. It belongs on the top shelf of every discerning Christian's library, alongside Dave Hunt's 'The Seduction of Christianity.'
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