A Revival Resource Center
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Articles and
Messages by A.W. Tozer
- The
Great Test: Modifying the Truth
THERE IS A GREAT DECISION
THAT EVERY DENOMINATION has to make sometime in the development of
its history. Every church also has to make it either at its beginning
or a little later—usually a little later. Eventually every board is
faced with the decision and has to keep making it, not by one great
decision made once for all, but by a series of little decisions adding
up to one great big one. Every pastor has to face it and keep renewing
his decision on his knees before God. Finally, every church member,
every evangelist, every Christian has to make this decision. It is
a matter of judgment upon that denomination, that church, that board,
that pastor, that leader and upon their descendants and spiritual
children.
The question is this:
Shall we modify the truth in doctrine or practice to gain more adherents?
Or shall we preserve the truth in doctrine and practice and take the
consequences? If the decision is that we modify the truth and practice
of the church, then we are responsible for the consequences, whatever
they may be. God already knows what the consequences are, and history
has shown what they are. But if we choose to preserve the truth, then
God accepts the responsibility.
- The
Warfare of the Spirit - Developing Spiritual Maturity
There are two spirits
in the earth, the Spirit of God and the spirit of Satan, and these
are at eternal enmity. The ostensible cause of religious hatred may
be almost anything; the true cause is nearly always the same: the
ancient animosity which Satan, since the time of his inglorious fall,
has ever felt toward God and His kingdom. Satan is aflame with desire
for unlimited dominion over the human family; and whenever that evil
ambition is challenged by the Spirit of God, he invariably retaliates
with savage fury.
- We
Are Commited to the Whole Message
To allow the gospel only
its etymological meaning of good news is to restrict it so radically
as actually to make it something it is not. That "Christ died for
our sins according to the scriptures" is good news indeed. That He,
having by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
Majesty in the heavens from which exalted position He mediates grace
to all believers, is wonderful, heartening news for the sin burdened
race. But to limit the Christian message to this one truth alone is
to rob it of much of its meaning and create a bad misunderstanding
among those who hear the resultant preaching.
- I
Believe in The Communion of Saints
The Christian life begins
with the individual; a soul has a saving encounter with God and the
new life is born. Not all the pooled efforts of any church can make
a Christian out of a lost man. But once the "great transaction’s
done" the communion of believers will be found to be the best
environment for the new life. Men are made for each other, and this
is never more apparent than in the church.
All else being equal,
the individual Christian will find in the communion of a local church
the most perfect atmosphere for the fullest development of his spiritual
life. There also he will find the best arena for the largest exercise
of those gifts and powers with which God may have endowed him.
- We
Must Try The Spirits
Many tender-minded Christians
fear to sin against love by daring to inquire into anything that comes
wearing the cloak of Christianity and breathing the name of Jesus.
They dare not examine the credentials of the latest prophet to hit
their town lest they be guilty of rejecting something which may be
of God. They timidly remember how the Pharisees refused to accept
Christ when He came, and they do not want to be caught in the same
snare, so they either reserve judgment or shut their eyes and accept
everything without question. This is supposed to indicate a high degree
of spirituality. But in sober fact it indicates no such thing. It
may indeed be evidence of the absence of the Holy Spirit.
- Facing
Both Ways
The individual is caught
in the middle, trying to be true to both foci of the heart, and never
knowing which he would rather follow. Evangelicalism (at least in
many circles) is suffering from this strange division of life-purpose.
Its theology faces toward the East and the sacred Temple of Jehovah.
Its active interests face toward the world and the temple of Dagon.
Doctrinally it is Christian, but actually it is pagan mentality, pagan
scale of values and pagan religious principles.
- What
Profit in Prayer?
Men may, and often do, pray without faith
(though this is not true prayer), but it is not thinkable that men
should have faith and not pray. The biblical formula is "The
prayer of faith." Prayer and faith are here bound together by
the little preposition of, and what God hath joined together, let
not man put asunder. Faith is only genuine as it eventuates into prayer.
- Could
This Be Our Most Critical Need?
We must have a new reformation.
There must come a violent break with that irresponsible, amusement-mad,
paganized pseudo-religion which passes today for the faith of Christ
and which is being spread all over the world by unspiritual men employing
unscriptural methods to achieve their ends.
When the Roman church
apostatized, God brought about the Reformation. When the Reformation
declined, God raised up the Moravians and the Wesleys. When these
movements began to die, God raised up fundamentalism and the "deeper
life" groups.
Now that these have almost
without exception sold out to the world—what next?
- The
True Saint Is Different
All conformity to the
world is a negation of our Christian character and a surrender of
our heavenly position. Let us plant
ourselves on the hill of Zion and invite the world to come over to
us, but never under any circumstances will we go over to them. The
cross is the symbol of Christianity, and the cross speaks of death
and separation, never of compromise. No one ever compromised with
a cross. The cross separated between the dead and the living. The
timid and the fearful will cry "Extreme!" and they will
be right. The cross is the essence of all that is extreme and final.
The message of Christ is a call across a gulf from death to life,
from sin to righteousness and from Satan to God.
- We
Need to Elevate Our Sights
To Paul there was nothing
dull or tiresome in the religion of Christ. God had a plan which was
being carried forward to completion, and Paul and "all the faithful
in Christ Jesus" were part of that plan. It included predestination,
redemption, adoption and the obtaining of an eternal inheritance in
the heavenly places. God’s purpose has now been openly revealed (Ephesians
3:10,11).
It was the knowledge
that they were part of an eternal plan that imparted unquenchable
enthusiasm to the early Christians. They burned with holy zeal for
Christ and felt that they were part of an army which the Lord was
leading to ultimate conquest over all the powers of darkness. That
was enough to fill them with perpetual enthusiasm.
It is one of the anomalies
of religion in our day that the orthodox churches appear to have lost
their crusading spirit (obviously for want of a crusade), and the
enthusiasm they once had and lost gone over to a false religion and
an evil political system.
- The
Sovereignty of Truth
To Paul there was nothing
dull or tiresome in the religion of Christ. God had a plan which was
being carried forward to completion, and Paul and "all the faithful
in Christ Jesus" were part of that plan. It included predestination,
redemption, adoption and the obtaining of an eternal inheritance in
the heavenly places. God’s purpose has now been openly revealed (Ephesians
3:10,11).
It was the knowledge
that they were part of an eternal plan that imparted unquenchable
enthusiasm to the early Christians. They burned with holy zeal for
Christ and felt that they were part of an army which the Lord was
leading to ultimate conquest over all the powers of darkness. That
was enough to fill them with perpetual enthusiasm.
It is one of the anomalies
of religion in our day that the orthodox churches appear to have lost
their crusading spirit (obviously for want of a crusade), and the
enthusiasm they once had and lost gone over to a false religion and
an evil political system.
- What
About the Ethics of Jesus?
The dream of a universal
brotherhood based upon the ethics of Jesus is just that — a dream.
It is compounded of a few words of Christ mixed with vast numbers
of uninspired words spoken by men whose yearnings are to be commended
but whose wisdom is suspect. To arrive at the doctrine of brotherhood
it is necessary that we reject the major portion of the New Testament
and misunderstand the rest.
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