“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.
Gullibility is not synonymous with spirituality. Faith is not a mental habit leading its possessor to open his mouth and swallow everything that has about it the color of the supernatural. Faith keeps its heart open to whatever is of God, and rejects everything that is not of God, however wonderful it may be. Try the spirits is a command of the Holy Spirit to the Church.
We may sin as certainly by approving the spurious as by rejecting the genuine. And the current habit of refusing to take sides is not the way to avoid the question. To appraise things with a heart of love and then to act on the results is an obligation resting upon every Christian in the world. And the more as we see the day approaching.”
A.W. Tozer
Judge Not? Don’t Be Confused ~ A.W. Tozer Quote
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“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this we know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now is already in the world. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” 1 John 4:1-6
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5 comments
Excellent!
What an excellent quote! Thanks so much for posting it.
Yep, an excellent post. And try telling someone you didn’t think very much of the theology of an author they recommenceded.
We need to be as the Bereans and search (all) these things out to see if they be true.
Trish
Amen! Sometimes we are afraid to ‘judge’ the actions of those we care about for fear of losing friends. If we are approaching them with love and biblical correction than we can be sure any rejection is aimed at God, not us.
So why are so many christians afraid to ‘suffer for righteousness sake’?
Excellent question, Kim. We really do have an entire wave of Christians who think that to speak against ANYTHING is hypocritical/judgemental, when the Sriptures are so clear about “testing” and judging to see if things line up with the Word of God.
Obviously there are areas open and not as black and white, but unfortunately, we’ve made everything gray and no longer want to even admit there’s an absolute truth.