“Great saints have always been dogmatic.
We need right now a return to a gentle dogmatism that smiles while it stands stubborn and firm on the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever.”
“This frightening hour calls aloud for men with the gift of prophetic insight. Instead we have men who conduct surveys, polls and panel discussions. We need men with the gift of knowledge. In their place we have men with scholarship—nothing more.
If the church in the second half of this century is to recover from the injuries she suffered in the first half, there must appear a new type of preacher….not the smooth-talking pastoral type who knows how to make the Christian religion acceptable to everyone. All these have been tried and found wanting.
Another kind of religious leader must arise among us. He must be of the old prophet type, a man who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the Throne. When he comes (and I pray God there will be not one but many) he will stand in flat contradiction to everything our smirking, smooth civilization holds dear. He will contradict, denounce and protest in the name of God and will earn the hatred and opposition of a large segment of Christendom.
We desperately need seers who can see through the mist—Christian leaders with prophetic vision. Unless they come soon it will be too late for this generation. And if they do come we will no doubt crucify a few of them in the name of our worldly orthodoxy.
“The church has lost her testimony. She has no longer anything to say to the world.”
Christianity is so entangled with the world that millions never guess how radically they have missed the New Testament pattern. Compromise is everywhere.
Keep your feet on the ground, but let your heart soar as high as it will. Refuse to be average or to surrender to the chill of your spiritual environment.
We need to learn that truth consists not in correct doctrine, but in correct doctrine plus the inward enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.”
-A.W. Tozer
10 comments
Just read the book Radical by David Platt. Have you read it?
I have not read it, though I want to. I’m very familiar with David Platt–several of our friends have attended his church and he is really shaking things up there 😉 Incredible heart for the things of the Lord. Radical indeed.
You probably already know this, but I found it as a Kindle download for $5. Even without a kindle, you can download the kindle reader for computer and then use all the kindle books on it.
Radical is a call to “take back our Christianity from the American Dream.” It was so powerful. And yet, accessible. I love when it actually seems like “we can get there from here.” We are working on the one year challenge Platt gives in the last chapter.
I was just thinking the same thing…
I like Tozer. Christian Light Publications has his sermon-The Menace of the Religious Movie in a booklet($1.70). James L. Snyder wrote a biography(1991)-In Pursuit of God-about A.W.Tozer.
Tozer always manages to hit me where I live. I was just thinking about him the other day, how he managed to be so effective in so few words. His books are short, but SO rich and thought provoking.
On page 122 of Snyder’s biography about Tozer “the cult of entertainment” and “the cult of celebrity” are discussed. In our Conservative Baptist Church here on Long Island we don’t clap when someone sings,plays the piano,etc. because our church teaches that clapping is part of the cult of celebrity. I found it interesting that A.W.Tozer and his wife had 6 sons then a daughter. Page 184 says Tozer rarely used physical discipline with his sons but explained to them that their house had rules. He did believe in spanking as mentioned on that page.
Psalm 47:1 “O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.” KJV
I’ve never read anything by Tozer. I’ll look into it, thanks 🙂
I am reading “Radical”, too, and I am enjoying it also.
Then, one of my daughters bought me “The New Foxes Book Of Martyrs” for Christmas. These two books together have been powerful to me.
My birthday was this last week and another daughter bought me a book from my wish list: “Holiness” by JC Ryle. This is also a very good book.
One thing I read today reminds me of your post,
“…Surely no man with his eyes open can fail to see that the Christianity of the New Testament is something far higher and deeper than the Christianity of most professing Christians. That formal, easy-going, do-little thing, which most people call ‘religion’, is evidently not the religion of the Lord Jesus. The things that He praises…are not praised by the world. The things that He blames are not things in which the world sees any harm. Oh, if you would follow Christ, be not content with the world’s Christianity! Tremble, tremble and repent.” (pg.205)