Part 1 (1/2)
The Knowledge of the Holy.
by A. W. Tozer.
PREFACE.
True religion confronts earth with heaven and brings eternity to bear upon time. The messenger of Christ, though he speaks from G.o.d, must also, as the Quakers used to say, 'speak to the condition' of his hearers; otherwise he will speak a language known only to himself. His message must be not only timeless but timely. He must speak to his own generation.
The message of this book does not grow out of these times but it is appropriate to them. It is called forth by a condition which has existed in the Church for some years and is steadily growing worse. I refer to the loss of the concept of majesty from the popular religious mind. The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of G.o.d and has subst.i.tuted for it one so low, so ign.o.ble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, wors.h.i.+pping men. This she has done not deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic.
The low view of G.o.d entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. A whole new philosophy of the Christian life has resulted from this one basic error in our religious thinking.
With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of wors.h.i.+p and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet G.o.d in adoring silence. Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the Spirit. The words, 'Be still, and know that I am G.o.d,' mean next to nothing to the self-confident, bustling wors.h.i.+pper in this middle period of the twentieth century.
This loss of the concept of majesty has come just when the forces of religion are making dramatic gains and the churches are more prosperous than at any time within the past several hundred years. But the alarming thing is that our gains are mostly external and our losses wholly internal; and since it is the quality of our religion that is affected by internal conditions, it may be that our supposed gains are but losses spread over a wider field.
The only way to recoup our spiritual losses is to go back to the cause of them and make such corrections as the truth warrants. The decline of the knowledge of the holy has brought on our troubles. A rediscovery of the majesty of G.o.d will go a long way toward curing them. It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward att.i.tudes right while our idea of G.o.d is erroneous or inadequate. If we would bring back spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of G.o.d more nearly as He is.
As my humble contribution to a better understanding of the Majesty in the heavens I offer this reverent study of the attributes of G.o.d. Were Christians today reading such works as those of Augustine or Anselm a book like this would have no reason for being. But such illuminated masters are known to modern Christians only by name. Publishers dutifully reprint their books and in due time these appear on the shelves of our studies. But the whole trouble lies right there: they remain on the shelves. The current religious mood makes the reading of them virtually impossible even for educated Christians.
Apparently not many Christians will wade through hundreds of pages of heavy religious matter requiring sustained concentration. Such books remind too many persons of the secular cla.s.sics they were forced to read while they were in school and they turn away from them with a feeling of discouragement.
For that reason an effort such as this may be not without some beneficial effect. Since this book is neither esoteric nor technical, and since it is written in the language of wors.h.i.+p with no pretension to elegant literary style, perhaps some persons may be drawn to read it. While I believe that nothing will be found here contrary to sound Christian theology, I yet write not for professional theologians but for plain persons whose hearts stir them up to seek after G.o.d Himself.
It is my hope that this small book may contribute somewhat to the promotion of personal heart religion among us; and should a few persons by reading it be encouraged to begin the practice of reverent meditation on the being of G.o.d, that will more than repay the labor required to produce it.
A. W. Tozer
Chapter 1.
Why We Must Think Rightly About G.o.d O, Lord G.o.d Almighty, not the G.o.d of the philosophers and the wise but the G.o.d of the prophets and apostles; and better than all, the G.o.d and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, may I express Thee unblamed?
They that know Thee not may call upon Thee as other than Thou art, and so wors.h.i.+p not Thee but a creature of their own fancy; therefore enlighten our minds that we may know Thee as Thou art, so that we may perfectly love Thee and worthily praise Thee.
In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
What comes into our minds when we think about G.o.d is the most important thing about us.
The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of G.o.d. Wors.h.i.+p is pure or base as the wors.h.i.+per entertains high or low thoughts of G.o.d.
For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always G.o.d Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives G.o.d to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of G.o.d. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of G.o.d, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech. She can never escape the self-disclosure of her witness concerning G.o.d.
Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, 'What comes into your mind when you think about G.o.d?' we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man. Were we able to know exactly what our most influential religious leaders think of G.o.d today, we might be able with some precision to foretell where the Church will stand tomorrow.
Without doubt, the mightiest thought the mind can entertain is the thought of G.o.d, and the weightiest word in any language is its word for G.o.d. Thought and speech are G.o.d's gifts to creatures made in His image; these are intimately a.s.sociated with Him and impossible apart from Him. It is highly significant that the first word was the Word: 'And the Word was with G.o.d, and the Word was G.o.d.' We may speak because G.o.d spoke. In Him word and idea are indivisible.
That our idea of G.o.d correspond as nearly as possible to the true being of G.o.d is of immense importance to us. Compared with our actual thoughts about Him, our creedal statements are of little consequence. Our real idea of G.o.d may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is. Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about G.o.d.
A right conception of G.o.d is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to wors.h.i.+p what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ign.o.ble thoughts about G.o.d.
It is my opinion that the Christian conception of G.o.d current in these middle years of the twentieth century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High G.o.d and actually to const.i.tute for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity.
All the problems of heaven and earth, though they were to confront us together and at once, would be nothing compared with the overwhelming problem of G.o.d: That He is; what He is like; and what we as moral beings must do about Him.
The man who comes to a right belief about G.o.d is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems, for he sees at once that these have to do with matters which at the most cannot concern him for very long; but even if the multiple burdens of time may be lifted from him, the one mighty single burden of eternity begins to press down upon him with a weight more crus.h.i.+ng than all the woes of the world piled one upon another. That mighty burden is his obligation to G.o.d. It includes an instant and lifelong duty to love G.o.d with every power of mind and soul, to obey Him perfectly, and to wors.h.i.+p Him acceptably. And when the man's laboring conscience tells him that he has done none of these things, but has from childhood been guilty of foul revolt against the Majesty in the heavens, the inner pressure of self-accusation may become too heavy to bear.
The gospel can lift this destroying burden from the mind, give beauty for ashes, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. But unless the weight of the burden is felt the gospel can mean nothing to the man; and until he sees a vision of G.o.d high and lifted up, there will be no woe and no burden. Low views of G.o.d destroy the gospel for all who hold them.
Among the sins to which the human heart is p.r.o.ne, hardly any other is more hateful to G.o.d than idolatry, for idolatry is at bottom a libel on His character. The idolatrous heart a.s.sumes that G.o.d is other than He is - in itself a monstrous sin - and subst.i.tutes for the true G.o.d one made after its own likeness. Always this G.o.d will conform to the image of the one who created it and will be base or pure, cruel or kind, according to the moral state of the mind from which it emerges.
A G.o.d begotten in the shadows of a fallen heart will quite naturally be no true likeness of the true G.o.d. 'Thou thoughtest,' said the Lord to the wicked man in the psalm, 'that I was altogether such as one as thyself.' Surely this must be a serious affront to the Most High G.o.d before whom cherubim and seraphim continually do cry, 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord G.o.d of Sabaoth.'
Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about G.o.d that are unworthy of Him. It begins in the mind and may be present where no overt act of wors.h.i.+p has taken place.
'When they knew G.o.d,' wrote Paul, 'they glorified him not as G.o.d, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.'
Then followed the wors.h.i.+p of idols fas.h.i.+oned after the likeness of men and birds and beasts and creeping things. But this series of degrading acts began in the mind. Wrong ideas about G.o.d are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about G.o.d and acts as if they were true.
Perverted notions about G.o.d soon rot the religion in which they appear. The long career of Israel demonstrates this clearly enough, and the history of the Church confirms it. So necessary to the Church is a lofty concept of G.o.d that when that concept in any measure declines, the Church with her wors.h.i.+p and her moral standards declines along with it. The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of G.o.d.
Before the Christian Church goes into eclipse anywhere there must first be a corrupting of her simple basic theology. She simply gets a wrong answer to the question, 'What is G.o.d like?' and goes on from there. Though she may continue to cling to a sound nominal creed, her practical working creed has become false. The ma.s.ses of her adherents come to believe that G.o.d is different from what He actually is; and that is heresy of the most insidious and deadly kind.
The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her concept of G.o.d until it is once more worthy of Him - and of her. In all her prayers and labors this should have first place. We do the greatest service to the next generation of Christians by pa.s.sing on to them undimmed and undiminished that n.o.ble concept of G.o.d which we received from our Hebrew and Christian fathers of generations past. This will prove of greater value to them than anything that art or science can devise.
O, G.o.d of Bethel, by whose hand Thy people still are fed; Who through this weary pilgrimage Hast all our fathers led!
Our vows, our prayers we now present Before Thy throne of grace: G.o.d of our fathers! be the G.o.d Of their succeeding race.
Philip Doddridge
Chapter 2.
G.o.d Incomprehensible Lord, how great is our dilemma! In Thy Presence silence best becomes us, but love inflames our hearts and constrains us to speak.
Were we to hold our peace the stones would cry out; yet if we speak, what shall we say? Teach us to know that we cannot know, for the things of G.o.d knoweth no man, but the Spirit of G.o.d. Let faith support us where reason fails, and we shall think because we believe, not in order that we may believe.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
The child, the philosopher, and the religionist have all one question: 'What is G.o.d like?'