by A. W. Tozer
It is unfortunate for the cause of truth that the thinnest skin in the world is that which wraps the saints. God's children are as easily injured as new-hatched hummingbirds, and worst of all, they do not heal readily.
I was reminded of this some time ago when I wrote what was meant to be a good-natured, if realistic, appraisal of a bad book. Not morally bad, understand, but just bad as a book. I was not mad at anybody, and I even tried to soften my review with a bit of what I supposed was recognizable humor.
To the credit of the book's author, he simply ignored me and my review; but a few of my friends were appalled by what I had written. They felt that I had, by my frankness, hurt my Christian testimony and sinned against the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Had I actually been living the victorious life, they reasoned, I would never have expressed myself so bluntly about a book written by another Christian.
I suppose there will always be sensitive souls who think that the only way to keep sweet is to keep quiet, and who mistake honesty for carnality. These tender-minded saints confuse humility with timidity and believe that credulity and sanctification are synonymous. As they see it, every book written by an evangelical, no matter how sub-standard it may be, should have the wholehearted endorsement of all other evangelicals. Anything less is uncharitable and un-Christian.
One result of this weak attitude is that mediocrity has become normal in the field of evangelical literature. Shoddy thinking and shoddier writing are accepted as earmarks of orthodoxy, to the grief of all better minds and to the delight of the enemies of Christ.
As long as it is held to be an evidence of advanced spirituality to approve whatever is written by gospel Christians and a mark of carnality to criticize anything they write, our direction can only continue to be down. If things go on in their present course, we conservatives will soon be living in a world of soft unreality where smiling, timorous brethren walk about praising the Lord and complimenting each other for literary works so atrocious both in content and style that they would not get past the office boy in a first-class publishing house.
It can only be a cause for deep regret that the fear of offending has silenced the voices of so many men of discernment and put Bible Christianity at the mercy of the undiscerning.
Religious music has long ago fallen victim to this weak and twisted philosophy of godliness. Good hymnody has been betrayed and subverted by noisy, uncouth persons who have too long operated under the immunity afforded them by the timidity of the saints. The tragic result is that for one entire generation we have been rearing Christians who are in complete ignorance of the golden treasury of songs and hymns left us by the ages. The tin horn has been substituted for the silver trumpet, and our religious leaders have been afraid to protest.
It is ironic that the modernistic churches which deny the theology of the great hymns nevertheless sing them, and regenerated Christians who believe them are yet not singing them; in their stead are songs without theological content set to music without beauty.
Not our religious literature only and our hymnody have suffered from the notion that love to be true to itself must be silent in the presence of any and every abomination, but almost every phase of our church life has suffered also. Once a Bible and a hymnbook were enough to allow gospel Christians to express their joy in the public assembly, but now it requires tons of gadgets to satisfy the pagan appetites of persons who call themselves Christians.
In the Old Testament it is recorded that after years of bad leadership had brought Judah to her knees, a new king, Hezekiah, came to the throne. Immediately he called the priests and Levites together and said to them,
"Listen to me, Levites, consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the temple of the LORD, the God of your fathers. Remove all defilement from the sanctuary."
The priests went into the sanctuary of the LORD to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the LORD's temple everything unclean that they found in the temple of the LORD. The Levites took it and carried it out to the Kidron Valley. (2 Chronicles 29:5, 16)
It took a week to get rid of the junk, but when they had obeyed God there followed immediately a sunburst of revival; and the good effects lasted nearly thirtyu years.
I do not wish to draw too close a parallel between conditions under Ahaz and conditions in the churches today, but every enlightened soul can see how we languish for fearless leaders and bold reformers who will dare to pass holy judgment upon the unscriptural goings on that are being substituted for New Testament Christianity in the majority of our churches.
Somewhere there may be a freckle-faced stripling as yet unknown who will hear the call of God and go forth in dauntless love to become a conscience to the churches. Too many prophets of Jehovah these days are hiding in their caves, but somewhere there may be an Elijah. The bloodless softlings will say at first that he is uncharitable and harsh, but when he gets the prophets of Baal on the run they will tag along behind him, trying to look as if they had been on his side all the time.
Well, he can't come a day too soon.
( The Size of the Soul, Chapter 42 )
[ Back ]
Placed online by the Neve family. We'd like to hear your comments : click here