A.W
Tozer, hear what he said just before he died written in his book the
crucified life.
Nothing is new under the sun. He went home to be with
the Lord in 1963.
The Crucified Life - A.W. Tozer
Chapter 9: The Currency of the Crucified Life
Chapter 9: The Currency of the Crucified Life
That there has been over the last half a century a steady decline in
the spiritual quality of Christian religion in America, no informed
person will attempt to deny. I am not speaking of liberalism or
modernism but of that evangelical wing of Christianity to which I myself
belong by theological conviction and personal choice. I believe the
situation has become so serious that the earne
st observer is forced to wonder whether our popular evangelical religion today is indeed the true faith of our fathers or simply some form of paganism thinly disguised with a veneer of Christianity to make it acceptable to those who want to call themselves Christian.
Turn to the church page of any city newspaper or leaf through some of the popular magazines today and what you find there will make you sick at heart. We have come to our present low state as a result of an almost fanatical emphasis on grace to the total exclusion of obedience, self-discipline, patience, personal holiness, cross carrying, discipleship and other such precious doctrines of the New Testament. These doctrines cannot be made to harmonize with the doctrine of grace as taught by most modern church fathers. Certainly, though these teachings are not denied, they are either allowed to die from neglect or relegated to a footnote with so many explanations and interpretations as to make them ineffective.
The grace that amazed our fathers-that brought them to their knees in tears and trembling worship-has by deadly familiarity become so mundane that it scarcely affects us at all. That which was so wondrously precious to the Moravians and Methodists and their immediate spiritual descendants has become cheap to a generation of Christians devoted to their own pursuits and engrossed in their own pleasures.
st observer is forced to wonder whether our popular evangelical religion today is indeed the true faith of our fathers or simply some form of paganism thinly disguised with a veneer of Christianity to make it acceptable to those who want to call themselves Christian.
Turn to the church page of any city newspaper or leaf through some of the popular magazines today and what you find there will make you sick at heart. We have come to our present low state as a result of an almost fanatical emphasis on grace to the total exclusion of obedience, self-discipline, patience, personal holiness, cross carrying, discipleship and other such precious doctrines of the New Testament. These doctrines cannot be made to harmonize with the doctrine of grace as taught by most modern church fathers. Certainly, though these teachings are not denied, they are either allowed to die from neglect or relegated to a footnote with so many explanations and interpretations as to make them ineffective.
The grace that amazed our fathers-that brought them to their knees in tears and trembling worship-has by deadly familiarity become so mundane that it scarcely affects us at all. That which was so wondrously precious to the Moravians and Methodists and their immediate spiritual descendants has become cheap to a generation of Christians devoted to their own pursuits and engrossed in their own pleasures.
Pastor Poju Oyemade is Founder and Senior Pastor
Covenant Christian Centre
Lagos, Nigeria.
Covenant Christian Centre
Lagos, Nigeria.
No comments:
Post a Comment