Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897-1963)

Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897–1963)

 Vocationally A.W. Tozer (1897–1963) served as pastor of Christian and Missionary Alliance churches in Chicago and Toronto. In 1950 he became the editor of the Alliance Witness. Tozer understood the power of words. He took pains to put his thoughts into edifying statements that would strengthen the Body of Christ and bring more glory to God. Tozer stands out because he avoided both the fundamentalism and the anti-intellectualism so common among Christians of the 20th century. Tozer's preaching was fresh. From his studies he drew heavily from Christian mystics, early church fathers, and revivalists. A.W. Tozer was particularly impressed by John Wesley's self-description of being "a man of One Book, but a student of many." Tozer preached the gospel so plainly that it has been said he was invited to speak everywhere—once. He refused to stand at the church door to shake hands with the congregation after church because in his mind that was "glad handing" people and setting himself up to be flattered and thus self-deceived. Biographer Lyle Dorsett put it this way: "Tozer concerned himself with the depth of his ministry, and left the breadth of his ministry up to the Holy Spirit."

“The church must examine herself constantly to see if she be in the faith;
she must engage in severe self-criticism with a cheerful readiness to make amends;
she must live in a state of perpetual penitence, seeking God with her whole heart;
she must constantly check her life and conduct against the Holy Scriptures
and bring her life into line with the will of God.”
- A.W. Tozer

“Modern evangelicalism has surrendered to the world, excused it, explained it,
adopted it and imitated it. More young preachers imitate men in the world
with a good deal more energy than they imitate the holy saints of God.”
— A.W. Tozer

“Scholars can interpret the past; it takes prophets to interpret the present.”
— A.W. Tozer

“It is easy to learn the doctrine of personal revival and victorious living; it is quite another thing to take our cross and plod on to the dark and bitter hill of self-renunciation.”
— A.W. Tozer

 “I want nobody fooling me with unreality. I do not want anybody coming and fawning over me if he does not mean it. I do not want anybody to lie to me in the name of etiquette or ask me for a dime to support something I do not believe in. I do not want anybody to ask me to believe in a religion that I have to take on the basis of somebody's authority. If Jesus Christ cannot change me, if my Christianity is not real; if the problem I face is not a real problem; if it does not mean heaven, hell, death and the grave; then I do not want to be wasting my time with it at all.”

— A.W. Tozer

“To be called to follow Christ is a high honor, higher indeed than any honor [people] can bestow upon each other.”
— A.W. Tozer

The blight of the Church today is spiritual starvation. People are famishing on rationalism, socialism, sensationalism, on lifeless bonds and bank notes and unwholesome pleasures. "Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?... eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness" (Isaiah 55:1,2)  Are you living on the bread of God or starving while in the Father's house there is bread to spare?
— A.W. Tozer

“Sin has obscenely scarred and defaced this world, taking away its harmony and symmetry and beauty. That is the negative picture. Thank God for the positive promise and prospect that heaven is the place of all loveliness, all harmony and beauty.”
— A.W. Tozer

“To speak to God on behalf of [people] is probably the highest service any of us can render. The next is to speak to [people] in the Name of God. Either is a privilege possible to us only through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” — A.W. Tozer

 Tozer had strong convictions about the subject of worship as well as its corruption by what he referred to as "the Great God Entertainment." The excerpts in this book were carefully selected to give you a clear picture of his thoughts on both topics.
Worship: Unacceptable worship, spiritual concentration, the presence of God, the power of God, personal communion, adoration, hymns.
Entertainment: Evangelical heresy, propaganda, an outward shift, modern evangelism, religious activity, worldliness.
Also included are Tozer's sermon "The Act and Object of Worship: in its entirety as well as his controversial essay, "The Menace of the Religious Movie," written in the mid 1950s.

Courage Under The Cross in Troubled Times

Rev. Dr J. E. Hazlett Lynch

This book is being offered to the Christian reading public as a ministry of encouragement, especially for those who are finding the going tough at present; it is also for those known to you who are being opposed and persecuted for righteousness' sake.  It is not only Gospel ministers and preachers who experience the onslaughts of the world, the flesh and the devil; every Christian knows this in their lives.

So if you want to be better informed about this matter, and encouraged in your daily warfare as a Christian soldier, then this book is for you.  In it, you will read about Trouble Working For Us, That Thorn in the Flesh, Strength Renewed, Looking Unto Jesus, etc.

The teaching here is biblically-based, is practical, easily understood, and most encouraging.

For your convenience, I have added a PayPal button to this site.  PayPal, as you know, is fast, easy, safe and extremely highly recommended in industry, and one in whom you can have great confidence.  So, to get your copy of this excellent little book, price £5.00, click the BUY NOW button, and you will be taken to the official Paypal site.  Complete your credit or debit card details, and the book will be sent to you almost immediately.  If you already have a PayPal account,the purchase procedure is much easier.

 

The Need For Humiliation in Gospel Ministers

Richard Baxter (1615-1691)

"We cannot seek God's blessing unless we humble ourselves before Him because of our past failures.  We will not be motivated for change unless we grieve in spirit.  If we are not humbled, how can we expect out people to be humbled?  Can we soften their heart while ours remain hard?  Some think their only duty is to preach while it is their people's duty to repent.  But, in Scripture, leader such as Daniel and Ezra sorrowfully confessed their own sins as well as the people's. Can we read Paul's message to the Ephesian elders without being deeply humbled?  I am sure that you all believe that sorrow for sin and and confession are necessary to maintain fellowship with God.  However, knowing what to do is not enough.  Our affections and wills must also play their part.  We must confess our sins before God who is 'faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us.'  I include myself since I am aware of so many sins I cannot pretend to be innocent before God."

These stirring words taken from Baxter's The Reformed Pastor are a massive and painful rebuke to all ministers, for not one of them can escape slothfulness in their spiritual exercises.  We are not spared from the devilish attacks that other men know; on the contrary, ministers know an even greater sense of being 'known to the devil' than any other man.  And one of his greatest ploys is to get us to imagine (wrongly) that we are always right, while our people are always wrong; and that they must humble themselves and repent, but not us!   How foolish the shepherds of God's flock are when they entertain such unseemly notions.

The Holy Scriptures are full of teaching apn the need for humble leaders of God's people, as even a cursory reading will reveal. David and Ezra, Moses and Joseph, Jeremiah and Amos, to name a few, would teach us the importance of not following our own ideas but humbling ourselves and following God's revealed will in the Bible. 

How can God bless a people when their leaders exhibit such attitudes!  We all need to be humbled before the Lord, so that in due time he nay lift us up.  The way up is always first of all the way down.  This is a lesson that we all need to learn very urgently.  May we learn it well.

The Amryaldian Macleod

In his excellent book, From Glory to Golgotha, (Christian Focus Publications, Ross-shire, 2002), Prof Donald Macleod unashamedly presents authentic Calvinism when he writes about the atonement.  In his other writings, a similar practice can be discerned, as in his A Faith To Live By.  He moves effortlessly from saying that Christ 'offers the world redemption' to 'what His death would mean to His people,' and His mind being 'preoccupied with love for his own.'  Macleod fully accepts that reformed believers and preachers can say with confidence that "Christ died for you," that "He died for sinners," affirming, since all are sinners, He, in that sense, died for all. 

The following quotations reveal what the author thinks about this central Gospel doctrine.  

"He has disclosed what he has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor.2:9-10), the mystery of his decision to exercise clemency and show pity to a lost race."  (59).  (Emphasis his).

"He is himself the cure:  Come unto Me.  As he understands himself he can offer rest to the whole world - to every man, woman and child.  Fully conscious of the magnitude of the problem and visibly so frail and vulnerable, he offers the world redemption from its tyrannies and deliverance from its neuroses."  (61).   (Emphasis his.)

I have no doubt that as Donald Macleod's writings are examined, it will be discovered that he holds to the reformed principle that the death of Christ is "sufficient for all, efficient for the elect."  This paradigm makes best sense of the antinomies of the Gospel.  There are very many universalistic texts about the design of the atonement in the Scriptures, and there are texts that state that Christ died for His people, His sheep.  Macleod strikes the proper balance in these books; may all reformed preachers 'go and do likewise.'

Church Minister in Same-Sex Partnership

THE female minister of a rural Scottish church has shocked her congregation by 'marrying' another woman.

The Rev Eleanor Muir told parishioners on Sunday morning that she had entered into a civil partnership.

But while admitting that same sex-relationships in the Kirk are 'topical' - the issue of gay clergy threatens to cause a schism in the Church of Scotland - she will not talk about her relationship.  'It is a private matter and I don't have anything to say at this stage,' she said. 'The congregation have " been enormously supportive.'

Miss Muir is minister of St Bean's church at Fowlis Wester, Perthshire, which dates back seven centuries, and previously worked on the Isle of Barra.

She came to Fowlis Wester, six miles west of Crieff, just over two years ago. It was widely known that she lived in the manse with another woman, though some locals said they assumed the couple were friends.

Perth and Kinross Conservative councillor Ann Cowan, who lives across the "road from the kirk in Fowlis Wester and was recently married by Miss Muir, said: 'I am personally very understanding of her situation. It is causing debate, but I am not going to condemn her.'

SOURCE:  Scottish Daily Mail, 13th Oct 2011.

COMMENT

The moral decline within the established church in Scotland, being presbyterian in government and the sister church of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI), is progressing at breath-taking speed.  This moral decline can be linked to the theological and spiritual decline within that denomination for many decades. 

For the church of Scotland, or indeed any church, to accept as normal what Scripture clearly condemns, ought to come as no surprise to any biblically knowledgeable Christian.  Paul teaches in Rom.1:18 that godlessness is the source of all unrighteousness, and where unrighteousness is not only tolerated but accepted as biblical, the only conclusion is that godlessness has pervaded the church.  The Church of Ireland (Anglican, or Hibernian)  has already accepted a civil partnership amongst its clergy, and the Presbyterian church in Ireland may not be too far away from a similar policy/practice.

The point is that where theological liberalism is the doorway through which most, if not all, perversions enter the church, and reformed evangelicals within those churches that are accepting of theological liberalism, need not pretend surprise at recent developments.  One  senior PCI minister told me that his church will not accept same-sex marriages within the clergy, but I'm not so sure about that, and for this reason.  Where theological liberalism is accepted as a valid expression of biblical religion, and given the spinelessness of reformed evangelicals within that church to do the right thing (they are adept at turning against their fellow evangelicals when the situation arises), it does not have the moral, spiritual or theological conviction to expose, oppose and remove such aberrations from the church's life.  

Further, the press report states that "the issue of gay clergy threatens to cause a schism in the Church of Scotland," a most unlikely outcome.  Senior reformed evangelicals within that church hold the view that even if the C of S were to join with the Roman catholic church, they would not leave 'the Kirk.'  So we are right back to the old situation where the denomination takes priority over the Gospel.  This church, and all churches that accept the validity of theological liberalism, are in exactly the same boat. They are like the frog that is placed in a saucepan filled with cold water which is then put on to boil, and the poor old frog becomes increasingly accustomed to the rise in temperature that it stays there until it is boiled to death.  In no way would it jump into a pot of boiling water.

Similarly, ministers and members alike who are comfortable within unfaithful churches, are prepared to stay in them, regardless of how those churches deny the truth of the Gospel.  They profess that the supreme standard of the church is the Holy Scriptures but in reality, the supreme standard is their church's code, or law book.  There is a tremendous departure from the truth of the Gospel in all these churches, and there are also vested and personal interests that exercise a vice-grip hold over men in the ministry.   

Commentators on the Church of Ireland's challenges over same-sex marriages is another case in point, and talk of a schism is also around.  But this will not happen either, because the denomination has such a hold over these men's consciences that they would see it as schismatic to leave 'mother church.'

Church authorities maintain their silence on such matters, thus demonstrating their indifference to the denial of the Gospel. 

But it is not being schismatic to leave what has proved itself to be a church in apostacy, and to join with what is a truer manifestation of the church on earth.  Of course, the big question is, Which one?

BOOKS ON THE REFORMED FAITH

Please feel free to read the posts which highlight the books on the reformed faith.  I recommend these to your attention, having read all of them.  They are thorough, scholarly yet eminently readable, informative and challenging.  These will repay rich dividends as they focus your attention on those matters which are revealed in the Word of God.  They deal also with historical events and personalities, men who were instrumental in bringing the Word of God to the attention of the masses.

When ordering any of these books, make sure that you add the product code.

Christ for the World

CHRIST FOR THE WORLD

Affirming Amyraldianism

or

Amyraldian Association Conference Report

Edited by Alan C. Clifford

CHARENTON REFORMED PUBLISHING

173 pp   £9.95 (plus £1.50p p&p)   ISBN 978-0-9555165-0-4

Available from:

Charenton Reformed Publishing

or

8 Le Strange Close

NORWICH  NR2 3PN

Tel:  01603-452387 or 01953-453803
http://www.christiancharenton.co.uk/?trf.hl.cftw
Please quote this code when ordering: TRF.HL.CFTW 

PUBLISHER’S FOREWORD

The following papers from the 2006 Conference explore different aspects of Amyraldian theology.  Placed before his largely-biographical account of Amyraut, it was considered appropriate and helpful to include Dr Clifford’s 2005 expository paper, ‘The Case for Amyraldianism’. 

Concerning the conference theme, the title may be read in two ways.  First, ‘Christ for the World’ means that our Lord Jesus Christ, and no other, can bring salvation to a desperately-needy world.  Second, ‘Christ for the World’ stresses the truth behind the ‘Great Commission’ (Matt. 28: 18-20).  While not everyone will respond to the Gospel, Christ commands us to proclaim it to everyone.  Such is the middle-ground between two false views (an absolute universalism which asserts that all will be saved at last; and a fatalistic hypercalvinism which insists that since believers chosen in Christ will be saved, then no general Gospel offer is required).

Without questioning Christ’s triumphant purpose in saving His elect people (Matt. 22: 14), John Calvin never lost sight of God’s universal compassion.  Unlike many who claim to share Calvin’s understanding, the great Reformer had a large vision.  The ‘limited love’ exegesis of John Owen’s Death of Death had no prototype in Calvin’s theology.  An evangelist at heart, the Reformer stated that ‘We ought to pray that this and that and every man may be saved and so embrace the whole human race’ (Comment on John 17: 9).  Such a vision found full expression in the Genevan Liturgy:

‘ … Moreover, we offer up our prayers unto Thee, O most Gracious God and most merciful Father, for all men in general, that as Thou art pleased to be acknowledged the Saviour of the whole human race by the redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ Thy Son, so those who are still strangers to the knowledge of him, and immersed in darkness, and held captive by ignorance and error, may, by Thy Holy Spirit shining upon them, and by Thy gospel sounding in their ears, be brought back to the right way of salvation, which consists in knowing Thee the true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent…’ (Forms of Prayer for the Church).

Since the French Huguenot pastor and theologian Moïse Amyraut (1596-1664) faithfully perpetuated Calvin’s biblical view, the conference explored his teaching and its relevance for us today.  Our understanding was further enriched by considering the eloquent ministries of the English Puritan Richard Baxter (1615-91) and the French Huguenot Jean Daillé (1594-1670).  The conference covered issues vital to effective Christian witness in the 21st century.

We wish to express our warmest thanks to Dr Digby James of Quinta Press for his kind assistance in this publication.  Thanks are further expressed to Abby Fox for proof reading, and also to David Fox for his presentation of the Norwich Reformed Church logo, and for making MP3s available on the church website (www.nrchurch.co.nr).  Besides his own extensive contribution (time constraints only permitted the delivery of half of his paper on the day), we are grateful to David Llewellyn Jenkins for supplying a photograph of the North door of the former French Church [St Mary-the-Less], Norwich.  Walloon and Huguenot refugees and their descendants worshipped here until 1832.  The ‘1637’ design is highly significant, this being the year of Amyraut’s heresy trial at the National Synod of Alençon.