'We are not going to make them bow the knee by cursing them' - A. W. Tozer on the Rob Bell controversy

Beat on the brat

Beat on the brat

Beat on the brat with a baseball bat

Oh yeah, Oh yeah, Oh Oh

-The Ramones

'I have a question and it is not just rhetoric: What has happened to our worship?

'The reply of many is, "We are rich and have need of nothing. Doesn't that say something about God's blessing?"

'Did you know that the often-quoted Jean-Paul Sartre describes his turning to philosophy and hopelessness as a turning away from a secularised church? He says, "I did not recognized in the fashionable God who was taught me, Him who was waiting for my soul. I needed a Creator; I was given a big businessman!"

'None of us is as concerned as we should be about the image we really project to the community around us. At least not when we profess to belong to Jesus Christ and still fail to show forth His love and compassion as we should.

'We who are the fundamentalists and the "orthodox" Christians have gained the reputation of being "tigers" - great fighters for the truth. Our hands are heavy with callouses from the brass knuckles we have worn as we beat on the liberals. Because of the meaning of our Christian faith for a lost world, we are obligated to stand up for the truth and to contend for the faith when necessary.

'But there is a better way, even in our dealing with those who are liberals in faith and theology. We can do a whole lot more for them by being Christlike than we can by figuratively beating them over the head with our knuckles.

'The liberals tell us they cannot believe the Bible. They tell us they cannot believe that Jesus Christ was the unique Son of God. At least most of them are honest about it. Moreover, I am certain we are not going to make them bow the knee by cursing them. If we are led by the Spirit of God and if we show forth the love of God this world needs, we become the "winsome saints".

'The strange and wonderful thing about it is that truly winsome and loving saints do not even know about their attractiveness. The great saints of past eras did not know they were great saints. If someone had told them, they would not have believed it, but those around them knew that Jesus was living His life in them.

'I think we join the winsome saints when God's purposes in Christ become clear to us. We join them when we begin to worship God because He is who He is.

'Sometimes evangelical Christians seem to be fuzzy and uncertain about the nature of God and His purposes in creation and redemption. In such instances, the preachers often are to blame. There are still preachers and teachers who say that Christ did so we would not drink and not smoke and not go to the theatre.

'No wonder people are confused! No wonder they fall into backsliding when such things are held up as the reason for salvation.

'Jesus was born of a virgin, suffered under Pontius Pilate, died on the cross and rose from the grave to make worshippers out of rebels! He has done it all through grace. We are the recipients.

'That may not sound dramatic but it is God's revelation and God's way.'

-A. W. Tozer (1962), Whatever Happened To Worship?