Wisdom for the Modern Church from the Not-So-Distant Past
Friday, January 20, 2012
“I trust I am not given to finding fault where there is not
fault. But I cannot open my eyes without seeing things done in our Churches
which thirty years ago were not so much as dreamed of. In the matter of
amusements, professors have gone far in the way of laxity. What is worse, the
Churches have now conceived the idea that it is their duty to amuse the people….
What folly has been left untried? What absurdity has not been too great for the
consciences of those who profess to be the children of God—who are not of the
world but called to walk with God in a separated life? The world regards the high pretensions of such
men as hypocrisy. And truly I do not know another name for them….
Surely there is a sobriety of behavior which is consistent with
a work of Divine Grace in the heart and there is a levity which betokens that
the spirit of evil is supreme…. We have gone from liberty to libertinism. We
have passed beyond the dubious into the dangerous and none can prophesy where
we shall stop. Where is the holiness of the Church of God today? …Now she is
dim as smoking flax and rather the object of ridicule than of reverence.
May not the measure of the influence of a Church be
estimated by its holiness? If the great host of professing Christians were in domestic
life and in business life sanctified by the Spirit, the Church would become a
great power in the world. God’s saints may well mourn with Jerusalem when they
see spirituality and holiness at so low an ebb! Others may regard this as a
matter of no consequence. But we view it as the breaking forth of a leprosy.”
- Charles Spurgeon, 1889 (“A Dirge for the Down-Grade, and A
Song for Faith”)
“Pragmatic philosophy...asks no embarrassing questions about
the wisdom of what we are doing or even about the morality of it. it accepts
our chosen ends as right and good and casts about for efficient means and ways
to get them accomplished. When it discovers something that works it soon
finds a text to justify it, "consecrates" it to the Lord and plunges
ahead. Next a magazine article is written about it, then a book, and
finally the inventor is granted an honorary degree. After that any
question about the scripturalness of things or even the moral validity of them
is completely swept away. You cannot argue with success. The method
works; ergo, it must be good.
The weakness of all this is its tragic
shortsightedness. It never takes the long view of religious activity,
indeed it dare not do so, but goes cheerfully on believing that because it
works it is both good and true. It is satisfied with present success and
shakes off any suggestion that its works may go up in smoke in the day of
Christ.
As one fairly familiar with the contemporary religious
scene, I say without hesitation that a part, a very large part, of the
activities carried on today in evangelical circles are not only influenced by
pragmatism but almost completely controlled by it. Religious methodology
is geared to it; it appears large in our youth meetings; magazines and books
constantly glorify it; conventions are dominated by it; and the whole religious
atmosphere is alive with it.
What shall we do to break its power over us? The answer is simple.
We must acknowledge the right of Jesus Christ to control the activities of His
church. The New Testament contains full instructions, not only about what
we are to believe but what we are to do and how we are to go about doing
it. Any deviation from those instructions is a denial of the Lordship of
Christ.”
- A. W. Tozer, 1970 (God
Tells the Man Who Cares)
“According to God's grace that was given to me, I have laid
a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each
one must be careful how he builds on it. For no one can lay any other
foundation than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ.
If anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver,
costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one's work will become obvious, for
the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will
test the quality of each one's work. If anyone's work that he has built
survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, it will be
lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire....
If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, he must
become foolish so that he can become wise. For the wisdom of this world is
foolishness with God, since it is written: He catches the wise in their
craftiness; and again, The Lord knows that the reasonings of the wise are
meaningless....
A person should consider us in this way: as servants of
Christ and managers of God's mysteries. In this regard, it is expected of
managers that each one of them be found faithful.”
- The Apostle Paul, 55 (1 Corinthians 3:10-15, 18-20; 4:1-2)
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