"The idea
that this world is a playground instead of a battleground has
now been accepted in practice by the vast majority of
Christians. They are facing Christ and the world." (This
World: Playground or Battleground? by A.W. Tozer, pp. 5-6. )
"Christianity today is man-centered, not
God-centered. God is made to wait patiently, even
respectfully, on the whims of men. The image of God
currently popular is that of a distracted Father,
struggling in heartbroken desperation to get people
to accept a Savior of whom they feel no need and in
whom they have very little interest. To persuade
these self-sufficient souls to respond to His
generous offers God will do almost anything, even
using salesmanship methods and talking down to them
in the chummiest way imaginable. ...
"This
view... manages
nevertheless to make man the star of the show." (Man: The Dwelling Place of God, 27)
"Many of us Christians have become extremely
skillful in arranging our lives so as to admit the
truth of Christianity without being embarrassed by
its implications. We arrange things so that we can
get on well enough without divine aid, while at the
same time ostensibly seeking it. We boast in the
Lord but watch carefully that we never get caught
depending on Him."
(The Root of the Righteous,
page 39)
"...a Christian congregation can survive and
often appear to prosper in the community by the
exercise of human talent and without any touch from
the Holy Spirit! All that religious activity and the
dear people will not know anything better until the
great and terrible day when our self-employed
talents are burned with fire and only that which was
wrought by the Holy Ghost will stand forever!"
(Tragedy in the Church: The Missing Gifts, 30)
Alone with God
"Modern civilization is so complex as to make the
devotional life all but impossible. It wears us out
by multiplying distractions and beats us down by
destroying our solitude, where otherwise we might
drink and renew our strength before going out to
face the world again.
"The thoughtful soul to solitude retires," said
the poet of other and quieter times; but where is
the solitude to which we can retire today? Science,
which has provided men with certain material
comforts, has robbed them of their souls by surrounding them with a world hostile to their
existence.
"Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be
still" is a wise and healing counsel, but how can it
be followed in this day of the newspaper, the
telephone, the radio and the television? These
modern playthings, like pet tiger cubs, have grown
so large and dangerous that they threaten to devour
us all. What was intended to be a blessing has
become a positive curse. No spot is now safe from
the world's intrusion." (Of God and Men,
p.125)
The Root of the Righteous
"The idea that God will pardon a rebel who has not
given up his rebellion is contrary both to the Scriptures and to
common sense." (p.43)
"Whatever a man wants badly and persistently enough
will determine the man's character." (p.
116)
"Faith never means gullibility. The man
who believes everything is as far from God as the
man who refuses to believe anything. Faith
engages the person and promises of God and rests
upon them with perfect assurance. Whatever has
behind it the character and word of the living God
is accepted by faith as the last and final truth
from which there must never be any appeal. ... 'Yea, let God be true, but
every man a liar' (Rom. 3:4).
"Thus faith honors God
by counting Him righteous and accepts His testimony
against the very evidence of its own senses. That is
faith, and of such we can never have too much. Credulity, on the other hand, never
honors God,
for it shows as great a readiness to believe anybody
as to believe God Himself." (Chapter 34)
The Pursuit of God
"To great sections of the Church the art of
worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has
come that strange and foreign thing called the
`program.' This word has been borrowed from the
stage and applied with sad wisdom to the type of
public service which now passes for worship among
us.
"Sound Bible exposition is an imperative
must
in the Church of the living God. Without it no
church can be a New Testament church in any strict
meaning of that term. But exposition may be carried
on in such way as to leave the hearers devoid of any
true spiritual nourishment whatever. For it is not
mere words that nourish the soul, but God
Himself...." (Preface,
1948)
"To have found God and still to
pursue Him is the soul's paradox of love, scorned
indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religionist, but
justified in happy experience by the children of the
burning heart." (Page 14)
"The idea that God will pardon a rebel who has not
given up his rebellion is contrary both to the
Scriptures and to common sense."
The Root of the Righteous, 43.
"Prayer is never an acceptable substitute for
obedience. The sovereign Lord accepts no offering
from His creatures that is not accompanied by
obedience. To pray for revival while ignoring or
actually flouting the plain precept laid down in the
Scriptures is to waste a lot of words and get
nothing for our trouble." (Of God and Men,
52)
"I think that most Christians would be better
pleased if the Lord did not inquire into their
personal affairs too closely. They want Him to save
them, keep them happy and take them to heaven at
last, but not to be too inquisitive about their
conduct or service. But He has searched us and known
us; He knows our downsitting and our uprising and
understands our thoughts afar off. There is no place
to hide from those eyes that are as a flame of fire
and there is no way to escape from the Judgment of
those feet that are like fine brass. It is the part
of wisdom to live with these things in mind."
(That Incredible Christian, 105-106)
"To be right with God has often meant to be in
trouble with men." (Man the Dwelling
Place of God, 114)