“If Bible teachers could only remember that the ‘Holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost’ and gave us divinely inspired truth, and never for one remote moment meant to give us anything to satisfy our intellectual curiosity, they would realise that the prophets meant to give us truth to transform spirit and soul and bring us into holy living and holy believing. They never intended that we should have theological baby rattles to entertain ourselves.”
A.W. Tozer
You have to admire Tozer’s ability to just ‘say it like it is.’
I just started reading one of the ‘never before published’ titles that landed recently – ‘Living as as Christian’ – and in typical Tozer fashion im blown away in the first chapter. Challenged is perhaps a more apt way to describe BUT…………yes there is a big BUT!!
How often are we challenged by a book or by a sermon to the point where it brings about change? Let me explain….
“Today we sing songs that are so dishonest that i sometimes hesitate to sing them. Yet when we sing the average hymn, if God Almighty compelled us to be entirely 100% honest, we simply could not sing them because their words would not be true of us.” A.W. Tozer
I read that Tozer quote yesterday afternoon and as i stood in Church last night i stared at some of the words and found myself not singing…i couldn’t help but be stopped in my tracks as i pondered the words and whether i meant them or whether we were all just entertaining ourselves.
I don’t say this to boast because these moments are rare – i promise you that – i am no saint!
Each of you can examine your own heart – so, feel free to chuck away this blog post as another aimless rant if you have this all nailed down!
Sometimes i just don’t care about what theological subject you are a ninja with, how well you can argue for dispensationalism or what kind of worship you prefer………its a baby rattle!
I know some of you will say “but its truth, and this is the right way to do things” which is lovely, but how is your life? How is the Holy Living working out for you? Do others think of you as a rude arrogant sod who knows a lot about the Bible? Do you have all the doctrine hammered down tight but yet can’t look a brother in the eye to say hello to him?
Has all the knowledge and intellectual thinking changed who you are?
If not, then what are you rattling, what theological/doctrinal toy are you playing around with?
Holy living and Holy believing…..NOT Holy entertainment! Thats what we need………
Buy the book thats kicking my ass – here – let it kick yours also!!
amen brother. totally agree with this. theology is like mans own views on God rather than actually who God is. and mans own views on God tends to narrow him down because our minds are so little and narrow. How could our mind possibly master who God actually is? put down the theology books and stop arguing and get into reading the Bible and sharing what hes taught u from it i say.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.
Now there is a hard one to sing, IMHO. Really now! All too often lyrics like these flow easily out of our mouths, but do we ever take the time to reflect on them.
A man can certainly have a sound understanding of theology, yet remain in the darkness and fail to be a light unto others. Got fruit?
I certainly don’t have it all figured out by any means. Continue to work out my salvation I guess rather than my theology?
Thanks for these thoughts this morning, certainly something to ponder.
One of the most challenging blog posts i’ve read Ally.
ah but its Tozer who said it………:)
As ever the contrarian I’d like to put forth a caution. I don’t think we should throw out the baby with the theological bath water (or even all the rattles). I don’t think Tozer would suggest that theology is simply something to bypass on the way to the much more important task of ‘Christian living’. He wouldn’t be on the modern evangelical bandwagon of ‘deeds not creeds’. He even said: “What I believe about God is the most important thing about me.” It’s important to remember that some of the most morally upright people and those who really live out what they believe are found in Mormon and JW ‘churches’. We may be full of good works, passionate and zealous and yet hear on the last day “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”
Theology is simply what we believe about God and that is not secondary but paramount (John 17:3). We do theology every time we come to interpret scripture when we speak of ‘the Trinity’, ‘Incarnation’ etc.
Michael Horton makes the point well:
We can be so proud of getting the gospel right while we don’t bother to get the gospel out to those who need it. Furthermore, we can be self-confident in our theological integrity while ignoring the Word of God when it impinges on questions of social concern. Yet the answer is not “deeds over creeds,” but to be re-introduced to the creeds that generate the deeds that are the fruit of genuine faith. Getting the gospel right and getting the gospel out, as well as loving and serving our neighbors, comprise the callings of the church and of Christians in the world. However, confusing these is always disastrous for our message and mission.
He goes on to say:
Many of those who most vociferously denounce “systematic theology” as obscuring the plain reading of Scripture end up being among the most guilty of imposing their own system on the Bible precisely because they do not realize that this is what they are doing. Their unawareness that they have, in various ways, inherited a tradition and been formed by certain communal readings of Scripture keeps them unconscious of their own “big picture” ways of organizing the Scriptures into a systematic whole.
Ally, I’m not even suggesting that you are promoting said ideas, but it seems that people might be reading it that way.
Keith – thanks for the comment – im actually glad you did so…
As often happens with blog posts, people read a criticism or warning as the author writing off the subject entirely – or at least there is a danger of that….
It seems that we can never quite find a middle ground, i think that quote is helpful in pointing us towards one though.
Its too easy to say that theology is a past time for intellectuals and forget that it is what we believe about God – i guess sometimes when a person says theology, someone else needs to ask for clarification on what they mean first. Like the word evangelical, it conjures so many ideas and opinions that are nothing to do with the word…
thanks
“Knowledge puffs up”
It does indeed BUT i have found that “works” puff up just as much……..
The people who have the latest, coolest and most “innovative” programmes can be just as arrogant about that, if not more, than some of the “well read” brethren folks i know or grew up with – there are 2 extremes on display usually, and less of a healthy balance
“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge? (Proverbs 1:22)
Ally,
I completely hear what you’re saying about the balance that we need to strike. Knowledge without obedience is worthless. I can see that people will understand words, like theology, in different ways but I often feel many take their lead from the pop culture caricature of theology than from a reasoned position. I suspect that many critics of theology don’t understand it or have never actually read a decent page of it. In the name of zealous Christian activism we are simple masking our own sinful laziness to engage deeply with the things of God.