Tough Tozer Truth

"Poor little goddy woddy needs our help. Won't you please raise your hand or, even better, come forward weeping and kneel at this altar and say, "yes, goddy woddy, You are so lucky because I am going to give myself to help You because You obviously need my help." 

Get the tar and feathers! Let's burn Jack! Come on, before you do, be real...aren't a lot of "invitations" just variants of what I just typed? No matter how good the intention, any denigrating (to the God of the Bible), manipulative, emotional appeal that in any way resembles this is certainly not Spirit-led.

It's been like this for a long time. A. W. Tozer wrote the following in Knowledge of the Holy. He wrote that book in 1961. I can't even imagine what Tozer would write if he were alive today...

I have highlighted some of this...and, if you've not read Knowledge of the Holy I can't recommend it highly enough (and it's less than 7 bucks if you use the Amazon link). 

Here's the excerpt:

"Almighty God, just because he is almighty, needs no support.

The picture of a nervous, ingratiating God fawning over men to win their favor is not a pleasant one; yet if we look at the popular conception of God that is precisely what we see.

Twentieth-century Christianity has put God on charity. 

So lofty is our opinion of ourselves that we find it quite easy, not to say enjoyable, to believe that we are necessary to God. . . .

Probably the hardest thought of all for our natural egotism to entertain is that God does not need our help. 

We commonly represent Him as a busy, eager, somewhat frustrated Father hurrying about seeking help to carry out His benevolent plan to bring peace and salvation to the world. . . .

Too many missionary appeals are based upon this fancied frustration of Almighty God. 

An effective speaker can easily excite pity in his hearers, not only for the heathen but for the God who has tried so hard and so long to save them and has failed for want of support.

I fear that thousands of younger persons enter Christian service from no higher motive than to help deliver God from the embarrassing situation His love has gotten Him into and His limited abilities seem unable to get Him out of.

Add to this a certain degree of commendable idealism and a fair amount of compassion for the underprivileged and you have the true drive behind much Christian activity today."