A tragedy above all tragedies! (by A.W. Tozer)

 

The average person in the world today,

without faith and without God and without

hope, is engaged in a desperate personal

search throughout his lifetime.

He does not really know where he has been.

He does not really know what he is doing

here and now. He does not know where he

is going.

The sad commentary is that he is doing it

all on borrowed time and borrowed money

and borrowed strength; and he already

knows that in the end he will surely die!

Man, made more like God than any other

creature, has become less like God than any

other creature. Created to reflect the glory

of God, he has retreated sullenly into his cave;

reflecting only his own sinfulness.

Certainly it is a tragedy above all tragedies

in this world that man, made with a soul to

worship and praise and sing to God's glory,

now sulks silently in his cave.

Love has gone from his heart.

Light has gone from his mind.

Having lost God, he blindly stumbles on through

this dark world to find only a grave at the end.

The fall of man has created a perpetual crisis.

It will last until sin has been put down and

Christ reigns over a redeemed and restored world.

Until that time the earth remains a disaster

area and its inhabitants live in a state of

extraordinary emergency.

To me, it has always been difficult to understand

those Christians who insist upon living in the crisis

as if no crisis existed. They say they serve the Lord,

but they divide their days so as to leave plenty of

time to play and loaf and enjoy the pleasures of the

world as well. They are at ease while the world burns!

I wonder whether such Christians actually believe in

the Fall of man!

Let a flood or a fire hit a populous countryside and no

able bodied citizen feels that he has any right to rest

till he has done all he can to save as many as he can.

While death stalks farmhouse and village no one dares

relax; this is the accepted code by which we live.

The critical emergency for some becomes an emergency

for all, from the highest government official to the local

Boy Scout troop. As long as the flood rages or the fire

roars on, no one talks of "normal times." No times are

normal while helpless people cower in the path of destruction.

In times of extraordinary crisis ordinary measures will

not suffice. The world lives in such a time of crisis.

Christians alone are in a position to rescue the perishing.

We dare not settle down to try to live as if things were

"normal." Nothing is normal while sin and lust and death

roam the world, pouncing upon one and another till

the whole population has been destroyed.

"I'm too often at ease and consumed with my self

interests, Lord. Open my eyes to see the tragedy

of friends and acquaintances on their way to a

Christless eternity. Do it for Jesus' sake, Amen."

Are Seminaries Legitimate?

 

Are Seminaries Legitimate?

by Darryl Erkel

A Critical Look at Modern Theological Education

It must be said at the outset, that to question the legitimacy of our modern seminaries is not to be equated with the mistaken notion that theological training for church leaders is unnecessary. On the contrary, it is imperative that pastor-elders have a solid foundation of knowledge in systematic theology, church history, hermeneutics, apologetics, and other subjects. Thus, our churches must have men who are trained. My contention is simply that the seminary system is an inefficient tool to use in reaching this goal.

In asserting this, I am not suggesting that our seminaries have not produced some good. For many, seminary has been a rich and rewarding experience. Conservative institutions have been on the frontlines fighting theological liberalism and giving reasons for biblical truth. Some of our brightest scholars and theologians teach in seminaries.

Nevertheless, numerous inherent problems exist within the seminary system. Feeling the weight of these problems, some educators are calling for a renewal in theological education while others have simply given up on the hope of seeing genuine improvement. Haddon Robinson, a seminary professor and past President of Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary, in an interview with Christianity Today (Oct. 24, 1995), had serious reservations about the future of our seminaries feeling, at times, "an acute sense of despair and a hopefulness for theological education" (p.75). A study in 1994, funded by the Murdock Charitable Trust found that pastors, on average, believe they were "poorly prepared" for their jobs.

The attempt by some in rescuing the seminary through a cosmetic veneer of expensive new facilities, changes in educational curriculum which appeal to a modern age, and business marketing techniques all fail because they do not go to the root of the problem. They are ineffective in exposing the errors and limitations of a system which was non-existent in the apostolic age. While this article is not an exhaustive expose' of today's seminary, it will, nonetheless, highlight some of the major deficiencies in the way pastors are trained.

1. Our criticisms of the seminary system are primarily directed to its ability to properly prepare shepherds who will serve the local church, not upon its ability to train future college professors or academic researchers. Thus, we must ask: Is it really doing the best job in training pastors (not college professors)?

2. As we have already noted, to question the seminary system should not be equated with the mistaken idea that training is unnecessary or that pastors should be ignorant (2 Timothy 2:15; Titus 1:9). Actually, we should want the best trained pastors, but this does not necessarily have to come through the traditional seminary institution. If done properly, we believe that the local church can be even more effective in training future pastors.

3. Training for pastoral ministry should not be viewed in the way that one views training for the legal or medical profession, but should be understood as something distinct, spiritual, and character-oriented. Potential elders are not being called to a "career" or "profession" (as commonly understood), but to a pastoral function which is spiritual in nature! While the world has its ways of training people for a secular profession, this should not be the model for training future shepherds who will spiritually oversee the souls of men and women.

4. Those wishing to attend seminary must usually relocate to other cities and states. Housing and employment must be secured prior to moving. Naturally, this puts a tremendous stress on the seminarian's family – particularly if his wife is expected to financially support her husband and children (or, at least, carry a major load of the financial obligations). If local churches were the training ground for pastors, such problems would either be reduced or non-existent. In contrast to our current practice, the New Testament pattern was for teachers to go to their students, rather than demand that their students travel far distances to be trained (Acts 11:22-26, 13:1, 16:4-5, 18:22-23, 19:9-10; 2 Timothy 2:2; Titus 1:5).

5. The costs to attend seminary are very high. The usual amount is about $2,000 per quarter and, upon completion of the entire program, the student may have billed out as much as $30,000 which, of course, does not include housing and general living expenses. Most often, seminary graduates are in debt for the next five to ten years seeking to pay off their schooling. It tends to put pastors into long-term debts and, hence, potentially discrediting their testimony if they are unable to repay their loan (1 Timothy 3:7). Must learning the Word of God cost so much? To charge people for learning the Word of God, which has been freely given to us in Christ, seems to go counter to the New Testament pattern (Matthew 10:8; Acts 20:20, 33-35; 2 Corinthians 2:17, 11:7-9; 1 Thessalonians 2:9, 3:8; 1 Timothy 6:5). Even if, for the sake of argument, some costs are necessary, must it be this exorbitant?

One of the reasons why a seminary education costs so much is because not all of its funds are used for actually training pastors or missionaries, but for staff salaries, administrative tasks, building projects, religious fixtures and edifices, advertising, and the erection of new schools which, in many cases, may have nothing to do with the furtherance of the Gospel (e.g., a psychology school). The result is a quasi-religious institution that is weighed-down with tons of administrative red tape. In many instances, the seminary may find itself in horrific debt and must turn to questionable marketing or fund raising efforts in order to get itself out of the hole.

6. Seminaries tend to take potential pastors away from the life and concerns of the local church in which they are supposed to serve, and places them in an academic environment of abstract scholasticism – much of which has no real bearing upon their pastoral responsibilities. The seminarian is usually required to take numerous classes on subjects which do very little to promote a godly character (e.g., Hellenistic literature, Greek philosophy, early patristic fathers, etc.). Such courses may be interesting, but are they really necessary for pastors? Are such studies helping to promote godliness and maturity in character, or mere academic intellectualism? Are they truly helpful to the pastor who must deal with sin, marital problems, and a host of societal ills among the members of his congregation? Is it any wonder why so many graduating from seminary are great at theological discourse, but cold or indifferent towards the people they shepherd? Clay Sterrett notes the difference between modern methods of training and the New Testament model:

Modern training is primarily intellectual; New Testament training is primarily spiritual and practical. Modern training emphasizes the classroom; New Testament training emphasizes life and experience. Modern training targets young men and women; New Testament training includes older saints as well (Myths of "The Ministry" [Staunton, VA: CFC Literature, 1990] p.18).

Alexander R. Hay, similarly writes:

To separate those who are to be trained for ministry from normal church life and activity and from the conditions in which their ministry is to be carried on is a serious mistake. One preparing for the ministry of evangelism and church planting needs the church and the evangelistic field just as the medical student needs the Hospital and the clinic. To send out a young man to practice medicine who had little more than theoretical knowledge, who had little practical experience and never even seen a major operation performed, would not be justifiable. It would be hard on both the young physician and his patients! (The New Testament Order for Church and Missionary [Published by the New Testament Missionary Union, 1947] p.488).

E.W. Johnson, in his article, "Extra-Biblical Ecclesiastical Systems," writes:

Schools which are separated from the local church are very apt also to be separated from that real world where the future minister must labor. The cloistered school is no place for the training of the future pastor, unless that future pastor plans to remain cloistered in his study while the world goes to hell (Baptist Reformation Review [Summer – 1978, Vol.7/No.2] p.16).

7. Some institutions require their students to sign an elaborate doctrinal statement which may not even be fully understood by the seminarian. Before the student graduates and before his theological convictions are matured, his is immediately "strait-jacketed" into the seminary's particular doctrinal system (even to the point of having to agree on secondary theological issues, such as Pretribulationism or the twenty-four hour six day creation view). If he deviates from the doctrinal statement, he is usually suspect by the academic staff or, in some cases, dismissed from the school. But why is this necessary, particularly on non-essential matters? The theological student must, to some extent, be permitted the freedom to do his own thinking. He must be allowed to come to his own conclusions (so long as he does not drift into heresy), instead of merely parroting the ideas of his professors who, in some cases, may not be correct at all.

8. Because of the numerous classes required, the complex nature of the subjects being studied, and the need to "cram" for soon-coming exams, the seminarian is allowed very little time for deep reflection upon what he learns. Mike Parker writes:

When one considers the exalted nature of the office and the commoness of youth to be aspiring to it, he must see that seminary is necessarily a compacted experience. Ten, twenty and more years of mature and careful reflection must now be crammed into three! Often, young men who have been converted and exposed to the Word of God less than two years are forced to wrestle with problems which have tested the greatest saints and scholars of all history, and come up with "creative" solutions by exam time in a matter of weeks. Such hurried and forced development has a built-in tendency toward unfounded convictions, faulty foundations, and resultant defective leadership for the people of God. Rather, let a man grow, study, and ponder the Word day and night in the context of normal Christian living without the synthetic pressure of examinations until in God's good time the Spirit honors his diligence with illumination ("The Basic Meaning of 'Elder,'" Baptist Reformation Review [Summer – 1978, Vol.7/No.2] p.42).

9. Genuine spiritual accountability and discipleship is usually very poor within the seminary context. The professors have many students and it is often difficult to establish close relationships. Moreover, many seminary professors do not see it as their personal responsibility to practice disciple-making. Some are simply too busy studying and writing books. In today's seminary, it is virtually impossible to have a genuine life-style discipleship. The attempt by some schools to form fellowship groups that meet weekly with a seminary professor for one hour, though well-intentioned, does little toward developing deep relationships between mentor and protégé. But, then, that is not so surprising when one considers that the seminary is merely a product of the institutional church, which has its own problems with accountability and intimacy.

10. Seminary training does not, in itself, guarantee that one will graduate biblically sound in their soteriology and ecclesiology. I have spoken to numerous seminary graduates who were very weak and man-centered in their understanding of such doctrines as human depravity, God's sovereignty, and election. In addition, most of them have never bothered to work out a philosophy of ministry based upon a fresh study of Scripture. Thus, they enter their pastorates almost as uninformed of New Testament ecclesiology as the people in the pews and, as Jesus said, "If a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit" (Matthew 15:14).

11. Most, if not all, seminaries teach and promote the Constantinian or institutional model of church practice. Thus, unfortunately, the same debilitating clerical system and church structures are perpetuated. Instead of helping to cure the problem, the seminary system exacerbates it. This is due to the fact that many of the administrators and professors within our evangelical seminaries, like most of us, have simply assumed that our inherited traditions regarding church structure and current leadership forms are biblically-based. Nothing could be further from the truth.

12. Many (perhaps most) of the professors within our seminaries have never served as shepherds within a local church. They may, indeed, know a great deal about various theological subjects, but if they have never served in a church leadership capacity, they are not going to be of much help to a potential elder in need of a pastoral mentor. In contrast to our traditional methods, Paul clearly established a pattern for training shepherds in 2 Timothy 2:2 which rested on church elders (not college professors).

We believe that training for the eldership should be given by other elders within the local church that they will serve, and with a hands-on, practical approach as opposed to one that is merely theoretical. Furthermore, theological training should primarily be directed toward seven major subjects: Old and New Testament survey; systematic theology; church history; biblical languages; hermeneutics; practical ecclesiology; and apologetics. Any secondary subjects will be learned as potential elders develop intellectually and pursue independent studies. Those who are truly called to church leadership will eventually prove themselves as informed and well-rounded Bible students, since they will be self-motivated to study a vast array of subjects connected to biblical theology. As E.W. Johnson points out, "A minister must be a self-motivated student, motivated by the interest he has in heart for the things of God. A minister who needs the motivation of school discipline, grades and degrees as the drives in his study needs to re-examine his calling to be a minister of God's truth" ("Extra-Biblical Ecclesiastical Systems," Baptist Reformation Review [Summer – 1978, Vol.7/No.2] p.16).

13. Most seminaries continue to promote young and inexperienced men to the churches which look to these institutions for pastors (1 Timothy 3:6). Carl Hoch, Jr., professor of New Testament at Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary, writes:

In the New Testament, they selected their leadership from men of experience. No novice was considered. Since the church was based upon the family and met in homes, it was natural to look to the older, experienced men in the church community for leadership (1 Timothy 3:4-7). Today the church views ministry as a career structure. Education, personal charisma, and managerial skills appropriate for the business world are valued over age, character, and experience (All Things New [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1995] p.239).

We are not suggesting that God cannot use a young man, in a unique circumstance, to shepherd a congregation. Church history does, indeed, have examples of young men who were mightily used by the Lord (e.g., C.H. Spurgeon, Robert Murray M'Cheyne). But these were clear exceptions and not intended to be the norm.

14. Much of the seminary curriculum is now no longer centered on systematic theology, doctrinal and exegetical studies, but is geared toward making church leaders into business marketing wizards, administrative professionals, and virtual psychologists, instead of shepherds of the sheep. This is due to a large percentage of our evangelical seminaries being deeply influenced by the contemporary church growth movement.

15. Our seminaries have been a witting accomplice in promoting the ineffectual "pastoral search committee." Instead of encouraging our churches to raise and train its own men for leadership, the seminary system continuously offers their young and inexperienced men to us. Rather than working itself out of a job by equipping churches to educate its own people, most seminaries seem to be doing their best to keep us dependent upon their institutions. They want our money; they want our men; but they do not was us to be independent enough to be able to educate our leaders without their approval and guidance. This impression is subtly, but clearly, conveyed in their advertisements and brochures.

Our churches, when evaluating pastoral candidates, place a greater emphasis upon one's academic accomplishments than one's moral character and spiritual maturity. We virtually ignore (or downplay) the qualifications for elders listed in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9. Such descriptions by Paul are far from the seminary scholar that we usually envision. I am not against theological education but, following the world, contemporary Christianity has "professionalized" pastoral ministry and practically deified academic degrees. In our obsession with formal degrees, we seem to have forgotten that some of the greatest saints in church history have been men without a college or seminary education, including most of the apostles (Acts 4:13) and others such as John Bunyan, C.H. Spurgeon, Robert Murray M'Cheyne, D.L. Moody, A.W. Pink, and A.W. Tozer. E.M. Bounds was correct when he said, "The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men."

Far too many seminaries in our day are seeking academic respectability from the world's educational institutions. Their goal appears to be one of showing to the world that we evangelicals can be just as "scholarly" and "intellectual" as they. To imagine, however, that the Christian church will ever gain respectability and acceptance from hostile, anti-Christian universities is naïve at best, for all the intellectualism and educational attainments that one can imagine will never impress the unregenerate mind which is at enmity with God (Romans 8:7-8; 1 Corinthians 2:14). Rather than seeking academic respectability, our seminaries should pursue academic responsibility and an unswerving commitment to teaching Scripture, as opposed to instruction mixed with elements of both Scripture and psychology, or Scripture and business marketing principles, or whatever popular humanistic ideas catch the fancy of modern Christians.

16. The apostolic pattern was not to train a mass of young and inexperienced men for pastoral leadership, but a few mature and faithful men who would be able to teach others also (2 Timothy 2:2).

17. We believe that the local church should be the primary training ground for church pastors. While the early church could have turned to outside educational institutions for the development and training of its shepherds, it chose not to do so. Rather, as the great puritan, John Owen, observes: "Every church was then a seminary, in which provision and preparation was made, not only for the continuation of Gospel preaching, but for the calling and gathering, and teaching of our churches" (Commentary on Hebrews [Vol.3], p.568). R. Paul Stevens has written:

The best structure for equipping every Christian is already in place. It predates the seminary and the weekend seminar and will outlast both. In the New Testament no other nurturing and equipping is offered than the local church. In the New Testament church, as in the ministry of Jesus, people learned in the furnace of life, in a relational, living, working and ministering context (Liberating the Laity [Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1985], p.46).

Once again, we cite the words of E.W. Johnson, who notes:

The local church is itself a school. If believers are also disciples, then they are students, and the local church is a place for the study of the Gospel. If these local churches under their constituted teachers are schools for the training of God's people, why cannot these schools also train future ministers? Why must these schools be set aside and higher schools be established by men in their superior wisdom for the training of ministers? It is true that the local church has but one text book – the Bible – but what need do we have for schools where Barth and Bultmann are also studied? Do we need these higher schools for the clergy where men finish their education and have completion of their education certified? Can men ever finish their study of the Bible and receive their diploma of having mastered the Gospel? In this school called the local church we never finish our education and receive our degree. We are always learning and studying here, ever fascinated by the knowledge of God and His way of salvation ("Extra-Biblical Ecclesiastical Systems," Baptist Reformation Review [Summer – 1978, Vol.7/No.2] pp.15-16).

Alexander Strauch, an author and elder at a church in Littleton (CO), concurs:

The Utilitarian Christ! (A.W. Tozer)

 

Our Lord forewarned us that false Christs would come. Mostly we think of these as coming from the outside — but we should remember that they may also arise within the church itself.

We must be extremely careful that the Christ we profess to follow, is indeed the very Christ of Scripture. There is always danger that we may be following a Christ who is not the true Christ — but one conjured up by our imagination and made in our own image.

I confess to a feeling of uneasiness about this when I observe the questionable things Christ is said to do for people these days. He is often recommended as a wonderfully obliging, but not too discriminating, Big Brother — who delights to help us to accomplish our ends, and who further favors us by forbearing to ask any embarrassing questions about the moral and spiritual qualities of those ends.

Within the past few years, Christ has been popularized by some so-called evangelicals as one who, if a proper amount of prayer were made — would help the pious prize fighter to knock another fighter unconscious in the ring.

Christ is also said to help the big league pitcher to get the proper hook on his curve.

In another instance He assists an athlete to win the high jump; and in another case, not only to come in first in a track meet — but to set a new record in the bargain.

He is said also to have helped a praying businessman to beat out a competitor in a deal. He is even thought to lend support to a praying movie actress while she plays a role so lewd as to bring the blood to the face of a professional prostitute!

Thus our Lord becomes the Christ of utility — a kind of Aladdin's lamp to do minor miracles in behalf of anyone who summons Him to do his bidding.

Apparently no one stops to consider that if Christ were to step into a prize ring and use His divine power to help one prize fighter to paralyze another — that He would be putting one fighter at a cruel disadvantage and violating every common instinct of fair play. If He were to aid one businessman to the detriment of another, He would be practicing favoritism and revealing a character wholly unlike the Bible picture of the real Christ. All this is too horrible to contemplate.

Theirs is a Christ of carnal convenience — not too far removed from the gods of paganism.

The whole purpose of God in redemption is to make us holy and to restore us to the image of Christ. To accomplish this, He disengages us from earthly ambitions and draws us away from the cheap and unworthy prizes that worldly men set their hearts upon. A holy man would not dream of asking God to help him beat an opponent, or win over a competitor. No man in whom the Spirit dwells, could bring himself to ask the Lord to help him knock another man unconscious, for filthy lucre or the plaudits of the vulgar spectators.

To teach that Christ will use His sacred power to further our worldly interests, is to wrong our Lord and injure our own souls.

We modern evangelicals need to learn the truths of the sovereignty of God and the lordship of Christ. Christ will not be manipulated by any of Adam's selfish brood! We had better learn these things fast if this generation of young Christians is to be spared the supreme tragedy of following a Christ who is merely a Christ of convenience — and not the true Lord of glory after all!

The great god Entertainment! (A.W. Tozer, 1955)

 

The great god Entertainment is ardently worshiped by many. There are millions who cannot live without amusement — life without some form of entertainment for them is simply intolerable. They look forward to the blessed relief afforded by professional entertainers and other forms of psychological narcotics — as a dope addict looks to his daily fix of heroin. Without them, they could not summon courage to face existence.

No one with common human feeling will object to the simple pleasures of life, nor to such harmless forms of entertainment as may help to relax the nerves and refresh the mind exhausted by toil. Such things, if used with discretion, may be a blessing along the way. That is one thing. But the all-out devotion to entertainment as a major activity for which men live, is definitely something else. The abuse of a harmless thing is sin.

The growth of the amusement phase of human life to such fantastic proportions is a portent, a threat to the souls of modern men. It has been built into a multimillion dollar racket with greater power over human minds and human character, than any other educational influence on earth. And the ominous thing is, that its power is almost exclusively evil, rotting the inner life, and crowding out the eternal thoughts which should fill the souls of men. The whole thing has grown into a veritable religion which holds its devotees with a strange fascination — and a religion, incidentally, against which it is now dangerous to speak.

For centuries the Church stood solidly against every form of worldly entertainment, recognizing it for what it was — a device for wasting time, a refuge from the disturbing voice of conscience, a scheme to divert attention from accountability to God. For this, she got herself roundly abused by the sons of this world. But of late she has become tired of the abuse, and has given up the struggle. She appears to have decided that if she cannot conquer the great god Entertainment — she may as well join forces with him and make what use she can of his powers.

So today we have the astonishing spectacle of millions of dollars being poured into the unholy job of providing earthly entertainment for the so-called Christians. Religious entertainment is in many places rapidly crowding out the serious things of God. Many churches these days have become little more than poor theaters where fifth-rate "producers" peddle their shoddy wares with the full approval of evangelical leaders, who can even quote a holy text in defense of their delinquency. And hardly a man dares raise his voice against it!

The great god Entertainment amuses his devotees mainly by telling them stories. The love of stories, which is a characteristic of childhood, has taken fast hold of the minds of the retarded saints of our day — so much so that many manage to make a comfortable living by spinning yarns and serving them up in various disguises to church people. What is natural and beautiful in a child, may be shocking when it persists into adulthood, and more so when it appears in the sanctuary and seeks to pass for true religion!

Is it not astonishing that, with the shadow of atomic destruction hanging over the world and with the coming of Christ drawing near — the professed followers of the Lord should be giving themselves up to religious amusements? That in an hour when mature saints are so desperately needed — vast numbers of believers should revert to spiritual childhood, and clamor for religious toys?

 

The error of textualism by A W Tozer

 

"The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Corinthians 2:14

"But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name—He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." John 14:26

"When He, the Spirit of truth comes—He will guide you into all truth." John 16:13

The doctrine of the inability of the human mind to understand divine teaching, and the need for divine illumination—is so fully developed in the New Testament, that it is nothing short of astonishing that we should have gone so far astray concerning the whole issue.

Evangelicalism has stood aloof from Liberalism in self-conscious superiority, and has on its own part fallen into the error of textualism—which is simply orthodoxy without the Holy Spirit.

Everywhere among Conservatives we find people who are Bible-taught, but not Spirit-taught. They conceive truth to be something which they can grasp with the mind. If a man holds to the fundamentals of the Christian faith—then he is thought to possess divine truth.

But that is an incorrect assumption. The Bible is a supernatural book—and can be understood only by supernatural aid!

Conservative Christians in this day are stumbling over this truth. We need to re-examine the whole thing. We need to learn that truth consists not in correct doctrine—but in correct doctrine plus the inward enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. A re-preachment of this vital truth could result in a fresh breath from God upon a stale and suffocating orthodoxy.

Most Christians see Bible knowledge as something to be stored away in the mind, along with an inert mass of other facts.

The modern scientist has lost God, amid the wonders of His world.
And we Christians are in real danger of losing God, amid the wonders of His Word!

Scripture truths must be experienced—before we can really know them.

"Lord, I do believe in the authority of the Scriptures, and thank You for that foundation of truth. But I need to remember that even the inspired text is not alive—until the Holy Spirit takes it and enlightens the recipients. May the Spirit indeed take what I teach and embed it in the hearts and minds of my hearers. Amen."

"Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures!" Luke 24:45

"Open my eyes, that I may see wonderful things in Your law!" Psalm 119:18

Entertainment and the Church! A.W. Tozer

 

In our day we must be dramatic about everything. We don't want God to work unless He can make a theatrical production of it. We want Him to come dressed in costumes with a beard and with a staff. We want Him to play a part according to our ideas. Some of us even demand that He provide a colorful setting and fireworks as well!

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Many churches these days have to depend upon truckloads of gadgets to get their religion going, and I am tempted to ask: What will they do when they don't have the help of the trappings and gadgets? The truck can't come along where they are going!

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Schleiermacher held that the feeling of dependence lies at the root of all religious worship, and that however high the spiritual life might rise it must always begin with a deep sense of a great need which only God could satisfy. If this sense of need and a feeling of dependence are at the root of natural religion it is not hard to see why the great God Entertainment is so ardently worshiped by so many. For there are millions who cannot live without amusement; life without some form of entertainment for them is simply intolerable; they look forward to the blessed relief afforded by professional entertainers and other forms of psychological narcotics as a dope addict looks to his daily shot of heroin. Without them they could not summon courage to face existence.

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This is the cause of a very serious breakdown in modern evangelicalism. The idea of cultivation and exercise, so dear to the saints of old, has now no place in our total religious picture. It is too slow, too common. We now demand glamour and fast flowing dramatic action. A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals. We have been trying to apply machine-age methods to our relations with God. We read our chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar.

The tragic results of this spirit are all about us: shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul.

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We have already seen the reaction [the denial of spiritual longing and desire] among the masses of evangelical Christians. There has been a revolt in two directions, a rather unconscious revolt, like the gasping of fish in a bowl where there is no oxygen. A great company of evangelicals have already gone over into the area of religious entertainment, so that many gospel churches are tramping on the doorstep of the theater. Over against that, some serious segments of fundamental and evangelical thought have revolted into the position of evangelical rationalism which finds it a practical thing to make peace with liberalism.

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Pastors and churches in our hectic times are harassed by the temptation to seek size at any cost — and to secure by inflation, what they cannot gain by legitimate growth. The mixed multitude cries for quantity, and will not forgive a minister who insists upon solid values and permanence. Many a man of God is being subjected to cruel pressure by the ill-taught members of his flock who scorn his slow methods and demand quick results and a popular following regardless of quality. These children play in the marketplaces and cannot overlook the affront we do them by our refusal to dance when they whistle or to weep when they out of caprice pipe a sad tune. They are greedy for thrills, and since they dare no longer seek them in the theater — they demand to have them brought into the church!

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A church fed on worldly excitement is no New Testament church at all. The desire for surface stimulation is a sure mark of the fallen nature — the very thing Christ died to deliver us from. A curious crowd of baptized worldlings waiting each Sunday for the quasi-religious needle to give them a lift bears no relation whatever to a true assembly of Christian believers. And that its members protest their undying faith in the Bible does not change things any. "Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven — but he who does the will of my Father which is in Heaven."

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Let's pray that God will bring conviction on the world. Let's pray that He will send conviction back. Religion has become so popular now that it is shown in theaters, sung over radio and in barn dances. Just one more form of entertainment. We fundamentals and evangelicals just will not believe the truth about ourselves and the kind of people we are. So we have a popular religion, but very little power because we have very little conviction, very little repentance and very little sorrow.

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The old writers talked about the dark night of the soul. A time of emptying. A time when it became dark all around us. But we're too carnal to allow our hearts to get dark longing for God now. We're so determined we want to be happy that if we can't be happy by the Holy Spirit, we'll drum up our happiness. Religious "Rock and Rollers"! We're going to get happy somehow if we've got to beat it up with a tom-tom. You can have that kind of happiness if you want it, but if you don't want it and are dissatisfied with it and you want the joy that comes out of Joseph's new tomb open now forever, if you want the joy that comes from the Holy Spirit, a well of water springing up within you forever, then you will likely have a loneliness and an inner darkness and a despair with self and you'll wonder what happened to you and you'll say, "Am I backsliding?" No, you're not backsliding. You are going on with God.

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There is a cross for you and me and there is a cross for every one of us. And that cross is subjective and internal and experiential.... That cross is that which we voluntarily take up — that's hard and bitter and distasteful — that we do for Christ's sake and suffer the consequences and despise the shame....

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But the evangelicals of which we are a part say, "Let the cross kill Jesus — but we will live on and be happy and have fun." But the cross on the hill has got to become the cross in the heart. When the cross on the hill has been transformed by the miraculous grace of the Holy Spirit into the cross in the heart — then we begin to know something of what it means and it will become to us the cross of power.

We have the breezy, self-confident Christians with little affinity for Christ and His cross. We have the joy-bell boys that can bounce out there and look as much like a game show host as possible. Yet, they are doing it for Jesus' sake?! The hypocrites! They're not doing it for Jesus' sake at all — they are doing it in their own carnal flesh and are using the church as a theater because they haven't yet reached the place where the legitimate theater would take them.

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Religious shows leave a bad flavor. When they enter the holy place, they come perilously near to offering strange fire to the Lord. At their worst they are sacrilege; always they are unnecessary, and at their best they are are a poor substitute for prayer and the Holy Spirit. Church plays are invariably cheap and amateurish, and in addition to grieving the Holy Spirit, those who attend them are cheated by getting wretchedly poor entertainment for their money.

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The reason evangelical Christianity has so many cowbells and handsaws and shows and films and funny gadgets and celebrated men and women to stir them up — is because they don't have the joy of the Lord. A happy man doesn't need very much else.

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We don't have joy so we try to create it, and I think that God in His Heaven is probably more kind and patient about all this than I am. But I think that even God must get awfully sick of what He sees: all the little cowbells we have to jingle to try to be happy when we are simply missing the fountain of happiness that ought to spring from within. When the well of joy isn't flowing, we try to paint the pump in order to get a little joy or tack jingle bells on the old pump handle, but it doesn't bring the water up.

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Christianity has seen a steady decline in the quality of Christian worship on the one hand and, on the other, the rise of religious entertainment as a source of mental pleasure. Wise leaders should have known that the human heart cannot exist in a vacuum. If men do not have joy in their hearts, they will seek it somewhere else. If Christians are forbidden to enjoy the wine of the Spirit they will turn to the wine of the flesh for enjoyment. And that is exactly what fundamental Christianity (as well as the so-called "full gospel" groups) has done in the last quarter century. God's people have turned to the amusements of the world to try to squeeze a bit of juice out of them for the relief of their dry and joyless hearts. "Gospel" boogie singing now furnishes for many persons the only religious joy they know. Others wipe their eyes tenderly over "gospel" movies, and a countless number of amusements flourish everywhere, paid for by the consecrated tithes of persons who ought to know better. Our teachers took away our right to be happy in God, and the human heart wreaked its terrible vengeance by going on a fleshly binge from which the evangelical Church will not soon recover, if indeed it ever does. For multitudes of professed Christians today the Holy Spirit is not a necessity. They have learned to cheer their hearts and warm their hands at other fires. And scores of publishers and various grades of "producers" are waxing fat on their delinquency.

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The church today is suffering from a rash of amateurism. Any untrained, unprepared, unspiritual, empty rattletrap of a fellow who is a bit ambitious can start himself something religious. Then we all listen to him, pay him for it, promote him and work to try to help this fellow who never heard from God in the first place. Amateurism has gone mad, gone wild. That's because we are not worshipers. Nobody who worships God is likely to do anything off beat or out of place. Nobody who is a true worshiper indeed is likely to give himself up to carnal and worldly religious projects.

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Because we are not worshipers we are wasting other people's money tremendously. We're marking time, we're spinning our wheels with the axles up on blocks, burning the gasoline and making a noise and getting no place. God calls us to worship and I find this missing in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in this day. Instead of worship, the churches are now second in entertainment to the theaters. I want to tell you something. If I want to see a show I know where I can see a good one put on by top flight actors who know what they are doing. If I want a show I'll go down to a theater and see a show hot out of Hollywood by men and women who are artists in their field. I will not go to a church and see a lot of ham actors putting on a home talent show. And yet, that's where we are in evangelical circles. We've got more show in evangelical circles than anywhere else.

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When I say we are suffering from a rash of amateurism, I mean that we like to have just everybody, anything, anyway worship. It can't be. You must prepare yourself to worship God. That preparation is not always a pleasant thing. There must be some revolutionary changes in your life. There must be some things destroyed in your life.

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The church is not a religious theater to provide a place for amateur entertainers to display their talents!

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I hope that we will remove from our hearts every ugly thing and every unbeautiful thing and every dead thing and every unholy thing that might prevent us from worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ in the beauty of holiness. Now I am quite sure that this kind of thing is not popular. The world does not want to hear it and the half-saved churches of the evangelical fold do not want to hear it. They want to be entertained while they are edified. Entertain me and edify me without pain.

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A crass example of the modern effort to use God for selfish purposes is the well-known comedian who, after repeated failures, promised someone he called God that if He would help him to make good in the entertainment world he would repay Him by giving generously to the care of sick children. Shortly afterward he hit the big time in the night clubs and on television. He has kept his word and is raising large sums of money to build children's hospitals. These contributions to charity, he feels, are a small price to pay for a success in one of the sleaziest fields of human endeavor.

One might excuse the act of this entertainer as something to be expected of a twentieth-century pagan; but that multitudes of evangelicals in North America should actually believe that God had something to do with the whole business is not so easily overlooked. This low and false view of Deity is one major reason for the immense popularity God enjoys these days among well-fed Westerners.

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The average Christian is like a kitten that has found a ball of yarn and has played with the yarn and romped until it is wrapped in a cocoon. The kitten cannot get itself out. It just lies there and whimpers. Somebody has to come unwind it. We have tried to be simple, but instead of being simple we have simplified — we have not become simple. We are sophisticated and overly complex.

We have simplified until Christianity amounts to this: God is love; Jesus died for you; believe, accept, be jolly, have fun and tell others. And away we go — that is the Christianity of our day. I would not give a plug nickel for the whole business of it. Once in a while God has a poor bleeding sheep that manages to live on that kind of thing and we wonder how.

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Because we are not truly worshipers, we spend a lot of time in the churches just spinning our wheels, burning the gasoline, making a noise but not getting anywhere.

Oh, brother or sister, God calls us to worship, but in many instances we are in entertainment, just running a poor second to the theaters.

That is where we are, even in the evangelical churches, and I don't mind telling you that most of the people we say we are trying to reach will never come to a church to see a lot of amateur actors putting on a home-talent show.

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So many churches and other religious structures are being built these days that the building industry, which once considered such things something of a dead weight, is pretty well steamed up about the whole thing and is now quite eager to have the religious trade. Church membership is growing out of all proportion to the growth of the population. Converts to one or another religion are being sought on every level of society and among all classes and age groups. We have zealous work going on among children and young people. We are using sound trucks, radio, television, streetcar cards, billboards, neon signs, messages in bottles and on balloons. We are using trained horses, trained dogs, trained canaries, ventriloquists, magicians and drama to stir up religious interest. Innumerable professional guilds, industrial clubs and businessmen's and women's committees have sprung up to provide spiritual fellowship for religious-minded persons engaged in the various pursuits of life. Religious songs are in the repertoire of many professional entertainers. Religion is being plugged by nightclub entertainers, prize-fighters, movie stars and by at least one incarcerated gangster who has up to this time shown no sorrow for his way of life and no evidence of repentance. Religion, if you please, is now big business.

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For centuries the Church stood solidly against every form of worldly entertainment, recognizing it for what it was — a device for wasting time, a refuge from the disturbing voice of conscience, a scheme to divert attention from moral accountability. For this she got herself abused roundly by the sons of this world. But of late she has become tired of the abuse and has given over the struggle. She appears to have decided that if she cannot conquer the great God Entertainment she may as well join forces with him and make whatever use she can of his powers. So today we have the astonishing spectacle of millions of dollars being poured into the unholy job of providing earthly entertainment for the so-called sons of Heaven. Religious entertainment is in many places rapidly crowding out the serious things of God. Many churches these days have become little more than poor theaters where fifth-rate "producers" peddle their shoddy wares with the full approval of evangelical leaders who can even quote a holy text in defense of their delinquency. And hardly a man dares raise his voice against it.

The great God Entertainment amuses his devotees mainly by telling them stories. The love of stories, which is characteristic of childhood, has taken fast hold of the minds of the retarded saints of our day, so much so that not a few persons manage to make a comfortable living by spinning yarns and serving them up in various disguises to church people. What is natural and beautiful in a child, may be shocking when it persists into adulthood, and more so when it appears in the sanctuary and seeks to pass for true religion.

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The cross stands high above the opinions of men — and to that cross all opinions must come at last for judgment. A shallow and worldly leadership would modify the cross to please the entertainment-mad saintlings who will have their fun even within the very sanctuary; but to do so is to court spiritual disaster and risk the anger of the Lamb turned Lion.

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It is because there are so many of these ignoble saintlets, these miniature editions of the Christian way, demanding that Christianity must be fun — that distinct organizations have been launched to give it to them. Yes, there are organizations that exist for the sole purpose of mixing religion and fun for our Christian young people.

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Christianity to the average evangelical church member is simply an avenue to a good and pleasant time, with a little biblical devotional material thrown in for good measure!

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I cannot determine when I will die. But I hope I do not live to see the day when God has to turn from men and women who have heard His holy truth and have played with it, fooled with it and equated it with fun and entertainment and religious nonsense. We cannot deny that this attitude is found in much of current Christianity. As a result, people have hardened their hearts to the point that they no longer hear the voice of God.

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The church is not a religious theater where performers are paid to amuse those who attend. It is an assembly of redeemed sinners — men and women called unto Christ and commissioned to spread His gospel to the ends of the earth.

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Religious entertainment has so corrupted the Church of Christ that millions don't know that it's a heresy. Millions of evangelicals throughout the world have devoted themselves to religious entertainment. They don't know that it's as much heresy, as the counting of beads or the splashing of holy water or something else. To expose this, of course, raises a storm of angry protest among the people.

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One man wrote an article as an expose of me. He said that I claimed that religious entertainment was wrong and he said, "Don't you know that every time you sing a hymn, it's entertainment?" Every time you sing a hymn? I don't know how that fellow ever finds his way home at night. He ought to have a seeing eye dog and a man with a white cane to take him home! When you raise your eyes to God and sing, "Break now the bread of life, dear Lord, to me," is that entertainment — or is it worship? Isn't there a difference between worship and entertainment? The church that can't worship, must be entertained. And men who can't lead a church to worship, must provide the entertainment. That is why we have the great evangelical heresy here today — the heresy of religious entertainment.

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If a gospel troupe comes along, you're satisfied for a while, because they have cowbells and a musical handsaw and a lot of other gadgets. Actually, you can catch them at the Eighth Street theater any night by just writing in for tickets. I can't think of a single one of their names, but I know they are down there with the cowbells and banjos and their hillbilly songs — and if that's what you want, go down there and get it! But I say that if the gospel proclamation has to bring that in in order to get a crowd, boycott it!

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Evangelical Christianity is gasping for breath. You can get a religious phrase kicked around almost anywhere right in the middle of a worldly program dedicated to the world, the flesh and the devil. Old Mammon with two silver dollars for eyes sits at the top of it, lying about the quality of the products, shamelessly praising actors who ought to be put to work laying bricks. In the middle of it, someone will say with an unctuous voice, trained in a studio to sound religious, "Now, our hymn for the week!" So they break in, and the band goes, "Twinkle, twankle, twinkle, twankle" — and they sing something that the devil must blush to hear. They call that religion, and I will admit that, all right — but it isn't salvation and it isn't Christianity and it isn't the Holy Spirit. It isn't New Testament and it isn't redemption — it is simply making capital out of religion for a price!

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Why should believing Christians want everything pre-cooked, pre-digested, sliced and salted, and expect that God must come and help us eat and hold the food to our baby lips while we pound the table and splash — and we think that is Christianity! Brethren, it is not. It is a degenerate bastard breed that has no right to be called Christianity.

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Anyone who needs to be chucked under the chin all the time to keep him happy and satisfied, is in bad shape spiritually. He cannot be satisfied without a visit from the latest gospel peddler, who promises cowbells, a musical handsaw and a lot of other novelties!

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Religious fiction... makes use of sex to interest the reading public, the paper-thin excuse being that if romance and religion are woven into a story, the average person who would not read a purely religious book will read the story and thus be exposed to the gospel. Leaving aside the fact that most modern religious novelists are home talent amateurs, scarcely one of whom is capable of writing a single line of even fair literature — the whole concept behind the religio-ro-mantic novel is unsound. The libidinous impulses and the sweet, deep movings of the Holy Spirit are diametrically opposed to each other. The notion that Eros can be made to serve as an assistant of the Lord of glory is outrageous. The "Christian" film that seeks to draw customers by picturing amorous love scenes in its advertising is completely false to the religion of Christ. Only the spiritually blind will be taken in by it.

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One of the very greatest calamities which sin has brought upon us, is the debasement of our normal emotions. We laugh at things which are not funny; we find pleasure in acts which are beneath our human dignity; and we rejoice in objects which should have no place in our affections. The objection to "sinful pleasures" which has been characteristic of the true saint, is at bottom simply a protest against the degradation of our human emotions. That gambling, for instance, should be allowed to engross the interests of men made in the image of God, has seemed like a horrible perversion of noble powers; that alcohol should be necessary to stimulate the feeling of pleasure, has seemed like a kind of prostitution; that men should turn to the theater for enjoyment, has seemed an affront to the God who placed us in the midst of a universe charged with high dramatic action. The world's artificial pleasures are all but evidence that the human race has to a large extent lost its power to enjoy the true pleasures of life, and is forced to substitute for them false and degrading thrills.

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We hear that some fellow can whistle through his teeth. Someone else has marvelous talent for impromptu composition of poetry. Some musicians are talented players and singers. Others are talented talkers. So in this realm of religious activity, talent runs the church. 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. But it is simply 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 what was wrought by the Holy Spirit will stand

 

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I'm not interested in that church which brings somebody in from the outside and say, "Will you come and perform for us?" Can you imagine a pastor bringing a clown and saying to the clown, "Now come, clown into the holy place. Be reverent and do it for Jesus' sake." I would walk five miles to keep from seeing him or hearing him and I wouldn't walk one inch to see him and I wouldn't give one dime to support him. All of this extra-scriptural claptrap that has been dragged into the church in recent times grieves the Holy Spirit.

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Those Christians who belong to the evangelical wing of the Church (which I firmly believe is the only one that even approximates New Testament Christianity) have over the last half-century shown an increasing impatience with invisible and eternal things — and have demanded and got a host of things visible and temporal to satisfy their fleshly appetites. Without biblical authority, or any other right under the sun — carnal religious leaders have introduced a host of attractions that serve no purpose except to provide entertainment for the retarded saints.

It is now common practice in most evangelical churches to offer the people, especially the young people, a maximum of entertainment and a minimum of serious instruction. It is scarcely possible in most places to get anyone to attend a meeting where the only attraction is God. One can only conclude that God's professed children are bored with Him, for they must be wooed to meeting with a stick of striped candy in the form of religious movies, games and refreshments.

This has influenced the whole pattern of church life, and even brought into being a new type of church architecture, designed to house the golden calf.

So we have the strange anomaly of orthodoxy in creed and heterodoxy in practice. The striped-candy technique has been so fully integrated into our present religious thinking that it is simply taken for granted. Its victims never dream that it is not a part of the teachings of Christ and His apostles.

Any objection to the carryings on of our present gold-calf Christianity is met with the triumphant reply, "But we are winning them!" And winning them to what? To true discipleship? To cross-carrying? To self-denial? To separation from the world? To crucifixion of the flesh? To holy living? To nobility of character? To a despising of the world's treasures? To hard self-discipline? To love for God? To total committal to Christ? Of course the answer to all these questions is no.

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Thanks to our splendid Bible societies and to other effective agencies for dissemination of the Word, there are today many millions of people who hold "right opinions," probably more than ever before in the history of the Church. Yet I wonder if there was ever a time when true spiritual worship was at a lower ebb. 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 theater and applied with sad wisdom to the type of public service which now passes for worship among us.