A.W. Tozer

Who in the world was A.W. Tozer? When a family member gave me one of his devotional books for Christmas, I almost discarded it since I had never heard of the author and doubted that he had anything significant to say to me today. That changed after I finished reading the first 10 devotions in his book, "From the Grave." My initial response was that this guy really did have something to say about God and our time, someone with a prophetic sense of perception. You may then recognize my surprise when I learned he lived between 1897 and 1963.

Following hearing a street preacher in April 1914, 17 years after his birth, Tozer (as he liked to be called) committed his life to serve God and became a great self-taught theologian, writer and preacher. For his efforts, he received two honorary doctorates and was often referred to as a 20th-century prophet. He was born in poverty but never allowed that to prevent him from serving God through Jesus Christ faithfully. I am grateful to the Moody Bible Institute for bringing some of his writings to us in 2017.

Tozer begins his devotional book with an amazing, yet true insight into the nature of mankind. Referring to nature, he points out that it is not nature's desire to grow and prosper good plants. Left alone, no matter how good the soil, how well kept are the fences protecting it, or how much a farmer loves his land, let the owner neglect his prized and valued acres for a short time and they will revert again to the wild and be swallowed up by the jungle of the wasteland. The bias is toward the wilderness, never toward the fruitful field. Wow! That's an important insight. All I have to do in my yard is to neglect its upkeep for a couple of weeks, and the weeds spring up almost overnight and turn it into something like a wilderness. I never have to water or feed a weed; they just grow and multiply by themselves.

The spiritual insight offered here is toward fallen humanity from the perfection of God in the Garden of Eden. Tozer points out that the moral bent of the fallen world is not toward godliness but, definitely, away from it. Thus, left alone without any moral encouragement or individual effort toward righteousness, a person just naturally gravitates toward the worst that is around him or her. A godly person cannot just exist; he or she must work to grow and produce goodness. Apparently, when Adam and Eve fell from grace in the Garden of Eden, it affected not only them but everyone else yet to be born. All people today have to do is to neglect their spiritual lives and Satan automatically wins the battle. Left alone, mankind does not move toward godliness, but toward evil.

The prophetic role of Tozer comes when he refers to Matthew 3:8 and the words, "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." Too often, people today forget about that last word "repentance." In the Bible, the offer of pardon for sin on the part of God is conditioned upon the intention to reform on the part of man. There can be no spiritual regeneration until there has been a moral reformation. That's a great spiritual insight.

Tozer says current theology (during his time) largely ignores reformation or regeneration by insisting that forgiveness comes through faith alone. He feels there is too much preaching that says nothing about reformation and instead focuses upon regeneration. However, the Bible does not place one against the other and instead insists that they both are important. Tozer's point is that the idea God will pardon someone in rebellion who has not given up his rebellion is contrary to the Scriptures and common sense. The promise to pardon someone and to cleanse from sin is always associated with the command to repent. That's a spiritual truth preached a century ago.

Yes, people are saved through their faith in God through Jesus Christ, but it is not the act of confession nor the rite of baptism that saves a person; it is when someone confesses his sins and makes a commitment to change his or her life to conform to God's plan for him. Tozer says that too many people today (remember, we are talking about a century ago) are trusting in an act of confession, their knowledge of the Scriptures, and a church membership to satisfy God's gift of pardon (forgiveness). His words are prophetic in that, while these things are always important, they are never a substitute for the conversion (changing one's lifestyle) that God requires. It is not possible to find God's forgiveness and still remain committed to the same lifestyle.

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Robert Box is the former chaplain for the Bella Vista Police Department and is currently the Fire Department chaplain. Opinions expressed are those of the author.