Fri-2-Jan-2009 - Which Cross Do You Follow?
I just read this and found it very deep and worth sharing:
"But if I see aright, the cross of popular evangelicalism is not the cross of the New Testament. It is, rather, a new bright ornament upon the bosom of self-assured and carnal Christianity . . .
The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it. The old cross brought tears and blood; the new cross brings laughter. The flesh, smiling and confident, preaches and sings about the cross; before the cross it bows and toward the cross it points with carefully stated histrionics - but upon that cross it will not die, and the reproach of that cross it stubbornly refuses to bear.
I well know how many smooth argument can be marshalled in support of the new cross. Does not the new cross win converts and make many followers and so carry the advantage of numerical success? Should we not adjust ourselves to the changing times? . . . And who but someone very old and very conservative would insist upon death as the appointed way to life? And who today is interest in a gloomy mysticism that would sentence it's flesh to a cross and recommend self-effacing humility as a virtue actually to be practiced by modern Christians? These are the arguments, along with many more flippant still, which are brought forward to give an appearance of wisdom to the hollow and meaningless cross of popular Christianity."
So, when was this written? Ten years ago? Maybe five? We're talking about entertainment, amusement, and numerical success. "Popular Christianity". That hasn't always been around, has it?
How about 1950?
This is an excerpt from God's Pursuit of Man by A.W. Tozer. He went to be with Jesus Christ in 1963 and even so, it sounds like he's talking about current times. Though I imagine if he had such to say about churches in the 1950's, he might be speechless for weeping today.
Just something to ponder,
~Ashley~
Comments
Sat-3-Jan-2009 - Untitled Comment
Posted by takeadeepbreath
Amen.
laura
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