The Knowledge of the Holy

Over the past few months I have had the pleasure of reading A.W. Tozer’s book, The Knowledge of the Holy. I deeply enjoyed this book! The book was a struggle of thought and mind, for while one may apprehend the person of God, who can comprehend Him entirely? That is not because Tozer is an unskilled writer, for I have honestly read few authors who rival Tozer’s writing style. It is the subject matter, not the author that puzzles, because as Tozer pointed out, “Without doubt, the mightiest thought the mind can entertain is the thought of God, and the weightiest word in any language is its word for God.” As Tozer stated as well,

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

And is that not the truth? For what is more important to man than to know the One whom he was created by? For if man was created in the image of God, then by studying Him, should he discover not only himself but the one whom he was created for as well? I contest against the philosophy of “Know thyself”, for I believe by studying God, one not only comes into the most perfect perception of himself, but also the one who created him.

“All the problems of heaven and earth, though they were to confront us together and at once, would be nothing compared with the overwhelming problem of God: That He is; what He is like; and what we as moral beings must do about Him.”

It is hard for me to conceive, much less wonder what is the most heinous of sins? Oh, how manifold are the sins of man! Solomon, the wisest of kings observed from his old age, “See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes”(Ecc. 7:29). With all this rebellion, what is the root? What is the underlying cause for the sinfulness of man? While the answer is deeply layered and a lengthy topic at that, A.W. Tozer claims to have the solemn answer. He reasons in his book The Knowledge of the Holy that the root to sin, the one that propels most men and women to rebel against God, is rooted in something much more fundamental than what we may think. He writes,

“The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us.”

Essentially, Tozer says, we don’t know God. And I agree with him! The 21st century church, by and large, has fashioned for itself a God other than the one who is, and has settled for a god who is merely the fantasy of their minds, rather the reality of the fact.

“The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men. This she has not done deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic.”

If we are to fix our problems, if we are to mend the damage that we have done, Tozer claims, it is not God who must change, it is entirely us. God is immutable, infinite, eternal, holy, loving, and just… Let us not reduce Him to something less than he actually is, for that is nothing less than idolatry, because idolatry is worshiping a man-made image rather than the one true God. It disturbs me to think of the countless churches across America who worship a god other than the one who is. The most cunning trick of Satan, the most sinful act of man is that of “exchang[ing] the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man”(Rom. 1:23).

“The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men. This she has not done deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic.”

Even God himself contests against us in Psalm 50:21, “These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.”

Above all if there is one problem, one thorn currently plaguing the church today and it is the forsaken knowledge of the Holy! We conceive of a God of love without justice and justice without love, and entirely we know not that we have already missed the point. It is both! We must rid ourselves of the idea that God is either love or just, for an attribute of God is not something true about God it is who He is. Let us reform our views, let us return to what the Bible has to say about God. Let us renew again knowledge of God’s holiness, striving to purify our view of God. Tozer answers to the question “What can we plain Christians do to bring back the departed glory?”

“Acquaint thyself with God. To regain her lost power the Church must see heaven opened and have a transforming vision of God.”

Yet the church is no an anonymous body or “a mystical religious abstraction”.

We Christians are the Church and whatever we do is what the Church is doing. The matter. therefore, is for each of us a personal one. Any forward step in the Church must begin with the individual.

Join me in individually elevating your view of God to, as cliche as it may sound, be the change.

To God be the glory!

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