The Dangers of a Shallow Faith: Awakening from Spiritual Lethargy

by A.W. Tozer

Deuteronomy 18:22: “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.”

This sould always be remembered. People are to easily lead atray by false prophets

stating that he will “go out on a limb a little bit and prophesy.” He relates that he can envision a time coming when those in the Church will desert evangelicalism—a time when “the house will be left desolate and there will not be a man of God, a man in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, left among them.”

For this reason, when Tozer saw things developing within a congregation that he believed was detrimental to its spiritual development, he got riled up and spoke out boldly against it. Yet he also always pointed the way out. He called the danger for what it was and then offered the group he was criticizing a biblical solution that was focused on Christ.

This idea of separation from the world is one that has been lost on this generation of Christians. The Church is so intertwined with the world around that the two are essentially one and the same. However, Tozer recognized that unless believers are separated from the world, they will succumb to spiritual lethargy.

A worldly church was, in Tozer’s thinking, an oxymoron and completely anathema.

Let me go out on a limb a little bit and prophesy. I see the time coming when all the holy men whose eyes have been opened by the Holy Spirit will desert worldly evangelicalism, one by one. The house will be left desolate and there will not be a man of God, a man in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, left among them.

As the Church stands now, the man who sees this condition of worldly evangelicalism is written off as being somewhat fanatical. But the day is coming when the house will be left desolate and there will not be a man of God left among them.

The Bible always sends us out into the world, but never to compromise with the world; and never to walk in the way of the world, but only to save as many as we can. That is the one direction.

When a generation comes along dissatisfied with the status quo and has a hunger for God that cannot be quenched by ritual and tradition, most of these do not come out of the religious hierarchy, but come stomping in unceremoniously with such a passion for God that they upset everything they come in contact with and bypass religious protocol, much to the affront of the religious Pharisees and scribes in control at the time.

The religious leaders condemn them and try to put them out of “the Church.” However, they are the Church, and they inflame a new generation with a holy passion for the person of God that cannot be quenched.

This seems to happen when leaders in the church feel threatend by another members rebuke, spirital gifts or relationship with God. this happend to me at the last church we went to

This spirit of Babylon, in the form of entertainment, has not only seeped into the Church but has also been welcomed through the front door with inviting arms and has come in like a flood.

The church seeks to entertain with big light shows and rock music, and a light fluffy message rather then on the convicting truth of the gospel

The average Christian today is addicted to exterior pleasures. Can any Christian church survive today without a heavy dose of entertainment? It is the culture of fun, fun and more fun. Performance has replaced worship. We no longer have worshipers but rather observers and spectators who sit in awe of the performance. The demand is for something that will make us feel good about ourselves and make us forget about all of our troubles.

Church has become motivational speakers, not truth seekers

The Church Fathers came into the presence of God with a sense of overwhelming reverence, which captivated them and brought them before God in holy silence. What has happened to reverence today? Where are those who get caught up in the spirit of reverence before their God? Where are those who have experienced the holy hush in the presence of God?

Too many in the Church today are living on yesterday’s momentum. They feel that all of the battles have been fought. They assume that all the struggles in the Church are over. They are the privileged generation that goes to heaven on flowery beds of ease.

Then, from the word “theology” comes the word “theologian.” It used to mean a person who has specialized in the study of God, but it has come to mean someone who is an expert in a slice of Christianity.

These contemporary theologians deal with doctrinal minutia. Their expertise is in the area of rethinking doctrinal positions in light of contemporary society and culture. For some reason, they believe that because society has changed so drastically, our doctrinal positions need to change accordingly. To reexamine the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture, for example, is an exercise in futility.

Their doctrines change based on what socity wants not what God wants

It is not by reading the Scriptures in the original languages or in some contemporary version that makes us better Christians. Rather, it is getting on our knees with the Scriptures spread before us, and allowing the Spirit of God to break our hearts. Then, when we have been thoroughly broken before God Almighty, we get up off our knees, go out into the world and proclaim the glorious message of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.

Apostasy starts when certain men creep in unawares and replace the Holy Spirit as the guiding force of the Christian movement. The Church was never designed to be piloted by men; rather, the Holy Spirit birthed the Church on the day of Pentecost as a vehicle through which He could do His work in each generation.

Apastosy is real and biblical

When you look at the facts, it is easy to see that one of the great dangers facing God’s people is in this area of religious boredom. Boredom with religion is conceivable, but being bored with God is not. Those who have encountered God and His mighty, awesome presence could never come to the point of boredom. Religion, however, with all of its tiresome dos and don’ts, sets us up for such boredom. Anyone who tries to follow his religion religiously experiences great moments of boredom in the minutia. Israel

Religion is boring but true experience with Christ is not. therefore if we get boared in our faith we must ask ourselves the question are we dealing with a religious spirit? Or have we stumbled into the trap of religion

The first cult dominating Christianity today is to imitate what we see outside of the Church. This is a characteristic of immaturity, like a little toddler who sees someone do something and tries to imitate it without knowing what it really means. The secular media in America sets the standards for us in the Church. Churches now have “programs” directed by “emcees.” This is directly from the world of entertainment. This sacred cow of the world has been brought into the sanctuary of the living God. The Church naïvely imitates what it sees in the world without any regard to consequence.

The true Christian has an insatiable appetite for Christ and the things of Christ, while the world has no such appetite.

Christ stands alone, and He does not imitate; neither does He court the world in a lame attempt to win the world. Many evangelical churches are closer to the world than to New Testament standards in almost every regard.

Related to the cult of imitation is the cult of entertainment. This is probably the most destructive heresy poisoning the evangelical church today. The idea that religion is a form of entertainment is so far removed from New Testament teaching that it amazes me that otherwise good churches have succumbed to it.

The people impressed by the converted celebrity are carnal Christians, and only until a bigger celebrity comes along.

Week faith

from Him, let nothing dazzle you.” We are allowing everything but “Him” to dazzle us these days.

Let nothing dazzel us

The Early Church was in wonderment at Christ. He dazzled them and stirred within such feelings of amazement that they could never get over Christ. All they talked about was Christ. All they thought about, from morning to night, was Christ. Christ was their only reason for living, and they were more than willing to die for Him.

The Church also worships at the altar of activity. It almost goes without saying that in today’s evangelical church, activity has become a god. Every night of the week there is some activity going on that is absolutely wearing out God’s people. When do we have time to stay at home? When do we have time to go to our closets and spend time in prayer and intercession for the community around us?

Do we take pleasure in the fellowship of God’s people? Do we take pleasure in the presence of God? Or must we go outside the circumference of our Christian fellowship and find pleasure out in the world? This is wrong.

This is incredible convicting

The problem comes when we will not take orders from Him. Christ cannot save the one He cannot control. To claim to be saved while ignoring His commandments is to live in utter delusion.

So true. Certin theology paint a picture of a new god

It would be a tragic calamity to the human spirit to pray and preach a lifetime about a god who was not the true God but a composite of ideas drawn from philosophy and psychology and other religions and superstitions.

Some Christians have taken all the justice, judgment and hatred of sin out of the nature of God and have nothing left but a soft god. Others have taken love and grace out and have nothing left but a god of judgment. Or they have taken away the personality of God and have nothing left but a mathematical god—the god of the scientists. All these are false, inadequate conceptions of God.

If he is wrong about the artist, he will be wrong about the picture.

The doctor who miscounts the number of pills he gives a patient may kill the patient, but that would only destroy the body. The preacher who misjudges or miscounts the truth concerning sin and man and God will damn his hearers, which is infinitely more terrible.

It is a distorted image—a manufactured, painted on canvas, drawn from cheap theology Christ of the liberal, and the soft and timid person.

Everyone today is afraid to know the true Christ so they dumb down Christ and make him soft

If I have a low concept of God, I will have a low concept of myself; and if I have a low conception of myself, I have a dangerous concept of sin. If I have a dangerous concept of sin, I have a degraded concept of Christ. Here is the way it works: God is reduced; man is degraded; sin is underestimated; and Christ is disparaged.

Does this mean we must be tolerant? Actually, men are tolerant only with the unimportant things. What would happen to a tolerant scientist or a tolerant navigator? The liberal religionist simply admits that he does not consider spiritual things as vital.

We are not called to always show a smile. Sometimes we are called to frown and rebuke with all long-suffering and doctrine.

Moral lethargy is to live and have habits and commit acts that are deeply rooted and hateful to God, without knowing it; these acts are dangerous to the soul.

Evangelists used to set out not to comfort people but to wake people up. They used to say, “You’re asleep, and you’ll be awakened by the trump of the archangel.”

Evangelists Have become soft and are preachiing a comfort doctrinne instead of truth

If you have been reared in a Christian home where the Bible, the Gospel, the Sunday School and the presence of Christian people have become a routine thing, and you’re not affected by them at all; if even prayer does not affect you, that is a proof that you are morally asleep and need to wake up.

Death is a spiritual sleep or lethargy. I would suppose that the moral man who was morally asleep was also spiritually asleep.

Spiritual sophistication lacks freshness and warmth; God is far away, and there is little communion and little joy in the Lord. To have a cold heart with little pity, little fire, little love and little worship is spiritual lethargy.

The modern emphasis that God is a convenience and Jesus Christ so kindly died for us in order that we might have peace of mind is a travesty of the gospel. Sinners know it, and the liberals know it. Only we poor, lethargic evangelicals fail to see it.

Cities do not choose to rot and die; they just choose to do that which leads them to rot and die.

The threat comes to us through human society outside the will of God.

Many have been living off the world, riding on the carcass of the world, and then when it goes into the gutter, gracefully pulling away just in time. “How far can I go and still not go over? Tell me what I can do and still not be lost? Just how far can I go?” One of these days the person who does this is going to get caught in the world with no viable exit strategy.

A good amounnt of the church is like this. we cannot be lukewarm Revelation 3:16

No matter what a Christian tries to do, the devil blocks him and hits him a blow. Not a hard one, just enough to stun him a bit.

Business

In fact, we are quite satisfied and have no desire to be free from the snare of this propaganda.