THE OLD CROSS AND THE NEW by A. W. Tozer

All unannounced and mostly undetected there has come in modern times a new cross into popular Evangelical circles. It is like the old cross but different. From this new cross has sprung a new philosophy of the Christian life, and from this new philosophy has come a new evangelical technique--a new type of meeting and a new type of preaching. This new evangelicalism employs the same language of the old, but it's content is not the same and it's emphasis not as before.

The old cross would have no truck with the world. For Adam's proud flesh it mean't the end of the journey. It carried into effect the sentence imposed by the law of Sinai. The new cross is not opposed to the human race; rather it is a friendly pal and, if understood aright, it is the source of oceans of good clean fun and innocent enjoyment. It lets Adam live without interference. His life motivation is unchanged; he still lives for his own pleasure, only now he takes delight in singing choruses and watching religious movies instead of singing baudy songs and drinking hard liquor. The accent is still on enjoyment, though the fun is now on a higher plane morally if not intellectually.

The new cross encourages a new and entirely different evangelistic approach. The evangelist does not demand abnegation of the old life before a new one can be received. He seeks to key into public interest by showing that Christianity makes no unpleasant demands; rather, it offers the same thing the world does, only on a higher level.  Whatever the sin mad world happens to be clamoring after at the moment is cleverly shown to be the very thing that the gospel offers, only the religious product is better.

The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self respect. The Christian message is slanted in the direction of the current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the public. The philosophy behind this kind of thing may be sincere but it's sincerity does not save it from being false. It is false because it is blind. It misses completely the whole meaning of the cross.

The old cross is a symbol of death. It stands for the abrupt, violent ending of a human being. The cross made no compromise, modified nothing, spared nothing; it slew all of the man, completely and for good. It struck cruel and hard and when it had finished it's work, the man was no more. The race of Adam is under death sentence. God cannot approve any of the fruits of sin, however innocent they may appear or beautiful to the eyes of men. God salvages the individual by liquidating him and then raising him again to the newness of life. That evangelism which draws friendly parallels between the ways of God and the ways of men is false to the Bible and cruel to the souls of the hearers. In coming to Christ, we do not bring our old life up onto a higher plane; we leave it at the cross. the corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die.

We who preach the Gospel must not think of ourselves as public relation agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world. We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, or the world of modern education. We are not diplomats, but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.

God offers life, but not an improved old life. the life He offers is life out of death. It stands always on the far side of the cross. Simply, a man must repent and believe. He must forsake his sins and then go on and forsake himself. Let him cover nothing, defend nothing, excuse nothing. Having done this let him gaze upon the risen Savior and from Him will come life and rebirth and cleansing and power. The cross that ended the earthly life of Jesus now puts an end to the sinner; and the power that raised Christ from the dead now raises him to a
new life along with Christ.

Dare we tamper with the truth? Dare we with our stubby pencils erase the lines of the old blueprints or altar the pattern shown to us in the Mount? May God forbid! Let us preach the old cross and we will know the old power.

REFLECTIONS ON THE PRESENT DAY CHURCH by A. W. Tozer

The Christian conception of God in these current years is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed believers  something  amounting to a moral calamity.

With the loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence.

The present position of Christ in the gospel churches may be likened to that of a king in a limited, constitutional monarchy. The king is in such a country no more than a traditional rallying point, a pleasant symbol of unity and loyalty much like a flag or a national anthem. He is lauded, feted and supported, but his real authority is small. Nominally he is head over all, but in every crisis someone else makes the decisions.

The doctrine of the Spirit as it relates to the believer has over these past decades been shrouded in a mist such as lies upon a mountain in stormy weather. A world of confusion has surrounded this truth. This confusion has not come by accident. An enemy has done this. Satan knows that Spiritless evangelicalism is as deadly as heresy, and he has done everything in his power to prevent us from enjoying our true Christian heritage.

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 a 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.

Almost every day of my life I am praying that “a jubilant pining and longing for God” might come back on the church. We don’t need to have our doctrine straightened out; we are as orthodox as the Pharisees of old. But this longing for God that brings spiritual torrents and whirlwinds of seeking and self-denial----this is almost gone from our midst.

Christian Psychology by Anonymous

Christian psychology

 is a very tender subject indeed - because as much as many people need help in the area of the soul - and MANY people do - it is the one area where new age philosophy is most easily "mixed into the baking dough" so to speak. A humanistic and secular world view is very quickly developed if one goes down this route (I am a Christian therapist myself and I've had to renounce practically ALL of the teaching I received on secular schools and examine carefully the Christian teachings as well).
Anyway, read these words by Dave Hunt and consider how subtle deception can creep into well meaning teaching and attempts to help others - and how much of what is preached in churches today is actually "self help" for the mind and soulish realm seasoned with quotes from the Bible to make it "Christian":

"Christian psychology says that we do need such help, that the Bible doesn't have all the answers we need, that prayer, repentance, being filled with the Holy Spirit and other biblical remedies are not enough because there are psychological problems that require something more. Does it not seem a bit odd that God has apparently inspired the likes of Freud, Jung, et al. with "truths" unknown to the apostles and prophets and all of the leaders in the entire history of the church? No, we are told reassuringly, this is not to be considered strange at all. What we need to understand is that "all truth is God's truth." This specious phrase is invoked whenever questions are raised and is generally accepted without further thought.

The question of what is meant by truth is seldom asked. Are we talking about scientific facts involving the brain and body, or about God's truth involving the soul and spirit? Jesus said, "Thy Word is truth ," not part of the truth. Psychology pretends to deal with the soul and spirit (it actually claims to be a science of mind ), a subject upon which God has spoken with finality and about which He claims to have communicated in His Word the whole truth . There are no parts of this truth missing from the Bible and left in limbo to be discovered by godless theorists. To suggest that there are is to contradict the clear testimony of Scripture and the consistent teaching of the church since the beginning, a church that got along very well without psychology until its very recent introduction into secular society and from there into the Christian realm.

As soon as the door was opened for the "truths" of psychology to shed further light upon Scripture a subtle process began. If "all truth is God's truth," and psychology is part of that truth, then it has to be given equal authority with the Bible. Of course Christian psychologists deny this. In all sincerity they assure us that no psychological theory will be accepted that contradicts the Bible; but in actual practice "psychological truth" is imposed upon the Bible and becomes the new grid through which the Bible is to be interpreted."