"Knowledge of the Holy" by A.W. Tozer

First Ravenhill and now Tozer? On a Reformed review page?

Yes, you are correct. We are reviewing books by noted Arminianists, but with Tozer's Knowledge of the Holy even the most committed Calvinist will have a hard time finding fault. Tozer's 1961 book is a masterpiece in Theology and has never received the sort of acclaim that it is due. This is probably due to the manner in which it is produced, as it is a short 120 pages written in a non-academic fashion for ease of understanding. However, the truths that are conveyed in this short book are above and beyond anything that one may find in any other book of this length and level.

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.

Tozer has approached this text with the endeavor of bringing the reader into a more humble and thorough understanding of the God of the Bible. By starting with a chapter entitled, "Why We Must Think Rightly About God", Tozer introduces his thesis with the claim that even self-proclaimed and active Christians who think improperly about God not only do Him injustice, but place themselves in grave danger.

This is not a book simply devoted to semantics. This book is a surety text, seeking to level the uneasy perspectives of many believers who may have a view of God that is not grounded in the Scriptures, but rather is self-contrived. Early on, Tozer tackles the Trinity as best as anyone is capable. Focusing largely on the historical creeds and the scriptural testimony about the various acts of each member, there is no step that is too far, nor any ground left to be taken.

He later connects the eternality of God with the image of God in man - a point that is notably helpful in identifying the reality of eternity. He says, "To be made for eternity and forced to dwell in time is for mankind a tragedy of huge proportions. All within us cries for life and permanence and everything around us reminds us of mortality and change." This truth seems self-evident. All people bemoan death and loath growing old, but how many connect this to the inherent image of God that creates in us an inward longing to inhabit the eternal?

To us who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us in the Gospel, how unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us completely.

Truly, Tozer must have been endeavoring with all of his might to avoid the topics of election and predestination, but his allegiance to the Word of God simply would not allow him to skirt the points that lead inevitably to those doctrines. Following the quote above in his chapter on "God's Omniscience" he goes on, "No talebearer can inform on us, no enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past; no unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us, since He knew us utterly before we knew Him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us."

Let me say it how my Appalachian kinsmen would say; Brother, that's preaching!

Further, in his chapter on "The Goodness of God", Tozer gives a lengthy explanation of how good God is for pursuing us despite all of our efforts to escape Him. In strikingly non-Arminian language, Tozer states, "The captured rebel does not enter willingly the presence of the king he has so long fought unsuccessfully to overthrow." He has the dynamic nailed perfectly, but abandons it as he continues on, "If he is truly penitent he may come, trusting only in the loving-kindness of his Lord, and the past will not be held against him." Oh! So very close! Dear Tozer, don't you see? We will never be truly penitent. We will never come! We must, as he said himself, be "captured."

We are rebels who would never willingly enter the presence of the king we so wish to overthrow. But as the song says, "the overwhelming, never-ending" love of God is truly that - overwhelming. It overtakes us as water overtook the Edmund Fitzgerald, and we do not rise again from its grip. None can pluck us from the Father's hand (not even ourselves), nor can any put us there without His first willing it (not even ourselves).

I love the way that Tozer ends the book. There is a concluding chapter entitled, "The Open Secret" which speaks of the secret formula for reestablishing God's true worship again in a new generation. That secret? "Acquaint Thyself with God."