The deadening effect o f religious make-believe on the human mind is beyond all describing
THE GREAT DISPARITY
by A. W . Tozer
enjoy the thrill of feeling right but are not willing to endure the inconvenience of being right. So the divorce between theory and practice becomes permanent in fact, though in word the union is declared to be eternal. Truth sits forsaken and grieves till her professed followers come home for a brief visit, but she sees them depart again when the bills come due. They protest great and undy ing love for her but they will not let their love cost them anything. Could this be the condition our Lord had in mind when He said, "Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead” ? What can the effect be upon the spectators who five day after day among professed Christians who habitually ignore the commandments of Christ and live after their own private notions of Christianity? W ill they not conclude that the whole thing is false? Will they not be forced to believe that the faith of Christ is an unreal and visionary thing which they are fully justified in rejecting? Certainly the non-Christian is not too much to be blamed if he turns disgustedly away from the invitation of the gospel after he has been exposed for a while to the inconsistencies of those of his acquaintance who profess to follow Christ. The deadening effect of religious make-believe on the human mind is beyond all describing. In that great and terrible day when the deeds of men are searched into by the penetrating eyes of the Judge of all the earth what will we answer when we are charged with inconsistency and moral fraud? And at whose door will lay the blame for the millions of lost men who while they lived on earth were sickened and revolted by the religious travesty they knew as Christianity? ( Included in "The Root of the Righteous,” Christian Publica tions, Inc., Harrisburg, Pa.) END.
'"There is an evil which I have seen under the X sun and which in its effect upon the Christian religion may be more destructive than commu nism, Romanism and liberalism combined. It is the glaring disparity between theology and prac tice among professing Christians. So wide is the gulf that separates theory from practice in the church that an inquiring stranger who chances upon both would scarcely dream that there was any relation between them. A church conference, for instance, may listen to and applaud the most spiritual message and 20 minutes later adopt the most carnal procedure altogether as if they had not heard the impas sioned moral appeal a few moments before. Christians habitually weep and pray over beau tiful truth only to draw back from that same truth when it comes to the difficult job of putting it in practice. The average church simply does not dare to check its practices against biblical precepts. It tolerates things that are diametrically opposed to the will of God, and if the matter is pointed out to its leaders they will defend its unscriptural practices with a smooth casuistry equal to the verbal dodging of the Roman moralists. This can be explained only by assuming a lack of integration in the religious personality. There seems to be no vital connection between the emotional and volitional departments of the life. The mind can approve and the emotions enjoy while the will drags its feet and refuses to go along. And since Christ makes His appeal directly to the will, are we not justified in wondering whether or not these divided souls have ever made a true committal to the Lord? Or whether they have been inwardly renewed? It appears that too many Christians want to
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The King's Business/May 1958
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