Message for Youth for Christ — A.W. Tozer

Thank you very much. I suppose that some of you have heard that I have been critical of some things done by Luther Christ, and I want to tell you that I'm critical of my own church and my own denomination too, that everything that I think doesn't fit quite in with the will of the Lord.

So I'm among you as your friend, and I believe that I am among friends. And if some of the things I say don't accord with what you already believe, it could be I'm wrong, but it also could be that you are.

So what we want to do is get together. When our friend Hedley called me and asked me to come, I said, Well, Brother Hedley, you know that I don't agree with everything he said. Well, that's why we want you.

Well, that's all right. Now, I'll tell you what I want to do, and I'm not singling out the Luther Christ Organization. I'm thinking broadly. I never think of my own church or my own denomination, the Alliance, or any particular group.

I think of the whole Church of Christ. I try to cultivate a Catholicity of approach, the true ecumenicity. The whole Church of Christ is before me, the whole Evangelical Church. And I'll tell you what I'm going to begin with.

Evangelical Christianity in Babylonian Captivity

I'm going to begin with a conclusion. I want to watch out so that I don't, after the conclusion, sit down and forget, because the conclusion usually comes last. But I begin with this conclusion, an assumption, and one that I'm increasingly convinced is in accord with the facts, and one shared by growing numbers of serious-minded Christians everywhere.

This is the basic thought that I'll have for you, and if you don't agree with it, I might as well have stood in bed, because everything I say is going to be based on this. It is that the Evangelical Church, or Evangelical Christianity, has gone far from the New Testament and is in Babylonian captivity today, and needs a restoration and a reformation.

Now, you'll remember that when Israel was in Babylonian captivity, she was still God's people, and she still had his promises and his covenant and all the blessings that had been given to the fathers.

But she was out of the land and she was in captivity, and she needed an Ezra and Nehemiah and a few others to bring her out of the captivity and into the land again. Now, to clear myself, allow me to assure you that I don't visualize myself as the reformer to do this job.

I have no Messianic complex. In these times, I'm going to die and go to heaven and leave the work to others. I hope maybe to some of you. But now, 450 years ago, the Church was in a similar situation.

She was in Babylonian captivity, and a man arose, and he diagnosed her disease and he analyzed her trouble, and then he published his findings. That man, of course, was Martin Luther, and he nailed on the door of the castle church at Wittenberg his 95 theses, which he was prepared to defend by public debate or by writing anyway.

October 31, 1517, he nailed these 95 theses on the door of the castle church at Wittenberg, and the great reformation resulted. I believe that we need not only the evangelical trust which you for Christ extremely embody, but I believe that we need to have an uncritical need of a reformer to diagnose our difficulties, find out what's wrong with us, analyze us, and then find a cure, and then publish it abroad so that we can relocate ourselves, not lose any of our evangelistic zeal, but direct it into a more perfect way.

Theses for the Evangelical Church

So, I have for you here now, and I'll be very cautious, and I'm going to quit when the time comes because I've seen that WNBI sign there so long that I never run over not even one second. But I want to talk to you, I want to present to you, 13 theses for the door of the evangelical church.

I want you to take these down. These are theses which I am prepared to defend from the scriptures any warm day or cold one. The first one, and I quote from Martin Luther himself, it's his first thesis.

Thesis One: The Whole Life of the Faithful as Repentance

He said, "'Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, in saying, Repent ye,' meant the whole life of the faithful to be an act of repentance.'. That was his first thesis, and we're in need of having this repeated in our day, that when the Lord says, Repent, he meant that the whole life of the faithful should be an act of repentance.

We are, in our day, I am afraid. Certainly I'm not saying this is true of you for Christ everywhere. I'm saying it's true in my denomination, it's true among evangelicals, and I feel that in our day it needs to be corrected if we're to have the revival we want and escape our Babylonian captivity.

We are forgetting that the whole life of the faithful ought to be an act of repentance, and we're making Christians neither without repentance, or with inadequate repentance, or with superficial repentance.

And you can be absolutely sure that your Christianity will be just what your repentance has been no more, no less. You dare go high in your building only when you've gone deep in your foundation. And repentance is the foundation, and the rest is the superstructure raised on the foundation, and unless we go to bedrock with our repentance, we're doomed to have our building tumble down later on.

Thesis Two: Repentance Must Produce Self-Denial

Now, that's thesis number one, that our Lord means that the whole life of the faithful should be an act of repentance, not simply a statement, but of the whole life. Second one, and I borrowed it from Luther, is that when Christ does not mean interior repentance only, may interior repentance is void if it does not externally produce different kinds of mortification of the flesh.

Now, he defended that, and I'm prepared to, that it isn't enough to say, well, I have changed my mind. They tell us, you know, that repentance is a change of mind, and it is. But it is more than a change of mind.

It must eventuate in external conduct. But the acceptance of Christ without cross-tearing and without self-denial is a snare and a delusion, and to present Christ to be accepted, either not mentioning or denying that there's anything of cross-tearing and self-denial, as we say, much self-denial if you're all colored by the road into his song, nothing between my soul and my savor, he said, much self-denial.

Well, we're living in an age when the spirit of self-denial has gone from the earth. But into this snare the evangelical Church has fallen, so that now we're preaching acceptance of Christ and not telling our new converts that they're going to have to take up a cross and follow him, our Lord, and denying themselves, and we're not telling them, and thus we are betraying them.

Thesis Three: Salvation Includes Discipleship

The third thesis is, and now we depart from Luther, is that there is no salvation apart from discipleship. Take that down if you wish. In our days now, we make a distinction, and I hear it in my denomination as well as in whatever denomination you are in.

We make a distinction between a believer and a disciple. I will give any man ten dollars right out of my own little wallet if you find me anything in the New Testament which properly understood allows a distinction between a believer and a disciple.

The New Testament knows no such distinction. We believe on Christ unto discipleship. We go to the school of Christ by believing on Christ. Believing on Christ is the open door, the act, the way in, but it's unto discipleship.

Now until we change this, we'll stay in Babylon. And then the fourth thesis is that the way of the cross is hard. Now, we have no authority from the Bible, old or new, we have no authority to make the way of the cross easy.

Thesis Four: The Way of the Cross Is Hard

Yet we have done, or tried to do, just that thing. We have made salvation ridiculously easy when Christ made it extremely hard. I would suggest that all of you dear friends listening to me re-read the Gospels, re-read the Gospels.

Now, don't fall victim to the man who puts the Gospels in another dispensation. Believe as our fathers believed from Paul on down, and take the Gospels and read them and see what Jesus says about the difficulty of becoming a disciple, and the way of the cross, how difficult the way of the cross is.

But we've made salvation ridiculously easy with the result that we have a cheap grace and a superficial Christianity. My brethren, I believe that what we need more than we need evangelism now is a reformation that will purify and elevate the evangelical Church so that her evangelistic thrust may bring people to her up onto a higher level than we are now bringing them.

Thesis Six: Salvation Includes Christ's Lordship

The sixth thesis is that there is no saviorhood without lordship. I have been taught, and even, I admit, been taught in my own denomination, that you can accept Christ as Savior now, and so have eternal life, and then later on decide whether you want to have him as Lord or not.

You know, nobody ever thought of a more vicious heresy than that, and yet good men teach that. They invite me. I get invitations from all denominations, almost, asking me to come and put on deeper life conferences.

Well, you see, the trouble is, the only reason we need a deeper life conference is that we didn't start right in the first place. If we had taught the truth when we made our convert, he'd move right along nicely and grow like a little weed, or flower.

But the difficulty is, we have said, Believe in Jesus Christ as Savior, and you're saved. And then later on discuss this matter of his lordship, and their surrender to him. Now, if you have accepted him without knowing that he was to be your Lord, then of course the only thing to do is to back up and accept him as Lord.

But you can't take Christ, one of Christ's offices, and neglect the other. He is Lord in Christ, and the scripture does not say, Believe in Jesus, and thou shalt be saved. It says, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

So when you preach, accept Christ, and believe on Christ to a sinner, you include the lordship of Christ, and the right and authority of Christ to be the Lord and boss of that convert's life all during the days of his pilgrimage.

Thesis Seven: The Holy Spirit's Methods Oppose Human Methods

Seventh is that the methods of the Holy Ghost and those of men are diametrically opposed one to the other. Many evangelical leaders, and I certainly find it among my friends in Youth for Christ, and I find it among my friends in the Alliance, many evangelical leaders lack historic perspective, and thus do not know how the Holy Spirit has worked, and how he works.

We lack knowledge of God's ways, and so we substitute our own. Now there are three methods that are being introduced in our time which are contrary to, and diametrically opposed to, the methods of the New Testament.

One, the methods of big business, the second the methods of show business, and the third the method of the Madison Avenue Advertiser. And Bible methods are supplemented, and the Holy Spirit is grieved and withdraws himself.

And we, because we're young, and I'm not, but some of you are, because we're young and have a lot of animal spirits, we make up by sheer enthusiasm what we lack in the power of the Spirit, and because we lack historic perspective and spiritual discernment, we don't know one from the other.

So Bible methods are supplanted. Gentlemen, you can be sure of this, that to attempt to carry on a sacred holy work such as the work of the Church of Christ, and of evangelism, and of missionary activities around the world, after the methods of big business, and show business, and the Madison Avenue Advertiser, is to grieve the Holy Ghost and remain in Babylonian captivity.

Thesis Eight: Christ Needs No Human Sponsors

Eighth, is that Christ needs no sponsors. Now this particularly irks me. I hope it doesn't irk me in a carnal way. I try to be sanctified and keep spiritual with all my criticism, and sometimes I fail and I don't have to apologize, but I do want to have to be right about this.

But you know, the Wheaties approach is this. This ballplayer likes Wheaties, therefore Wheaties must be good. This ballplayer likes Wheaties, that boxer likes Wheaties, this movie actor likes Wheaties, this big politician, the chairman of the board of this so-and-so company eats Wheaties, therefore Wheaties must be good.

Now, that's the Wheaties approach, and we have blossomed out in our day, and it's in our magazines, our religious magazines, and the philosophy is that this entertainer believes in Jesus Christ, therefore Jesus Christ must be all right.

This politician believes in Jesus Christ, why don't you accept him? This movie actor prays to Jesus Christ, why don't you pray to him? This playboy, this politician, this athlete, they've accepted Christ, prayer goes, why don't you accept Christ?

Now, that's the Wheaties approach. Do you know what that does? That makes Jesus Christ to ride in on the sponsorship of some big shot. That's big shotism, brethren, and I am against it 100 percent, and it's your business to preach Jesus Christ as the sky-tall Savior, and never make him to depend upon the sponsorship of any man.

For Paul said, You see, O calling brethren, not many great men believe in Christ. Jesus said he hides these things from the wise and the prudent, and reveals them unto Baals. I have seen humble ladies, little old ladies who read little and know nothing except their Bible that were greater examples and demonstrators of true Christianity than a lot of these who were supposed to be big shots.

Now, this is an affront to the Lord of Glory. We're guilty of Lee's majesty, sinning against the majesty of the great God when we make him to be sponsored by somebody. Then, nine, Christ saves us to make us worshippers and workers.

Thesis Nine: Christ Saves Worshipers Before Workers

But we evangelicals ignore the first altogether, worshippers, so that we're not producing worshippers in our day. Workers? Yes, we're producing workers. Founders? Yes, a dime a dozen. Promoters, producers, artists, entertainers, religious DJs.

We got them. We got them by the thousand. There'll be two artists hop out and a DJ. They'll have a Scopia Bible under their arm, but they've departed far from the Scopia Bible. We are to be worshippers, brethren, tarry ye until ye be endued with power from on high.

Why? Because God wants worshippers first. Jesus did not redeem us to make us workers. He then redeemed us to make us worshippers. And then, out of the blazing worship of our hearts springs our worship.

Thirteenth of Acts, it was when they were met together worshipping the Lord that the Holy Ghost said, Separate me, bondless and soft, from the work board unto whom I have called them. And I challenge you that every great spiritual work from Paul to this hour has sprung out of spiritual experience that made worshippers.

Unless we're worshippers, we're simply religious Japanese dancing mice moving around in a circle, getting nowhere. Now, tenth, I'm trying desperately to crowd these in. The tenth is that the spirit of modern evangelicalism seems to me to be foreign to that of the New Testament.

Thesis Ten: Discernment of the New Testament Spirit

There was an old fellow by the name of Democritus, or as we pronounce his name. He was an old Greek philosopher. And George Santayana has written about him. And in the shade somewhere, he and his philosophers were gathering in, he said, and Democritus began to sniff, and he said, I smell a false philosophy.

And the young fellow said, Not just a minute there, Grandpa. You don't mean you can smell philosophies? He said, I can. He said, Whenever an idea emanates from a human mind, it gives off an odor. And he said, I can tell whether it's good, and sound, and fragrant, or whether it's putrid.

He said, I smell a putrid philosophy here someplace. Well, I only read that recently, but I've been saying for years that God gives us a sense of discernment, and enables us so that we can smell and know when things are right or when they're wrong.

For instance, if an unprejudiced observer who had spent, say, ten years in the book of Acts and in the epistles, if he should come from another planet or run away sputnik or something, he'd come back down.

He'd never been among us evangelicals at all. He'd never attended a youth for Christ meeting or been in an Alliance Missionary meeting. He just came from another world down, and his nostrils were all tuned to the sweet fragrance that he had got in the book of Acts, and the Gospels, and the epistles.

And then he sniffed around, and I'm perfectly certain that he'd say, I don't smell the same. They say the same words, they talk about the same Lord, but there's a difference of spirit here. I recognize the difference of flavor.

So do I. I recognize that among us evangelicals that we don't smell like those Christians who came out of the ivory palaces along with their Lord, smelling of myrrh and aloes and cash out of the ivory palaces.

Thesis Eleven: Separation from the World and Unequal Yokes

Now, the eleventh is that evangelical Christians every day violate the Scriptures without compunction and without rebuke from their leaders. Such Scripture says, Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers?

What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? And you know the rest. And this? Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not with the Father, but is in the world. And the world passeth away, and the lusts thereof, that he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.

The church of Christ that changed the figure is like the ark of Noah that sprung a leak. If the ark of Noah sprung a leak, you wouldn't be here, because they would all have drowned, and there'd be no human race.

Thesis Twelve: Meekness, Modesty, and Humility

But the church has sprung a leak, and the world is leaking into the church. Then the twelfth is, Meekness, modesty, and humility make a man dear to God. The Old Testament, the New Testament, Proverbs, Psalms, Prophets, Gospels, Epistles, Revelation, all the New Testament teaches on all the old, that meekness and modesty and humility are dear to God, and a man who is meek and modest and humble, God will honor.

But we evangelical Christians have geared our philosophy to the exact contrary. Instead of meekness, it's show-offs. Instead of modesty, it's arrogance. Instead of humility, it's ambition. Well, the thirteenth.

Thesis Thirteen: True Revival Requires Reformation

Thank the Lord we've arrived. Thirteenth. Thirteenth thesis is that we seek revival, but we don't know what we mean when we use the word revival, because we interpret the word revival, or the concept which the word covers, to mean a big enthusiastic increase of what we now have.

Whereas revival must be preceded by a mighty change from what we now have. If what we now have was all right, why don't we have that revival? The simple fact is it is not all right, and must be corrected and changed and edited and purified and elevated.

We must have self-knowledge which we don't have. We must have a changing, a giving up, a dying. Did anybody ever preach about dying to self among you brethren? It's in the book, all right. Dying to self, dying to that snappy, vibrant you.

Dying to that, and living in Christ Jesus. A mighty confession of cruelty and pride and ambition and self-confidence and timidity and all these things. Now, there is no escape from our Babylonian captivity.

We've had a generation born in Babylon, and there'll be another generation born in Babylon unless we brethren who are in places of leadership, and undoubtedly you, most of you are, unless we see these things and make some specific changes.

When Luther nailed his 95 theses, there was a reformation. But I've nailed my 13, and I don't suppose there'll be anything but a song and a prayer. But I do pray that we may do something about this. Like it or not, brethren, the youth for Christ is in a place of leadership, and you're the guy that's stamping out thousands of other Christians, and the terrible thing is they're going to be just like you.

And what you want to do, dear friends, is to pray that God will help you to be the kind of Christian so that when he makes other Christians in your image, somewhat, they follow you innocently, they will be following the Lord at the same time.

Don't you want that? I think you do. I will turn it over to the show. Thank you, Brother Sozer. Some things have been said this morning that we need to heed, not just the voice of man, but I believe to us as an organization, to us as members, leaders in this organization, to me, need to be said and received by us.

We're grateful to God for this this morning, and thank you, Brother Sozer.