A Call To The Remnant

When you are trying to find out the condition of a church, do not just inquire whether it is evangelical. Ask whether it is an Evangelical rationalistic church that says “The test is enough,” or whether it is a church that believes that the test plus the Holy Spirit is enough. I would rather be part of a small group with inner knowledge than part of a vast group with only intellectual knowledge. In the great day of Christ’s coming, all that will matter is whether or not I have been inwardly illuminated, inwardly regenerated, inwardly purified( A.W.Tozer)

Brother Tozer in so much of his writings talks about this “inner knowledge,” as opposed to intellectual knowledge. Whenever one speaks of this it can arouse great passions in people. In fact, if you are anything of a church historian you will know that over the last 2000 years, this has been exactly the issue. Typically those burned at the stake were those who made such claims and it aroused violent murderous hatred. I would argue that every single man who ever burned another human being or gave assent to men being burned were those of the “intellectual knowledge,” class. If Saul was jealous of David, and he was, and it caused him to lose his mind and it did, then the same spirit exists in our day as it has always done.

The two groups that Tozer identified, the small group with inner knowledge and the vast majority of those with mere intellectual knowledge of the Word still exist. And this inner knowledge is not some special knowledge that only a small group know, it is simply Biblical knowledge illuminated by the Holy Spirit. And the fruit of that illumination leads to men and women who are inwardly regenerated which leads to a purity that is Spirit driven. Inside out. Changed at the core of our beings and the fruit of those changes being on display for all to see. You will know a man by his fruit and by his love for one another. Imagine such a man or woman burning to death another human being, impossible.

Now, those with an intellectual knowledge of the Bible understand that it teaches about purity and change and being a new creature in Christ. If they have no actual inner knowledge, meaning the Holy Spirit does not reside within them, then the changes must come from the outside in. The outward appearance. Aesthetics. How we dress, strict adherence to religious observance, a focus on the things we do not do, or what we are against, as opposed to who we are in Christ and what we are for. All of these things and more mark the man or woman who is trying to create a holiness and a purity by the work of their own righteousness. It is an age old trap. It cannot work.

The simplest way to illustrate the difference between the two groups would be this. Imagine a vast forest, thick and dense with no trails through it. Yet right through the middle of it runs a mighty river. The river leads to the ocean and this is the stated objective of the two groups. The river is wild and deep and its current is fierce. One group commits itself to the river. Not ankle deep or knee deep nor even waist deep but fully immersed in the depths of the river so that the current takes you where it will.

The other group cannot make such a commitment to abandon themselves to the river and allow the river to simply take them. No, they want to be in charge of their progress. So they begin the hopeless and backbreaking task of hacking their way through the vast forest in a effort to reach the ocean which they shall never reach. Yet they commend themselves on the hard work they undertake. The work itself becomes the virtue. They measure their progress by the fruitless and frenetic work that they undertake.

One group will arrive at its destination and will never be able to commend themselves, for the river did all the work, their only role was to abandon themselves to the river and go with the flow. The other group will never reach the ocean, they will merely pass the axe to each proceeding generation. They will worship the axe and build great monuments to it. To what group do you belong?