In our day we must be dramatic about everything. We don’t want God to work unless He can make a theatrical production of it. We want Him to come dressed in costumes with a beard and with a staff. We want Him to play a part according to our ideas. Some of us even demand that he provide a colorful setting and fireworks as well!
A.W. Tozer, The Tozer Pulpit, book 8, pp.48-49
Tozer wrote this over 50 years ago, and yet is sounds like today’s “seeker-sensitive,” “market-driven,” and “emergent” churches!
Indeed - the more things change, the more they remain the same.
ReplyDeleteGood word for these troubled times.
I thought that was a quote from a contemporary until I saw that Tozer said it!
ReplyDeleteThis goes back even farther than that. Remember that Jesus Christ was followed by people all the time who just wanted to see a show and they would leave when He refused to show off for them.
ReplyDeleteI always find it suspect when believers make a big production out of their religious experience. It's like a big "look at me/us and how much I/we are in tune with God!"
ReplyDeleteIt's exactly what Jesus was admonishing when he spoke against praying in public.
On the other side of the coin, skeptics like to say all they'd need is God to make some fancy production and they'd believe. I think that's nonsense. They would have a laundry list of why none of it counts.