Tozer; Knowledge of the Holy

Chapter 1: Why we must think rightly about God

Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.

Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, 'what come into your mind when you think about God?' we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man. Were we able to know exactly what our most influential religious leaders think of God today, we might be able with some precision to foretell where the Church will stand tomorrow.

A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be trace finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God.

The gospel can lift this destroying burden from the mind, give beauty for ashes and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. But unless the weight of the burden is felt the gospel can mean nothing to the man; and until he sees a vision of God high and lifted up, there will be no woe and no burden. Low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them.

The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders it high opinion of God.

Chapter 2: The Incomprehensibility of God

Darkness to the intellect
But sunshine to the heart
 -- Frederick W. Faber

Chapter 3: The Holy Trinity

Love and faith are at home in the mystery of the Godhead. Let reason kneel in reverence outside.

The Nicene Creed also pays tribute to the Holy Spirit as being himself God and equal to the Father and the Son:
I believe in the Holy Spirit
The Lord and giver of life,
Which proceedeth from the Father and the Son,
Who with the Father and Son together is worshipped and glorified.

"In this Trinity" runs the Creed, "nothing is before or after, nothing is greater or less: but all three Persons coeternal, together and equal."

The Person of the Godhead, being one, have one will. They work always together, and never one smallest act is done by one without the instant acquiescence of the other two. Every act of God is accomplished by the Trinity in Unity.

Trinity in the scriptures:

In the Holy Scriptures the work of creation is attributed to the Father (G1:1), to the Son (Col. 1:16), and to the Holy Spirit (Job 26:13 and Ps. 104:30). The incarnation is shown to have been accomplished by the three Persons in full accord (Luke 1:35), though only the Son became flesh to dwell among us. At Christ's baptism the Son came up out of the water, the Spirit descended upon him and the Father's voice spoke from heaven (Matt 3:16-17). Probably the most beautiful description of the work of atonement is found in Hebrews 9:14 where it is stated that Christ, through the Eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God; and there we behold the three persons operating together.

The resurrection of Christ is likewise attributed variously to the Father (Acts 2:32), to the Son (John 10:17-18) and to the Holy Spirit (Rom 1:4). The salvation of the individual man is shown by the apostle Peter to be the work of all three Persons of the Godhead (1Peter 1:2, and the indwelling of the Christian man's soul is said to be by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-23)

Chapter 21: The Holiness of God

Until we have seen ourselves as God sees us, we are not likely to be much disturbed over conditions around us as long as they do not get so far out of hand as to threaten our comfortable way of life. We have learned to live with unholiness and have come to look upon it as the natural and expected thing.

God's holiness is not simply the best we know infinitely bettered. We know nothing like the divine holiness. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable. The natural man is bline to it. He may fear God's power and admire his wisdom, but his holiness he cannot even imagine.

Holy is the way God is. To be holy he does not conform to a standard. He is that standard. He is absolutely holy with an infinite, incomprehensible fullness of purity that is incapable of being other than it is.

He hates iniquity as a mother hates the polio that takes the life of her child.

Chapter 22: The Sovereignty of God

Perhaps a homely illustration might help us to understand. An ocean liner leaves New York bound for Liverpool. It destination has been determined by proper authorities. Nothing can change it. This is at least a faint picture of sovereignty.

On board the liner are several scores of passengers. These are not in chains, neither are their activities determined for them by decree. They are completely free to move about as they will. They eat., sleep, play, lounge about on the deck, read, talk, altogether as they please; but all the while the great liner is carrying them steadily onward toward a predetermined port.

Both freedom and sovereignty are present here and they do not contradict each other. So it is, I believe, with man's freedom and the sovereignty of God.

In the meanwhile things are not as smooth as this quick outline might suggest. The mystery of iniquity doth already work. Within the broad field of God's sovereign, permissive will the deadly conflict of good with evil continues with increasing fury. God will yet have his way in the whirlwind and the storm, but the storm and the whirlwind are here, and as responsible beings we must make our choice in the present moral situation.