The Road Hosea 6:5: "Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth."
Anti-colonialism was one of the dominant political currents of the 20th century, as dozens of European colonies in Asia and Africa became free. Today we are still living with the aftermath of colonialism.
Apologists for terrorism, including Osama Bin Laden, argue that terrorist acts are an understandable attempt on the part of subjugated non-Western peoples to lash out against their longtime Western oppressors. Activists at the World Conference on Racism, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, have called for the West to pay reparations for slavery and colonialism to minorities and natives of the Third World.
These justifications of violence, and calls for monetary compensation, rely on a large body of scholarship that has been produced in the Western academy. This scholarship, which goes by the names of “anti-colonial studies,” “postcolonial studies,” or “subaltern studies,” is now an intellectual school in itself, and it exercises a powerful influence on the humanities and social sciences. The leading Western figures include Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak, Walter Rodney and Samir Amin. The arguments of these Western scholars are supported by Third World intellectuals like Wole Soyinka, Chinweizu – who uses only one name, Ashis Nandy and, perhaps most influential of all, Frantz Fanon.
The assault against colonialism and its legacy has many dimensions, but at its core it is a theory of oppression that relies on three premises.
First, colonialism and imperialism are distinctively Western evils that were inflicted on the non-Western world. Second, as a consequence of colonialism, the West became rich and the colonies became impoverished; in short, the West succeeded at the expense of the colonies. Third, the descendants of colonialism are worse off than they would have been had colonialism never occurred.
In a widely used text, “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa,” the Marxist scholar Walter Rodney blames European colonialism for “draining African wealth and making it impossible to develop more rapidly the resources of the continent.” A similar note is struck by the African writer Chinweizu in his influential book “The West and the Rest of Us.” Chinweizu offers the following explanation for African poverty: “White hordes have sallied forth from their Western homelands to assault, loot, occupy, rule and exploit the world. Even now the fury of their expansionist assault upon the rest of us has not abated.”
In his classic work “The Wretched of the Earth,” Fanon writes, “European opulence has been founded on slavery. The well-being and progress of Europe have been built up with the sweat and the dead bodies of Negroes, Arabs, Indians and the yellow races.”
These notions are pervasive and emotionally appealing. By suggesting that the West became dominant because it is oppressive, they provide an explanation for Western global dominance without encouraging white racial arrogance. They relieve the Third World of blame for its wretchedness. Moreover, they imply politically egalitarian policy solutions: The West is in possession of the “stolen goods” of other cultures, and it has a moral and legal obligation to make some form of repayment.
I was raised to believe in such things, and among most Third World intellectuals they are articles of faith. The only problem is that they are not true.
There is nothing uniquely Western about colonialism. My native country of India, for example, was ruled by the British for more than two centuries, and many of my fellow Indians are still smarting about that. What they often forget, however, is that before the British came, the Indians were invaded and conquered by the Persians, by the Mongols, by the Turks, by Alexander the Great, by the Afghans and by the Arabs. Depending on how you count, the British were the eighth or ninth foreign power to invade India since ancient times. Indeed ancient India was itself settled by the Aryan people who came from the north and subjugated the dark-skinned indigenous people.
Those who identify colonialism and empire only with the West either have no sense of history, or they have forgotten about the Egyptian empire, the Persian empire, the Macedonian empire, the Islamic empire, the Mongol empire, the Chinese empire and the Aztec and Inca empires in the Americas. Shouldn’t the Arabs be paying reparations for their destruction of the Byzantine and Persian empires? Come to think of it, shouldn’t the Byzantine and Persian people also pay reparations to the descendants of the people they subjugated? And while we’re at it, shouldn’t the Muslims reimburse the Spaniards for their 700-year rule?
As the example of Islamic Spain suggests, the people of the West have participated in the game of conquest not only as the perpetrators, but also as the victims. Ancient Greece, for example, was conquered by Rome, and the Roman Empire itself was destroyed by invasions of Huns, Vandals, Lombards and Visigoths from northern Europe.
America, as we all know, was itself a colony of England before its war of independence; England, before that, was subdued and ruled by the Norman kings from France. Those of us living today are taking on a large project if we are going to settle upon a rule of social justice based upon figuring out whose ancestors did what to whom.
The West did not become rich and powerful through colonial oppression. It makes no sense to claim that the West grew rich and strong by conquering other countries and taking their stuff. How did the West manage to do this?
In the late Middle Ages, say the year 1500, the West was by no means the most affluent or most powerful civilization. Indeed the civilizations of China and of the Arab-Islamic world exceeded the West in wealth, in knowledge, in exploration, in learning and in military power. So how did the West gain so rapidly in economic, political, and military power that, by the 19th century, it was able to conquer virtually all the civilizations in the world? This question demands to be answered, and the oppression theorists have never provided an adequate explanation.
Moreover, the West could not have reached its current stage of wealth and influence by stealing from other cultures for the simple reason that there wasn’t very much to take. “Oh yes there was,” the retort often comes. “The Europeans stole the raw material to build their civilization. They took rubber from Malaya and cocoa from West Africa and tea from India.” But as economic historian P.T. Bauer points out, before British rule, there were no rubber trees in Malaya, nor cocoa trees in West Africa, nor tea in India. The British brought the rubber tree to Malaya from South America. They brought tea to India from China. And they taught the Africans to grow cocoa,a crop the native people had previously never heard of.
None of this is to deny that when the colonialists could exploit native resources, they did. But this larceny cannot possibly account for the enormous gap in economic, political and military power that opened up between the West and the rest of the world.
What, then, is the source of that power? The reason the West became so affluent and dominant in the modern era is that it invented three institutions:
science, democracy and capitalism. All these institutions are based on universal impulses and aspirations, but those aspirations were given a unique expression in Western civilization.
Consider science. It is based on a shared human trait: the desire to know. People in every culture have tried to learn about the world. Thus the Chinese recorded the eclipses, the Mayans developed a calendar, the Hindus discovered the number zero and so on. But science requires experiments, laboratories, induction, verification, and what one scholar has termed “the invention of invention” – the scientific method, this is a Western institution. Similarly, tribal participation is universal, but democracy – involving free elections, peaceful transitions of power, separation of powers – is a Western idea.
Finally, the impulse to trade is universal, and there is nothing Western about the use of money, but capitalism based on property rights, contracts, courts to enforce them, and, ultimately, limited-liability corporations, stock exchanges, patents, insurance, double-entry book keeping – this ensemble of practices was developed in the West.
It is the dynamic interaction between these three Western institutions – science, democracy and capitalism – that has produced the great wealth, strength, and success of Western civilization. An example of this interaction is technology, which arises out of the marriage between science and capitalism.
Science provides the knowledge that leads to invention, and capitalism supplies the mechanism by which the invention is transmitted to the larger society, as well as the economic incentive for inventors to continue to make new things.
Now we can understand better why the West was able, between the 16th and the 19th century, to subdue the rest of the world and bend it to its will. Indian elephants and Zulu spears were no match for British jeeps and rifles. Colonialism and imperialism are not the cause of the West’s success; they are the result of that success.
The wealth and power of European nations made them arrogant and stimulated their appetite for global conquest. Colonial possessions added to the prestige, and to a much lesser degree to the wealth, of Europe. But the primary cause of Western affluence and power is internal – the institutions of science, democracy, and capitalism acting in concert.
Consequently it is simply wrong to maintain that the rest of the world is poor because the West is rich, or that the West grew rich off “stolen goods” from Asia, Africa and Latin America, because the West created its own wealth, and still does.
The descendants of colonialism are better off than they would have been had colonialism never happened. I would like to illustrate this point through a personal example. While I was a young boy growing up in India, I noticed that my grandfather, who had lived under British colonialism, was instinctively and habitually anti-white. He wasn’t just against the English, he was generally against the white man. I realized that he had an anti-white animus that I did not share. This puzzled me: Why did he and I feel so differently?
Only years later, after a great deal of reflection and a fair amount of study, did the answer finally hit me. The reason for our difference of perception was that colonialism had been pretty bad for him, but pretty good for me. Another way to put it was that colonialism had injured those who lived under it, but paradoxically it proved beneficial to their descendants.
Much as it chagrins me to admit it – and much as it will outrage many Third World intellectuals for me to say it – my life would have been much worse had the British never ruled India.
How is this possible? Virtually everything that I am, what I do, and my deepest beliefs, all are the product of a world view that was brought to India by colonialism. I am a writer, and I write in English. My ability to do this, and to reach a broad market, is entirely thanks to the British.
My understanding of technology, which allows me, like so many Indians, to function successfully in the modern world, was entirely the product of a Western education that came to India as a result of the British. So also my beliefs in freedom of expression, in self-government, in equality of rights under the law and in the universal principle of human dignity – they are all the product of Western civilization.
I am not suggesting that it was the intention of the colonialists to give all these wonderful gifts to the Indians. Colonialism was not based on philanthropy: It was a form of conquest and rule. The English came to India to govern, and they were not primarily interested in the development of the natives, whom they viewed as picturesque savages. It is impossible to measure, or overlook, the pain and humiliation that was inflicted by the rulers over their long period of occupation. Understandably the Indians chafed under this yoke.
Toward the end of the British reign in India, Mahatma Gandhi was asked, “What do you think of Western civilization?” He replied, “I think it would be a good idea.”
Despite their suspect motives and bad behavior, however, the British needed a certain amount of infrastructure in order to effectively govern India. So they built roads, shipping docks, railway tracks, irrigation systems and government buildings. Then the British realized that they needed courts of law to adjudicate disputes that went beyond local systems of dispensing justice. And so the English legal system was introduced, with all its procedural novelties, such as “innocent until proven guilty.”
The English also had to educate the Indians, in order to communicate with them and to train them to be civil servants in the empire. Thus Indian children were exposed to Shakespeare, Dickens, Hobbes and Locke. They began to encounter words and ideas not in their ancestral culture: “liberty,” “sovereignty,” “rights” and so on.
This brings me to the greatest benefit that the British provided to the Indians: They taught them the language of freedom. Once again, it was not the objective of the English to encourage rebellion. But by exposing Indians to the ideas of the West, they did. The Indian leaders were the product of Western civilization. Gandhi studied in England and South Africa, Nehru was a product of Harrow and Cambridge. This exposure was not entirely to the good; Nehru, for example, who became India’s first prime minister after independence, was highly influenced by Fabian socialism through the teachings of Harold Laski. The result was that India had a mismanaged socialist economy for a generation.
But my broader point is that the champions of Indian independence acquired the principles and the language and even the strategies of liberation from the civilization of their oppressors. This was true not just of India but also of other Asian and African countries that broke free of the European yoke. My conclusion is that against their intentions, the colonialists brought things to India that have immeasurably enriched the lives of the descendants of colonialism.
It is doubtful that non-Western countries would have acquired these good things by themselves. It was the British who, applying a universal notion of human rights, in the early 19th century abolished the ancient Indian institution of sati – the custom of tossing widows on the funeral pyre of their dead husbands.
There is no reason to believe that the Indians, who had practiced sati for centuries, would have reached such a conclusion on their own. Imagine an African or Indian king encountering the works of Locke or Madison and saying, “You know, I think those fellows have a good point. I should relinquish my power and let my people decide whether they want me or someone else to rule.” Somehow, I don’t see this as likely.
Colonialism was the transmission belt that brought to Asia, Africa and South America the blessings of Western civilization. Many of those cultures continue to have serious problems of tyranny, tribal and religious conflict, poverty and underdevelopment, but this is not due to an excess of Western influence but to the fact that those countries are insufficiently Westernized.
Sub-Saharan Africa, which is probably in the worst position, has been described by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan as “a cocktail of disasters.” But this is not because colonialism in Africa lasted so long but because it lasted a mere half-century. It was too short to permit Western institutions to take firm root.
Consequently, after their independence most African nations have retreated into a kind of tribal barbarism that can be remedied only with more Western influence, not less. Africa needs more Western capital, more technology, more rule of law and more individual freedom.
None of this is to say that colonialism by itself was a good thing, only that bad institutions sometimes produce good results. Colonialism, I freely acknowledge, was a harsh regime for those who lived under it. My grandfather would have a hard time giving even one cheer for colonialism. As for me, I cannot manage three, but I am quite willing to grant two. So here it is: Two cheers for colonialism! Maybe you will now see why I am not going to be sending an invoice for reparations to Tony Blair.
Source:
Dinesh D’Souza, 2002 Sfgate.com
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This is my response:
Western/European colonialism also brought the Gospel of Jesus Christ–especially through Christian missionaries from Great Britain (the British Empire). Poverty, primarily, is a spiritual condition. A nation that has suffered from poverty for many generations or even centuries is because that nation is cursed. Begin to preach the Gospel to the people and the Light of Heaven comes into their lives and their lives are transformed. Also, prayer and fasting need to take place to break the curses off the land of that nation. Curses come through sin: devil worship, abortion (human sacrifice), sexual sin (homosexuality, adultery), earth worship, etc. Break the curses off that land and the Lord will bless the land.
I am the wealthiest man on the planet, not because I have much property or have millions or billions of dollars in a bank account. I am the wealthiest man on the planet because I have the Presence of God in my life. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for shedding your precious blood on the cross, so that I can have access to my heavenly Father. And because I have access to the Father, He can inspire me/reveal to me ideas to make my life better and other people’s lives better.
Many years ago, back in the 1600s, the great Christian intellectual, John Milton, wrote that because of the power and influence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Great Britain, the English language would be the dominant language of the world someday. On a similar note: I believe the Lord allowed Alexander the Great to conquer the Persian Empire because the Greek language is easier to learn than the Persian language. The Greek New Testament is still being studied today in 2021. That is the power of God in the affairs of men.
Devil worship defiles the land. After so many generations of devil worship, the land vomits. Thank God for colonialism and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is what breaks the curses off the land.
Maybe someday the Lord will destroy the monument to Crazy Horse with an earthquake. The Lord destroyed the mural of George Floyd with a bolt of lightning.
Leviticus 18:24-30: “Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.”
Leviticus 20:22-23: “Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out. And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.”
II Kings 17:7-17: “For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger: For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing. Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God. And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them. And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.”
Isaiah 24:5-6: “The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.”
As with so many dreams, this one didn’t make any sense initially. And while I’ve come to a general conclusion, admittedly, I still don’t know where to specifically aim its application. But, it seems broader than my life, has a feel of being large, so I am compelled to share it with the people of God.
Saturday, May 16:I was shown a complex, flat or two-dimensional, metallic sculpture of many small faces shaped together in a way so as to form one large head. I was told, “look at the ‘death faces’.” Then, I noticed a skull laying sideways in the neck of the sculpture.
Let’s take this dream apart piece by piece: A sculpture is man-made. Metal is formed from material out of the ground. A head symbolizes authority. Many faces means many people. A skull represents death.
That the voice in the dream told me to look at the “death faces”, plural, seems to indicate this group is destructive in God’s eyes. A sideways (dead) skull appearing at the neck of the sculpture symbolizes the saying “cut off at the neck”, which is another representation of overall death.
Putting all of this together, I would say the dream was symbolically demonstrating this message:
A man-made, destructive earthly body comprised of many heads is in process, or will be, of being cut off at the neck (ending).
Watching and waiting for the full meaning to become clear. My suspicion is it applies to some sort of influencing organization, perhaps even a terrorist group, or possibly some evil governing body, that will be cut off from power or authority.
Will you pray with me over this one?
Lord, we praise and honor You, our all-wise God! We surrender to You today and every day, and ask for Your precious Holy Spirit to fill and guide us. Father, whatever this dream means, we ask Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven! So, if You are tearing down an earthly source of power that has served up death and destruction, then we agree with You and pray together for it to come to fruition. We give You all the glory. Thank You for Jesus, for always being our Savior and Deliverer. Bless Your Holy name forever. Amen.
Every generation seems to have that person who stands out more than the rest. For the early twentieth century, it would seem that person is A. W. Tozer. The Bible gives us a brief story about a man named Enoch. Not much is known about him other than a few verses in the Bible. His life is summed up this way: “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:24). Though Tozer did not leave this earth like Enoch, we can summarize his life the same way. Tozer walked with God, pursued after God, and then went home to be with God.
Tozer was a pastor, author, editor of TheAlliance Witness Magazine, conference speaker, and one who walked with God and knew Him intimately.
One may not agree with everything that Tozer said on such things like Christians and the movies, or music styles in the church, but one cannot overlook the impact that Tozer has left on the world from his personal account that he shared of pursuing after God. He is a world changer not only because he was an American pastor who was a successful writer, but by his devotional writing which has changed the hearts and minds of so many people to desire God.
He was not only a gifted writer but also an ordained speaker. Warren Wiersbe, who heard Tozer preach, said, “To listen to Tozer preach was as safe as opening the door of a blast furnace.” He was a man in a whole different league when it came to his relationship with God.[1] Leonard Ravenhill said, “To enter into Dr. Tozer’s presence was an awe-inspiring event.”[2]
Another colleague, William F. Bryan, said, “I consider Dr. Tozer the most remarkable man of God that I have known personally. In my opinion, his greatest gifts were prophetic insight regarding biblical truth and the nature and state of the evangelical church of his generation. He was respected highly even by those that considered him severe and aloof; but to those who knew him, he was gracious and kind. I believe he was a lonely man, as many great men of God have been.”[3]
W. Tozer wrote prophetically in regard to the Christian community in the Western world. For example, in The Pursuit of God he wrote,
“The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence.”
Discerning that modern Christianity was sailing through dense fog, he pointed out the rocks on which it could flounder if it continued its course.[4]
What stood out for Tozer to be able to be so close to God?
Aiden Wilson Tozer was born in 1897 into a small farming community in Pennsylvania.
God allowed Tozer to be effective for 44 years of ministry and out of those 44 years, 31 years he served as pastor of Southside Alliance Church in Chicago, though he had no formal theological training. He would be known not just as a key figure in the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church but a national figure for his writings and Tozergrams (pithy sayings gleaned from Tozer’s pulpit ministry or from his hours in his study).[5]
He and his wife Ada had seven children. They lived a very modest life; he and Ada never owned a car while they were married. He usually requested that his pastoral salary be lower than what was being offered as he trusted the Lord in their provision. Even when he became more well known, he signed away most of his book royalties.
Probably out of the 40-plus writings attributed to him, his best-known work is the Pursuit of God. The book came about from a God-inspired night as he rode a train from Chicago to Texas. The story is recounted by his friend:
“He was invited to speak at McAllen, Texas, and he thought on the long ride down there that he would write on this book. He boarded the train—the old Pullman train—at LaSalle Street Station in Chicago—the days when you would pull the curtain on the roommette and he would be all alone. Well, he asked for a little writing table, which the porter brought him and he started to write. Along about nine o’clock the porter knocked on the side of the door and said, ‘Friend, this is the last call for dinner—would you want something to eat?’ And he said, ‘Bring me some toast and some tea,’ which he did. [Tozer] kept on writing, all night long, this thing coming as fast to his heart as he could write, and when they pulled into the station, about 7:30 the next morning, at McAllen, Texas, that book was finished and all he had in front of him was just the Bible.”[6]
If anyone could be an expert at pursuing God, Tozer would be among the closest. We can learn from Tozer that we too can pursue God—just like Moses, who was close to God, still desired more of God by asking to see His glory (Exodus 33). Tozer wrote, “We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit.”[7] When you think about this truth, you can’t help but want the spark in your life to seek God and all His goodness. What a desire it is for the man or woman of God to taste and see that the Lord is good! Once you do, you don’t want to stop; it is in God that one is completely satisfied.
Tozer knew the nearness of God, as he would write,
“We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts.”[8]
He wanted to share this with other believers. We have the nearness of God and we can pursue after Him in a deep relationship. He showed that it is possible to be close with God and how sweet that closeness can be.
Tozer remained faithful to his calling and was able to finally go home to be with the Lord in 1963.
He Was a Man of Prayer
What stands out about Tozer more than his contributions to the devotional life of the believer is the way he prayed. Tozer would say, “As a man prays, so is he.” His entire ministry of preaching and writing flowed out of fervent prayer. What he discovered in prayer soon found expression in sermons, articles, editorials, and books.[9]
Biographer Dr. David J. Fant Jr. said, “Tozer literally wrote The Pursuit of God [while] on his knees. Perhaps that explains its power and the blessing that has rested on it.”[10]
Tozer was known for not only his prayer life but how he prayed. Much of the battle was on his knees. He even had a pair of trousers that he kept in his office to pray in so he would not wear out the knees of his other pants. The story goes,
“Although [Tozer] never boasted about his devotional habits, those few who knew him well knew that the angular man with little formal schooling learned much about his Lord and his God in the secret place. Tozer spent incalculable hours in prayer. Most of his prolonged prayer time—with his Bible and hymnals as his only companions—took place in his church office on the back side of the second floor. He would carefully hang up his suit trousers and don his sweater and raggedy old ‘prayer pants’ and sit for a while on his ancient office couch. After a time his spirit would drift into another realm. In time, he would abandon the couch, get on his knees, and eventually lie face down on the floor, singing praises to the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.”[11]
For all those that knew Tozer, this was not some religious ritual. He had a close relationship with his Savior and this was how he engaged with the Lord.
Through the example of Tozer, we can learn that not only is there power in prayer but it is in our prayer time that we have sweet fellowship with the Lord. We are told to “be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). That happens when we spend time with the Lord in seeking after Him. We live in a very distracting time of life; that is why we must guard our time and have these moments of prayer like Tozer to see who God is and allow Him to reveal Himself to us.
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Recommended Reading:
A Passion for God: The Spiritual Journey of A. W. Tozer by Lyle Dorsett
The Pursuit of God by A. W Tozer
The Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer
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[1] Wiersbe, Warren. 10 People Every Christian Should Know. Pg. 114.
[2] Snyder, James L. The Life of A. W. Tozer In Pursuit of God. Pg. 6.
HYSTERIA: 1. A psychoneurosis marked by emotional excitability and disturbances of the psychic, sensory, vasomotor, and visceral functions. 2. Behavior exhibiting overwhelming or unmanageable fear or emotional excess. [1].
THE RESPONSIBLE PARTY
…The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to put Jesus to death. But the governor said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?”
They all said, “CRUCIFY HIM!”
And he said, “Why, what evil has He done?”
But they kept shouting all the more, saying, “CRUCIFY HIM!”
When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this Man’s blood; see to that yourselves.”
And all the people said, “His blood shall be on us and on our children!” [Matthew 27:20-25]
THE DEMON WHISPERERS
The hysterical people intent on killing an innocent Man refused to listen to reason. They were egged on by demonic religious leaders who had such powerful control of their minds they could make them do anything. The religionists knew exactly what words to use, exactly what stories to spin, and exactly how to gain the greatest reaction. They were unchallenged masters of the medium.
The hysterical people had been programmed over several decades to do the bidding of their masters. One can always tell a CULT by the way the cult leaders are treated:
The mind-numbed crowd will never turn on its masters regardless of their purely evil nature and powerfully sinister actions.
Instead, they will always place full blame on their innocent victims.
Cult leaders can turn their pit bull masses on anyone or anything at any time whenever they apply the proper triggers. In this case they triggered the final inner mechanism in their wicked arsenal by arousing, at the perfect time, the maximum level of cultural inner hatred, and once it was fully armed, they released it full bore upon their greatest enemy for maximum impact.
THE POWER OF RELIGION
There is a reason religion has the power it does. There is a reason religious shysters use religion to gain control of people and coerce their money. It is lucrative. It answers the two basic and fundamental needs of narcissistic authoritarians, many of whom are cleverly concealed charlatans: (1) Authority, and (2) Money. These religionists take power and money as their right.
Here is one way to differentiate some of the real from the unreal when it comes to Christian ministers: The real ones will do the job the Lord called them to do whether they get paid or not (unreal ministers never work without getting paid); whether they are appreciated or not (unreal ministers will never work without ongoing full respect); and whether they are overly protected or not (unreal ministers will never subject themselves to real persecution).
The real ministers of the Gospel will never quit no matter how everyone else may quit on them. They will always continue on though their good names and characters are falsely and wrongly trashed.
The following ALWAYS applies to the real guys:
“Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man.” [Luke 6:22] [2]
REVIVING THE DEATH CULT?
The Lord Jesus—GOD HIMSELF—GOD WITH US—THE LONG-AWAITED MESSIAH—had arrived just as prophesied at the perfect time and He threatened the Death Cult and everything it stood for. He made war against it and would soon end it. He not only prophesied against its complete destruction but led the charge against its destruction.
The Death Cult would be completely incompatible with everything He planned to do in the future. It was a purely opposing force, rebellious to the core. It must therefore be eliminated.
Due to its refusal to admit fault and surrender, outright war to destroy it forever was the only alternative. This was the core construct of the spiritual war of the first century. It is why 70 AD Jerusalem had to happen. It is also why God would never support its resurrection.
I have been writing about the current Great Awakening since I began this blog in May of 2011. Though it remains in the early stages, there should no longer be any doubt that it is coming forth.
When I first received the revelation and told a few of my associates, they had yet to see any indicators. And as I have explained a few times on this site in other posts, as time passed, they reported back that they were certainly seeing them. Remember, when the Lord brings something forth gradually over time it looks to most observers as not a new thing at all; it merely looks like life as usual. But when one receives a revelation of what will happen beforehand and then observes it coming forth exactly as predicted, one has a front row seat, so to speak, of a revelation becoming reality.
In the five and half years of this blog I have often put forth truth that has been soundly rejected and even disparaged by some Christians. This is all part of the process. People in general resist change. People invested in untruth don’t appreciate their stock being depreciated or their beliefs being questioned. All Christians are, of course, completely ignorant of all things spiritual in the beginning. That’s why it’s a born again experience. The problem is that the majority appear to stay in the beginning and resist further development. They invest in certain doctrines and beliefs and resist the consideration of greater truth.
CHURCHES AS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
I often use the elementary school illustration for churches in general. Why? –Because they are. Most churches, though they may be great places filled with wonderful people, are elementary. The majority of the Christians in these places do not care for greater truth. They do not want to graduate to the third or fourth grade. Thus, they remain unaware.
Anyone who spends a lot of time studying hard and doing in-depth research knows it is very difficult work. It is not the realm of the lazy. Christians who would rather take it easy can always find a place to fit in, because many churches are comprised of such people. This is not a knock against them but simply an acknowledgement of reality.
Some Christian groups make it to high school but they are very few and far between. Almost no churches at all in America ever get to the spiritual university level. This means individual Christians, if they want to grow, develop as strong and mature disciples, and gain greater truth and revelation, must do the vast bulk of it on their own.
YOU GOT YOUR GOSPEL WHERE? THE DESERT?
For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. [Galatians 1:11-12]
The problem arises, however, that when the apostle Paul came back from Damascus and the desert, much of it being alone with the Lord for three years receiving revelation, and returned to Jerusalem, the first disciples he met up with did not fully believe his conversion. It is also why, later in his travels, many unbelieving Jews did not understand what he was talking about or trying to relate, and thus rejected his teachings. This is in part why Paul later found such great success among the Gentiles. They were less concerned about obeying cultural religious precepts and keeping up appearances within religious establishments and much more concerned with a practical application of real Christianity that changed their lives for the better.
It is obviously right and good to protect and stand for the ancient paths, as long as the ancient paths were authored by the Lord. It is terrible thing, however, to stand up and fight for untruth, false doctrines, bad narratives, and outright deception. The Christians who fall for this stuff and never correct it have only themselves to blame. I confess right now to you all, my readers, that I have believed stuff that turned out to be wrong, but as Paul said once, I believed it from ignorance. I didn’t know any better. It’s what the preacher said. It’s what the book author said. It’s what I was taught. Whatever. Through continuing study I discovered facts that proved unfacts wrong.
But again, with reference to Paul, the man who goes to the desert often finds he is no longer welcome when he returns. The people you used to hang with want you to junk all the new truth the Lord gave you and return to being a dummy. They will not work to be a better disciple and they get upset when their lack of greater discipleship is exposed. They get convicted. It is often the case that a person doesn’t have to say anything at all and still get a bad reaction. It is how the enemy works. The enemy goes into demonic derangement syndrome in a heartbeat and flies off the handle. Here is a case in point:
And He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and He was teaching them on the Sabbath; and they were amazed at His teaching, for His message was with authority.
In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, “Let us alone! What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” [Luke 4:31-34] [1]
Do you notice how the Lord was being a real Man and speaking with great authority? And had the dunamis to back it up? That usually never happens in many churches. The Lord, however, during His ministry, was POWERFUL. He shook things up. The people were amazed. The religious leaders were shocked. He was a real man’s Man and beyond. People took notice. Sinners were instantly convicted. But demons were scared to death. That’s why the synagogue demon flipped out. And this is also why they flip out in churches when someone brings in some real truth that clashes with the accepted curriculum.
People who have never been to the wilderness or the desert will usually never accept anything from the wilderness or the desert.
In the next post I will list some trends to watch for in the coming year. Until then I encourage you to look over some of my recent posts and especially posts that concern the Great Awakening. There is a search box in the left column entitled Seek and Ye Will Find.
“But the soulish person does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually. The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone” (1 Cor. 2:14-15).
These verses contrast two types of people: soulish and spiritual. What’s the difference? Some define the soul as a person’s mind, will, and emotions. First Corinthians 15 says, “The first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” The soul is the life we have in ourselves. It could also be called the self-life. It encompasses the mind, will, and emotions inasmuch as those are components through which the self-life is expressed. “Spiritual” refers to the life of Christ, the last Adam.
Just before 1 Corinthians 2:14, Paul says we have received the Spirit of God. The Spirit reveals “What eye did not see and ear did not hear, and what never entered the human mind” (1 Cor. 2:9-10). So what the soul fails to perceive, the Spirit reveals. The soulish person operates by the self-life, by the thoughts, feelings, and goals of that life. The spiritual person operates by what the Spirit reveals and by the life of Christ.
Sometimes “soulish” is translated “unbeliever” or “natural.” But Paul is not contrasting believers and unbelievers. He is contrasting soulish and spiritual people. First Corinthians 3 begins with Paul telling the Corinthians he could not address them as spiritual. They operated more by the self-life than by Christ within. Paul contrasted soulish and spiritual to show them the difference. He hoped they would learn to live spiritually instead of soulishly. As disciples, we are all learning this to one degree or another.
Paul met with an interesting mix of soulish people in Athens. Many Jews, though believers in God, resisted Paul’s message (Acts 17:17). They could not accept Jesus or that their scriptures and traditions testified of Him (John 5:39). Some of the intellectuals and philosophers in Athens called Paul a babbler (Acts 17:18). Others listened to Paul simply because they enjoyed the novelty of new ideas (Acts 17:21). They didn’t argue or belittle Paul’s message. But they didn’t accept it either. The Christ message was just the flavor of the day.
It is instructive to see the varied reactions of the soulish man. The spiritual messenger can meet everything from persecution to noncommittal interest. Soulish people can be religious–even Christian–or atheistic. Whatever the soulish person’s presentation, the result is the same—he rejects the message and the messenger.
If we are taught by the Spirit, if our mind is being renewed, we should be prepared for soulish reactions. Sometimes, we will be misunderstood, made fun of, discredited, or personally attacked. Or, someone may be politely indifferent. This rejection can come from non-Christians or Christians. The Word who became flesh, who was Message and Messenger, wasn’t received by His own people (John 1:11). The Holy Spirit is merging our experience with Christ’s. There will be times when we and the message we bring are not received.
My prayer for Christians and non-Christians is for the Spirit’s revelation. To the extent we know Jesus and have His mind, we can live spiritually instead of soulishly. Living spiritually is the only way to truly live. Living soulishly isn’t living, really. It’s just not dying (yet).
“The one who loves his soul will lose it, and the one who hates his soul in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:25).
Isn’t America supposed to be a Christian nation? If so, whoever wants to blame the government, lobbyists, political parties, and the great money powers as the cause of our current state is barking up the wrong trees. These entities merely stepped into a void that was created when American Christians vacated their place of responsibility. I’ve been saying this for decades and have been getting slammed by Christians for decades for saying it. I have now noticed that others are saying it. It’s about time.
The facts are clear. There is only one responsible party for America’s decline: Christians and the ministers they choose. Which Christians are most guilty? The Lord said this:
“From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.” [Luke 12:48]
THE ELITE
There is no doubt there is an evil elite in this world that possesses great power. Its members are in the process of finalizing the one-world globalist government of the Last Days as prophesied in Holy Writ. This structure is enveloped with a false and deceptive surface light but contains an inner core of pure darkness.
Real Christians are the only ones who can possibly possess the spiritual power to overcome this powerful darkness. There are very popular and powerful ministers in this country with GIANT platforms but they almost never use them for the right reasons, such as revealing the devil and defining sin. Could it be they never would have achieved their great success had they used their platforms properly?
THIS COULD WORK!
Here’s a suggestion:
Make a list of the top 50 influential Christian leaders in America—those who are extremely influential, wealthy, and well-connected—including mega pastors, Christian television personalities, and ministers of any denomination. Suggest strongly that they start DEFINING SIN specifically and speaking out very powerfully against sin, including the very worst sins such as abortion. Suggest they do this every single time they speak in public ministry, at churches, at conferences, on television, on radio, on the internet, and out in public. Suggest they begin using their tremendous wealth, influence, advantage, and giant platforms to teach other Christians to do the same.
I guarantee you things would start turning around. It wouldn’t take long. Though there would be a tremendous backlash from the forces of evil in the beginning and some of these people would get powerfully slammed, people in this country would start getting convicted. They would start repenting of their sin. They would start receiving what their souls have been crying out for:
(1) Discovering what sin is
(2) Discovering the sins they are guilty of and have on their account
(3) Discovering the great power sin has over them
(4) Discovering the way to be released from the power of sin and be free
The real Gospel would then start doing the work it was designed to do. Light would shine. Darkness would flee. America would change. The Great Awakening would begin coming forth in great mighty waves. This is exactly what happened when the Lord Jesus came. A Great Powerful Awakening took place in the land of darkness and the shadow of death! But what also happened?
He got crucified.
REAL CHRISTIANS
So now you know why the suggested Big 50 will never take our suggestion, even though a few of them have already been unjustifiably maligned by anti-Christian enemies. The simple fact is that there is not a Stephen among them. They are nothing more than members of a Christian elite with their own personal agendas. The American Great Awakening, therefore, is dependent on the kind of people Paul defined in the following passage.
It is dependent upon YOU.
For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. [1Corinthians 1:26-29] [1]
“I have a couple of Christian friends in Jackson, Wyoming. I met them while I was hitchhiking through Jackson back in 2003. I have asked them and I have asked the Lord why the Lord has had me hitchhike through Jackson so much.
“Jackson, Wyoming is a very wealthy, liberal town in western Wyoming. It has around 9,000 people and has an abortion clinic. My friends have protested outside of that abortion clinic many times in the past few years. My friends just got kicked out of the First Baptist Church in Jackson because the people in that church didn’t like them protesting outside of that abortion clinic. My friends have also been rejected or harassed by a few other Christian churches in Jackson because of their stance against abortion.
“As far as I know, most of the churches in Jackson are fairly worthless. I believe that there are some very powerful principalities in Jackson. Before the Lord can judge the town of Jackson, He has to judge the worthless Christians that live in Jackson.
“I believe the Lord has had me hitchhike through Jackson to intercede against the principalities in that town and to warn Jackson of its wickedness.
“The wickedness of Jackson, Wyoming is the United States in microcosm.”
“Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee.”
Psalm 83: 14-18:
“As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire; So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm. Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD. Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:That men may know that thou, whose name alone isJEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.”
“Be reckless immediately, fling it all out on Him. You do not know when His voice will come, but whenever the realization of God comes in the faintest way imaginable, recklessly abandon. It is only by abandon that you recognize Him. You will only realize His voice more clearly by recklessness.”
–Oswald Chambers
“I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day.”
–Abraham Lincoln
“I shall not live ’till I see God; and when I have seen him, I shall never die.”
–John Donne
“The most important thought I ever had was that of my individual responsibility to God.”
–Daniel Webster
“The tests of life are to make, not break us. Trouble may demolish a man’s business but build his character. The blow at the outward man may be the greatest blessing to the inner man. If God, then, puts or permits anything hard in our lives, be sure that the real peril, the real trouble, is what we shall lose if we flinch or rebel.”
–Maltbie D. Babcock
“To the quiet mind all things are possible. What is a quiet mind? A quiet mind is one which nothing weighs on, nothing worries, which, free from ties and from all self-seeking, is wholly merged into the will of God and dead as to its own. Such an one can do no deed however small but it is clothed with something of God’s power and authority.”
–Meister Eckhart
“Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties.”
–Charles H. Spurgeon
“The wisdom of this world is precious in the eye of the world; and the wisdom of God in His poor, weak, despised earthen vessels is still foolishness with them; but the Lord so orders it, that He still justifies his despised wisdom in his despised vessels, and makes the wisdom of the world appear foolish to all the single and uprighthearted, who thirst after and wait for the revelation of His truth.”
–Isaac Penington
“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”
–William Shedd
“Men return again and again to the few who have mastered the spiritual secret, whose life has been hid with Christ in God. These are of the old time religion, hung to the nails of the Cross.”
–Robert Murray McCheyne
“Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obedience, and it simply will not work. To pray for revival while ignoring the plain precept laid down in Scriptures is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble. Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience.”
–A.W. Tozer
“All God’s revelations are sealed until they are opened to us by obedience. You will never get them open by philosophy or thinking. Immediately you obey, a flash of light comes. Let God’s truth work in you by soaking in it, not by worrying into it. The only way you can get to know is to stop trying to find out and being born again. Obey God in the thing He shows you, and instantly the next thing is opened up. One reads tomes on the Holy Spirit, when one five minutes of drastic obedience would make things as clear as a sunbeam. ‘I suppose I shall understand these things some day!’ You can understand them now. It is not study that does it, but obedience. The tiniest fragment of obedience, and heaven opens and the profoundest truths of God are yours straight away. God will never reveal more truth about Himself until you have obeyed what you know already. Beware of becoming ‘wise and prudent.'”
–Oswald Chambers
“Christianity is not a theory or speculation, but a life; not a philosophy of life, but a living presence.”
–Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“Though swordless, these soldiers of Christ fought the might of imperial Rome and won…
Unlettered they unblushingly declared the whole counsel of God and eventually staggered the intellectual Greeks.”
Dear friends everywhere, who have believed in our Lord Jesus Christ, and are called with a holy calling to the great salvation of God, which is manifest in this the day of his power; keep your first love, and let not the threats of men, neither the frowns of the world, frighten you from that which you have prized more than all the world. Now the sun is up, and a time of scorching has come, and what has no root will wither; now every ground will be tried; and blessed is the good ground that brings forth the Seed which must inherit the promise. O! let not the cares of this present life choke that which God has begotten; and, seeing the Lord has so marvelously wrought for us here, in the midst of great opposition, do not let your faith fail, nor your confidence in God; who delivered Jacob of old out of his adversity and Israel out of all his troubles; whose care is over his people now.
And having seen the emptiness of the world, and its ways and worship, let nothing blind your eyes again; and let not the things present, nor things to come, separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus; and pay no attention to those who draw back to perdition, but let it teach all the more diligence, to be as those who press after glory, immortality, and everlasting life. The way of God was ever hated by the world, and the powers thereof. Never heed the rough spirits, for their bound is set, and their limit known, but mind the Seed which has dominion over all; and forsake not the assembling of ourselves together, in which you have found God and his promise and power among you, and your understanding opened. O! Rather suffer all things, than let that go in what you have believed; for whosoever does, will lose the evidence of God’s Spirit in them; and their peace and joy will be lost. May the Lord God preserve you all unto the end faithful.
The Road 