Maybe Tozer wasn't all that popular in his day (d. 1965). I think he was. The following might explain why. Too often we are hearing the cry of accommodation from Christianity. But is it really Christian to do so? Read this and see how Tozer viewed it back in his day and see if much has changed.
Failure and
Success: The Scramble for Popularity
Blessed are you when they
revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My
sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for
so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. --Matthew 5:11-12
Popular
Judaism slew the prophets and crucified Christ. Popular Christianity killed the
Reformers, jailed the Quakers and drove John Wesley into the streets. When it
comes to religion, the crowds are always wrong. At any time there are a few who
see, and the rest are blinded. To stand by the truth of God against the current
religious vogue is always unpopular and may be downright dangerous....
Christianity’s
scramble for popularity today is an unconscious acknowledgment of spiritual
decline. Her eager fawning at the feet of the world’s great is a grief to the
Holy Spirit and an embarrassment to the sons of God. The lick-spittle attitude
of popular Christian leaders toward the world’s celebrities would
make such men as Elijah or George Fox sick to the stomach....
Lot was a popular believer. He sat in the gates of
Sodom. But when trouble struck, he had to send quick for Abraham to get him out
of the jam. And where did they find Abraham? Out on the hillside, far away from
the fashionable crowds. It has always been so. For every Elijah there have always
been 400 popular prophets of Baal. For every Noah there is always a vast
multitude who will not believe it is going to rain.
We are sent to bless the world, but never are we told
to compromise with it.
The
Next Chapter After the Last, 20-21.
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