GOD-IGNORED
The God of
the modern evangelical rarely astonishes anybody. He manages to stay pretty much with the
constitution. Never break our
by-laws. He’s a very well-behaved God
and very denominational and very much like one of us…we ask Him to help us when
we're in trouble and look to Him to watch over us when we're asleep. The God of the modern evangelical isn't a God
I could have much respect for.
Quoted in: Who Will Be Saved? Edited by: House, Paul and Thornbury,
Gregory. Crossway, 2000, p. 47.
It is
scarcely possible in most places to get anyone to attend a meeting where the
only attraction is God.
A.W. Tozer
The “god” of
this twentieth century no more resembles the Supreme Sovereign of Holy Writ
than does the dim flickering of a candle the glory of the midday sun. The “god” who is now talked about in the
average pulpit, spoken of in the ordinary Sunday School,
mentioned in much of the religious literature of the day, and preached in most
of the so-called Bible Conferences is the figment of human imagination, an
invention of maudlin sentimentality. The
heathen outside of the pale of Christendom form “gods” out of wood and stone,
while the millions of heathen inside Christendom manufacture a “god” out of
their own carnal mind. In reality, they
are but atheists, for there is no other possible alternative between an
absolutely supreme God, and no God at all.
A “god” whose will is resisted, whose designs are frustrated, whose
purpose is checkmated, possesses no title to Deity, and so far from being a fit
object of worship, merits nought but contempt.
A.W. Pink
The Attributes of God, Baker Book
House, p. 28- 29.
In the
Minneapolis Star Tribune is an entire section for sports. Can you believe an
entire section of the newspaper for sports and not one column for God? Not one
column is written about the Maker of the universe who upholds the whole Coles
Media industry by the power of his word. Not one minute for God on prime-time
news. In twelve years of public education, not one hour relates to God, and not
one page in Newsweek or Time. What about
evangelicals? I've been to church growth seminars where God is not once mentioned.
I've been to lectures and talks on pastoral issues where he is not so much as
alluded to. I have read strategies for every kind of recovery under the sun
where God is not there. I have talked to students in seminaries who tell me of
manifold, practical courses where God is peripheral at best. I have recently
read mission statements of major evangelical organizations where neither Christ
nor God is even mentioned.
John Piper
God is a Very Important Person, Sermon, May
11, 1993, Used by Permission, www.desiringGod.org.
God does not
like to be taken for granted. It flies
in the face of His eternal purposes – that He be known and loved and praised
and enjoyed. And it makes us superficial
people…When the main thing is missing, what’s left is distorted and
superficial, whatever it is. If someone
says, “Oh, that’s just religion,” I answer, “It’s not religion. It’s reality.
God made the world and everything in it.
He owns the earth and everyone on it.
He is the main actor in the world.
He is guiding the history of every people and nation to their appointed
goals. Everything, without exception,
has to do with God and gets its main meaning from God. And not to show this, but to take this for
granted, is to be superficial.” It is
simply impossible to overstate the importance of God. And He des not like
being taken for granted. The psalm does
not say, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be taken for granted.” It says, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to
be praised” (Psm. 96:4).
John Piper
God is a Very Important Person, Sermon, May
11, 1993, Used by Permission, www.desiringGod.org.
All
understandings of all things that do not take God into consideration are
superficial understandings, since they do not reckon with the true deepest
connections with all things with what really matters in the universe, namely
God. We today in America can scarcely
begin to feel how God-ignoring we have become because it is the very air we
breathe. We breathe God-ignoring air.
John Piper
A God-Entranced Vision of All Things: The
Legacy of Jonathan Edwards, Sermon, 2003 Desiring God Conference, Used by
Permission, www.desiringGod.org.
It is common
for those that are farthest from God, to boast themselves most of their being
near to the Church.
Matthew Henry
The carnal
mind seeks to create its own god which loves everyone, puts up with all matter
of evil and foolishness, and gives in to the will of evil men who cry
“Inequality!”
Duane Edward Spencer
TULIP, The Five
Points of Calvinism in the Light of Scripture, Baker, 1979, p. 21.