“True religion confronts earth with heaven and brings eternity to bear upon time.” A.W. Tozer
A.W. Tozer, like the rest of us, was not a man who was perfect in his theology. However, he did have some profound thoughts on the greatness of God and how that should apply to man. Here we see a profound thought. “True religion confronts earth with heaven and brings eternity to bear upon time.” The term “confronts” is an interesting term in this like. It tells the Church that her message is one that should be confronting people with the reality of spiritual things all the time. Anyone who pretends to have true religion should understand that confrontation is necessary on a regular basis. Whatever one thinks of Christianity, which is what true religion is, it cannot stand still and do nothing.
True Christianity confronts others simply by virtue of what it is. The message of Christianity is that God’s kingdom has arrived and it is a victorious kingdom. The message is that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The necessary implication is that each person must repent of his rebellion and crime since they are against the majesty in heaven. True religion is Christianity which is the revelation of the truth of God. Christians have the truth about God revealed in Holy Writ by the Holy Spirit. When Christianity falls into the wickedness of a low view of God, of necessity it becomes more and more like the world. With a low view of God the Church falls into idolatry and is turned over to hardness so that it is tolerant of the world. This has already happened. While the job of the Church is to confront the world with the character and glory of God which is to bring eternity to bear upon time, it has dropped that and is now just like the world in preaching a soft love along with its corresponding tolerance for virtually all things. Well, there are many who are adhering to conservative values and theology. Fine, but one can have those things and confront the world with those and still not confront the world with true religion.
Christianity is to be all about God. Christians are the temple of God (I Cor 6:19-20) and are here to proclaim the excellencies of God (I Peter 2:9). Christians are as vessels of clay to show forth the life of Christ in them. We are not here to live for ourselves in any way, but to live to and for the glory of God. When Christianity is moral or theological for itself, it is being like the world in doing all for itself. Self-centeredness and self-love as the same thing is the mark of the world and increasingly the mark of the modern so-called Church. It is only when the Church is used of God to manifest His glories and excellencies that it is different and confronts the earth with heaven. How the Church needs to repent of its self-centeredness and neglect of God. The Church neglects God simply by being focused on so many things other than Him. It can neglect God in His own name and so “THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU” (Romans 2:24). It is offensive to think that this text may be applicable to the church where you and I attend. However, if we do attend church at a place where the name of God is blasphemed, then our offense is far worse against God. It is better to be offended by the Word of God than it is to offend God. Do our churches offend the living God by what we do and what we don’t do because of our neglect of Him? Do our churches blaspheme the name of God among the unbelieving world because of the way we do things? Are we really seeking to glorify His name according to the strength He gives or are we striving to do what we want according to our own desires and traditions? Well, one might say, “I do evangelism a lot and so of course I don’t blaspheme God.” But why is evangelism done? Is it done out of a love for the glory of God or not? We do evangelism and therefore we say we love God. But we are to do evangelism because we love God if it is to be done in a way that He is truly glorified. Another might say that his church has great music. Fine, but where is God? Perhaps He is in the words and perhaps the feelings of people are elevated, but where is God? Feelings are to be elevated because of the beauty and glory of God and not because of the beat of the music. Do people have their feelings elevated when they meditate on the truths of Scripture? If not, the feelings might be because of the tune rather than be true worship. Others might say that “we teach the truth at our church since we teach Reformed orthodoxy. Again, where is God in that? Is it possible that people love their creeds and Reformed teachings because of its history and logic rather than the beauty and glory of God? Do people love God’s beauty as He shines in and through the truth or because of other reasons?
We must do more than talk about God in a way that is accurate; we must love the beauty and glory of the truth because it is the beauty and glory of God. Loving truth or forms of truth can be self-centered, but we must be God-centered.
God Loves... Himself 
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