“It is my opinion that the Christian conception of God current in these middle years of the twentieth century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity” (A. W. Tozer).
“The trend of modern theology-if theology it can be called-is ever toward the deification of the creature rather than the glorification of the Creator, and the leaven of present-day Rationalism is rapidly permeating the whole of Christendom. The malevolent effects of Darwinism are more far reaching than most are aware. Many of those among our religious leaders who are still regarded as orthodox would, we fear, be found to be very heterodox if they were weighted in the balances of the Sanctuary. Even those who are clear, intellectually, upon other truth, are rarely sound in doctrine. Few, very few, today, really believe in the complete ruin and total depravity of man. Those who speak of man’s “free will,” and insist upon his inherent power to either accept or reject the Saviour, do but voice their ignorance of the real condition of Adam’s fallen children. And if there are few who believe that, so far as he is concerned, the condition of the sinner is entirely hopeless, there are fewer still who really believe in the absolute Sovereignty of God” (A.W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God).
It is amazing that Pink noticed the trend of theology (so-called) in his day was headed toward the deification of the creature rather than the glorification of the Creator. Again, things have gotten nothing but worse. Theology in the modern day (so-called) appears to be almost a decided attack on the glory of God. The character of God is being impugned and dragged down to the level of fallen man. Indeed it appears as if man is the measure of all things, even God Himself. Theologians are trying to be winsome and politically correct, but in doing so they are also deifying the creature and not being faithful to the living God. The same thing is true in the pulpits across the land. Man and his wonder is being declared while God is essentially thought of as being the servant of man. How utterly repugnant that is to those who have breathed in the pure air of the glory of a self-existent God who created all things for His own glory and therefore does all things for His own glory.
The Gospel (gospel?) is thought of in terms of the love God has for man so that He could not live without doing something in order to bring man to heaven to be with Him. The Gospel (gospel?) is presented as something that man must choose to do in order to save himself and that God is waiting in heaven wringing His hands hoping that man will find Him to be acceptable. As Lloyd-Jones pointed out, the Gospel is all about the vindication of God. The cross was all about the glory of God in declaring His own righteousness and thus is able to save men. The Gospel is not about the worth of man and the lengths God went to save such a noble creature, because the Gospel is all of grace. God displayed the glory of His grace in saving sinners who were not worthy of being saved. That is why salvation is all of grace. If man is worthy to be saved, then the Gospel is not all about grace but simply in the equality of what God did in giving His Son as an even trade for men. Have we forgotten about depravity?
Indeed it appears that we have forgotten about depravity. Man is pictured as free rather than being in bondage to sin. Man is thought of a rather noble rather than as a degraded creature full of the vomit of hell that the Bible calls sin. Man is now a victim rather than the enemy of God. Man now commits mistakes rather than being guilty of heinous crimes against the living God. Man now is worthy of being saved rather than unworthy of anything but eternal damnation in hell. Man is now thought to have good in him rather than to be filled with nothing good. Man is thought to have the noble faculty of rationality rather than to see that man uses his rational faculties to commit cosmic hate crimes against God. Man is said to have such freedom that he can do as he wants rather than being ridden by Satan to do his filthy will.
On the other side of the issue, God is no longer absolutely sovereign and is now said not to know the future. God is not free to do as He pleases which is an assertion against His power and His wisdom. God is not thought to be good or loving unless He serves man and saves man at the good pleasure of man. Indeed, as Pink points out, man is being deified. As Tozer points out, our conception of God is decadent and utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God. What are we to do? We must cry out to the real God who is really sovereign to open our eyes to His glory and to our own depravity and unworthiness. We must “undeify” ourselves and bow to the utter supremacy and sovereignty of the God who created all things for His glory and pleasure. We must step off of the throne we have stolen and bow to the One we have relegated to servant hood in our minds and conceptions. We must repent.
God Loves... Himself 
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