“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).
People may deny that Rationalism is still with us, but it is alive and well. It has permeated Christendom in various forms. Many within the Reformed camp are guilty of stressing scholarship over the Spirit in understanding Scripture. Others within the Reformed camp are guilty of stressing history in the study of theology and the Bible over the works of the Spirit. Both of these approaches lead to a focus on the Scriptures (when they are studied) from an intellectual point of view or perhaps a point of view which focuses on the externals. Either view leads us to a exchanging the glory of God for an idol. The Scriptures declare the glory of God and not just information to the mind. This is part of the modern Christian conception of God that is so decadent. God is not understood, seen, or felt as an infinite glory of utter majesty that is absolutely sovereign. Rationalism in its various forms is a deification of man and his intellect and a bringing God down so He can be understood. Man is to stand far off in one sense and bow to the majesty of God instead of making Him to be nothing but the theological statements of man. It is only when God is seen far above man that grace is really seen for what it is in bringing man closer to God. Love is then seen as the property of an infinite God who loves His own glory above all and brings sinners close so that they may share in His love for Himself and His own glory.
While many think of Rationalism as really a type of philosophy, it takes on different forms. It can take on the form of being dismissive of the affections and of the Lord’s ability to communicate Himself to a human being apart from intellectual rigor and academic methods. Christianity has and will always have a touch of the mystical element to it because God works through more than just the academic models that have been produced. God is not limited to the academic models that are limited by the human intellect. This is not a knock on all academic processes and academia as a whole, it is just noting that no one or no method has God and the way He works all figured out. We should also note that the glory of God is something that He alone can show. The glory that He shines through Christ cannot be discovered by an academic process, but is in His sovereign hands to do so.
We live in a day when Christians are trying to be respectable in many areas of life. Many want respectability in the academic circles and that is certainly understandable. However, at some point the cross and the glory of God will not and cannot be understood by unbelievers regardless of the name and title that they wear. Those who believe that the mind must approve and make acceptable all that we are to accept will find the teachings of Christianity unacceptable. God is not bound by intellectual greatness, and in fact in His wisdom he makes the wisdom of the wise foolishness. There are few noble and few wise who are converted. Why is that? Because a person must become a fool (in the eyes of the world) in order to have true wisdom. The truths of the Christian faith will never be acceptable or glorious in the eyes of the wise of the world because they do not and cannot see the glory of God shining in what they see as foolishness. Believers are to walk by a faith that sees the glory of God and not by the wisdom of the world which is real foolishness.
True theology must always strive to see the glory of God and declare it at the expense of the accolades of the world. While the Truth may appear irrational to the world, if we don’t declare that glory we will continue in our moral calamity. That is to remain in a decadent form of religion without power. It is also idolatry.
God Loves... Himself 
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