Vinny, good one.

earlier, Vinny Samarco, wrote:
>----- Original Message ----- From: <[log in to unmask]>
>To: "Everyone" <[log in to unmask]>; "Cox Sandy" 
><[log in to unmask]>; "Cruz Flip" 
><[log in to unmask]>; "Jones Tom" 
><[log in to unmask]>; "Vanderhoof Bert" <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2011 9:29 AM
>Subject: Thought you all might enjoy this
>
>
>THE OLD CROSS & the NEW -A.W. Tozer.
>
>ALL UNANNOUNCED AND MOSTLY UNDETECTED there has 
>come in modern times a new cross into popular 
>evangelical circles. It is like the old cross, 
>but different: the likenesses are superficial; 
>the differences, fundamental. From this new 
>cross has sprung a new philosophy of the 
>Christian life, and from that new philosophy has 
>come a new evangelical technique-a new type of 
>meeting and a new kind of preaching. This new 
>evangelism employs the same language as the old, 
>but its content is not the same and its
>emphasis not as before.
>
>The old cross would have no truck with the 
>world. For Adam's proud flesh it meant the end 
>of the journey. It carried into effect the 
>sentence imposed by the law of Sinai. The new 
>cross is not opposed to the human race; rather, 
>it is a friendly pal and, if understood aright, 
>it is the source of oceans of good clean fun and
>innocent enjoyment. It lets Adam live without 
>interference. His life motivation is unchanged; 
>he still lives for his own pleasure, only now he 
>takes delight in singing choruses and watching 
>religious movies instead of singing bawdy songs 
>and drinking hard liquor. The accent is still on 
>enjoyment, though the fun is now on a higher 
>plane morally if not intellectually.
>
>The new cross encourages a new and entirely 
>different evangelistic approach. The evangelist 
>does not demand abnegation of the old life 
>before a new life can be received. He preaches 
>not contrasts but similarities. He seeks to key 
>into public interest by showing that 
>Christianity makes no unpleasant demands; 
>rather, it offers the same thing the world does, 
>only on a higher level. Whatever the sin-mad 
>world happens to be clamoring after at the 
>moment is cleverly shown to be the very thing the gospel offers, only the
>religious product is better.
>
>The new cross does not slay the sinner, it 
>redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and a 
>jollier way of living and saves his 
>self-respect. To the self-assertive it says, 
>"Come and assert yourself for Christ." To the 
>egotist it says, "Come and do your boasting in 
>the Lord." To the thrill-seeker it says, "Come 
>and enjoy the thrill of Christian fellowship."
>
>The Christian message is slanted in the 
>direction of the current vogue in order to make 
>it acceptable to the public. The philosophy back 
>of this kind of thing may be sincere but its 
>sincerity does not save it from being false. It 
>is false because it is blind. It misses 
>completely the whole meaning of the cross. The old cross is a
>symbol of death. It stands for the abrupt, 
>violent end of a human being. The man in Roman 
>times who took up his cross and started down the 
>road had already said good-by to his friends. He 
>was not coming back. He was going out to have it ended.
>
>The cross made no compromise, modified nothing, 
>spared nothing; it slew all of the man, 
>completely and for good. It did not try to keep 
>on good terms with its victim. It struck cruel 
>and hard, and when it had finished its work, the 
>man was no more. The race of Adam is under death 
>sentence. There is no commutation and no escape.
>
>God cannot approve any of the fruits of sin, 
>however innocent they may appear or beautiful to 
>the eyes of men. God salvages the individual by 
>liquidating him and then raising him again to 
>newness of life. That evangelism which draws 
>friendly parallels between the ways of God and 
>the ways of men is false to the Bible and cruel to the souls of its hearers.
>
>The faith of Christ does not parallel the world, 
>it intersects it. In coming to Christ we do not 
>bring our old life up onto a higher plane; we 
>leave it at the cross. The corn of wheat must 
>fall into the ground and die. We who preach the 
>gospel must not think of ourselves as public 
>relations agents sent to establish good will 
>between Christ and the world. We must not 
>imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ 
>acceptable to big business, the press, the world 
>of sports or modern education. We are not 
>diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.
>
>God offers life, but not an improved old life. 
>The life He offers is life out of death. It 
>stands always on the far side of the cross. 
>Whoever would possess it must pass under the 
>rod. He must repudiate himself and concur in 
>God's just sentence against him. What does this 
>mean to the individual, the condemned man who 
>would find life in Christ Jesus? How can this 
>theology be translated into life? Simply, he 
>must repent and believe. He must forsake his 
>sins and then go on to forsake himself. Let him 
>cover nothing, defend nothing, excuse nothing. 
>Let him not seek to make terms with God, but let 
>him bow his head before the stroke of God's 
>stern displeasure and acknowledge himself worthy 
>to die. Having done this let him gaze with 
>simple trust upon the risen Saviour, and from 
>Him will come life and rebirth and cleansing and power.
>
>The cross that ended the earthly life of Jesus 
>now puts an end to the sinner; and the power 
>that raised Christ from the dead now raises him 
>to a new life along with Christ. To any who may 
>object to this or count it merely a narrow and 
>private view of truth, let me say God has set 
>His hallmark of approval upon this message from 
>Paul's day to the present. Whether stated in 
>these exact words or not, this has been the 
>content of all preaching that has brought life 
>and power to the world through the centuries. 
>The mystics, the reformers, the revivalists have 
>put their emphasis here, and signs and wonders 
>and mighty operations of the Holy Ghost gave 
>witness to God's approval. Dare we, the heirs of 
>such a legacy of power, tamper with the truth? 
>Dare we with our stubby pencils erase the lines 
>of the blueprint or alter the pattern shown us 
>in the Mount? May God forbid. Let us preach the 
>old cross and we will know the old power.
>
>(-A. W. Tozer, Man, the Dwelling Place of God, 1966).

John
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