Well, I got snookered into being a chaperone for our school field trip, so I will be gone for about a week. I will at least write a little bit on this before I leave. The article of Tozer's "The Speaking Voice" postulates a universal atonement, as you admit. But what may be overlooked is the the other "universal" here, and is the "universal voice". And this is where Tozer fails in his order of salvation; he has the wrong foundation, the assumption that everyone is hearing this "universal voice". To be sure everyone does hear the "voice" (if we can take this from Psa. 19) of natural revelation. But not everyone can hear the voice of the Shepherd. "My sheep hear My voice." John 10:27. The context assumes that there are some who cannot hear the shepherd. But this has no room in Tozer's soteriology, as we see in two paragraphs especially. Says Tozer:
Whoever will listen will hear the speaking Heaven. This is definitely not the hour when men take kindly to an exhortation to listen, for listening is not today a part of popular religion. We are at the opposite end of the pole from there. Religion has accepted the monstrous heresy that noise, size, activity and bluster make a man dear to God. But we may take heart. To a people caught in the tempest of the last great conflict God says, “Be still, and know that I am God,” and still He says it, as if He means to tell us that our strength and safety lie not in noise but in silence.
BTW, It is not surprising that Tozer plucks this particular phrase out of its context and makes its say what it really doesn't. The original context of Psalm ---- from whence this is taken is to "cease striving (KJV "be still") and know that I am God.".The "striving" is not of a person who is at odds with himself, or who just needs to have a quiet time. The striving here, according to the context (see verses 8 and 9), is active enmity against God and His people. So, in the verse Tozer uses, the call is not for a quiet time - but surrender. Quit warring against God.
Matthew Henry paraphrases and expounds on verse ten thus:
""Let his enemies be still, and threaten no more, but know it, to their terror, that he is God, one infinitely above them, and that will certainly be too hard for them; let them rage no more, for it is all in vain"
But it is important for Tozer to have this be about preparative quietude because he is an admitted synergist when it comes to salvation. He needs to make room for - and find authorizing verses for - preparatory cooperation on the part of the willing would-be Christian.
Back to Tozer's second paragraph:
It is important that we get still to wait on God. And it is best that we get alone, preferably with our Bible outspread before us. Then if we will we may draw near to God and begin to hear Him speak to us in our hearts. I think for the average person the progression will be something like this: First a sound as of a Presence walking in the garden. Then a voice, more intelligible, but still far from clear. Then the happy moment when the Spirit begins to illuminate the Scriptures, and that which had been only a sound, or at best a voice, now becomes an intelligible word, warm and intimate and clear as the word of a dear friend. Then will come life and light, and best of all, ability to see and rest in and embrace Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord and All.
So here is the order of salvation per Tozer:
First of all - and this is an important detail - he is referring to an unsaved person here. If an unsaved person jusrt follows these prescribed steps, so he assures us, he will do well.
1. Getting still (a misuse of Scripture already - see above)
2. "If we will" - but of course, we know that God works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. And we know that "no one seeks God" (=no one is willing). So already Tozer is describing a creature who doesn't exist.
3. "Sound of a presence in the garden"? Subjective in the extreme how does this work out in shoe leather?
4. Then a more intelligible voice - This idea of progressive awarenes of God is common with mystics but is not in the Word of God, but more on this later.
5. "Then the happy moment when the Spirit begins to illuminate the Scriptures"...and..."an intelligible word".
6. "Then will come life and light, and best of all, ability to see and rest in and embrace Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord". - So, in light of this last step, where do we place, say, John 3:3?
"Except a man be born again he cannot even see the Kingdom of God."
IOW, unless we have sight (Tozer's step 6) we cannot even see (and move toward) God (step 3- 5). Thus #6 is a prerequisite for 3- 5. It is out of order.
This whole notion of progressive revelation is largely foreign to Scripture. God opened Lydia's heart to listen to Paul's reaching. Many times, in fact, salvation in Scripture is quite abrupt. In no place is it the way Tozer imagines.
So his advice on how to approach God is bad. The saved do not need it. The unsaved cannot put it into practice.
Tom Riggle
