Introduction

There always has been and there always will be great blindness and failings among mankind. At any given point in history there have only been a very small percentage of righteous people on this earth found pleasing and acceptable unto God Almighty, our Creator and Creator of all. Because mankind is self-absorbed and greatly attracted by all things sinful. It is sad and downright unnecessary – and that is what brings about the sadness, but most professing to be Christian fail to be objective in knowing and discussing 100 percent of the Bible. They only want the bright spots. The soothing passages. All the hope and they treat it as if they are still in high school at a pep rally. The Bible is uncompromising. It is truth. And the parts people don’t like to read or deal with ought to be and need to be read and dealt with.

I just wrote a column about the need to be greatly disturbed. Evangelism has shouted out and down the truth – which is the majority are lost have been lost and always will be lost. And the Bible tells us this yet we refuse to believe those passages. Yes, we are to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior – but in order to do this and have the Holy Spirit being part we must be spiritually right in the sight of God. And not all are. The majority are not. And the blind cannot lead the blind. The deaf cannot bring the sound of salvation to the ears of the deaf. Each individual needs to work daily to be found pleasing and acceptable unto the Lord. And most act as if Christianity is a sport, entertainment, or like everything else in their lives. Most act as if they are salesmen trying to win a sales contest. Most are lost and will not see the throne of God. Because only a remnant will be saved. Only a remnant will be found worthy.

So this means we must work daily to attain the prize and work daily to be found pleasing unto God Almighty. We must obey His Word. All of it. Believe all of it. Practice all of it. Not permit modern life to compromise and alter the Truth.

I believe 100 percent in the Scriptures. I believe in every word in every verse in every book of the Bible. I do not pick and choose nor only believe certain things while discrediting others. Christians are obsessed with saving the world. And in this endeavor they go against the Word of God which clearly states throughout the Scriptures at any given time only a remnant are righteous, only a remnant will be saved – the remainder have and will walk in darkness forsaking God and His Word. And they were and will be doomed to eternal damnation. The great majority. But to listen to most professed Christians America is a Christian nation (America was a Christian nation but turned from God close to the turn of the 20th century and America has abandoned God and His Word at an increasing rate ever since then to the point we’re at currently – and if anyone thinks it’s going well they do not have their eyes open to see or their ears open to hear.)

We are a lost people as is the majority of the people on earth. Because mankind abhors the truth. Mankind abhors and mocks God. Mankind prefers self and worship of idols of every shape, size and kind over the worship of God Almighty. Mankind refuses to believe in the Son, Jesus Christ as the Lord of their lives, and mankind refuses to believe in the complete, inerrant Word of Truth; Word of God. And only a remnant at any given time are righteous and living according to God’s will and Word. Only a remnant will be saved. And heaven will not be as crowded as almost everyone professing belie portends it will be. Many professing to be Christian may not make it to Paradise to commune for eternity with Jehovah Elyon and Yesuha, Christ the Lord.

I am reprinting an essay by A.W. Tozer in this space. It follows my brief introductory comments. This essay will be presented in parts.

Ken Pullen – administrator, writer and editor of “A Crooked Path”

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

The Remnant: An Alarming Doctrine

Part I

by A.W. Tozer

From his book “Reclaiming Christianity: A Call to Authentic Faith”

Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.

Romans 9:27

I want to articulate a doctrine in the bible that is very troubling and alarming. I am very much afraid that the Bible is a more alarming book than we know. Before I explain what I mean, I would like you to read the words to a hymn. I love the hymn from Edwin Hodder (1837-1904) about the Word:

Thy Word is like a garden. Lord.

With flowers bright and fair;

And everyone who seeks may pluck

A lovely cluster there.

Thy Word is like a deep, deep mine;

And jewels rich and rare

Are hidden in its mighty depths

For every searcher there.

Thy Word is like a starry host:

A thousand rays of light

Are seen to guide the traveler,

And make his pathway bright.

Thy Word is like an armory,

Where soldiers may repair,

And find, for life’s long battle day,

All needful weapons there.

All of that is true. I enjoy hearing this song, and I enjoy singing it. However, I am a little bit afraid that that is the attitude we take toward the Scriptures – that it is a beautiful jewel to wear on or around our neck or our finger, or a corsage to wear at some dress-up occasion where the star shines on it; that it is fragrant. It is all that. But it is something more than that, and in our simple elegance, I am afraid we are not letting the Word of God mean to us what it ought to mean.

Whatever the educators may be saying, whatever the current religious vogue may be, here is the doctrine clearly taught in the Scripture, which cultists have misread and have wrested to their own destruction. For every cultist says, “I’m the remnant,” and every group that meets says, “We are the people.” But I refuse to reject the doctrine because somebody else has wrested the doctrine to his or her own destruction. I have neither starry hopes for you to admire nor posies for you to smell; but what I do have is a terrible doctrine that hurts and bothers and makes me sorrow in spirit. It is the doctrine of the remnant.

Only a Fragment

What is the doctrine of the remnant? It is simply this: that in our blind, fallen, sinful world of mankind, at any given time, the vast overwhelming majority is lost. And by lost, I do not mean they have missed their way or come short of the mark or are less than they wanted to be or fail to fulfill their dreams. By lost, I mean, alienated from God and an enemy to Him, without pardon, without life and without hope.

What does this doctrine of the remnant mean? “Remnant” means a small fragment, a surviving trace. It means that something yet remains when the larger body is somewhere else. The Romans 9:27 text deals with Israel, but it sets forth clearly the doctrine as applying to the entire human race as well as the Church. This was true among the nations before Abraham; it was true of Israel after Abraham; and it is true of the Church since Pentecost. I am alarmed because it has been true since Pentecost that such a vast number of people who call themselves Christians – the overwhelming majority – are nominal, and only a remnant is saved.

Look at some examples in the Bible. Jesus said, “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man” (Luke 17:26). According to the Scripture, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and there were seven other members of his family that were saved out of the whole population. I do not know what the population was, but I know at the time of the Flood that there were eight persons saved out of a whole population. And I know that it is written that as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in the days of the coming of the son of man.

Somebody says, “Mr. Tozer, you’re taking it too seriously. Don’t you remember when Elijah felt the way you feel and Elijah said, ‘Oh, Lord, I alone am left,’ and God said, ‘Cheer up, Elijah; I have news for you. Seven thousand are in Israel that have not bowed their knees to Baal nor to his image.’ ” That sounds like a lot. Isn’t that encouraging knowing that in Israel 7,000 true Jews did not bow their knees to Baal?

Allow me to indulge in a little speculation. Suppose the population of Israel at that time was 7 million. I think that is a very conservative count. That would mean one tenth of 1 percent had not bowed their knees to Baal, and all the rest had. It would mean 1 in 1,000. If you were to take at that time 1,000 Jews, 999 of them were secretly bowing the knee to Baal to keep out of trouble, and only one man stood boldly.

But suppose for the sake of absolute fairness we cut the population of Israel in half, and say there were only 3.5 million. Then the ratio is 1 in 500. Every time you saw a synagogue or a building with 500 Jews reading the Torah or listening to the chant of the priests, you had 499 secretly following Ball and 1 that was saved.

Remember, at Christ’s first coming there were only a few that recognized Him. We take it for granted just as Israel did, that when Messiah came they would know it.

They believed just what Samson believed when he went to sleep in the lap of Delilah. He believed that he was well set for life and that he had some experience in religion, and therefore there was nothing to worry about. But when he woke up, he found that he had been captured, and his eyes were soon put out, and he was grinding at the mill and they were making sport of him in the name of a false god. He took himself for granted, which always is a bad and dangerous thing to do.

Either we take ourselves for granted and have a sham peace or we get disturbed and then pray through and find true peace. Most believers today take themselves for granted and have a false peace. If they did what the Bible taught, they would be bothered and alarmed about themselves and would go to God with an open Bible and let the Bible cut them to pieces and put them together again, then give them peace. And the peace they had when they had been chopped to pieces by the Holy Spirit and by the Sword of the Spirit – that peace, then, is a legitimate peace.

There are two kinds of tranquility, and do not forget it. Well, maybe there are three kinds now. There’s the kind that you buy in bottles, and then there’s the kind that you get from taking yourself for granted and believing good things about yourself that are not true. That brings a certain tranquility to the mind.

Then there is the tranquility that comes following a disturbance of the soul that shakes it to its foundation and drives the man or woman to God with an open Bible to cry, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts” (Psalm 139:23). Then when God does that, we have an experience with God that gives us a tranquility grounded upon the Rock. But with most evangelical Christians today, their leaders go outside to bring them tranquility.

To be continued…

Part II –  The Tranquilized Church