A Return to New Testament Christianity

I believe that the imperative need of the day is not simply revival, but a radical reformation that will go to the root of our moral and spiritual maladies and deal with causes rather than with consequences, with the disease rather than the symptoms.

The separating line between the Church and the world has been all but obliterated. Aside from a few of the grosser sins, the sins of the unregenerated world are now approved by a shocking number of professedly "born-again" Christians, and copied eagerly. . . We are busy these days proving to the world that they can have all the benefits of the gospel without any inconvenience to their customary way of life. It's "all this, and heaven too."

We must have a reformation within the Church. . . God is not interested in increasing church attendance unless those who attend amend their ways and begin to live holy lives. . . Prayer revival will prevail when it is accompanied by radical amendment of life; not before. . . "To obey is better than sacrifice."

We must return to New Testament Christianity, not in creed only but in complete manner of life as well. Separation, obedience, humility, simplicity, gravity, self-control, modesty, cross-bearing: these all must again be made a living part of the total Christian concept and be carried out in everyday conduct.

-A.W. Tozer; Keys to the Deeper Life; pp. 17-25

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