Moving Mountains: Lessons in Bold Faith from Great Evangelical Leaders
My personal favorite in King’s list of Evangelical leaders, which I will use as an example of his treatment of the others, is A. W. Tozer (1897-1963). Tozer is God’s “Twentieth Century Prophet and Mystic” who exemplifies the faith principle that “Faith pursues after God Himself”. King tells how Tozer, overcome with passion for God, literally wrote his classic The Pursuit of God while riding a train from Chicago to Texas because he just could not stop himself. He describes how Tozer, converted at age seventeen by a lay preacher at a street meeting, went on to serve as a pastor for 44 years and to be a prolific writer and editor. Though not formally educated (not even high school!), he educated himself in theological and classical Christian works and received two honorary doctorates. Most of all, Tozer was known as a man of deep prayer and worship. His preaching and writing were so prophetic they earned him the designation “the conscience of evangelicalism”. He influenced many great Christian leaders, including Wilbur Smith, Warren Wiersbe, and Leonard Ravenhill. He counseled others such as Billy Graham, Catherine Marshall, and Senator Mark O. Hatfield. Tozer spoke and wrote from the heart and the leading of the Holy Spirit. His faith principles, fleshed out with examples and insights, include: have a passion for seeking after God, you can be confident of God’s will and provision for your life, seek not great things for yourself, in the walk of faith the way up is down, truth has two wings, and faith must be sound—not all faith pleases God. King climaxes with “You, Too, Can Have a Heart That Seeks after God!”
A refreshing aspect of Paul King’s Moving Mountains is that he shows both the struggles and the triumphs of great men and women of faith. This is one way he maintains what I would call his “balanced boldness”. Hannah Whitall Smith experienced divorce and the death of children but in faith still affirmed the “Christian’s secret of a happy life”. Another way King maintains balanced boldness is by showing how some of the greatest faith teachers held paradoxical points in tension. A. B. Simpson personally experienced and publicly preached miraculous healing, yet suggested God sometimes works his purposes in sickness and insisted that one should abandon medical treatment only if God has given special faith. Amy Carmichael experienced dramatic divine leading but humbly taught on “God Turns our Missteps into His Steps”. I am so impressed with this dual emphasis of balance and boldness in this writing that I am tempted to suggest later editions change the subtitle to Lessons in Balanced and Bold Faith from Great Evangelical Leaders.
Category: Church History, Fall 2008
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