Tozer, Aiden W. The Knowledge of the Holy. San Francisco: HarperOne, 1978.

117pp, $11.99.

Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897-1963) got converted aged 17 after hearing a street

preacher in Akron, Ohio. Without any formal theological training, he served as a

pastor for many decades committing himself to the ministry of God's word. Over the

course of his life, he served as a pastor, teacher, author and editor of a Christian

magazine. Considered by many to be a 20th century prophet, the pursuit of God was

his lifelong purpose and focus.

The Knowledge of the Holy seeks to challenge Christians and the church to

return God to the center of the Christian faith. For Tozer, Christianity is meant to

bring eternity to bear upon the temporal realm. In seeking to answer the question as

regards the nature of God, the book calls for a Christianity that understands God

correctly since how God is understood influences how Christians relate with Him. To

achieve this, Tozer undertakes a study of the attributes of God and presents the truths

therein in simple and relatable language.

Chapter 1 - Why We Must Think Rightly About God

The thoughts about God that come to the mind is the most important measure

of a man's relationship with God. The purity or otherwise of the worship that is

offered to God is a product and reflection of the thoughts/opinions of God that a

person holds. Humans can either have a high or low opinion of God and this mental

image directs how the soul responds to God.

God has gifted the ability to speak and think to humans created in His image.

To be able to fully express these gifts that He has given to us, our idea of God must

1
be as true to His nature as possible. Right thinking is central to worship like

foundations are to buildings. Every error in doctrine has arisen out of wrong thinking

about God.

With right thinking comes the realization that man's greatest obligation is to

God. And this awareness is manifested in a lifelong commitment to God with all that

a man is. This commitment is lost when a man has a low view of God and this opens

a man up to the sin of idolatry. Idolatry which arises from this low view of God is libel

to the character of God because it means the acceptance of thoughts unworthy of

God.

Beyond being a source of idolatry, having wrong ideas about God is itself

idolatry. The idolater worships these false imaginations about God and acts as if they

are truths to live by. The church's answer to the question "what is God like?"

determines if she will lose her way or stand strong. The challenge and obligation the

church has is to elevate her concept of God until it matches the truth of His nature.

Chapter 2 - God Incomprehensible

The question "what is God like?" has only one answer and that is that God is

not comparable to anything or anyone. To learn what He is like requires the use of

that which is known as a bridge to the unknown. Because of God's incomparability,

only "like" words have been used through the ages to describe the revelation of God.

Imagining the Creator as essentially alike to His creation is reducing Him to

the level of a creature. Yet to imagine God we are bound to use that which is not

God as raw material for our thoughts. This means our visualizations of God will never

2
equate to God because our imaginations are through the lens of what He has made.

Our propensity is to reduce God to manageable terms, reducing Him to a god we can

control.

If God is so incomprehensible that our imaginations and thoughts of Him are

not as He is, then how can Christians meet the longing for Him? This longing to know

the unknowable, to comprehend the incomprehensible and to experience the

unapproachable is a product of the image of God in man.

The answer to the question of satisfying this longing for God is Jesus Christ.

Through Christ, God fully unveils Himself though not to reason but rather to faith

and love. Faith is an organ of knowledge and Love an organ of experience that allows

us take hold of God. One paradox of life is that God can be personally and tenderly

known by the soul beyond reason. As we press on in faith and love, believing the

Word, His Presence becomes our reality.

The church must love God as He is in Himself not as she wishes or imagines

He is. Though there is no answer to what the essential nature of God is like, yet there

is an answer to what God has revealed about Himself and these revelations are His

attributes.

Chapter 3 - A Divine Attribute

For a Christian who thirsts for God, there is great delight in studying the

attributes of God. Studying God's attribute is an absorbing and delightful spiritual

exercise for the enlightened Christian.

The attributes of God refer to that which may be accurately ascribed to God.

3
When talking of the attributes of God, one is speaking of that which God has

disclosed as being true of Himself. The attributes of God are beyond enumeration

but whatever is true of God can be conceived as the truth about Himself. God's

attributes are His replies to man's question concerning Himself and we can know

them as mental concepts in response to His revelation.

The answers God has provided concerning Him are not on the surface and

are discovered by prayer, meditation on God's word and earnest labor. To encounter

the light of God's truth, man must be spiritually prepared to receive it. And to

position oneself to accurately perceive God's attributes, we must refuse think in

terms of words like traits, characteristics, quality etc. These words best refer to

humans but not the incomprehensible God. Thinking about God using the wrong

words leads to errors in our understanding of His person.

Drawing from the Athanasian creed that God is indivisible in substance, and is

a unitary being having no parts; God is a divine unity without any parts and is one

with Himself. The divine attributes of God are not qualities that He possesses but

rather they are His revelation to men. Because His attributes are one with Him and

not qualities, it means they can neither increase nor decrease.

Chapter 4 - The Holy Trinity

The mystery of the Trinity is of an incomprehensible nature. If God is

subjected to level-eyed reasoning, the mystery of the Trinity will be denied like some

have done. Yet this ought not to be so seeing that all of life is shrouded in mystery.

To access this mystery, faith is required. Everyone both believer and unbeliever lives

4
by faith, accepting life even without understanding every dimension of it. Faith is not

accessed by a process of reasoning but rather through believing because many in

Christianity have rejected the doctrine of the Trinity.

The doctrine of the Trinity is a truth that the heart must assimilate because it

is the spirit of a man that enters the presence of God. God must be seen as Trinity in

unity if we must think correctly of Him. There is no division of His substance nor

confusion of His persons. The Nicene and Athanasian creeds standing in opposition

to detractors of the Trinity affirm the relation of the three persons of the Trinity.

They are equal, together and coeternal.

The doctrine of the Trinity does not contradict Jesus's declaration that the

Father is greater than He is but as stated in the creed, Jesus is equal to the Father as

per His Godhead but less as per His manhood. Jesus's incarnation was not a

separation from the Father and thus He did not surrender His deity but rather it was

veiled. Because God can never be less than Himself, Jesus's incarnation did not make

Him less. The Trinity have one will and always work together without any need to

confer to walk/act in agreement.

A common but not wholly true belief among Christians is that there is a

division of roles among the Trinity. This cannot be so because God cannot be divided,

the Godhead is a unity. Every person of the Trinity partake in every act of the

Godhead, they partook in the creation, atonement etc. for example. That the

doctrine of the Trinity cannot be fully explained bolsters its credibility since such a

truth could not be imagined only revealed.

5
Chapter 5 - The Self-Existence of God

In the words of Novatian, "God has no origin," it is this concept of not having

an origin that differentiates that which is God from that which is not God. This is

because "origin" is applied to whatever is created but God is self-existent. The desire

to search out the origins of things is a confession of the reality of a creator. The

human mind understandably finds it hard to grasp the concept of the Uncreated

because as men, we are uncomfortable with that which is self-existent, self-

dependent and self-sufficient.

It is only in humility that one admits and acknowledges that God is not at our

level. He is beyond matter and time, God is independent of both, owing nothing to

that which He created. It is in knowing what God is that we can know who or what

we are as people. Man created in the image of God is not self-existent but is

dependent on the One in whose image he is made. It is in this dependence, that the

possibility of holiness and sin arises because man is created to be able to make moral

choices.

God's words to Moses, "I Am that I Am" assert His selfhood, it is God's

declaration of being self-existent. God's selfness is not sin but the essence of all

holiness, goodness and truth. The natural man's sin lies in challenging God's selfhood

in relation to himself. In this sin is manifest as man who is created to worship at the

throne of God seeks to sit on the throne of self. It is by way of the gospel that the

soul confronts this incongruence and is able to submit.

6
 Man's struggle is the battle between being good and asserting the self even

as Paul outlines in Romans 7. Our salvation lies in the reversal of this bent to self-

assertion and the planting of a new principle that seeks to honor God and pursues

the good of fellow men.

Chapter 6 - The Self-Sufficiency of God

The self-sufficiency of God means He is what He is in Himself. All life stems

from and is in God, from the lowest life form to the most intelligent being, life is

God's gift. But God's life was not gifted to Him by another, He is the one gives all and

cannot receive what He did not first give. God cannot have a need else this would

mean He is incomplete and this is not possible since all interest He shows in His

creatures is from His good pleasure.

Only God exists without any need, He did not create the universe to meet an

unfulfilled need nor does He need to be elevated since He is above all things. God

upholds all things thus nothing is beyond Him. God does not need man, man's

existence or non-existence does not affect His being.

One of the hardest hits to man's ego is accepting that God does not need our

help. This idea that God needs man has led so many to seeing their "service" to God

as a favor. God does not need defenders, He is the eternal Undefended. God is not

under siege and thinking otherwise leads to an erroneous walk of faith. If God needs

defending, then He is not God, God is the focal point of Christianity not man.

Denying God's self-sufficiency dishonors God and destroys a man's soul. It is an

usurpation of the attributes of God.

7
 The tendency among some Christians is to acknowledge Christ only according

to the flesh. In seeking communion with Him, they strip Him of His attributes of

holiness and majesty by which He manifests in full glory. They make Him look weak

and unimpressive. God's self-sufficiency does not weaken Christianity but rather stirs

a desire for holiness in believers. It is by loving obedience that believers find inner

fulfillment.

Chapter 7 - The Eternity of God

To align to the thoughts of the prophets and apostles as well as the Bible, the

concept of the eternal must be one we assimilate. Even though everlasting can be

used to describe long-lasting, yet the Bible is clear as regards God being an endless

being.

The eternity of God is a non-negotiable attribute of God without which all

confessions of Christianity would fall flat. The everlastingness of God means that God

has no past and no future, He is everlasting present. Every use of time-words in

Scripture are for our benefit and refer to the earth not to God. God is unaffected by

the seasons of time, God is eternal, time dwells in God.

It may be difficult to comprehend that God is both simultaneously at the

beginning and the end. This is because time is the avenue by which men measure

changes in the universe. Time creates a seriality to the events in the universe that

create a limitation on what men can do. But God has no such limits because He is

beyond time and does not have to wait.

The psalm of Moses is a call to meditate on life and the length of our days

8
because we are made for eternity as we are made for time too. It is important to

remember that we must deal with both eternity and time. This tension is the reason

for the desire for life and permanence in man but it also reminds us of the mortality

and changes present in time.

Chapter 8 - God's Infinitude

When God's presence is not acknowledged, men replace Him with a god of

their making, a god that can be controlled. God in His glory always astonishes and

overwhelms before He gifts sight and healing to men. Infinitude is an attribute of

God that is not easy to assimilate nor conceive even though we ought to try.

Infinitude describes the limitlessness of God and it is quite difficult for our

limited minds to understand God's unlimitedness. God is greater than the mind and

if the mind could fully conceive His greatness, then He would be less than the mind.

Infinity describes more than God being a lot and a misunderstanding of this leads to

the conception of God in terms of created things. Infinitude belongs only to God.

God's infinitude means that He is boundless - without bounds. All that God is,

He is, He has no limit. Furthermore, His infinitude means that He is without measure

and beyond measure. Measurement is a description of limits and imperfections but

God is beyond these. Measurements allow us describe the works of His hands but

never apply to His nature and person. There are attributes of God that He most likely

has not revealed to His own yet they are still existent in Him.

Encountering God's infinitude, accrues unto men eternal profit. The

infiniteness of God means that all that flows out of God is infinite also. God's

9
infinitude is such that He is never in a hurry because time does not pass, it stays the

same and this should give the believer comfort. Because of God is infinite, the life He

gives the Christian is infinite and he shares in the infinitude of God. God's infinitude

is present in His mercy, where abounding sin terrorizes the world, God's abounding

grace gives hope to man.

Chapter 9 - The Immutability of God

The immutability of God infers that God never differs from Himself. God does

not grow nor does He develop, He is unchanging. To change would mean moving

from an original stance either from better to worse or vice versa. God's perfect

holiness means that He can never be holier than He has always been.

The same way no change in God's moral character is possible, so also is it

impossible for His divine essence to change. God is so unique that He is different

from every other being. He is without parts and thus cannot change because it is

only a being composed of parts that changes. Living in a changing world means that

the experiences of men are transient and changing but in God the believer is able to

find unchanging permanence. Thus change works for the believer not against the

believer.

For the natural man, change is God's gift because it provides the opportunity

for redemption. Redemption allows a person to experience an altering of the moral

fabric of his life. God in His immutability, works man's redemption by virtue of

changes that bring the man into congruence with God's permanence.

In a world where people change their opinions constantly, God's immutability

10
strengthens and comforts the believer. God never experiences mood swings nor

would He ever lose His passion and enthusiasm for His own. God's immutability

means that He cannot be manipulated neither would He compromise. This means

that in our relationship with God every act of change must come from us.

Chapter 10 - The Divine Omniscience

God's omniscience means that He is perfect in knowledge and never needs to

learn. Beyond this, His omniscience means that God has never learned nor can He

learn. If for any reason God is seen as learning from a teacher, then such a being is

not God the creator. God is eternally truthful and full of knowledge, because as the

Scripture testifies, He cannot lie neither can He change.

God as the author and source of all created things, knows everything that can

be known else He would be unable to assume the position of authorship. God is the

only one who knows all things instantly, He knows all thoughts, mysteries, spirits,

minds and desires. God's omniscience encapsulates perfect knowledge and is not

lacking any information or item of knowledge.

The perfection of God's omniscience is made manifest in that He knows all

things equally. No knowledge of God about any specific subject supersedes another.

In His omniscience, God is never surprised nor does He ever discover anything in

essence, all things are under His purview. Nothing happens that to God is new

information or a source of knowledge, in Him all knowledge exists.

For us as humans, His omniscience can be a source of dread when we are not

in union with Him. The awareness that all that we seek to hide is laid bare before

11
Him can be a source of fear for the man who is hiding from Him. For those under His

banner, His omniscience is a source of comfort because their weaknesses and frail

frame are not a surprise to Him but yet He chose them. This perfect knowledge of

God is personal and compassionate, knowing as no one else can know.

Chapter 11 - The Wisdom of God

The wisdom of God is beyond the words used to describe it by theologians.

The uniqueness and infinitude of God expresses the essence of God's wisdom, God is

boundlessly wise in Himself. Every other secondary wisdom exhibited by God's

creations are just a reflection of His wisdom.

The wisdom of God is the root of all truth and without it, all other beliefs and

reasonings about God lose their soundness. When the Scripture speaks of God's

wisdom, it is linked to morality. Wisdom is beyond shrewdness and the treachery of

men; it is pure, loving and good. Wisdom is the ability to devise perfect ends and to

bring those ends to fruition through perfect means. God's wisdom does not involve

guessing or assumptions, it has all things in focus and achieves goals flawlessly.

All the acts of the Lord are done in perfect wisdom and they seek first for His

glory and then for the greatest good for the longest time. When God acts, He acts in

ways that could not have been done any better, His wisdom ensures that His acts

cannot be improved upon. Despite the imperfections that exist in this world due to

the fall of man, yet God is infinitely wise and good. In His wisdom God accomplished

the atonement of His creations even if it is beyond human comprehension.

To bring the wisdom of God to bear in the world and in our day to day living,

12
a life of faith and prayer is required. The repudiation of our wisdom and plans is a

necessity as we take on the wisdom of God. Seeking to see ahead though natural, is

a hindrance to experiencing spiritual progress. When we turn to God in faith, He

takes full responsibility for our eternal happiness and the management of our lives.

Chapter 12 - The Omnipotence of God

The omnipotence and sovereignty of God go hand in hand, God's reign is

evidenced in His having all power. God has and manifests a fullness of power which

no creature possesses. God's power and potency is absolute, all reason kneels to the

power of God's might. As stated severally, an infinite God will also possess infinite

power.

Even though God in His wisdom has delegated power to men, this does not

mean that He relinquishes His power in any way. In a bid to secularize life, some

people substitute the power of God with the laws of nature. They use the

phenomena in the world to define the things happening in the world and hence deny

the power of God. The foundation of scientific truth is the trustworthiness of God, it

His creations that science observe to postulate laws for nature.

At its heart, true religion is not primarily concerned with the marks that God

leaves in time but rather in the nature of God. Its interest is in the one who is the

source of all things and who controls all phenomena. Omnipotence does not refer to

a sum of all power but is the attribute of the Lord Almighty. The omnipotence of God

gives comfort to the believer because in God nothing is ever beyond control.

The omnipotence of God means that God can do anything effortlessly and

13
without suffering any losses like people do when energy is expended. All the power

God needs to bring anything to come to pass is present in His infinite fullness.

Chapter 13 - The Divine Transcendence

Speaking of transcendence implies that God is exalted above all the universe

and above all human imagination. When speaking of God's transcendence the focus

is not on physical distance but rather a quality of being. Physical distance can never

accurately explain the transcendence of God because God is spirit and as such

distance has no effect upon Him.

Comparing God to any being or placing Him in contrast to any thing will lead

to attributing pre-eminence to God but that does not adequately capture the

transcendence of God. God is so apart from all that there is no contrast, His

transcendence above all things is such that the gulf between God and His created

being is infinite.

The reason why despite the transcendence of God, sin persists is because of

the absence of the fear of God. When the fear of God is absent in a man's life, then

transgressing against Him is easy. The fear of God is not a fear of danger or

consequences but more of a feeling of insufficiency in God's presence. An awareness

of the transcendence of God settles all controversy between God and man.

A Christian life of levity is evidence of a blindness of the heart to the

transcendence of the person of God. There is healing in the fear of God because the

fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. The name of the Lord is treated with levity by

many for example because they do not live with an awareness of the greatness of

14
the person of the Godhead.

Chapter 14 - God's Omnipresence

The attribute of omnipresence is one that connotes that God is everywhere

here, He is close to everything and next to everyone. God's omnipresence is

described as His immanence, meaning He cannot be hidden from, all things are

continuously before Him. The Scripture is replete with passages that uphold and

teach this truth.

Since Scripture makes it clear that God is limitless then there can be no limit

to His presence also. The practicality of God's presence is that it means that the

world cannot exist without Him and He is the source of all that the universe is. The

world is not a material world but a spiritual world because of the omnipresence of

the God-Spirit.

God's limitless presence is a truth that gives meaning to all other truths in a

man's life. Faith begins from the knowledge of God's omnipresence, and this must be

the foundation of all the beliefs upon which life can be built. It is from the truth of

God's omnipresence that man gains true value out of life.

It is the immanence of God's word that sustains and causes the world to

operate as it ought to. The presence of God gives comfort to the Christian in times of

sorrow because He is present in all locations and at all times, always near to the

believer, it is important that we learn to experience God's presence consciously.

15
Chapter 15 - The Faithfulness of God

It is inevitable but to realize that there is a oneness in all the attributes of

God. The unchangeableness of God means that He cannot be unfaithful. God cannot

fail because failure would mean that God is imperfect but His perfection does not

allow for this. All attributes used to describe God are consistent with all that He is

and agrees with all that He is.

Because of the faithfulness of God, His word and acts are always faithful. God

is His own reason for all He is and does so He cannot be coaxed by external pressures

because of His sovereign will. Care must be taken to not enthrone one attribute

above another because this is a temptation that is always faced.

There is no point at which one attribute of God is inactive because another is

being manifested. God's attributes are always active and never conflict with each

other. To hold a correct view of truth, it is important to believe and accept all that

God says about Himself. This includes the revelation of His faithfulness.

It is by holding to the truth of God's faithfulness that the believer is enable to

enjoy the nourishing that God's revelation of Himself provides. It is in Scripture that

not only the truth of is taught but also therein is contained a revelation of how it is

used. It is by the faithfulness of God that all His covenants and promises hold true

and find fulfillment. Every hope that believers have is rooted in the faithfulness of

God.

Chapter 16 - The Goodness of God

The goodness of God is not the same as the attributes of holiness and

16
righteousness. The goodness of God disposes God to be kind, cordial, benevolent

and showing goodwill to men. In the goodness of God we find that He is

tenderhearted, sympathetic, open, frank and friendly to all. The goodness of God is a

staple of Scripture and must be received by faith.

It is because of the goodness of God that it is possible to distinguish between

kindness and cruelty. God's goodness drives Him to bestow His blessings on His

creatures. Julian of Norwich realized that, it was not the activities and actions of men

that give meaning to life but rather this was the result of the goodness of God.

This attribute of God is self-caused, perfect and eternal. God as with all other

attributes is the cause of His goodness and it is not the product of another's

influence. He bestows His goodness not because any merited it but because of

Himself. His goodness can neither increase nor can it be diminished, it is unchanging

as He is unchanging.

Every expectation we can have in this world is a product of the goodness of

God. Be it faith, prayer or repentance; there is no merit inherent in them but rather

God's reesponse to these acts of men is because of His goodness. He is not under

obligation to respond but because He is good, God responds. Christ's incarnation was

to show men what God's true nature is like despite their wrong ideas. The attitudes

of men determine how He is received, God will never force His attention on men.

Chapter 17 - The Justice of God

Justice and righteousness are indistinguishable when Scripture is studied.

Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of God's throne according to the

17
psalmists and prophets in the Bible. At no point does the mercy of God stand in

contradiction with the justice of God.

The Justice of God signifies moral equity and this stands in opposition to

iniquity which is the absence of equality between the thoughts and actions of

people. Judgment is at work when equity is applied to moral issues , with the intent

of proving equity or inequity in the heart and conduct of a person.

The idea that it is necessary for God's justice to act in a certain manner is

erroneous thinking. This in essence is the creation of a justice system outside of God

to which God must succumb. This is indeed an error because God is transcendent

and superior to all. God's attributes mean that God does not derive His reasons for

acting from outside of Himself.

God's justice is a description of the way God is and His execution of justice is

in alignment with Himself. It is from the justice of God that His goodness flows, and

without justice there can be no goodness. In response to human need, God's justice

allows for God's mercy to operate to redeem man.

Chapter 18 - The Mercy of God

Mercy as an attribute of God is the expression of God's active compassion. It

is an error to think that the God of the Old Testament is one of judgment and justice

while the God of the New Testament only espouses mercy and grace. The God in the

Old Testament and the New Testament are one and the same.

God always deals with mankind in mercy but executes justice when His mercy

is despised. God's mercy is not a temporary attribute but is as eternal as God Himself

18
is. Mercy has always been and does not have a beginning the same way God has no

beginning. It cannot be increased nor decreased but is infinite because God is

infinite.

The mercy of God is God's goodness dealing with the suffering and guilt that

mankind is experiencing. When men do not enjoy the mercy of God it is usually

because of unbelief, ignorance or both. This was true of the Israelites and is true

even now. To receive God's mercy, it is necessary to know personally that God is

merciful.

Chapter 19 - The Grace of God

Mercy and Grace are one in God though when experienced by men they are

not seen as identical but related. Where God's mercy confronts misery and guilt,

grace confronts the debt and demerit accruing to humans. God by His grace imputes

merit where it was previously non existent and erases debts where they existed

before.

Grace is God's good pleasure that is poured out upon the undeserving His

blessings. His grace is a self-caused act that pities the helpless, spares the guilty,

welcomes the outcast and bestow favor on the unfavored. Grace flows to mankind

out of the heart of God and is manifested in the crucified and risen Lord. Grace

allows the redeemed to be recipients and carriers of the riches of God's kindness and

blessings.

It will be an error to see Moses only as knowing the law and Jesus as knowing

only grace. The law was a representation of the will of God for mankind and its

19
source was God before it was given to Israel by Moses. Because it represents God's

will, breaking the law came with its penalty.

For Christians, morality is a product of the love of Christ not because of the

law. This does not imply that Christians are above the law nor do they have any

exemption from the righteousness required in the law. Even under the law, grace

has always been God's path of redemption. It is by faith in Christ that grace can be

encountered.

Chapter 20 - The Love of God

John's declaration that God is love was not intended as a definition but a

statement of fact. When love is equated to God, a mistake is being made because

this would call for a worship of love as God ought to be worshipped. Such an

equation denies every other attribute that God purposes and implies the only

attribute God possesses is love. It is important not to fall prey to words in Scriptural

interpretation but rather let words serve ideas rather than originating ideas.

Love is an attribute of God, it is true of God but it is not God. The human

mind can never fully grasp or define love but its manifestation can be described.

Love manifests itself as goodwill, it desires the good of all and never seeks the harm

or evil for any. Because of this good will, love does not harbor fear. Experiencing

God's love takes away every fear because it gives confodence that no harm can come

to the one under His banner.

God's love desires the eternal welfare of man and His sovereignty works to

20
secure it. Love gives all freely to the object of its affection, identifying emotionally

with that object. Love manifests also in the pleasure it takes in the object of its

affection, God enjoys His creation and He is not ambivalent to His creation. Where

love does not exist, pleasure can not be found.

Love is active, creative and gentle, love gives to its own no matter the cost.

This is reflected in Christ's sacrifice on the cross. God's love is the pillar upon which

the world's hope rests and it is one of the great realities of this life. God's love is

personal, intimate and is focused on people not masses. God's love is the difference

between Christianity and other religions.

Chapter 21 - The Holiness of God

Breaking away from the will of God has created a shock to man's system such

that the trauma affects every aspect of human nature. Until man sees his nature as

God sees it, there will be no desire for a change. This break from God's will has made

living unholy lives look like the norm, making us practically immune to the failings we

see all around.

God's holiness is unique and stands apart. It is holiness that is unimaginable,

unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable. It is only by God's Spirit that

the knowledge of His holiness can be made manifest to man. But is only possible

when the truth the Spirit is revealing finds its counterpart in the heart of man. This

sense of holiness manifests itself in the world as a feeling of uncreated mystery.

This sense of mystery is not enough to turn man to God's holiness because

this mystery is a moral being with a real personality and not a thing. God is the true

21
essence of moral excellence, He is righteously perfect and incomprehensibly holy. He

is the totality of all the defines holiness and His self revelation in Scripture ensures

that the Christian gains all without losing anything. The holiness of God sets Him as

the standard because He can be nothing less than holy.

There is a bond between the holiness of God, the wrath of God and the

health of God's creation. God's wrath reflects His intolerance of that which degrades

and destroys. This is so because evil destroys and robs His creation of the health He

originally purposed. God's holiness is absolute but He imparts some degree of His

holiness to His creations. It is this impartation of holiness that prepares the

redeemed for heaven.

Chapter 22 - The Sovereignty of God

This attribute is that by which God rules all of His creation and the

sovereignty of God means that God is omniscient, omnipotent and totally free. If

God lacked anything, then He would not be sovereign. His sovereignty means that

He is free to do whatever He wills at any time to bring to pass His purpose with no

interference. If God was dependent on the opinion of another before acting then He

would not be sovereign.

The sovereignty of God means that God possesses universal, unilateral

authority. His power and right to exercise it is unlimited and this is established in His

revelation about Himself. God's sovereignty is not in any way contradicted by the

presence of evil and death. Because God's sovereignty has not allowed evil and

death to run amok in the world but has permitted that they exist in limited areas of

22
His creation.

The will of man may be seen as another contradiction of God's sovereignty

but this is not so. It is the sovereignty of God that gave to His creatures the right to

exercise moral choice because He had nothing to fear. The sovereignty of God has

never meant that He controls the choice His creation should make but rather it is the

essence of the moral freedom he has given to man.

The Sovereignty of God has decreed into existence the law of choice and

consequences. In this the choice of response lies with man but the choice that is

made leads down a particular result. This freedom of choice requires that a side be

chosen and God's side is the winning. Any other side other than His is the losing side.

This choice is centered in Christ and it is man's response to Him that determines the

final result.

Chapter 23 - The Open Secret

Having considered the attributes of God, it becomes clear that the matter is a

personal one. The progress of the church starts with the individual Christian and the

reponse to the nature of God. Any formula that may be sought in addressing this

matter is actually an open secret. The secret is that we, Acquaint ourselves with God,

the church must encounter a transforming vision of God.

The vision of God needs is not the God that can be controlled, who's only

goal is to bring success our way. But the God the church must acknowledge is the

God who's majesty is in the heavens and who is Almighty indeed and who is the

creator of all things. This knowledge of God cannot be gained by study only but must

23
be encountered by encountering and receiving spiritual discernment.

There are conditions for accessing this knowledge and the first is that sin

must be forsaken. A holy God cannot be known by those who live lives of evil. It is

also important that there be a total commitment of the whole life to Christ in faith.

This is the essence of believing in Christ and this involves a giving of the will and

emotions to Christ. There must also be a reckoning of ourselves to have died to sin

and being alive to God in Christ. Another condition is that the values of the world be

abandoned and not setting the heart on the affections of the world.

The fifth condition to accessing the knowledge of the holy is to live a life of

meditation, meditating upon the majesty of God. Intimacy with God is possible when

we alter all erroneous beliefs we hold about Him. The final condition is that as the

knowledge of God is encountered, greater service to others must be the goal. This

knowledge God gives is not one to be held on to selfishly. For the church's growth,

individuals should share the light they receive with fellow believers.

Conclusion

The book is wholesome and thought provoking, containing truths that are

essential to spiritual growth. It also has many practical examples that are helpful to

understanding the reality of the holiness of God and the truths attendant to His nature.

Personally, one concept that stood out for me was the need to be conscious of the

words used to describe and think about God. This is a call to be more intentional with

my language as it concerns God.

Moving forward, I am committed to not taking for granted the attributes of

God, like encouraged in the book, I intend to meditate actively on these attributes of

24
God and to ask God to make them real to me.

One drawback was Tozer's claim in chapter 8 that "God has withdrawn His

conscious presence." This seems like a contradiction of the thoughts He shared about

God's immutability since God is unchanging then does God really withdraw His

presence or is it that we lose sight of His presence because of our mindset? Overall

this is a book that would serve those who desire a deeper and truer relationship with

the Lord.

25