Top to Bottom, Front to Back

“So before there can be any kind of restoration of national dignity in the civil realm, there must absolutely be a reformation in the Church — top to bottom, stem to stern, from the front of the face to the back of the head. Modern evangelicalism is not the solution to America’s problems, modern evangelicalism is America’s problem. None of our general cultural malaise will be mitigated in the least degree unless and until a thorough work of God sweeps through the Church. Many evangelicals think they acknowledge this, and they call what they yearn for revival. But as A.W. Tozer put it, if revival means more of what we have now, we most emphatically do not need a revival. A reformation is necessary — a reformation that is in the first place liturgical, in the second place familial, in the third place doctrinal, and in the fourth place cultural. We need to be shaken badly so that what cannot be shaken may remain. In this reformation, we will — with tears of repentance — throw away the vast machinery of parachurch organizations, our glossy magazine edited by snakes, our engineered revivalism, our holy hucksterism, our trivialization of the gospel through dumb tracts, our attempts to save America through politics, our corrupt youth ministries, and our gold-painted thrones on TBN. There are more things that could be mentioned, but a repentant mind can get the drift. In an evangelical world filled to the brim with such things, it is astonishing that some people think that satire is a problem and might invoke the displeasure of God” (A Serrated Edge, pp. 76-77).