“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”  So A.W. Tozer opens his classic book, The Knowledge of the Holy.  Tozer, who pastored in the middle of the 20^th century, spoke prophetically about how the church was suffering because she had lost a proper view of God.  In his conclusion, he asserted: “To regain her lost power the Church must see heaven opened and have a transforming vision of God.”  Tozer seeks to inform the reader of a Biblical view of God in 19 chapters, each briefly detailing a different attribute of God as revealed in scripture.  Tozer supplements his references to scripture with quotes from church fathers and philosophers, and closes each chapter with a hymn or poem – more often than not citing Frederick Faber, obviously his personal favorite.  The Knowledge of the Holy was not intended for professional theologians, but for individuals who might be undertaking a search for a deeper and more majestic view of God.  The book succeeds in giving a brief (4-8 pages each) and yet thoughtful and compelling view of God which is informative, inspiring, and surprisingly applicable. 

Following are some samples of Tozer’s quotes regarding the attributes of God:

• God’s Infinitude: “Unfortunately the word ‘infinite’ has not always been held to its precise meaning, but has been used carelessly to mean simply ‘much’ or ‘a great deal, as when we say that an artist takes infinite pains with his picture … Properly, the word can be used of no created thing, and of no one but God.”
• The Immutability of God: “In coming to Him at any time we need not wonder whether we shall find Him in a receptive mood … God never changes moods or cools off in His affections or loses enthusiasm.”
• The Justice of God: “The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions.”
• The Grace of God: “No one was ever saved other than by grace, from Abel to the present moment … and wherever grace found any man it was always by Jesus Christ.”
• The Love of God: “As long as we are in the hands of chance, as long as we must look for hope to the law of averages, as long as we must trust for survival to our ability to outthink or outmaneuver the enemy, we have every good reason to be afraid.  And fear hath torment.  To know that love is of God and to enter into the secret place leaning upon the arm of the Beloved – this and only this can cast out fear.”
• The Holiness of God: “Until we have seen ourselves as God sees us, we are not likely to be much disturbed over conditions around us as long as they do not get so far out of hand as to threaten our comfortable way of life.”

In his chapter on “The Self-existence of God”, Tozer asserted – contrary to our modern outlook — that God is everything, and man is nothing in comparison, and is totally dependent upon Him.  “As a sunbeam perishes when cut off from the sun, so man apart from God would pass back into the void of nothingness from which he first leaped at the creative call.”  If we would truly assimilate this truth into our psyche, we would totally lose our fear of men.  The most intimidating of them exist only by the power of God, and would melt away into nothingness were they not “upheld by the word of His power”!  Many such insights make this book a valuable one. 

In fact, one of the strengths of The Knowledge of the Holy is that does not merely make academic proclamations about God’s attributes – but Tozer applies these truths for his readers.  His prayerful, pastoral heart is repeatedly revealed in the depth and quality of the applications for life and practice.

Tozer’s book is not without its shortcomings, as no merely human book is.  The chapters were of unequal length and quality.  Some are very majestic and insightful; while others were inexplicably brief.  Several times, even in the shortest of chapters, Tozer would seem to take a “bypath” and leave the primary subject he was addressing – perhaps to be excused as he was a preacher! — but given the brevity of many of the chapters, it left one wishing for more on the central topic instead of the “bypath.”  Also, there were places where logic, philosophy, or church fathers were cited, without a strong scriptural basis for the point that was being made.  For example, in his chapter on “The Wisdom of God”, he wrote that God’s acts are “for the highest good of the greatest number for the longest time.”  That is an interesting and logical thought, but no scripture was cited as an authority for that claim, nor am I aware of any which would certify those ideals as the basis for God’s acts, which so often are veiled in mystery for us. 

Such drawbacks notwithstanding, The Knowledge of the Holy is a valuable little book.  It most definitely achieves Tozer’s goal of raising one’s vision of God from the mundane to the majestic, which is as needed today as when Tozer first sounded his cry in the theological wilderness of the mid-twentieth century.