Knowing God: Goal of All Christian Doctrine

    By A. W. Tozer

    Give ear to my words, 0 Lord, consider my meditation.
    For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness:
    neither shall evil dwell with thee.         Psalm 5:1, 4

       Among Christians of all ages and of varying shades of
    doctrinal emphasis, there has been fairly full agreement on
    one thing: they all believed that it was important that the
    Christian with serious spiritual aspirations should learn to
    meditate long and often on God!

        Let a Christian insist upon rising above the poor
    average of current religious experience and he will soon
    come up against the need to know God Himself as the
    ultimate goal of all Christian doctrine.

        Let him seek to explore the sacred wonders of the
    Triune Godhead and he will discover that sustained and
    intelligently directed meditation on the Person of God is
    imperative. To know God well he must think on Him
    unceasingly.  Nothing that man has discovered about
    himself or God has revealed any shortcut to pure
    spirituality.  It is still free, but tremendously costly!

        Of course this presupposes at least a fair amount of
    sound theological knowledge.  To seek God apart from
    His own self-disclosure in the inspired Scriptures --- is not
    only futile, but dangerous.  There must be also a
    knowledge of and complete trust in Jesus Christ as Lord
    and Redeemer.

        Christ is not one of many ways to approach God;
    nor is He the best of several ways. . .
    He is the only way ---  "The Way, the Truth and the Life."

    To believe otherwise is to be something less than a
    Christian.

---

    Yours in Christ,
    Paul N. F.