The Wickedness of Unbelief: Making God a Liar

    By A. W. Tozer

    . . .He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar,
    because he believeth not the record that God gave
    of his Son.  1 John 5:10

        True faith must always rest upon what God is, so it is of
    utmost importance that, to the limit of our comprehension,
    we know what He is.

        The psalmist said: "They that know thy name will put
    their trust in Thee," the name of God being the verbal
    expression of His character, and confidence always rises
    or falls with known character.

        What the psalmist said was simply that they who
    know God to be the kind of God He is will put their
    confidence in Him! This is not a special virtue, but the
    normal direction any mind takes when confronted with
    the fact. We are so made that we trust good character
    and distrust its opposite, and that is why unbelief is so
    intensely wicked!

        The character of God, then, is the Christian's final
    ground of assurance and the solution of many, if not
    most, of his practical religious problems.

        Though God dwells in the center of eternal mystery,
    there need be no uncertainty about how He will act in
    any situation covered by His promises. These promises
    are infallible predictions. God will always do what He
    has promised to do when His conditions are met. And
    His warnings are no less predictive: "The ungodly shall
    not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congrega-
    tion of the righteous.  For the LORD knoweth the way of
    the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish."                                           
    ---Ps. 1:5,6
        We cultivate our knowledge of God and at the same
    time cultivate our faith. Yet while so doing we look not
    at our faith but at Christ, its author and finisher!

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    Yours in Christ,
    Paul N. F.