WHO DARES TO SOFTEN AND CHANGE CHRIST’S WORDS
“…By the resurrection of Jesus Christ; who is gone into heaven…angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.” (1 PETER 3:21-22)
As believers, we should be warned that any appeal to the public in the name of Christ that rises no higher than an invitation to tranquility must be recognized as mere humanism with a few words of Jesus thrown in to make it appear Christian!

Strange, is it not, that we dare without shame to alter, to modulate the words of Christ while speaking for Christ to the very ones for whom He died?

Christ calls men to carry a cross; we call them to have fun in His name!

He calls them to forsake the world; we assure them that if they but accept Jesus the world is their oyster!

He calls them to suffer; we call them to enjoy all the bourgeois comforts modern civilization affords!

He calls them to self-abnegation and death; we call them to spread themselves like green bay trees or perchance even to become stars in a pitiful fifth-rate religious zodiac!

He calls them to holiness; we call them to a cheap and tawdry happiness that would have been rejected with scorn by the least of the Stoic philosophers!

Only that is truly Christian which accords with the spirit and teachings of Christ. Whatever is foreign to the Spirit of the Man of Sorrows and contrary to the teachings and practice of His apostles is un-Christian or anti-Christian, no matter whence it emanates!

A. W. Tozer