Prophets Who Stand Alone

Source: Culture Watch
Author: Bill Muehlenberg

It is always easy to go with the crowd. It is always difficult to go against the crowd, and to stand alone. Any true prophet of God knows exactly all about this. They stand alone, misunderstood and condemned by their own people. Yet their fear of God takes priority over the rejection of men.

A.W. Tozer spoke to this in various places. He even wrote an article entitled “The Saint Must Walk Alone”. It is the last chapter of his 1966 classic, Man: The Dwelling Place of God. This short essay (originally penned for Eternity magazine), contains more spiritual firepower and insight than most sermons or books on Christian spirituality.

He begins his essay this way: “Most of the world’s great souls have been lonely. Loneliness seems to be one price the saint must pay for his saintliness.” He continues, “The truly spiritual man is indeed something of an oddity. He lives not for himself but to promote the interests of Another. He seeks to persuade people to give all to his Lord and asks no portion or share for himself. He delights not to be honored but to see his Saviour glorified in the eyes of men. His joy is to see his Lord promoted and himself neglected. He finds few who care to talk about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious shoptalk.”

He concludes, “The weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too much at home in the world. In their effort to achieve restful ‘adjustment’ to unregenerate society they have lost their pilgrim character and become an essential part of the very moral order against which they are sent to protest. The world recognizes them and accepts them for what they are. And this is the saddest thing that can be said about them. They are not lonely, but neither are they saints.”


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