Aiden Wilson Tozer: Encyclopedia - Aiden Wilson Tozer

Aiden Wilson Tozer

Aiden Wilson Tozer (April 21, 1897 - May 12, 1963) was an American Protestant pastor, preacher, author, magazine editor, Bible conference speaker, and spiritual mentor. For his untiring work, he received two honorary doctorates.

Born in La Jose (now Newburg), a tiny farming community in western Pennsylvania, his conversion experience was as a teenager in Akron, Ohio. While on his way home from work at a tire company, he overheard a street preacher say: "If you don't know how to be saved... just call on God." Upon returning home, he climbed into the attic, heeding the preacher’s advice.

In 1919, five years after his conversion, and without formal theological training, Tozer accepted an offer to pastor his first church. This began forty four years of ministry, associated with The Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA), a Protestant evangelical denomination; thirty three of those years were served as a pastor in a number of churches. His first pastorate was in a small storefront church in Nutter Fort, West Virginia. Tozer also served as pastor for thirty years at Southside Alliance Church in Chicago (1928 to 1959), and the final years of his life were spent as pastor of Avenue Road Church in Toronto, Canada. In observing contemporary Christian living, he felt that the church was on a dangerous course towards compromising with "worldly" concerns.

In 1950, Tozer was elected editor of the Alliance Weekly magazine, now called, Alliance Life, the official publication of "The Christian and Missionary Alliance". From his first editorial, dated June 3, 1950, he wrote "It will cost something to walk slow in the parade of the ages, while excited men of time rush about confusing motion with progress. But it will pay in the long run and the true Christian is not much interested in anything short of that."

Among the more than forty books that he authored, at least two are regarded as Christian classics: The Pursuit of God and The Knowledge of the Holy. He also wrote That Incredible Christian. How Heaven's children live on Earth. His books impress on the reader the necessity and possibility for a deeper relationship with God.

Living a simple and non-materialistic lifestyle, he and his wife, Ada Cecilia Pfautz, never owned a car, preferring bus and train travel. Even after becoming a well-known Christian author, Tozer signed away much of his royalties to those who were in need.

Tozer had seven children, six boys and one girl. He was buried in Akron, with a simple epitaph marking his grave: '"A. W. Tozer - A Man of God".

Prayer was of vital personal importance for Tozer. "His preaching as well as his writings were but extensions of his prayer life", comments his biographer, James L. Snyder in the book, In Pursuit of God: The Life Of A.W. Tozer. "He had the ability to make his listeners face themselves in the light of what God was saying to them", writes Snyder.

Fellow author, Leonard Ravenhill, once said of Tozer, "I fear that we shall never see another Tozer. Men like him are not college-bred but Spirit-taught."

Aiden Wilson Tozer - Quotes from Tozer:

Speaking about the fast-paced modern church, he warned:

• "Our religious activities should be ordered in such a way as to leave plenty of time for the cultivation of the fruits of solitude and silence."

• "It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply." (Taken from Glorify his name! Root of the Righteous by A. W. Tozer; Chapter 39)

• "God wants us to worship Him. He doesn't need us, for He couldn't be a self-sufficient God and need anything or anybody, but He wants us. When Adam sinned it was not he who cried, 'God, where art Thou?' It was God who cried, 'Adam, where art thou?'" - from Worship: The Missing Jewel

Reflecting on his relationship with God, he said:

• "I have found God to be cordial and generous and in every way easy to live with."

• "Some of my friends good-humoredly — and some a little bit severely — have called me a 'mystic.' Well I'd like to say this about any mysticism I may suppose to have. If an arch-angel from heaven were to come, and were to start giving me, telling me, teaching me, and giving me instruction, I'd ask him for the text. I'd say, 'Where's it say that in the Bible? I want to know.' And I would insist that it was according to the scriptures, because I do not believe in any extra-scriptural teachings, nor any anti-scriptural teachings, or any sub-scriptural teachings. I think we ought to put the emphasis where God puts it, and continue to put it there, and to expound the scriptures, and stay by the scriptures. I wouldn't — no matter if I saw a light above the light of the sun, I'd keep my mouth shut about it 'til I'd checked with Daniel and Revelation and the rest of the scriptures to see if it had any basis in truth. And if it didn't, I'd think I'd just eaten something I shouldn't, and I wouldn't say anything about it. Because I don't believe in anything that is unscriptural or that is anti-scripture." - from What Difference Does the Holy Spirit Make?

Categories: 1897 births | 1963 deaths | Christian and Missionary Alliance | Canadian clergy | Christian evangelicalism | Christian leaders | Christian ministers | Christian pastors | Christian writers

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