The first questions that come to mind when one releases a modernization of an old book are often: Why is this book so important? Why take the time and effort? You might have asked yourself those very questions about The Land of Promise. My answer to you, then, is this: This book still speaks to the Church today, maybe even more so than when it was originally written. We live in a time in which the Western Church is becoming the church in Ephesus—we have “abandoned the love [we] had at first.”[1] We love to discuss theology and doctrine and find ways to point out falsehood, but all of that is lifeless without the Spirit. Tozer warned that we could easily fall in love with the Word but neglect to love the author of the Word.[2]
Yet, A.B. Simpson called us to love the author of the Word and to return to our first love. Simpson was the founder of The Christian and Missionary Alliance, and this book speaks to the DNA of that movement as he calls the Church to a deeper life. We need the deeper life; the world needs a Church that is going after their full inheritance! To put it simply—we’ve been lazy in our pursuit of all we’ve been promised. Simpson points this out in The Land of Promise and challenges us to make a course correction in our Christian walk.
Platitudes, theological prowess, and a pharisaical holding to “right doctrine” has caused us to abandon a love-filled, Spirit-led life. Right doctrine is important, but it is not the most important. Jesus Himself is our first love; He alone is to be our center. Living out of His love, not for His love, is the essence of the deeper life. The power to live the Christian life comes from the indwelling, empowering Spirit of God, not from our own efforts. The Western church is shrinking, and it’s because we’ve abandoned our first love. In this book, Simpson calls the Church back to its full inheritance and warns against falling away; he challenges the lazy believer to wake up and go after all that is promised. True revival happens when we live in our full inheritance.
The Spirit used this book to burn a fire within my soul. Simpson points to Israel and their failure to capture the fullness of their Promised Land, and I saw myself in the pages of Israel’s history—failing and choosing the same wayward paths. I have known since college that I have a “Joshua calling” on my life, but I never understood what that meant or how to live into that calling until I read this book. I felt the Spirit say to me, Get this back into the hands of the Church; it’s a message for today! So, this work is also an act of obedience on my part.
I have seen the backsliding Simpson discusses in this book in my own life and among many other believers. My hope and prayer is that the Spirit uses this book to breathe new life into the Church so that we will desire more of Him, and, like Caleb, be willing to fight for the land promised to us. We can no longer have a lazy acceptance of the easiest portions of our faith; rather, we need a deeper desire to press further into the land.
A Few Things to Ponder
In an effort to maintain Simpson’s voice, I did not “sanitize” some of Simpson’s thinking that may feel contrary to our perspectives on marriage, holiness, and engagement in the world. For instance, theologically, Simpson mentions the possibility of entire consecration, a Wesleyan notion that we would debate in our circles. This was also written in an era where he may have suggested that spouses are less important than ministry, and we have historical record to see some proof of that in his own life; he also stresses a complete detachment from the world to avoid pollution by it. These aspects of Simpson’s teaching, when lived out, have sometimes evoked shame, marital strife, and even an escapist theology that can lead to avoiding a missional life, which we know Simpson would have emphasized. Please do not allow those aspects to hinder you from hearing the true underlying reality of the inheritance we are called to. We are called to holiness, but we know that we cannot achieve full holiness until we are in heaven. We are to flee from sin, but we know that the enemy will try to use our past sins against us and bring them back in our lives.
Simpson’s call to cut out sin in our lives and to go to great lengths to seek holiness in the power of the Spirit are messages we need today. We are to surrender all to the Spirit. We are to embrace holier living. Yet, we are not to spiral down a pit of shame. The Spirit brings conviction that leads to repentance, not shame that leads to depression. Allow the Spirit to challenge you, convict you, and draw you into confession and repentance as you read this book.
As Spencer Sweeting reminded the C&MA family at Council in 2021: “We are a missions and deeper life movement.” This is the heartbeat that empowered the missions movement that is still going strong today; it is in fact larger overseas than in the U.S. May we, as believers, church leaders, and the Church itself, rediscover this type of DNA where the Spirit drives us deeper into the land, where we see a revival through our return to our first love once again.
[1] Revelation 2:4
[2] Paraphrased from Pursuit of God, p. 5
No comments:
Post a Comment