God’s

Pursuit

of

Man

A. W. Tozer

© 1950, renewed 1978 by Lowell Tozer.

To all those pilgrims of eternity whose distrust with earth has constrained them to seek in God a more enduring substance, this little work is offered in humble dedication.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tozer, A. W., 1897-1963

God’s Pursuit of Man / A. W. Tozer.

Previously titled The Divine Conquest and The Pursuit of Man

ISBN: 978-1-60066-184-6

Foreword

This book contains strong medicine, bitter to the taste but potent if taken in contrition and in belief. For a generation content in its own smugness, emotionally exhausted by the claptrap and bunkum of some well-meaning but misled leaders, glibly familiar with all the niceties of careful theological phrases, the medicine may be too bitter. Only the hopeless will benefit. May the slain of the Lord be many; may the hopeless be multiplied. Only then can we experience what some of us know by rote.

Some will point out where they disagree. Too much this or too much that will be the dodge. Don’t be among them. What if something is said differently? What if the preacher holds another view of sovereignty, of holiness, of man (he may be right)? Don’t miss the pith because you are engrossed in a study of the bark.

The author is a prophet, a man of God; his life as well as his sermons attest the fact. Here he speaks; no, he preaches; no, he thunders the message of God for those of us who are dreadfully poverty-stricken, though we think we are rich and have need of nothing. Don’t be afraid of the thunderings of the language. Don’t even fear the bold, jagged stroke of lightning of the speech. For all who will hear, for all who will obey, here is God’s answer to our need—Himself.

William Culbertson

Past President, Moody Bible Institute

Preface

It is, I suppose, quite impossible for anyone familiar with the Old Testament to sit down to the writing of a book without remembering with some uneasiness the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem, “And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh” (Ecclesiastes 12:12).

I think we may safely conclude that the world has by that tired utterance been spared the ordeal of a vast number of worthless books which might otherwise have gotten themselves written. For this we may be indebted to the wise old king more deeply than we know. But if this remembrance of the many books already written has helped even a little to check the making of other poor ones, may it not also have worked to prevent the appearance of some which might indeed have held an authentic message for mankind? I do not think so.

The only book that should ever be written is one that flows up from the heart, forced out by the inward pressure. When such a work has gestated within a man it is almost certain that it will be written. The man who is thus charged with a message will not be turned back by any blase consideration. His ...