Religious entertainment!
(A.W. Tozer)
A great company of evangelical churches have already gone over into the area of religious entertainment, so that many churches are tramping on the doorstep of the theater!
The tragic results of this spirit are all about us:
shallow lives,
hollow religious philosophies,
the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings,
the glorification of men,
trust in religious externalities,
quasi-religious fellowships,
salesmanship methods,
the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit.
These and such as these, are the symptoms of an evil disease--a deep and serious malady of the soul.
Religious entertainment has so corrupted the Church, that millions don't know that it's a heresy. Millions of evangelicals throughout the world have devoted themselves to religious entertainment. They don't know that it's as much heresy, as the "counting of beads" or the "splashing of holy water" or something else. To expose this, of course, raises a storm of angry protest among the people.
Isn't there a difference between worship and entertainment?
The church that can't worship, must be entertained. And men who can't lead a church to worship, must provide the entertainment. That is why we have the great evangelical heresy here today--the heresy of religious entertainment!