Taking Heaven by Storm
Puritan Book Reviews
Thomas Watson at his best. This is
a book on the Christian walking violently before God - that every
Christian should excel in his walk with Christ each day.
Heaven Taken by Storm
by Thomas Watson
Soli Deo Gloria Publications, Morgan, PA: 1995
129 Pages, Hardback
What violence is
offered unto the Kingdom of Heaven by the Christian?
That sounds like a wrong statement.
But this is wholly otherwise.
The Christian is required to take the Kingdom of heaven by force,
to take heaven by storm. He
is to be a tornado, or a hurricane, in respect to his violence and his
disposition in raging or pressing into the Kingdom of God with all his
might. Would God require
anything less than for the Christian to strive and place forth his best
for the power of the Kingdom?
The subtitle to
Watson’s book is this: “Showing the Holy Violence A Christian is to
Put Forth in the Pursuit After Glory.”
It is not a “chasing after the wind”, but rather, it is being
a holy wind of violence in a pursuit to take up the things of God and
hide them in the heart and mind. Watson
vividly explains how the Christian is to be about this practice of holy
violence, what it consists in, how to obtain it, and how to improve upon
it.
There are 19 chapters
and two appendices on the topic. It
is well ordered and valuable in its treatment of the subject.
He explains “Offering Violence by the Reading of the Word”,
“…by the hearing of the Word,” “…by prayer,” “…by
Meditation,” and more. Two
select appendices cover “The happiness of Drawing Near to God,” and
“How we may Read the Scriptures with Most Spiritual Profit.”
This is a favorite in
our house. My wife has read it three times and will come back to it in a
couple of months to read it again.
Watson’s pithy style and lucid illustrations drawing the reader
that they desire to know how it is that the Christian may take heaven by
violence, and strive after the pursuit of glory.
Some Quotes:
“When zeal like
incense burns, first the lamp of knowledge must be lighted.”
“The reason so many
have been tricked into error is because they either did not know, or did
not love, the truth.”
“This is the first
thing in holy violence: resolution of their will; I will have heaven
whatever it costs me and this resolution must be in the strength of
Christ.”
“The pampering of the
flesh is the quenching of God’s Spirit.
The flesh chokes and stifles holy motions; the flesh sides with
Satan and is true to its interests.”
“Men
throw off all violence and degenerate into apostasy because they never
did duties of religion with delight.
Paul delighted in the law of God in the inward (Rom. 7:22).
It was his heaven to serve God.
A man who delights in pleasure will never surrender.
But the apostate never had any true delight in the ways f God; he
was rather forced with fear than drawn with love; he served a Master
whom he never cared for. No
wonder then that he leaves His service.” |
