The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer
Week 19: Chapter 19 — The Holiness of God
Read Chapter 19: The Holiness of God of The Knowledge of the Holy. Key passage: Isaiah 6:1-7; Revelation 4:8.
Previewing Week 19 of The Knowledge of the Holy
Read 3 of 7 discussion questions below. Unlock the complete 24-week guide when you’re ready.
Isaiah saw the Lord "high and lifted up" and immediately cried, "Woe is me!" Tozer argues that this sequence — vision of holiness, then self-knowledge — is precisely what the modern church has lost.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Tozer says that holiness is not just one attribute of God among others but is, in a sense, the attribute that describes all His other attributes. What does he mean? How does it make a difference to say that God is not just powerful but *holy* in His power, not just loving but *holy* in His love?
2.He describes holiness as a quality of God that makes Him utterly unlike His creatures — a "wholly otherness" that is not merely moral but ontological (a difference in kind, not just in degree). How does this understanding protect against the tendency to remake God in our own image?
3.Isaiah's response to God's holiness was immediate moral collapse — "Woe is me! I am undone!" When did you last feel something like that: not guilt about a specific sin but a deep, comprehensive sense of your own unworthiness before God? What prompted it?