George Warnock — Hamartology
b8 — Seven Lamps of Fire
The Substitution of the Cross in Modern Evangelicalism
Warnock cites American theologian A.W. Tozer on the modern watering-down of the true cross in evangelicalism:
“The old cross killed the sinner; the new cross merely frustrated him. The old cross was an instrument of execution. The new cross is an instrument of adjustment.” — A.W. Tozer (cited by Warnock, Seven Lamps of Fire)
Warnock identifies a fundamental replacement occurring in contemporary evangelical preaching. What he calls “the old cross” represents authentic evangelical proclamation; “the new cross” represents the attenuated version prevalent in many modern church communities. This is more than theological difference—it is a soteriological substitution in the kerygma itself.
True Conversion: Self-Death versus Behavioral Adjustment
Warnock directly connects the substitution of the cross to the nature of genuine conversion. The true cross demands the death of the old self; the modern, attenuated cross offers only behavioral modification without inner death.
Biblical foundation — Paul to the Galatians:
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” — Paul, Gal. 2:20
Warnock’s thesis: True conversion is the death of the old self—man as the central principle—not mere behavioral reform. In Warnock’s theology, the cross refers to the complete death of the believer’s own will and self-centeredness as the prerequisite for the indwelling life of Christ in the believer.