OSWALD CHAMBERS (1874-1917) was born in Aberdeen, Scotland.  He was educated in The Art School in South Kensington, the University of Edinburg, and in theology in Dunoon Training School, where he became a tutor in philosophy.  From 1906 to 1907, he engaged in a round-the-world preaching tour among Methodist and Holiness groups.

Chambers worked with the League of Prayer from 1907 to 1910, and was Principal of the League's Bible Training School from 1911 to 1915.  From 1915 to his death in 1917, he served among British soldiers in Egypt as a YMCA worker.  His numerous books are mainly compilations of his messages--the most popular being My Utmost For His Highest.

This daily devotional book has been highly regarded among evangelical believers during the past 50 years or so.  Although the author is strong on exhortation and weak as to doctrine, there is no question but that he had a keen mind and a heart-burden for his reader's best spiritual interests.

The book contains some outstanding insights, such as:

If we are devoted to the cause of humanity, we shall soon be crushed and broken-hearted, for we shall often meet with more ingratitude from men than we would from a dog; but if our motive is love to God, no ingratitude can hinder us from serving our fellow men (Feb. 23rd).

Christian work may be a means of evading the soul's concentration on Jesus Christ.  Instead of being friends of the Bridegroom, we may become amateur providences, and may work against Him whilst we use His weapons (March 25th).

However, have you given consideration to the title, My Utmost For His Highest?  Thought provoking, isn't it?  Theologically provoking, too.  Might it not better have been titled His Utmost For My Highest?  "The glory which Thou hast given Me I have given them" (John 17:22).

It needs to be said and revealed that the doctrinal dangers of this book far outweigh the benefits it contains.  First, let us consider Mr. Chambers' attitude concerning the eternal security of the believer:

God will not give us good habits, He will not give us character, He will not make us walk aright.  We have to do all that ourselves; we have to work out the salvation God has worked in.  If you hesitate when God tells you to do a thing, you endanger your standing in grace (Nov. 12th).

The experience of salvation means that in your actual life things are really altered, you no longer look at things as you used to--your desires are new, old things have lost their power.  If you continue to hanker after the old things, it is absurd to talk about being born from above (Nov. 12th).

There is no question but that Oswald Chambers was an Arminian (religious humanist)--not necessarily to the point of tongues; but such writing is certainly a platform, a conditioner, for the charismatic realm of error.

Am I set in my ways, concerning God?  We are never free from this snare until we are brought into the experience of the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire (Jan. 28th).

God does not give us overcoming life; He gives us life as we overcome.  When the inspiration of God comes, and He says, "Arise from the dead," we have to get up; God does not lift us up (Feb. 16th ).

Oswald Chambers did not go far enough for secure justification, and that ruinous lack forced him to over-compensate regarding sanctification.  Whenever an Arminian speaks of identification, he invariably goes too far:

Have I made this decision about sin--that it must be killed right out of me?  Haul yourself up, take a time alone with God, make the moral decision and say, "Lord, identify me with Thy death until I know that sin is dead in me" (April 10th).

Either God or sin must die in my life.  The New Testament brings us right down to this one issue.  If sin rules in me, God's life in me will be killed; if God rules in me, sin in me will be killed.  There is no possible ultimate but that (June 23rd).

The taproot of all Arminian error is that sin is not really understood for what it is.  The Arminian estimation of sin is kept low enough for one to get "victory" over it by self-effort.

Envy, jealousy, strife--these things arise not necessarily from the disposition of sin within, but from the makeup of your body which was used for this kind of thing in days gone by (Sept. 15th).

"Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin" (1 John 3:9).  Do I seek to stop sinning or have I stopped sinning?  To be born of God means that I have the supernatural power of God to stop sinning.

In the Bible it is never--should a Christian sin?  The Bible put it emphatically: a Christian must not sin.  The effective work of the new-birth life in us is that we do not commit sin; not merely that we have the power not to sin, but that we have stopped sinning (Aug. 15th).

When it comes to spiritual growth, sanctification, the Arminian goes completely out of control--and Oswald Chambers was no exception:

By sanctification the Son of God is formed in me, then I have to transform my natural life into a spiritual life by obedience to Him.  God educates us down to the scruple.  When He begins to check, do not confer with flesh and blood; cleanse yourself at once.  Keep yourself cleansed in your daily walk (March 18th).

The most impossible thing to you is that you should be so identified with the Lord that there is nothing of the old life left.  He will do it if you ask Him (Feb. 29th).

Oswald Chambers' material includes the one-nature error, similar to that of Drs. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, John MacArthur, Charles Stanley, Bob George, Bill Gillham, Charles Solomon, and many others.

   http://withchrist.org/MJS/index.htm