Spurgeon
& Hyper-Calvinism
by Iain H. Murray
With
over 80 volume of
his writings and sermons in print, one may ask how
this little book could add anymore to the life of
Charles Spurgeon. The answer is found within the pages
of Spurgeon & Hyper-Calvinism. While his
published works are immense Spurgeon's life and ministry
embodied a simple message. Spurgeon once said of Bunyan,
"Prick him anywhere and his blood is bibline."
Murray notes the same could have been said about Spurgeon.
The
Chapter, A Life of Testimony of the Word of God,
presents this core feature of Spurgeon's life
and message. He was first and foremost commited to
God's Word. That meant he found himself at times more
aligned with Bible-believing non-Baptists than with
his peers in the London Baptist Union. Spurgeon also
equated the move away from the doctrines of grace
with a move away from God's Word itself.
In
his chapter, The Combatants and the Cause of the
Controversy, Murray details the first attacks
that came against Spurgeon. He notes that those first
shots fired were accusations that Spurgeon was not
trully Calvinist. Words such as 'mongrel' and 'Fullerite'
were hurled with impunity at the new kid on the block
among London Baptists. The real problem was this;
Spurgeon was a Biblical preacher. He did not preach
from systematic theologies but instead from the Word
itself. As a result he had no problem with preaching
the Sovereignty of God and the responsbility of man
in the same breath.
Lessons
from the Conflict, gives us some important guidelines
to dealing with each other in the midst of theological
differences. The tension between love for the brethren
and love for the truth will always be with us. In
fact what Spurgeon feared most was that Baptists were
losing that tension. Much of the Down-grade Controversy
had to do with Spurgeon's belief that Baptists were
beginning to love getting along with each more than
getting along with God.
Read
this book with an open heart and mind. Also be sure
to read Murray's earlier work, The Forgotten
Spurgeon. Together these books give us an
insightful picture of the greatest Baptist of all.
Spurgeon
& Hyper-Calvinism: The Battle for Gospel Preaching
by Iain H. Murray (The Banner of Truth Trust, 1995),
paper, 164 pages.
|
. |
In
his maturer years he (Spurgeon)
indeed came to use all 'labels' more sparingly, not
because his mind was changed on the errors in question,
but rather because the best way to help others is simply
to teach the Scriptures. (p. xv)
It
is estimated
that each week his 'congregation' amounted to about
a million people. By 1899 it is on record that 'over
an hundred millions' of his sermons had been issued
in twenty-three languages. (p. 11)
He
was a definite Baptist
but ... allegiance to evangelicalism
took precedence over the things which alligned him with
Baptists ... Spurgeon regarded it as a tragedy that
Baptists put their denominational unity before a higher
claim. (p.15)
The
later years
of Spurgeon's life were the most difficult for him.
Instead of regarding him as a leader in evangelical
belief, many now though of him as an obstinate spokesman
for a bygone era, 'the last of the Puritans.' Within
his lifetime multitudes of professing Christians had
passed from Calvinism to Arminanism ... to doubting
the full inspiration of the Bible. (p.
25)
Jesus
wants nothing
from you, nothing whatsoever,
nothing done, nothing felt; He gives both work and feeling.
Ragged, penniless, just as you are, lost, forsaken,
desolate, with no good feelings, and no good hopes,
still Jesus comes to you, and in these words of pity
He addresses you, "Him that cometh unto Me I will
in wise cast out." (p. 79)
The
old-fashioned
high Calvinist are passing away ... their places are
not occupied by better men. (The man today)... believes
in nothing but its own cleverness. We would sooner have
the narrowness of those who have gone than the emptiness
of those who ridicule them. (p. 105)
|
