Calvinist Flyswatter

Help for gospel "recoverers"

SPURGEON ON "CALVINISM"
AND THE "GOSPEL"

While C. H. Spurgeon was a Calvinist and believed that a proper view of theoretical Calvinism was agreeable with the Gospel, he evidently recognized that an emphasis upon Calvinism as a theological system was not necessarily the sine qua non with respect to the practical preaching of the Gospel. In other words, one can preach the Gospel without being a theoretical Calvinist. Spurgeon knew this from his own conversion experience which took place in a Primitive Methodist Chapel when a layman brought a brief message from Isaiah 45:22.

SPURGEON said:

I believe, most firmly, in the doctrines commonly called Calvinistic, and I hold them to be very fraught with comfort to God's people; but if any man shall say that the preaching of these is the whole of the preaching of the gospel, I am at issue with him.

Brethren, you may preach those doctrines as long as you like, and yet fail to preach the gospel; and I will go further, and affirm that some who have even denied those truths, to our great grief, have nevertheless been gospel preachers for all that, and God has saved souls by their ministry.

The fact is, that while the doctrines of election, final perseverance, and so on, go to make up a complete ministry, and are invaluable in their place, yet the soul and marrow of the gospel is not there, but is to be found in the great fact that "God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit," and so on.

Preach Christ, young man, if you want to win souls. Preach all the doctrines, too, for the building up of believers, but still the main business is to preach Jesus who came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost.

The apostle tells us in the Corinthians that first of all he delivered unto us as soul saving truth, "how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures."

Facts about Christ Jesus, and the promise of life through him, these are the faith of the gospel. . . . The gospel which is to be vehemently declared is this:-- "God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory."

So long as London is reeking with sin, and millions are going down to hell, let us leave others to prophesy, let us go with anxious hearts to seek after souls, and see if we cannot by the Spirit's power win sinners from going down into the pit.

You will, doubtless, have observed that this summary of the gospel is very simple. Whenever you meet with teaching which is cloudy and complicated, you may generally conclude that it is not the gospel of your salvation, for the truth of Christ is so plain that he who runs may read, and the wayfaring man though a fool need not err therein.

Perhaps some of you have been thinking that conversion and salvation are dark and mysterious things, and that you have to pass through many singular operations and feelings in order to be saved. Now, beloved, the whole of our faith lies in a nutshell. He that believeth in Jesus Christ the incarnate God, is saved.

These few truths if grasped by the mind, received and trusted in by the heart, will save you. It is at the cross that salvation must be found. . . .

Bind it about your heart, and defy the hosts of Rome or hell to unloose its folds. Wrap it about your loins in death, and hold it as a standard in both your hands in life. This simple truth, that "Jesus Christ has come to seek and to save that which is lost," and that "whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life," must be your jewel, your treasure, your life.

[Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Volume 13, Year 1867, #786, excerpts from pages 706-708].

In the Flounders stated "purpose" of "reforming" by means of the "promotion of the Doctrines of Grace" it would appear that they perhaps have gone astray from what Spurgeon is saying -- namely, that one can preach a Calvinistic system of doctrine, yet fail to preach the Gospel and win souls.

posted by Bob L. Ross @ 3:04 PM