DOUBLE TALK OF SPURGEON: (Excerpted from Protestant Issues-rigtheousness.blogspot/) Further instances of Spurgeons doxology upon free will and denial of original sin. True repentance is a turning of the heart as well as of the life; it is the giving up of the whole soul to God, to be his for ever and ever; it is a renunciation of the sins of the heart, as well as the crimes of the life. Ah! dear hearers, let none of us fancy that we have repented when we have only a false and fictitious repentance; let none of us take that to be the work of the Spirit which is only the work of poor human nature; let us not dream that we have savingly turned to God, when, perhaps, we have only turned to ourselves. And let us not think it enough to have turned from one vice to another, or from vice to virtue; let us remember, it must be a turning of the whole soul, so that the old man is made anew in Christ Jesus; otherwise we have not answered the requirement of the text—we have not turned unto God. (Turn or Burn. Delivered at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens, 7th December 1856). Here we have the work of regeneration hinted at and mans own work, making for obscurity, whilst the spirit inclines toward man and his efforts. So is salvation totally a work of God, or of man, or a combination of both? An uncertain sound pervades. Again. Some have been lured by the sweetness of the character of Christ. They have taken His yoke upon them because He is meek and lowly in heart, and they have found rest unto their souls. Others have been lured by the blessings of religion. They hath said, Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace, and have said to the people of God, We will go with you. Many have been lured by the prospect of heaven and the joy which has been set before them. (Strange Dispensations and Matchless Consolations. Delivered at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark, Autumn 1859). No depravity of the heart here. The natural man hates Christ. To say that some have been lured by the sweetness of the character of Christ, is papist Arminianism sentimentalism that calls the Holy Ghost a liar (Rom.3.11). Christ continues to be despised and rejected of men (Isa.53.3), there is no beauty in Christ that any natural man should come to desire him (v.2). The natural man hates Jesus Christ, Christ being God of very God. The Christ that Spurgeon here speaks of is an antichrist, one of the many being preached in his day (Matt.24.24). Only by divine conviction do souls come to learn of Christ, the sign post to Him being set up in the heavenlies so that when under conviction a soul knows where to turn, along with heavy burdens and thirsting after righteousness, all signs set up to point the soul to Christ. Only in regeneration can eyes be opened to see what natural eyes cannot see, the way to God. Until then the scripture remains a dead letter. We should not listen to Spurgeon, after all, apart from him being a thorough going Arminian, his theology is heresy. When he says Some have been lured by the sweetness of the character of Christ, we see him not only opposed to Isaiah 53.2,3, but his theology skewed in the direction of man, and a continuing of his denial of original sin. By doing away with original sin Spurgeon could do away with the Protestant reformed teaching that since the fall of Adam, all men are born natural enemies of God, and children of wrath (Eph.2.3) by sin, and that man cannot be reconciled to God unless God wills and elects such. Hence, Spurgeon can speak sweetly to men and women, just as his friends in the great campaign movements of the time were doing, those who fought against the Protestant faith, took up verbal arms against Christianity. ........ Through out Spurgeons ministry there are to be found thousands of references to Arminianism. His sermons are full of this heresy. No where do we hear him denounce men as wicked sinners, thunder in their ears that until God reconciles them they shall live and walk as children of the devil, and the devils deeds they will continue to do and to excite the wrath of God toward them, they being more wicked than the devil, and of their repentance (Rev.14.7). If Spurgeon is here an avowed Arminian, his work A defence of Calvinism, he declares the opposite. There is no soul living who holds more firmly to the doctrines of grace than I do, and if any man asks me whether I am ashamed to be called a Calvinist, I answer—I wish to be called nothing but a Christian; but if you ask me, do I hold the doctrinal views which were held by John Calvin, I reply, I do in the main hold them, and rejoice to avow it. . When people are always shifting their doctrinal principles, they are not likely to bring forth much fruit to the glory of God. It is good for young believers to begin with a firm hold upon those great fundamental doctrines which the Lord has taught in his Word. So which side was this changeling on, for he has one foot in the camp of Arminianism, whilst another in the camp of Calvinism, whilst always leaning heavily toward Arminianism.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 23:49:33 +0000
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