The influence of the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon on the church today should not be understated. He was, perhaps, the most remarkable man of the past two-hundred years (and that is an impressive claim, to be sure). Tuesday the 31^st of January marked the one-hundred and twentieth anniversary of Spurgeon's death. A life defined by the words of Isaiah: "Look to Me, and be saved all you ends of the earth!" (Isaiah 45:22).

So what makes Charles Spurgeon so remarkable? After all, he lived one-and-a-half centuries ago and even among believers he is a name that may be recognised but his significance cannot be stated. Perhaps one could point to the unbelievable pace that he consumed books. It is said that he studied a book a day. Such a claim seems likely because of his own written output. If one was to peruse their local Word/Koorong they would see Spurgeon occupying approximately 30-50% of the Classics section. His works number into the many thousands. His own library consisted of 5,103 books, which would have taken approximately 14 years to read, if Spurgeon's suggested pace was accurate.

Yet Spurgeon is not remembered, primarily, as an intellectual giant. He is described as the Prince of Preachers and is estimated to have preached to over 20 million people in his lifetime. Factoring in a world population in the mid-1800s of about 1.4 billion such figures of people sitting in the pulpits of Spurgeon's church is highly impressive. However, Spurgeon did not receive such praise merely for the amount of people who heard him preach but for the quality of his preaching and his staunch defence of biblical truths stood him very much apart from the preachers of his time.

It is here that Spurgeon's legacy turns from remarkable to something else entirely. In 1887 Spurgeon had been preaching for thirty-six of his fifty-three years. His church, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, was part of the Baptist Union, and had a site to cater for over six-thousand people at one time. At this time there arose an ongoing friction between Spurgeon and the Baptist Union described as the Down Grade Controversy. Essentially the church in Britain was undergoing theological decline where "some Baptists downgraded the place of the Bible in the church by subscribing to the idea that the Pentateuch was not written by one person, and by entertaining Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, among other things" (The Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon, pg 11).

Certainly the chief battlefield revolved around the infallibility of Scripture. That is, that Scripture is God-breathed and not subject to human reinterpretation. Click here to read Spurgeon's extensive sermon on this. There were many pastors in the Baptist Union who preached a compromised message and this had been brought to the attention of Spurgeon. In 1887 Spurgeon faced the might of the Baptist Union head on when he wrote several scathing articles in his monthly journal The Sword and Trowel (these can be read on spurgeon.org). His criticisms were deadly and some of what he wrote deserves citation here:

"Look at the church of the present day - the advanced school, I mean, In its midst we see preachers who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. They talk of the Lord Jesus, but they deny His Godhead, that is, His power. They speak of the Holy Spirit but deny His personality, wherein lies His very existence. They take away the substance and power from all the doctrines of revelation, though they pretend still to believe them. They talk of redemption, but they deny substitution, which is the essence of it.

They extol the scriptures but deny their infallibility, wherein lies their value. They use the phrases of orthodoxy and believe nothing in common with the orthodox. I know not which to loathe more, their teachings or their spirit. Surely they are worthy of each other. They burn the kernel and preserve the husk. They kill the truth and then pretend to reverence its sepulcher. "They say they are Jews and are not, but lie" (Rev. 3:9).

This is horrible, but the evil is widely spread, and in the presence of it the children of God are framing compromises, selling their Lord, and becoming partakers with the despisers of His truth. "Having a form of godliness but denying its power" is the sin of the age, the sin that is ruining the churches of our land."

(The Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon, pg 850-851).

In his comments Charles Spurgeon stood virtually alone. The Baptist Union dismissed him and refused to alter their statement of faith so Spurgeon withdrew his church from the Union on October 28, 1887. The criticism he faced for his stance was extreme, yet Spurgeon stood firm. "Whether it be the Baptist Church, or the Episcopalian, or the Presbyterian Church which errs from Christ's way, it is nothing to any one of us which it may be; it is Christ we are to care for, and Christ's truth, and this we are to follow over all the hedges and ditches of men's making" (http://www.tecmalta.org/tft351.htm) were Spurgeon's words regarding his decision to make his church independent. Spurgeon revised a new statement of faith:

"We, the undersigned, banded together in Fraternal Union, observing with growing pain and sorrow the loosening hold of many upon the Truths of Revelation, are constrained to avow our firmest belief in the Verbal Inspiration of all Holy Scripture as originally given. To us, the Bible does not merely contain the Word of god, but is the Word of God. From beginning to end, we accept it, believe it, and continue to preach it. To us, the Old Testament is no less inspired than the New. The Book is an organic whole. Reverence for the New Testament accompanied by skepticism as to the Old appears to us to absurd. The two must stand or fall together. We accept Christ's own verdict concerning "Moses and all the prophets" in preference to any of the supposed discover-ies of so-called higher criticism. We hold and maintain the truths generally known as "the doctrines of grace". The Electing Love of God the Father, the Propitiatory and Substitutionary Sacrifice of his Son, Jesus Christ, Regeneration by the Holy Ghost, the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness, the Justification of the sinner (once for all) by faith, his walk in the newness of life and growth in grace by the active indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and the Priestly Intercession of our Lord Jesus, as also the hopeless perdition of all who reject the Savior, according to the words of the Lord in Matt. xxv. 46, "These shall go away into eternal punishment," -are, in our judgment, revealed fundamental truth. Our Hope is the personal Pre-millennial Return of the Lord Jesus in glory."

(http://www.narnia3.com/articles/ETS%202001.pdf, pg 21).

It is worth considering, therefore, what such a statement would stand against today. "During the years of the Down Grade Controversy Spurgeon repeatedly warned of six areas of "down grade" in evangelical doctrine.

• The denial of the verbal inspiration (that is, inerrancy) of Scripture.

• The denial of eternal punishment and the affirmation of universalism.

• The denial of the Trinity, mainly in terms of the rejection of the personality of the Holy Spirit.

• The movement towards Socinianism or the denial of the deity of Christ and origi-nal sin.

• The denial of the creation account in Genesis in favor of evolution.

• The unhealthy influence of Higher Criticism on Biblical scholarship, particularly as it related to the Old Testament."

(http://www.narnia3.com/articles/ETS%202001.pdf, pg 22).

It is worth noting that we are seeing significant examples of "down grading" in evangelical doctrine. We are seeing universalism (of some form) making a come-back:

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There is a denial of inerrancy of Scripture:

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There is a denial of the creation account in Genesis:

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There is a belief in theistic evolution:

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As Spurgeon would put it, "we are going down hill at breakneck speed" (http://www.spurgeon.org/downgrd.htm). Something serious is required to fight against the crushing weight of biblical uncertainty. Spurgeon fought for the inerrancy of Scriptures until his death on 31^st January 1892. He stood true as he suffered from rheumatism, gout, and Bright's disease. Now it is our turn to fight for the truth, to stand against compromise and to "[l]ook at the church of the present day". It is a crumbling shell of compromise by outside influences. It is apt to finish with Spurgeon's words on Scripture:

"Brethren, we have not followed cunningly devised fables.

We are not wanton boys that swim on floats that will soon burst under us.

But we are resting on firm ground.

We abide where heaven and earth are resting,

where the whole universe depends,

where even eternal things have their foundation.

We rest on God Himself.

If God will fail us,

we gloriously fail with the whole universe.

But there is no fear.

Therefore, let us trust and not be afraid.

His promise must stand:

"The mouth of the Lord has spoken."

O Lord, it is enough!

Glory be to your name,

through Christ Jesus! Amen."

(The Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon, pg 937).

The Ray Comfort "180" movie has just been uploaded recently.

When I saw the promo video I thought to myself "what can he possibly say that would make such a difference?".

Yet when Ray challenges those he speaks to, on the streets, about why they do not stand against abortion I was amazed.

This is half an hour that you do not want to miss.

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I would also encourage you to jump over to heartchanger.com and buy the DVDs to give out at your church or wherever you go.

Also consider buying Ray Comfort's new book Hitler, God, and the Bible.

We need more people like Ray Comfort.

Will it be you that God calls next?

Article by Cameron Spink

"Change is not the absence of struggles; change is the freedom to choose holiness in the midst of our struggles." - Christopher Yuan

I stumbled on this book last month (on Amazon) and the overwhelming excellent reviews made me immediately tab over to bookdepository and buy a copy for $14.15. This was money well-spent and I cannot commend this book more highly.

Out Of A Far Country is a multi-perspective story on the radical changes that occur in a family that has been torn apart by some of the lies that society tells us. Christopher Yuan is an intelligent young man who rejects his family after succumbing to his homosexual desires. He throws himself into a lifestyle of sex and drugs at the expense of his family and his career.

Angela Yuan lives in a loveless marriage and all her hopes are pinned upon her youngest son Christopher finishing his dentistry course and joining the family business. Unfortunately, her world is turned upside down when she finds a gay porn magazine hidden away. Upon confronting Christopher she offers him an ultimatum, choose family or homosexuality. Christopher does not think twice about his decision as he is heading for the door.

Here's where the power of this story starts. Both of these family members have a long journey of redemption ahead of them. Angela, upon her son's rejection, contemplates and even instigates a plan to commit suicide. It is upon Romans 8:38-39 that she stumbles on that fateful day:

"For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Suddenly there is hope in her story. Instead of facing despair Angela is confronted with the immense power of God's Holy Spirit. Her life, her purpose is redefined and she lets go of her idea of a perfect family and starts to earnestly seek God's will in her life. The timing of this event is very important because it is not long before Christopher hits rock bottom. He is caught red-handed by the DEA and receives a long sentence for selling drugs. What is worse, while in prison, he is diagnosed as HIV+.

Yet God has not abandoned this wreck of a man. Angela is in constant and earnest prayer for her son and the effects of her love for him begin to show as Christopher is slowly brought to salvation. This is an uplifting story about two prodigals who find their paths bringing them home. Neither Angela nor Christopher wanted anything to do with Christianity, in fact, they felt a fair degree of animosity towards religion. Perhaps that is what makes this transformation so amazing. God meticulously leads these two rebels from the heart of despair, from the wilderness and brings them back to a life of purpose.

A 200-page book probably doesn't do these two people's life stories justice. Though perhaps this is a perfectly captivating length. The language is also simplistic yet steeped in raw emotions. We can feel the devastation because these people did really go through the bleak and emerge victorious.

No doubt this will be written off by those condemning ex-gays from speaking of their journey out of homosexuality. However, this story is more than that. This story resonates because we were/are all lost, far from home, and desolate. Yet hope transcends our situation and this book gives a very clear sense of God's plan coming to fruition in the life of one family. This brings hope to us all.

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Article by Cameron Spink

It is appropriate for me to write a short follow up to my, rather lengthy, piece on Jeff Bethke's video. I was not the only one to write a critique of his video. In fact, Kevin DeYoung article surpasses the length of my own. He looks at each individual verse and sets straight what was left ambiguous. His concluding comments are:

"I know I've typed a bunch of words about a You Tube video that no one may be talking about in a month. But, as I said at the beginning, there is so much helpful in this poem mixed with so much unhelpful-and all of it so common-that I felt it worth the effort to examine the theology in detail.

The strengths in this poem are the strengths I see in many young Christians-a passionate faith, a focus on Jesus, a love for grace, and a hatred for anything phony or self-righteous. The weaknesses here can be the weaknesses of my generation (and younger)-not enough talk of repentance and sanctification, a tendency to underestimate the importance of obedience in the Christian life, a one-dimensional view of grace, little awareness that our heavenly Father might ever discipline his children or be grieved by their continued transgression, and a penchant for sloganeering instead of careful nuance....."

This carefully written article compliments the one I wrote a handful of days ago. It is highly illuminating and worth the ten or so minutes it takes to read. Of interest is the correspondence that has now occurred between DeYoung and Bethke. Jeff Bethke responded to Kevin DeYoung's article in this way:

"I just wanted to say I really appreciate your article man. It hit me hard. I'll even be honest and say I agree 100%. God has been working with me in the last 6 months on loving Jesus AND loving his church. For the first few years of walking with Jesus (started in '08) I had a warped/poor paradigm of the church and it didn't build up, unify, or glorify His wife (the Bride). If I can be brutally honest I didn't think this video would get much over a couple thousand views maybe, and because of that, my points/theology wasn't as air-tight as I would've liked. If I redid the video tomorrow, I'd keep the overall message, but would articulate, elaborate, and expand on the parts where my words and delivery were chosen poorly... My prayer is my generation would represent Christ faithfully and not swing to the other spectrum....thankful for your words and more importantly thankful for your tone and fatherly like grace on me as my elder. Humbled. Blessed. Thankful for painful growth. Blessings.

Grace and Peace,

Jeff"

It is encouraging to see that Jeff is mature and humble enough to be challenged and learn from Kevin DeYoung's article. We must all be ready to accept reproof when it is deserved. I am sure Jeff will take this onboard in future projects.

Rarely would I plug any music on this site, but I found this video, which had been uploaded last month, and thought it was worthy of being recognised as an alternative to mainstream bands. Many of us have a great joy for music. Selah is one band worth listening to:

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Here's an article that will make you chuckle until you realise it is not a joke.

Elijah and Baalists in Ecumenical Service
Bill Muehlenberg, 7th June 2011

"In an unprecedented move to show unity, love, respect and interfaith cooperation, the prophet Elijah has announced that he will be holding a major ecumenical service with the prophets of Baal this coming Sabbath. Calling the event “Faith Shared” the renowned prophet said this event was needed to ease religious tensions in the area. Elijah put it this way at a recent press conference:

“Faith shared seeks to counter the anti-Baalist bigotry and negative stereotypes that have erupted throughout the country in the past year and led to misconceptions, distrust and in some cases, violence. This countrywide, day-long event will engage faith leaders on the national and community levels in a conversation with their houses of worship, highlighting respect among people of different faiths. This event will help counter the common misperception abroad that most Israelites are hostile to Baalism. It will send a message that Israelites respect Baalism and Baalists, as they respect religious differences and freedom of religion in general.”

Elijah, who in the past has been criticised for his confrontational approach, and his intolerant stance regarding foreign religions, has clearly had a change of heart, and now admits that he had got it wrong. “I used to be very zealous for the glory and honour of Yahweh, and saw rival religions as an affront to him, and a hindrance to unique and pure worship in Israel.”

He continued, ‘But I have since realised that by being so closed-minded and intolerant, I was not really displaying the love and compassion of Yahweh. I was being far too narrow and exclusivist. I now see that there is wideness to God’s mercy, and I now believe that in the end, ‘Love Wins’.”

Elijah had formerly condemned such interfaith cooperation, labelling it as idolatrous and dangerous. He once believed that exclusive worship and allegiance to Yahweh was the only way for Israel to proceed, but he now admits that such an unloving stance may have alienated Baal-worshipers, and other pagans in the region.

“In my youthful zeal to defend the name, honour and reputation of Yahweh, I was unnecessarily alienating all these good people, who each in their own way are also good religious people. I now realise that such dogmatism and narrowness is not the way of Yahweh, and that he sees all idol-worshippers and pagan religions as just expressions of his wide, affirming love and acceptance.”

The cry of the hour, he said, was not more divisive religious bickering and fighting, but the need to all just get along and realise that we are all on the same path anyway, serving the same God. It is time to put an end to these useless divisions, and unite for the good of humanity.

“As Israelites and as people of faith, we must use our great traditions to come together for mutual enrichment and understanding,” said Elijah. “At its core, this project will bring together Jew, Baalist and heathen clergy to read from and hear from each other’s sacred texts. In doing so, they will serve as a model for respect and cooperation and create a concrete opportunity to build and strengthen working ties between and among faith communities moving forward.”

It is hoped that this interfaith meeting – the first of its kind – will lead to even more works of peace, harmony, and love. The Jerusalem event, which begins sharp at sunrise, will also provide tangible expression of good faith and cooperation. Elijah announced that a pig will be slaughtered and offered to the many gods in the region, followed by a great feast of roast pork.

He also hinted that in future services, the Torah might be publically burned to demonstrate how serious Israel has become in renouncing its intolerant past, and show that it means business by embracing the various religions in the surrounding area.

And as a final act of goodwill, Elijah said that only females would be allowed to officiate at this special service, and those in a loving and committed relationship with another female would be given special prominence in the sunrise to sunset service.

Elijah said a number of local Israelite groups had gladly come on board for this exciting initiative. These include members of the Emergent Synagogue Movement, the Progressive Israelite Alliance, the Uniting Synagogue of Israel, the Shiloh Sojourners fellowship, and the Social Justice Collective of Judah.

Correction to press release

I have to pause here and mention that the above press release is a little bit inaccurate. It is 98 per cent correct, but a few names have actually been changed. The real press release was put out May 17, 2011, and it featured this headline: “Pastors to host readings from the Qur’an at churches across the country to display respect and combat anti-Muslim bigotry.”

Aside from that, the two press releases are basically the same. A group of 50 churches in 26 US states has committed to participate in this event, and it is being taken quite seriously by many. Needless to say, I find this entire initiative absolutely incomprehensible from the standpoint of biblical Christianity.

Just as Elijah and others were quite happy to use satire and irony to rail against the false religions and idolaters of the day, there may be a need to do so again today. I am utterly staggered that these so-called Christian pastors have even countenanced such foolishness.

Indeed, what will they do next month? Read atheist works from the pulpits? Invite Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris in to give the sermons? I can just see the headline for this: “Pastors to host readings from Dawkins and Harris at churches across the country to display respect and combat anti-atheist bigotry.”

And then the following month they can bring in drug dealers, pimps, abortionists, and paedophiles. After all, Christians have given these folks a bad name over the years as well. In condemning their activities and lifestyles we have obviously failed to show Christian love and compassion to them, so we need to repent, and show our solidarity with all these guys.

Better yet, if we really want to demonstrate how serious we are about all this, why don’t we just allow our churches to be turned into mosques, or witch covens, or shooting galleries, or brothels, or New Age havens, or gay discos, or crack houses? Why all these half-hearted measures in interfaith dialogue? Let’s just go the whole hog and get it over with.

Indeed, since some folks are clearly intent on putting up the white flag of surrender, why don’t we just renounce our allegiance to Jesus Christ altogether, and tell the whole world that all religious systems are equally true and equally pleasing to God – whoever or whatever we consider him/her/it to be.

Hey what’s the diff if we proclaim Jesus is Lord, or Muhammad is Lord, or Dawkins is Lord, or Lady Gaga is Lord, or Bart Simpson is Lord? The main thing is that we all just get along, isn’t it? One big happy family – that’s what we want. No more evangelism. No more proselytising. No more divisive theology. Let’s just build one big modern ecumenical Tower of Babel. Surely that is something God is in full favour of.

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/2011/05/17/faith-shared-june-26-2011/"


Used with Permission


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