The Calvinism Debate - Way of Life Literature

Spurgeon warned about creating theologies that attempt toreconcile every biblical difficulty:“Men who are morbidly anxious to possess a selfconsistentcreed, a creed which will put together and forma square like a Chinese puzzle,--are very apt to narrowtheir souls. ose who will only believe what they canreconcile will necessarily disbelieve much of divinerevelation. ose who receive by faith anything which theyfind in the Bible will receive two things, twenty things, ay,or twenty thousand things, though they cannot construct atheory which harmonises them all” (C.H. Spurgeon,“Faith,” Sword and Trowel, 1872).In these matters, Charles Spurgeon was a Calvinist but hewas much more than a Calvinist; he was a Biblicist. It hasbeen said of Spurgeon, that if you pricked him, even his bloodwas “bibline.” He loved theology and studied theologyearnestly, but the bottom line was that he had childlike faithin everything the Bible says.And while Spurgeon was a Calvinist, he was at the sametime a great evangelist and believed in offering the gospel toall men and urging all men to be saved. Spurgeon believedthat more sinners could be saved if the gospel was preachedto them, and he did not try to reconcile such a view withGod’s election. He believed his responsibility was to preachthe gospel to as many sinners as possible. He believed thattools such as prayer could result in a greater harvest of souls.He had prayer meetings before the preaching services andevery Monday night and on other occasions. Sometimeswhen the auditorium of the Metropolitan Tabernacle was full,a group would remain in the downstairs prayer hall and prayduring the preaching (as per an e-mail from Mrs. HannahWyncoll, Administrative Assistant, Metropolitan Tabernacle,June 2, 2000). Spurgeon loved soul winning and taught hispeople to be soul winners. His famous book e Soul Winneris still in print. ere were some in Spurgeon’s church who“made it their special work to ‘watch for souls’ in our great44