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Spurgeon et al believed what (almost?) all Calvinists believe: that the Gospel must be preached to all, in the hope and expectation that God will open the hearts of His people to receive the words spoken to them (Acts 13:48; 16:14).
26 | But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep. |
27 | My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: |
47 | He that is of God heareth the words of God: for this cause ye hear [them] not, because ye are not of God. |
Both of those. The inability of man is not organic, but moral. To explain this, if a person had to walk on the ceiling in order to be saved, that would clearly be unfair. Mankind is simply not physically constituted to walk on the ceiling. But man's inability is not organic or constitutional, but moral. 'And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men preferred darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.' People will not come to Christ (John 5:40), not because God prevents them - quite the opposite - but because they want to do their own thing the way they want to. Read Jeremiah 42:1 - 43:7.
No, because salvation belongs to the Lord (Jonah 2:9: Rev. 7:10) - all of it from start to finish, and that is true of our repentance and faith as much as anything else (Eph. 2:8; Phil. 1:29; Acts 11:18; 13:48; 28:28).
Both of those. The inability of man is not organic, but moral. To explain this, if a person had to walk on the ceiling in order to be saved, that would clearly be unfair. Mankind is simply not physically constituted to walk on the ceiling. But man's inability is not organic or constitutional, but moral. 'And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men preferred darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.' People will not come to Christ (John 5:40), not because God prevents them - quite the opposite - but because they want to do their own thing the way they want to. Read Jeremiah 42:1 - 43:7.
In the face of this, God has chosen a vast crowd of people (Rev. 7:9), given them to the Lord Jesus to redeem (John 6:39 etc.) at a terrible cost, and to the Holy Spirit tp lead to salvation (Gal. 4:6 etc.) and seal to the day of redemption (Eph. 1:13-14).
No, because salvation belongs to the Lord (Jonah 2:9: Rev. 7:10) - all of it from start to finish, and that is true of our repentance and faith as much as anything else (Eph. 2:8; Phil. 1:29; Acts 11:18; 13:48; 28:28).
Now, Charlie, I know that we don't agree on this, but I don't believe that Arminianism vs Calvinism is a matter of salvation. In 1938, a chap called George Campbell Morgan was the minister at Westminster Chapel in London. Knowing that he was coming to the end of his ministry, he looked for a man to follow him who would continue his faithful Bible ministry. He set his sights on Martyn Lloyd-Jones and eventually brough him to the Chapel to be his co-pastor. Now Campbell Morgan was an Arminian and Lloyd-Jones was a Calvinist, but according to Lloyd-Jones' biography, the two men got on together extremely well until Campbell Morgan retired after a few years.
I will defend my position, but I really don't believe there should be the amount of animosity that there is about this subject on the B.B.. Pelagianism vs. Hyper-Calvinism might be another matter, of course.