Subject: What are your views of once saved always |
Bible Note: New Creature, first let me refer to a statement in your post 90179, "I personally believe I have been fair in my treatment of his sermon, especially seeing how Spurgeon himself contradicts prior statements, and sort of speaks with a forked tongue." ..... I believe that you believe you were fair. I don't doubt in the least that you had anything but honorable motives in quoting from Spurgeon's sermon. Since you have declared your perceived fairness and I believe your declaration, I must look for another reason why your excerpts from his sermon, the title of which, by the way, is Final Perseverance. so broadly misleads the reader into thinking that C. H. Spurgeon did not believe in the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, also called eternal security. And since clearly I don't suspect any willful attempt to mislead on your part, I suggest as a tentative hypothesis the probability that you may not have a clear understanding of the theme and chief point of Spurgeon's sermon, because if you did, you would not use this sermon or any parts of it to show that the regenerate believer is not secure in his salvation. The central focus of Spurgeon's sermon was to show that it is impossible for a child of God to fall away. This sermon is, as I say, an extremely unlikely example for one to use as an exhibit to show that a truly born-again believer can ever fall away and find himself in the impossible position of needing to be born-again, again! ..... So, I must conclude that, even though unwittingly, your quotations from Spurgeon's sermon were unfair to the preacher and misleading to the forum. We come back again to that troublesome word 'context.' We all know how misleading and unreliable it is to try to exegete snippets of Scripture lifted out of context. It is possible to make Scripture seem to say things that it really doesn't say at all when we isolate passages by lifting them out of context. I'll close with a short example relating to baptism. In a former post to you I said, and you agreed, that I believe in baptism and in regeneration. Then I went on to say that I do not believe in baptism that regenerates. Suppose someone wished to quote me (I'm flattered!) and said, "Hank says he does not believe in baptism." -- but neglected to include the last two words, "that regenerates." That's an extreme example perhaps of quoting out of context, but extreme examples are extremely common! ..... Lastly, I am quite familiar with Spurgeon's sermon and in my readings if there are instances of his having contradicted himself or having spoken with a "forked tongue" I missed them entirely. In case I've lost readers who have no idea who Spurgeon is or which of his sermons I've been referring to in this post, please go to www.Spurgeon.org/sermons/0075.htm. Grace to you, New Creature! --Hank |