Monday, November 25, 2013

Quote of the Day

By elevating the authority of experience over the authority of Scripture, the Charismatic Movement has destroyed the church's immune system - uncritically granting free access to every imaginable form of heretical teaching and practice.

John MacArthur

Monday, November 18, 2013

Quote of the Day

Spurgeon observed many, "who, by hearing continually the most precious doctrines that belief in Jesus Christ is saving, have forgotten other truths, and have concluded that they were saved when they were not, having fancied they believed when as yet they were total strangers to the experience which always attended the true faith."  Their confidence was not grounded upon the divine word rightly understood, "nor proved by any facts in their own souls."  They resented any suggestion of self examination by gospel tests as "an assault upon their assurance" and "defended their false peace by the notion that to raise a question about their certain salvation would be unbelief."  Their ill-placed certainty has put them in a hopeless condition and they ignore biblical warnings and admonitions by "their fatal persuasion that it is needless to attend to them."  Their historical knowledge the work of Christ has settled them in a conviction "that godly fear and careful walking are superfluities, if not actually an offence against the gospel."

- From Thomas Nettles' book:  Living By Revealed Truth

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Quote of the Day

By 1875 Spurgeon said the "new doctrines have certainly gone tolerable lengths now, and from annihilationism to restoration has been a mere foot-race."  Soon he expected the ungodly to be exalted at once, with no stop in between, to heaven and the righteous sent to outer darkness.  The sympathies of modern preachers were toward the unbelieving, doubt was celebrated and viewed as a sign of salvation.  "We may naturally look for a heaven prepared for loose thinkers, who are so brave as to despise all creeds and believe in nothing whatever."  Those deserving of being cast aside were believers in plenary inspiration, who view sin as a terrible evil and therefore affirm the justness of eternal punishment.  Liberal modern thinkers see such folks as narrow-minded bigots.  "Everybody is received as a Christian nowadays by the Broad School except those who are so indeed."…Robert Reynoldson's book Everlasting Punishment not Everlasting Pain was materialism under the guise of annihilation.  The publication was as feeble as it was fallacious for it substituted assumption for argument, and dogmatism for demonstration…..[Spurgeon said that}"Truths once regarded as fundamental, are either denied, or else turned inside out till nothing of their essence remains.  Holy Scripture is no longer admitted to be the infallible record of revelation; but is made to be a door-mat for 'thought' to wipe its shoes upon."…he found that men were "disloyal to God in order to be charitable to men" and propounded a Christianity "from which the Fall and the Atonement have both been eliminated."
 
From Living By Revealed Truth - by Thomas Nettles

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Quote of the Day

If I thought I it wrong to be a Baptist, I should give it up, and become what I believed to be right.  The particular doctrine adhered to by Baptists is that they acknowledge no authority unless it comes from the Word of God.  They attach no importance to the authority of the Fathers - they care not for the authority of the mothers - if what they say does not agree with the teaching of the Evangelists, Apostles, and Prophets, and most of all, with the teaching of the Lord Himself.  If we could find infant baptism in the Word of God, we should adopt it.  It would help us out of a great difficulty, for it would take away from us that reproach which is attached to us - that we are odd, and do not as other people do.  But we have looked well through the Bible, and cannot find it, and do not believe that it is there; nor do we believe that others can find infant baptism in the Scriptures, unless they themselves first put it there.

Charles Spurgeon

Monday, November 11, 2013

Quote of the Day

If we refuse to forgive, we have stepped into dangerous waters.  First, refusing to forgive is to put ourselves in the place of God, as though vengeance were our prerogative, not his.  Second, unforgiveness says God's wrath is insufficient.  For the unbeliever, we are saying that an eternity in hell is not enough, they need our slap in the face or cold shoulder to "even the scales" of justice.  For the believer, we are saying that Christ's humiliation and death are not enough.  In other words, we shake our fists at God and say, "Your standards may have been satisfied, but my standard is higher!"  Finally, refusing to forgive is the highest form of arrogance.  Here we stand forgiven.  And as we bask in the forgiveness of a perfectly holy and righteous God, we turn to our brother and say, "My sins are forgivable, but yours are not."  In other words, we act as though the sins of others are too significant to forgive while simultaneously believing that ours are not significant enough to matter.

Voddie Baucham Jr.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Quote of the Day


If we think that our substitutes do more good or reap larger results than the gospel way, we will create serious difficulties and engender a destructive enmity within the church.  "I have known brethren tell sinners a great many falsehoods with the view of saving them."  He did not want one creed for the ministers' meeting and another for the enquiry room.  Salvation is not promoted by the suppression of truth…."I hold that I have no right to state false doctrines, even if I knew it would save a soul.  The supposition is, of course, absurd; but it makes you see what I mean."

…Our tampering produces false theology, false ideas of Christianity, tolerates disobedience to the ordinances, and makes supposed believers impatient with calls to holiness.  One may sure, however, that Christ will not be trifled with, will not have "his words shuffled like a deck of cards," will be "Lord as well as Savior" or will not be Savior.  A supposed assurance of forensic justification "apart from a spiritual work within the soul - - a change of heart, and a renewal of mind" does not yield a future of heaven.

From - Living by Revealed Truth: The Life and Pastoral Theology of Charles Haddon Spurgeon by Thomas Nettles

Monday, November 4, 2013

Quote of the Day


Both Arminians and hyper-Calvinists demanded that theology conform to a narrowly defined system more restricted than the biblical revelation allowed.  Scripture conforms to a higher logic than human intellect and can penetrate and unveils mysteries beyond the scope of construction by mere human ratiocination.

 "It has been my earnest endeavor ever since I have preached the Word, never to keep back a single doctrine which I believed to be taught of God  It is time that we had done with the old rusty systems that have so long curbed the freeness of religious speech.  The Arminian trembles to go an inch beyond Arminius or Wesley, and many a Calvinist refers to John Gill or John Calvin as an ultimate authority, It is time that the systems were broken up, and that there was sufficient grace in all our hearts to believe everything taught in God's Word, whether it was taught by either of these men or not.  I have frequently found when I have preached what is called high doctrine, because I found it in my text, that some people have been offended; they could not enjoy it, could not endure it , and went away.  They were generally people who were best gone; I have never regretted their absence.  On the other hand, when I have taken for my text some sweet invitation, and have preached the freeness of Christ's love to man; when I have warned sinners that they are responsible while they hear the gospel, and that if they reject Christ their blood will be upon their own heads, I find another class of doubtless excellent individuals who cannot see how these two things agree.  And therefor also turn aside, and wade into the deceptive miry bogs of antinomianism.  I can only say with regard to them, that I had rather also that they should go to their own sort, than that they should remain with my congregation.  We seek to hold truth.  We know no difference between high doctrine and low doctrine.  If God teaches it, it is enough.  If it is not in the Word, away with it!  Away with it!  But if it be in the Word, agreeable or disagreeable, systematic or disorderly, I believe it.  It may seem to us as if one truth stood in opposition to another, but we are fully convinced that it cannot be so, that it is a mistake in our judgment.  That the two things do agree we are quite clear, though where they meet we do not know as yet, but hope to know hereafter."

 

Charles Spurgeon as quoted in Living by Revealed Truth:  The Life and Pastoral Theology of Charles Haddon Spurgeon by Thomas Nettles