Charles Spurgeon says:
“And, brethren, there will be no uncertain sound from us
as to the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot leave the blood
out of our ministry, or the life of it will be gone; for we may say of
the gospel, ‘The blood is the life thereof.’ The proper substitution of
Christ, the vicarious sacrifice of Christ, on the behalf of His people,
that they might live through Him,–this we must publish till we die” (C.
H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students).
No uncertain sound as to the EFFICACIOUS ATONEMENT of Jesus Christ? Well, since Spurgeon believed that Arminians such as John Wesley
were saved, then we know (in no uncertain terms) that the efficacious
blood of Jesus Christ IS left completely out of Spurgeon’s ministry of
masquerade.
“For such ones [are] false apostles, deceitful workers
transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And did not Satan
marvelously transform himself into an angel of light? [It is] not a
great thing, then, if also his ministers transform themselves as
ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works”
(2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
What then does this marvelously magnetic
minister of Satan MEAN by “proper substitution,” “vicarious sacrifice,”
“on the behalf of,” and “might live through Him”? It obviously cannot
have anything to do with the efficacy of the blood; so take EFFICACIOUS
BLOOD right out of Spurgeon’s ministry equation since there is
absolutely no life-giving effect in this blood.
Spurgeon’s widely-known vulgar display of spiritual fornication with John Wesley reveals that the doctrine of the EFFECT of the vicarious sacrifice of Jesus Christ is NOT essential. It matters not to Spurgeon whether some people for whom Christ died go to hell. The proof is in the porneia.
Now what of Spurgeon’s supposed living “THROUGH HIM” statement? If
Christ’s cross-work and resurrection does NOT demand and ensure the
salvation of ALL whom Christ represented, then HOW can it be truthfully
said that Jesus Christ is the “firstfruit” (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23)? Or
that “in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22)?
Since God-haters Spurgeon and Wesley believed that Jesus Christ died for those who go to heaven as well as those who go to hell [1],
then according to their scheme, those who are said “to live” are
clearly NOT living through Him, but through their own self-righteous
efforts (Romans 3:24-31).
So, in this self-righteous scheme there is NOT efficacious healing
for ALL whom Christ suffered on the tree (1 Peter 2:21-24). There is NO
“by His wound you were healed” to be found (cf. 1 Peter 2:24). What IS
found in the so-called “atonement” of Spurgeon and Wesley is a kind of
tyranny of therapy whereby the beast is somehow healed (in the minds of
many lost religionists) from its own deadly wound at the expense of
God’s law and justice (Proverbs 17:15; Isaiah 28:17; Jeremiah 2:22;
Romans 3:26; Revelation 13:1-18). Those like-minded with Spurgeon and
Wesley know NOTHING of the just God and Savior:
“Gather yourselves and come; draw near together, escaped
ones of the nations; the ones who set up the wood of their carved image,
and the ones who pray to a god who cannot save; they know nothing.
Declare and bring near; yea, let them consult together. Who has revealed
this of old; [who] has told it from then? Is it not I, Jehovah? And
there [is] no God other than Me; a just God and a Savior; [there is]
none except Me. Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I
[am] God, and there [is] no other. I have sworn by Myself, the Word has
gone out of My mouth [in]righteousness, and shall not return, that to
Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. He shall say, Only in
Jehovah do I have righteousness and strength; to Him he comes; and they
are ashamed, all who are angry with Him. In Jehovah all of the seed of
Israel shall be justified, and shall glory” (Isaiah 45:20-25).
[1] Spurgeon preached a sermon on “Particular Redemption” on February 28, 1858. In this sermon he said:
“… you [the Arminians–CD] believe that even after a man
has been pardoned, he may yet fall from grace, and perish. Now, who is
it that limits the death of Christ? Why, you. You say that Christ did
not die so as to infallibly secure the salvation of anybody, we beg your
pardon, when you say we limit Christ’s death; we say, ‘No, my dear sir,
it is you that do it. We say Christ so died that he infallibly secured
the salvation of a multitude that no man can number, who through
Christ’s death not only may be saved, but are saved, must be saved, and
cannot by any possibility run the hazard of being anything but saved.
You are welcome to your atonement; you may keep it. We will never
renounce ours for the sake of it.'”
Here Spurgeon expresses an apparent revulsion regarding an
“atonement” which allows for an already pardoned man to perish and so
fall from grace. It thus appears Spurgeon’s words are against those
Arminians who believed that a justified and regenerate person could
become unjustified and unregenerate again, and then finally to perish.
Certainly Spurgeon is not willing to say that truly regenerate persons
can unregenerate themselves. But here’s what he does say, and has said
in other contexts (expounding and applying Acts 5:31 to a possible
convert):
“Be sure of this, that He who is gone into His glory,
raised into all the splendor and majesty of God, has abundant ways of
working repentance in those to whom He grants forgiveness. He is even
now waiting to give repentance to you. Ask Him for it at once… The Lord
can give repentance to the most unlikely, turning lions into lambs, and
ravens into doves. Let us look to Him that this great change may be
wrought in us. Assuredly the contemplation of the death of Christ is one
of the surest and speediest methods of gaining repentance. Do not sit
down and try to pump up repentance from the dry well of corrupt nature.
It is contrary to the laws of mind to suppose that you can force your
soul into that gracious state. Take your heart in prayer to Him who
understands it, and say, ‘Lord, cleanse it. Lord, renew it. Lord, work
repentance in it.’ The more you try to produce penitent emotions in
yourself, the more you will be disappointed; but if you believingly
think of Jesus dying for you, repentance will burst forth. Meditate on
the Lord’s shedding His heart’s blood out of love to you. Set before
your mind’s eye the agony and bloody sweat, the cross and passion; and,
as you do this, He who was the bearer of all this grief will look at
you, and with that look He will do for you what He did for Peter, so
that you also will go out and weep bitterly. He who died for you can, by
His gracious Spirit, make you die to sin; and He who has gone into
glory on your behalf can draw your soul after Him, away from evil, and
toward holiness” (C.H. Spurgeon, All of Grace).
So, here is Spurgeon hawking his false gospel of salvation
conditioned on the sinner’s efforts in a similar manner to any
God-hating, garden-variety Arminian.
