Once again, I haven’t written for ages. But isn’t that how it is? As soon as you get a journal when you’re a kid you write in it every night for a week and then you forget until a month later and you somehow convince yourself in doing so that you’ve sinned. Another few months goes by and you don’t write in your new Tazmanian Devil journal and then you remember that you have it and decide to write and realize it has almost been a year to the day that you’ve written in your Journal. At least that’s what happened to me as a child. Even the Tazmanian Devil part. My mom bought if for me as a surprise. BUT now I write in my journal several times a week. Well that’s kind of what I do with this here blog, so maybe some day I will get better. For now I’m okay with writing stuff when I want to and I don’t really care who sees it. If you do see it though you better make a comment or something. Those make me feel good.
Anyways, why I wanted to write was because I am reading a book right now called “Spurgeon vs. Hyper-Calvinism-The battle for Gospel Preaching” and it is sooo good. I tripled the amount of “O’s” necessary in that word for emphasis. You may think the book sounds lame, but if you think that you are missing out. I don’t even care to ever preach, it is just really good for Christianity. I don’t want to explain it because my explanations of things have a tendency to suck, but you won’t fully understand what makes some of the quotes I will share so cool unless I do(foreshadowing).
This guy named Charles Spurgeon was a pastor of pretty much one of the first mega churches ever in England in the mid-late 1800’s. He is awesome. There was this “sect” of Christianity, that should really be it’s own religion because of how skewed from real Christianity it is, that is called Hyper-Calvinism. Hyper-Calvinism is defined by a credible source as “a pejorative term for a theological position that denies that the call of the gospel to repent and believe is universal – that is, for every person. Hyper-calvinism also asserts that since a person who is not influenced by the Holy Spirit does not have the ability to believe in Christ, he therefore does not have a duty to repent and believe in Christ for salvation.” I just learned what “pejorative” means. How I have understood hyper-calvinism is that it is the belief that no altar call or public Gospel should ever be given or preached because it would be inviting people who may not be part of the chosen elect of God to salvation. It suggests that these “elect” have felt the pull of the holy spirit and have a penitence towards their sin that separates them from every other sinner. The book is about how Spurgeon taught the opposite and stressed what the Bible actually says about salvation. I hope that wasn’t too long. I just want people to see these quotes because they’re so cool. Partially just because I know typing them will help me remember them better. If you have stopped reading already or want to now, I won’t be offended. You’ll just miss out on these lil’ nuggets of awesomeness. I’m just going to list them now because I’m tired of explaining, and you are too most likely. If you like them, read this book.
“Repent, and be baptized every one of you,” said Peter. As John Bunyan puts it — one man might have stood up in the crowd and said, “But I helped to hound Him to the cross! …. Repent, and be baptized every one of you.” “But I drove the nails into His hands!” saith one. “Every one of you,” says Peter. “But I pierced His side!” said another. “Every one of you,” said Peter. “And I put my tongue into my cheek and stared at His nakedness and said, ‘If He be the Son of God, let Him come down from the cross.'” …. Every one of.you,” said Peter. “Repent, and be baptized every one of you.” I do feel so grieved at many of our Calvinistic brethren; they know nothing about Calvinism, I am sorry to say, for never was any man more caricatured by his professed followers than John Calvin. Many of them are afraid to preach from Peter’s text, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you.” When I do it, they say, “He is unsound.”
“Can you understand it, for I cannot, how a man is a free agent, a responsible agent, so that his sin is his own wilful sin and lies with him and never with God, and yet at the same time God’s purposes are fulfilled and his will is done even by demons and corrupt men? I cannot comprehend it: without hesitation I believe it, and rejoice so to do , I never hope to comprehend it…….I worship a God I never expect to comprehend.”
“If he be lost, damnation is all of man; but, if he be saved, still salvation is all of God.”
“Beloved, there is nothing that so delights Jesus Christ as to save sinners….You misjudge him if you think he wants to be argued with and persuaded to have mercy; he gives it as freely as the sun pours forth light. Paul had no stinted Saviour to present to a few, no narrow-hearted Christ to be the head of a clique, but he preached a great Saviour to great masses, a great Saviour to great sinners….My Lord Jesus by his death has become immensely rich in pardoning grace – so rich indeed that no guiltiness can possibly transcend the efficacy of his precious blood.”
Le Fabuleux Destin d'Andrew Connor 
Spurgeon is a good guy. I read all the quotes because Calvinism has always been an interesting subject to me. That and because I’m awesome. Good post.
hey… i am in that book club. i am happy that you like the reading material as well. YAy old Dead Guy’s SocietY!
good quotes sir. it was also good to talk to you earlier. i’ll have to read some Spurgen now.
this makes me want to read more spurgeon because i feel like i would understand it better. I like reading your nuggets they are always fun and make me feel like i’m talking to you.
you are a liar! you are not sorry!!