CHARLES
SPURGEON
QUOTES ON CALVINISM
It is no novelty, then, that I am
preaching; no new doctrine. I love to proclaim these strong old doctrines that
are called by nickname Calvinism, but which are truly and verily the revealed
truth of God as it is in Christ Jesus.
By this truth I make my pilgrimage into the past, and as I go, I see father
after father, confessor after confessor, martyr after martyr, standing up to
shake hands with me . . . Taking these things to be the standard of my faith, I
see the land of the ancients peopled with my brethren; I behold multitudes who
confess the same as I do, and acknowledge that this is the religion of God's
own church. (Spurgeon's Sovereign Grace Sermons, Still
Waters Revival Books, p. 170).
I have my own opinion that there is no such
thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is
called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the
gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel if we do
not preach justification by faith without works; nor unless we preach the
sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the
electing unchangeable eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I
think we can preach the gospel unless we base it upon the special and
particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out
upon the cross. (Charles Spurgeon, The New Park Street
Pulpit, Vol. 1, 1856).
... and I will go as far as Martin Luther, in
that strong assertion of his, where he says, ‘If any man doth ascribe of
salvation, even the very least, to the free will of man, he knoweth
nothing of grace, and he hath not learnt Jesus Christ aright.’ It may seem a
harsh sentiment; but he who in his soul believes that man does of his own free
will turn to God, cannot have been taught of God, for that is one of the first
principles taught us when God begins with us, that we have neither will nor
power, but that He gives both; that he is ‘Alpha and Omega’ in the salvation of
men. (C.H. Spurgeon from the sermon "Free Will A
Slave", 1855).
You must first deny the authenticity and full
inspiration of the Holy Scripture before you can legitimately and truly deny
election. (Charles Spurgeon, Sermons, Vol. 3, p.130).
When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was
doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the
Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of
this. I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths in
my own soul - when they were as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a
hot iron; and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown all of a sudden from
a babe into a man - that I had made progress in scriptural knowledge, through
having found, once for all, the clue to the truth of God ... I saw that God was
at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the
whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not
departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, I
ascribe my change wholly to God. (Charles Spurgeon, Autobiography:
1, The Early Years, Banner of Truth, pp. 164-165).
George Whitefield said, "We are all born
Arminians." It is grace that turns us into
Calvinists. (Charles Spurgeon, Sermons, Vol. 2, p.
124).
Calvinism did not spring from Calvin. We
believe that it sprang from the great Founder of all truth. (Charles
Spurgeon, Sermons, Vol. 7, p. 298).
We declare on scriptural authority that the
human will is so desperately set on mischief, so depraved, so inclined to
everything that is evil, and so disinclined to
everything that is good, that without the powerful, supernatural, irresistible
influence of the Holy Spirit, no human will ever be constrained toward Christ. (Charles Spurgeon, Sermons, Vol. 4, p.139).
I do not come into this pulpit hoping that
perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ. My hope lies in
another quarter. I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say,
"You are mine, and you shall be mine. I claim you for myself." My
hope arises from the freeness of grace, and not from the freedom of the will.
I believe that Christ came into the world not
to put men into a salvable state, but into a saved state. Not to put them where
they could save themselves, but to do the work in them and for them, from first
to last. If I did not believe that there was might going forth with the word of
Jesus which makes men willing, and which turns them from the error of their
ways by the mighty, overwhelming, constraining force of divine influence, I
should cease to glory in the cross of Christ. (C.H. Spurgeon,
Sermons, Vol. 3, p. 34).
A man is not saved against his will, but he
is made willing by the operation of the Holy Ghost. A mighty grace which he
does not wish to resist enters into the man, disarms him, makes a new creature
of him, and he is saved. (C.H. Spurgeon, Sermons, Vol.
10, p. 309).
I question whether we have preached the whole
counsel of God, unless predestination with all its solemnity and sureness be continually declared. (Charles
Spurgeon, Sermons, Vol. 6, p. 26).