The Forgotten Spurgeon (Murray)

Description

This book seeks to throw light on the reasons which have given rise to the superficial image of Spurgeon as a genial Victorian pulpiteer, a kind of grandfather of modern evangelicalism. Even before his death in 1892 newspapers and church leaders disputed over the features of his life which entitled him to fame. Not his ‘narrow creed’ but his ‘genuine loving character’ was most worthy of remembrance said one periodical, echoing the general view. When Joseph Parker contrasted the hard Calvinism preached at Spurgeon’s Tabernacle with the praiseworthy Christianity exemplified in his orphanage, The Baptist protested that the man about whom Parker wrote ‘is not the Spurgeon of history’. But the distortion continued and Spurgeon forecast how the position he help might fare in years to come: ‘I am quite willing to be eaten by dogs for the next fifty years but the more distant future shall vindicate me’.

This book traces the main lines of Spurgeon’s spiritual thought in connection with the three great controversies in his ministry- the first was his stand against the diluted gospel fashionable in the London to which the young preacher came in the 1850’s; the second, the famous ‘Baptismal Regeneration’ debate of 1864; lastly, the lacerating Down-Grade controversy of 1887-1891 when Spurgeon sought to awaken Christians to the danger of the Church ‘being buried beneath the boiling mud-showers of modern heresy’.

Contents

Preface to Second Edition
Some Dates concerning Spurgeon
Why 'The Forgotten Spurgeon'?

1. The Preacher in Park Street
2. The Lost Controversy
3. Arminianism against Scripture
4. Arminianism and Evangelism
5. Church Issues Revived
6. The Down-Grade
7. The Down-Grade and Its Lessons
8. Free Grace and the Down-Grace in Perspective
9. ‘Through the Heavens Fall’
10. The Aftermath at the Metropolitan Tabernacle

Appendix: An Open Letter
Index

About the Author 

Born in England in 1931, Iain Murray studied history and philosophy at the University of Durham and considered becoming an English Presbyterian Church minister. While at the university, though, he read material written by the Puritans and began assisting at St. John’s Free Church in Oxford. While there, he served as the first editor of The Banner of Truth magazine. From 1956-1959, he served as assistant to D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel and, in 1957, he co-founded the Banner of Truth Trust. Iain Murray books include J.C. Ryle: Prepared to Stand Alone, giving Christians the opportunity to discover more about this influential 19th century evangelical author who had been largely forgotten; a two-volume biography titled D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (with individual volumes also available separately: 1 and 2); Forgotten Spurgeon in which he focuses on clearing up misconceptions about Spurgeon and delineates his spiritual beliefs; and a biography of a remarkable woman, Amy Carmichael.