Thursday, March 29, 2007

Spurgeon would have been an "emergent".

Spurgeon would have been an "emergent". ; )

"We admire a man who was firm in the faith, say four hundred years ago...but such a man today is a nuisance, and must be put down...Yet imagine in those ages past, Luther, Zwingle, Calvin, and their compeers had said, 'The world is out of order; but if we try to set it right we shall only make a great row, and get ourselves into disgrace. Let us go to our chambers, put on our night-caps, and sleep over the bad times, and perhaps when we wake up things will have grown better.' Such conduct on their part would have entailed upon us a heritage of error. Age after age would have gone down into the infernal deeps, and the pestiferous bogs of error would have swallowed all. These men loved the faith and the name of Jesus too well to see them trampled on.

"It is today as it was in the Reformers days. Decision is needed. Here is the day for the man, where is the man for the day? we who have had the gospel passed to us by martyr hands dare not triffle with it, nor sit by and hear it denied by traitors, who pretend to love it, but inwardly abhor every line of it...Look you sirs, there are ages yet to come. If the Lord does not speedily appear, there will come another generation, and another, and all these generations will be tainted and injured if we are not faithful to God and to His truth today. We have come to a turning point in the road. If we turn to the right mayhap our children and our children's children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word."C.H.S., Sermons, 1888, 83-84

It seems that the idea that the Reformation is not done was held by one of the greatest Calvinist himself.

(Update May 13, 2007: I noticed a bit of traffic to this post and wanted to point out that in case anyone missed it, this is posted under "fun" "humor", and "satire"... which makes me really wonder at the mean and nasty comments I received on it... It does though seem to point out as I stated that Spurgeon viewed that reformed theology was not "finished" but was still in process which is what many of the emerging conversation still believe. Yet, even with Spurgeon saying this, and emerging person agreeing, we are still deemed wrong about it. I will not state the obvious on that other than if someones view does not fit certain peoples views and theology they do seem to get mean and nasty... while I think the scripture is clear to bear with patience those who we see need to grow more in their faith... in that I will stand here and bear with patience those who seem to have no humor, and are more out to prove their self right is more right than mine. Theirs is a one-sided argument as I stand with Luther's quote:

"I shall never be a heretic; I may err in dispute, but I do not wish to decide anything finally; on the other hand, I am not bound by the opinions of men. "

Though I am not a Calvinist nor Baptist, I could easily exchange "emergent/Vineyard" or any other label I may hold; so I to hold to the spirit of this Spurgeon quote:

"I AM NEVER ASHAMED TO AVOW MYSELF A CALVINIST; I DO NOT HESITATE TO TAKE THE NAME OF BAPTIST; BUT IF I AM ASKED WHAT IS MY CREED, I REPLY —
"IT IS JESUS CHRIST."


I stand first and foremost on Jesus Christ. In that I stand on the side of Peace
.)

9 comments:

JP said...

Spurgeon an emergent? Good luck with that one. I do not think the teampyro guys would buy that one.

Unknown said...

JP,

I just thought this phrase sound a bit McLarensih...

"It is today as it was in the Reformers days."

He even goes on a bit about a "a turning point in the road"... sounds like a paradgim shift...

I liked the quote as it "resonated" with me.... i also like to read what these people say without the reinterpretation from "those guys"... it seems they twist his words to fit their own thinking... I just agreed with the quote!

Blessings,
iggy

Anonymous said...

Wow. Yeah that quote from Spurgeon sounds about as emergent as Pat Robertson...

Unknown said...

We of "emergents/emerging" see that that the Christian faith did not start at the reformation... nor ended as completed after the last "reformer". In fact we see as Spurgeon states "we who have had the gospel passed to us by martyr hands dare not triffle with it, nor sit by and hear it denied by traitors, who pretend to love it, but inwardly abhor every line of it" when inf fact those that "fight" the hardest against emerging, are so imersed in Platoist/Dualism they can't even see the Biblical teachings and the Gnostic gospel they had embraced... they are blind.

We see a great history, we embrace the detritus of our faith as a whole in which God has acted on and wihtin all belielvers.

They sleep with their night caps and attack their own over the bad times... yet if they awoke as we have they would see that things will have grown better.

They embrace their error and when we rise up to say so they lie and slander against us as the religious leaders did against Jesus Himself... for liars are always against truth.

We are the men of decision as too many have sat down and decided they know all and no longer need the Holy Spirit. They have gone down int eh infernal deeps and pestiferous bogs of error while we who love the faith and the name of Jesus too well will not stand by and see you trample it... or worse leave all with the lie Jesus is a rotting corpse still hanging on a tree... or still in the grave...

We proclaim JESUS IS RISEN AND THERE IS NOT LORD BUT HIM>.. and that even their worldly system and its politics are not able to stand against Jesus...

So take your Americanized Gospel and sell your gospel to others... I am not buying, I am already sold and am owned by My Master, Jesus.

Blessings,
iggy

Anonymous said...

martyrs complex?

Unknown said...

If you are asking or what I can't tell as you seem to be hiding behind anonymous.

If you are saying I have a martyr's complex... lets just point out that a martyr takes the stones... and there seems that you are possibly casting one now?

If someone is being attacked... they are not having a complex... yet if one seems to think themselves superior, then they are having a complex....

so is what you are? The one with the superiority stone casting complex?

Just asking,
iggy

anon15 said...

Your right I apoligize I should have revealed myself the first time, so here it is I am posting under my own login. And also I am so sorry for mocking you and saying you sleep with a night cap, and that you have an Americanized religion, and saying you lie and slander and saying that you no longer need the holy spirit. I am really sorry for throwing those stones....

anon15 said...

P.S. I just heard that John MacAuthor is an emergent. In fact he just accused R.C. Sproul of not being reformed enough. and then quoted some phrase in latin and I think it means something like "always reforming".

That quote by brian mclaren really sold me. He is such an amazing historian. He would never anachronisticly project his own issues back on people from the past. Yeah, I am really sorry, I should have been more carefull and accepting of my words....

Unknown said...

Anon15,

Do I detect a hint of sarcasm? ;)

This was meant as a bit of humor though as i read throught the comments I may not hav come across that way...

As far as McLaren being a historian? I think he misses some things, yet I seem to come across many who say things like Luther held to the authority of hte scirpture... and yet he actually questioned if come books were truly inspired...

Here is a link from my other blog:
Here is a link from my other blog


I think that the rewriting of history is on both sides though it seems the "other" side re writes more on the fictonal than I have heard McLaren.

BTW I found you comments and humor really funny! LOL! thanks fo rthe laugh.

Blessings,
iggy