tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17892009.post116379803473004936..comments2023-03-28T09:05:52.978-05:00Comments on sc: Election Not The Main Point..But Still A Point...So EvangelizeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17892009.post-1163992169275681232006-11-19T21:09:00.000-06:002006-11-19T21:09:00.000-06:00Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God according to C...Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God according to Charles Spurgeon.......<BR/><BR/>The great Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon was a five-point Calvinist. He was also a passionate evangelist and soul winner. On August 1, 1858, he preached a sermon entitled, "Sovereign Grace and Man's Responsibility." The words of wisdom that flowed from his mouth on that day could only come from a capable pastor/theologian with a shepherd's heart and a love for the lost. We would do well to heed the counsel of this Baptist hero upon whose shoulders we stand today.<BR/><BR/>"I see in one place, God presiding over all in providence; and yet I see and I cannot help seeing, that man acts as he pleases, and that God has left his actions to his own will, in a great measure. Now, if I were to declare that man was so free to act, that there was no precedence of God over his actions, I should be driven very near to Atheism; and if, on the other hand, I declare that God so overrules all things, as that man is not free enough to be responsible, I am driven at once into Antinomianism or fatalism. That God predestines, and that man is responsible, are two things that few can see. They are believed to be inconsistent and contradictory; but they are not. It is just the fault of our weak judgment. Two truths cannot be contradictory to each other. If, then, I find taught in one place that everything is fore-ordained, that is true; and if I find in another place that man is responsible for all his actions, that is true; and it is my folly that leads me to imagine that two truths can ever contradict each other. These two truths, I do not believe, can ever be welded into one upon any human anvil, but one they shall be in eternity: they are two lines that are so nearly parallel, that the mind that shall pursue them farthest, will never discover that they converge; but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring ....You ask me to reconcile the two. I answer, they do not want any reconcilement; I never tried to reconcile them to myself, because I could never see a discrepancy .... Both are true; no two truths can be inconsistent with each other; and what you have to do is to believe them both."<BR/><BR/>Here is a good place to stand. Here is a theology we can all affirm in service to our Savior.<BR/><BR/>Dr. Daniel L. Akin is president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com