Murray titles his book the 'forgotten' Spurgeon because it focuses on the 'controversialist' Spurgeon. He argues that most people, immediately following his death til today, remember Spurgeon as the great preacher of gospel truths, but fail to recognize the great controversies he was knee-deep in. Spurgeon wrote:
Controversy for the truth against the errors of the age is, we feel more than
ever convinced, the peculiar duty of the preacher.
Murray divides Spurgeon's life into three eras, or a triumvirate of heresies:
- Arminianism ('free will')
- Baptismal Regeneration (sacramentalism)
- Down-Grade controversy (liberalism).
When Spurgeon entered his first pulpit at Park Street, he thundered against Arminianism and the glory it was stealing from the sovereignty of God and the depravity of man. In the middle of his life, he fought against Anglo-Catholicism that was taking root in the Oxford Movement through the influence of later Cardinal Newman. At the end, he had to fight the good fight within his own Baptist Union, against the rising tide of anti-creed "down-grading" of the Word through liberalism and higher criticism.
What I found most interesting about this is the parallels we see with controversy today over Calvinism, Evangelical-Catholics Together, and the tension between those wanting to uphold clear doctrine and others who claim "no creed, but Christ; no law, but love." In the Down-Grade controversy, Spurgeon refused to accept the doctrinal statement that the Union wished to adopt because it was vague and there was a general attitude of refusal to be straightforward with theological stances. In many ways this seems to be what is happening in many emerging/emergent churches today. The sacramentalist (Anglo-Catholic) Oxford Movement was based on writing in the Anglican Prayer Book that left the door open for Roman infiltration. The continued work of unhelpful ecumenicalism between Roman and Protestant churches is in the ECT, where statements are being crafted that create seeds for future progression down the road of popery. What I found fascinating was that during the Down-Grade controversy, in which the inerrancy of Scripture was being questioned, Spurgeon was accused of making Calvinism the criterion of orthodoxy. Although Calvinism wasn't even the issue at hand, he was branded as a radical naysayer who required one to be a Calvinist before acknowledging them as Christian. I think this situation was evidenced in The Shack controversy, when Calvinists tended to shy away from the book and critique it, leading to the confusing of categories and critics of the Calvinist critics questioning their true motives.
I was able to sympathize with Spurgeon in many ways from the experience we had with the InterVarsity disaffiliation with accusation of sectarianism and the direction InterVarsity is going that is much in line with the Down-Grade controversy in the form of the social gospel and toward the sacramentalist ecumenical movement. If there's one thing to learn from Spurgeon's stand in controversies it would be that to give up any inch of ground from robust evangelicalism will in the long run result in whole denominations becoming corrupt in their theology. The Britain of his era was characterized as torn between Christian liberalism of the Down-Grade movement and Anglo-Catholics of the Oxford Movement--Protestants were a small, declining force that had its days numbered. Spurgeon described this dichotomy differently: biblical evangelicalism (Calvinism) versus all other versions of Christianity that took away from the free grace displayed in Christ (Arminianism). Any step away from Calvinism, which he understood as basic, good biblical theology, was one step toward Arminianism in all its forms, which includes Roman Catholicism.
There are a lot of wonderful insights this book provides and I would highly recommend it. It reads less like a biography and more like a book on three different theological movements in the nineteenth century accompanied by an encouraging example of faithfulness in spite of whirling misquoting and notoriety. At only around 200 pages, it's a fast read and Murray's writing style is always conducive to pleasurable perusing.
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