The Soteriology of Charles Haddon Spurgeon and How It Impacted His Evangelism -- By: Jerry Harmon

Journal: Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society
Volume: JOTGES 19:36 (Spring 2006)
Article: The Soteriology of Charles Haddon Spurgeon and How It Impacted His Evangelism
Author: Jerry Harmon


The Soteriology of Charles Haddon Spurgeon
and How It Impacted His Evangelism

Jerry Harmon

Teaching Pastor
Grace Bible Baptist Church
Baltimore, MD

I. Introduction

The fact that one of the greatest preachers of the modern era was a five-point Calvinist is beyond question.1 All one would have to do is read any one of Charles Spurgeon’s sermons to be convinced that he loved and proclaimed boldly the doctrines of grace. Another indisputable fact about Spurgeon’s ministry is that it was baptized with evangelistic fervor. So passionate was he that in a sermon preached at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in 1869 he proclaimed;

I am as firm a believer in the doctrines of grace as any man living, and a true Calvinist after the order of John Calvin himself; but if it be thought an evil thing to bid the sinner lay hold of eternal life, I will yet be more evil in this respect, and herein imitate my Lord and his apostles, who, though they taught that salvation is of grace, and grace alone, feared not to speak to men as rational beings and responsible agents…Beloved, cling to the great truth of electing love and divine sovereignty, but let not these bind you in fetters when, in the power of the Holy Ghost, you become fishers of men.2

A. Family Influences

Charles Spurgeon came from a godly heritage. His great grandfather Job Spurgeon was a godly minister who was thrown in prison in 1679 for refusing to conform to the Church of England. He spent fifteen weeks laying on a straw pallet in extremely severe winter weather without any fire.3 Spurgeon would later state of his great grandfather, “I cast my eye back through four generations and see that God had been pleased to hear the prayers of my grandfather who used to supplicate with God that his children might live before Him to the last generation.”4 God did hear the prayers of Job Spurgeon at least for the next four generations. Following in his father’s path, James Spurgeon, the grandfather of Charles, was a godly man and a fervent preacher of the gospel of grace. When he was a small child, little Charles was sent to live with his grandfather because of the financial hardships his family endured.5 This turned out to be providential in that Spurgeon’s theology already had begun to be molded at this tender young age. James Spurgeon had a profound influence on his grandson. Charles Spurgeon, in an 18...

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