Journal: Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society
Volume: JOTGES 34:67 (Autumn 2021)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

JOTGES 34:67 (Autumn 2021) p. 86

Book Reviews

Tethered to the Cross: The Life and Preaching of C. H. Spurgeon. By Thomas Breimaier. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2020. 271 pp. Hardcover, $24.64.

Thomas Breimaier is a professor at Spurgeon’s College in London. In this work, he analyzes Spurgeon’s approach to hermeneutics. C. H. Spurgeon (1834–1892) was perhaps the most famous preacher of his day, ministering in London. He viewed all of the Bible through the cross of Christ and sought the spiritual conversion of his hearers. His desire was that his preaching would also lead those that were already converted to have a deeper knowledge of the Bible and more effectively engage in evangelism (pp. 3–4).

Spurgeon was extraordinarily successful. He was the pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle and often preached to thousands. When he died, over fifty-six million copies of his sermons had been sold. He published a widely read magazine, The Sword and the Trowel, and ran a pastor’s college to train men to follow in his model of ministry. In addition, he established two orphanages and reached out to the poor of his day to meet their physical needs. He would also on occasion comment on political and social ills (pp. 119–21, 182).

There are chapters which address Spurgeon’s theological education, his early and later years, and how he trained the pastors in his college. Chapters 3 and 4, which deal with how Spurgeon used both the Old and New Testaments to point people to the cross, will probably be of most interest to the readers of the JOTGES.

Spurgeon credits a sermon on Isa 45:22 as leading to his own conversion at the age of 15, when he heard a preacher in a Methodist church expound on it. Even though the death of Christ is not found in the passage, the preacher said that it pointed to the cross. This would later provide the pattern of Spurgeon’s ministry, when he would take a single verse and concentrate on the crucifixion of the Lord (p. 23). The immediate context was not important (p. 79). He would preach out of all types of OT literature and point his hearers to Christ’s substitutionary atonement (pp. 105, 109). Breimaier says

JOTGES 34:67 (Autumn 2021) p. 87

Spurgeon often engaged in “creative” interpretation in both the OT and NT (p. 168). As a result, Spurgeon rejected Biblical interpretation based upon a “plain, literal, sense” (p. 234).

Spurgeon did not obtain a formal theological education but was a voracious reader. He commented that a woman who was a cook taught him as a young believer more than a theological education could have. Interestingly, she was known as an antinomian, an...