Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 25:2 (Summer 2021)
Article: Spurgeon On Angels: The Baptist Connection
Author: Thomas J. Nettles

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Spurgeon On Angels: The Baptist Connection

Tom J. Nettles

Tom J. Nettles is Senior Professor of Historical Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, where he has taught since 1997. Prior to teaching at Southern Seminary, Dr. Nettles has taught historical theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Mid America Baptist Theological Seminary, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Nettles earned his PhD in Church History from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas. He has written numerous books such as: Baptists and the Bible, 2nd edition with L. Russ Bush (B&H, 1999), By His Grace and for His Glory, 2nd edition (Founders Press, 2006), The Baptists, 3 vols. (Christian Focus, 2005–2007), Living By Revealed Truth: The Life and Pastoral Ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon (Christian Focus, 2013), James Petigru Boyce: Baptist Statesman (P&R, 2009), Easier for a Camel: Andrew Fuller’s View of Man’s Absolute Dependence on Grace (Free Grace Press, 2019). Dr. Nettles is married to Margaret and they have three children and six grandchildren.

Spurgeon served as a minister of the gospel in the context of the Baptist denomination in England. Until Spurgeon was fourteen years old, he had not even heard of a people called “Baptists.” When he did hear of them, the report was not favorable. Whether his parents believed that Baptists were bad people, he could not recall, but he noted, “I certainly did think so; and I cannot help feeling that, somewhere or other I must have heard some calumnies against them, or else how should I have that opinion?”1

Baptists arose within the context of ecclesiological discussion of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in English Puritanism. These discussions created a distinct movement that advocated a complete separation from Anglicanism, with the goal of congregationalist polity and purity in membership. Within that framework, some adopted the principle that

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purity of congregational church life could only be established and maintained through the baptism of believers only. Two streams developed in this context, an Arminian group soon known as General Baptists that can be traced to the influence of John Smyth in 1609, and a Calvinist group soon known as Particular Baptists which emerged in several congregations from within and independent paedobaptist congregation. Both of these groups suffered together, went to prison together, and were alike harassed in their attempts to worship. Their humble attempts to confess, preach, and worship in believing congregations we...