09 January 2011

Don't Fear the Militant Skeptics

Your weekly dose of Spurgeon
posted by Phil Johnson





The PyroManiacs devote some space each weekend to highlights from The Spurgeon Archive. The following excerpt is from "The Dream of the Bakery Cake," a sermon preached Sunday morning, 22 November 1885 at the Met Tab in London.




ehold the host of doubters, and heretics, and revilers, who, at the present time, have come up into the inheritance of Israel, hungry from their deserts of rationalism and atheism! They are eating up all the corn of the land. They cast a doubt upon all the verities of our faith.

But we need not fear them; for if we heard their secret counsels, we should perceive that they are afraid of us. Their loud blusterings and their constant sneers are the index of real fear. Those who preach the cross of our Lord Jesus are the terror of modern thinkers. In their heart of hearts they dread the preaching of the old-fashioned gospel, and they hate what they dread. On their beds they dream of the coming of some evangelist into their neighborhood. What the name of Richard was to the Saracens, that is the name of Moody to these boastful intellects. They wish they could stop those Calvinistic fellows and those evangelical old fogies.

Brethren, so long as the plain gospel is preached in England there will always be hope that these brigands will yet be scattered, and the church be rid of their intrusion. Rationalism, Socinianism, Ritualism, and Universalism will soon take to their legs, if the clear, decided cry of "the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon" be once more heard.

C. H. Spurgeon


8 comments:

qizhi said...

Glaring typo in the sermon title: "Barley" not "Bakery".

Steve Berven said...

Those that deftly wield marginalizing words like "divisive" and "reactionary."

Daring to hold fast to the real Gospel gets you labeled as "old school" or out of touch. I guess it becomes a question what you are more in touch with? The current social seeker-trends, or the timeless truth of the Word? Sad that the two are so often mutually exclusive.

Boerseuntjie said...

For us in the United Kingdom - What a sad prophecy, which seems almost full complete...

Yet what confort in te Scriptures:
Isaiah 11:16
"And there SHALL BE an highway for THE REMNANT of HIS PEOPLE, which SHALL BE LEFT, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt."

GrammaMack said...

"Their loud blusterings and their constant sneers are the index of real fear."

Lately I've been wondering why so many unbelievers online have to viciously mock believers and the Bible. There you have it.

Rob said...

Very timely message for today, although my fear is less of this lot of people, and more for my united Methodist family members and so much of the bizarro doctrine they imbibe...

Martin said...

Curiously I've found that when challenged most of these valiant warriors of rationality lose their rationality and slink away.

The Nerd said...

Skeptic here! Not militant, because what good has ever been done in the name of hate?

I'll give you an example of why we're afraid. I attended a convention for skeptics called (oh so cleverly) Skepticon. It happened to be inside a convention center that was also holding a gun show. Now, which among you would be comfortable with having someone stroking his pistol, looking you in the eye, and telling you you're going to hell?

That's terrifying! Not because I'm afraid of death (there's nothing that happens after death to fear), but because I happen to have a young boy who would miss his mother if something were to happen to me.

Now, in all fairness, there were some people standing outside who were offering prayers. I don't know who would be afraid of prayers, honestly, they're as harmful as a poetry reading, and I think any fellow who would offer either has only good intentions.

But seriously, please spread the message for people to at least put down the firearms before telling us how worthless our (supposed) souls are. Otherwise, our justified fear is nothing for you to gloat over.

Duke of Earl said...

Yet it's atheists like Jared Loughner and the guys at Columbine who actually go on shooting rampages.

If I were inclined to fear it'd be them that I was scared of.