posted by Phil Johnson
The PyroManiacs devote some space each weekend to highlights from The Spurgeon Archive. The following excerpt is from "Bought with a Price," a sermon preached on Sunday morning, 6 August 1871, at the Met Tab in London.
am asked sometimes to read an heretical book: well, if I believed my reading it would help its refutation, and might be an assistance to others in keeping them out of error, I might do it as a hard matter of duty, but I shall not do it unless I see some good will come from it. I am not going to drag my spirit through a ditch for the sake of having it washed afterwards, for it is not my own (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).It may be that good medicine would restore me if I poisoned myself with putrid meat, but I am not going to try it: I dare not experiment on a mind which no longer belongs to me.
There is a mother and a child, and the child has a book to play with, and a blacklead pencil. It is making drawings and marks upon the book, and the mother takes no notice. It lays down one book and snatches another from the table, and at once the mother rises from her seat, and hurriedly takes the book away, saying: "No, my dear, you must not mark that, for it is not ours."
So with my mind, intellect, and spirit; if it belonged to me I might or might not play tomfool with it, and go to hear Socinians, Ritualists, Universalists, and such like preach, but as it is not my own, I will preserve it from such fooleries, and the pure word shall not be mingled with the errors of men.
5 comments:
Reminds me of when The Shack was first published and many of us benefited from the duty felt by others (Challies, Mohler, our Pastor) to read it and warn us of its heretical content. I was very grateful.
Again and again Spurgeon speaks and full of balanced wisdom, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
I appreciate what Spurgeon seems to be saying - and I agree in spirit - but this is simplistic.
It's one thing for a Christian to willfully soil himself with the slime of worldly culture under the flimsy pretext of "becoming conversant" or "meeting people where they are" or "being all things to all men," ostensibly to facilitate more-effective Gospel salesmansh--er, witness.
It's altogether a separate matter to familiarize oneself with the subtle heresies of the enemy's false religions and vain philosophies so that these might be exposed, avoided and refuted.
The latter pursuit, which Chaz appears to condemn here, is both noble and necessary, regardless if ol' Uncle Spurge approves or turns up his nose. Harumph!
This very thing came up yesterday when I answered the door to a couple of young women who were from the Mormon church down the street. I begged them to go through God's Word and read it from cover to cover. They begged me to do the same with the book of Mormon. I told them that I need not look at the different counterfeits to know the truth, but rather study the one truth to see what is counterfeit just as a cashier who learns to distinguish if money is real or not.
I thought later, would it benefit me to read through in order to be able to specifically show each lie in their book? I do know enough of their general beliefs to speak to them about how their false religion differs from God's Word. Did I really need to know every facet of The Book of Mormon to be an effective witness?
I am glad that I read your post. It was an affirmation of what I believed in the fist place.
If you read this, please pray for the young ladies who came by. One said that she keeps running into people like me who tell her that she cannot earn her salvation and that God saves by grace. Pray that God will send more her way. She obviously had some questions.--cindy
I think aztexan has made a very important distinction, a distinction that I wholeheartedly agree with.
Of course, Spurgeon probably would have agreed with the distinction, but entries like this make me wonder.... 8^/
Word verify: "inisms"; noun, plural, any and all fad or fashion philosophies current in one's generation or era.
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