Spurgeon, a few years before his death, wrote the words below about the state of his church at the time and it caused a "crises" called the "Downgrade Controversy" (after the downgrading of the doctrines and Bible)....yet his words are just as relevant today for Adventism as it was for his Baptist church in his day......
"Spurgeon wrote that day in 1887. It is fascinating to review his words, penned in his hand, with his markings, alterations and emphases. It radiates the spirit of Paul and the urgency of keeping the faith. The first paragraph especially has taken on immortality:
"Spurgeon wrote that day in 1887. It is fascinating to review his words, penned in his hand, with his markings, alterations and emphases. It radiates the spirit of Paul and the urgency of keeping the faith. The first paragraph especially has taken on immortality:
No lover of the gospel can conceal from himself the fact that the days are evil. We are willing to make a large discount from our apprehensions on the score of natural timidity, the caution of age, and the weakness produced by pain; but yet our solemn conviction is that things are much worse in many churches than they seem to be, and are rapidly tending downward. Read those newspapers which represent the Broad School of Dissent, (or read Spectrum, Adventist Today or the AR under Knott) and ask yourself, How much farther could they go?
What doctrine remains to be abandoned? (think today of the Sanctuary Doctrine/IJ, Creation, Male Ecclesiastical Headship, the S.O.P., morality in the Church today, etc.) What other truth to be the object of contempt?
A new religion has been initiated, which is no more Christianity than chalk is cheese; and this religion, being destitute of moral honesty, palms itself off as the old faith with slight
improvements, and on this plea usurps pulpits which were erected for gospel preaching. (think of theological Liberalism of today Plaguing the Church like taught by John McLarty or Loren Seibold) The Atonement is scouted, (turned into "cheap grace" by the Desmond Ford crowd) the inspiration of Scripture is derided, (the new hermeneutics of interpretation by the progressive Left) the Holy Spirit is degraded into an influence, (by some on the Independent Right assaulting the Divinity of the Holy Spirit as a member of the Godhead) the punishment of sin is turned into fiction, (again think of McLarty preaching to set aside the "ancient texts" on LGBT issues) and the resurrection into a myth, and yet these enemies of our faith expect us to call them brethren, and maintain a confederacy with them!
Spurgeon goes on:
Spurgeon goes on:
The case is mournful. Certain ministers are making infidels. (McLarty De Oliveira, Tim Gillespie, etc.) Avowed atheists are not a tenth as
dangerous as those preachers who scatter doubt and stab at faith…
Germany was made unbelieving by her preachers, and England is following in her tracks. (think of what has happened to the Church in Europe & that is what Dan Jackson at NAD & self ordained Progressives are fostering here)".
Charles Spurgeon
My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.
Jeremiah 5:6
