CONFESSION OF FAITH

In The Forgotten Spurgeon, Ian Murray identifies the three problems that Charles Spurgeon saw in the non-conformist church (that day's equivalent of evangelicals) of his day:     1. There was a general unwillingness to define doctrinal issues precisely and what followed was an unwillingness to question the beliefs of any denomination in the name of Christian charity.     2. Scripture was no longer the "rule of faith and practice".     3. Many non-conformist pastors had settled for pragmatism rather than truth.

During the "Downgrade Controversy" in 1887 Charles Spurgeon, failing to persuade the Baptist Union to adopt a clear Statement of Faith, withdrew for fear of ever-growing doctrinal carelessness. In 1891 he banded together with other like minded Bible-believing preachers of different denominations to form their own.

I would, if possible, add my name to their Confession of Faith that follows:

We avow our firmest belief in the Verbal Inspiration of all Holy Scripture as originally given. To us, the Bible does not merely contain the Word of God, but is the Word of God. From beginning to end, we accept it, believe it, and continue to preach it. To us, the Old Testament is no less inspired than the New. The Book is an organic whole.

We hold and maintain the truths generally known as "the doctrines of grace." The Electing Love of God the Father, the Propitiatory and Substitutionary Sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, Regeneration by the Holy Spirit, the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness, the Justification of the sinner (once for all) by faith, his walk in newness of life and growth in grace by the active indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the Priestly Intercession of our Lord Jesus, as also the hopeless eternal damnation of all who reject the Saviour, according to the words of the Lord in Matt. xxv. 46, "These shall go away into eternal punishment," - are, in our judgment, revealed and fundamental truths.

"Just now, the Lord Jesus is betrayed by not a few of His professed ministers. He is being crucified afresh in the perpetual attacks of scepticism against His blessed gospel; and it may be that things will grow worse and worse. This is not the first occasion when it has been so, for, at various times in the history of the Church of God, His enemies have exulted, and cried out that the gospel of past ages was exploded, and might be reckoned as dead and buried. For one, I mean to sit over against the very sepulchre of truth. I am a disciple of the old-fashioned doctrine as much when it is covered with reproach and rebuke as when it shall again display its power, as it surely shall. Sceptics may seem to take the truth, and bind it, and scourge it, and crucify it, and say that it is dead; and they may endeavour to bury it in scorn, but the Lord has many a Joseph and a Nicodemus who will see that all due honour is done even to the body of truth, and will wrap the despised creed in sweet spices, and hide it away in their hearts. They may, perhaps, be half afraid that it is really dead, as the wise men assert; yet it is precious to their souls, and they will come forth right gladly to promote its cause, and to confess that they are its disciples. We will sit down in sorrow, but not in despair; and watch until the stone is rolled away, and Christ in His truth shall live again, and be openly triumphant. We shall see a Divine intervention, and shall cease to fear; while they who stand armed to prevent the resurrection of the grand old doctrine shall quake and become as dead men, because the gospel's everlasting life has been vindicated, and they are made to tremble in fear before the brightness of its glory." — C. H. Spurgeon, in sermon at the Tabernacle, 1878.