Gill, Spurgeon & Hardshells

An author has well said these things about Gill, Spurgeon, and the Hyper Calvinists.

"It is to be regretted that admiration of Gill’s great gifts must have caused many preachers to evade the biblical calls to the unconverted to repent and to turn to Christ. The consequences of this were serious, not only among Calvinistic Baptist in his generation but among those of succeeding generations. Some of his admirers were able to raise themselves above the fatalism to which this system often leads. In some cases, preachers powerfully emphasized the necessity of an experimental knowledge of the great truths of the gospel and thereby caused many hearers to cry to God for salvation. There were others who acknowledged that they had a duty to preach the gospel to every creature but shrank from pressing the claims of Christ directly on their hearers. Sadly others advanced further into fatalism (Hyper Calvinism and Hardshellism - SG) until they embraced what Spurgeon described as “the soul-destroying system which takes manhood from man and makes him no more responsible than an ox. Spurgeon wrote, “I cannot imagine a more ready instrument in the hands of Satan for the ruin of souls than a minister who tells sinners that it is not their duty to repent of their sins or to believe in Christ, and who has the arrogance to call himself a gospel minister, while he teaches that God hates some men infinitely and unchangeably for no reason whatever but simply because he chooses to do so. O my brethren! May the Lord save you from the voice of the charmer, and keep you ever deaf to the voice of error” (14-15)."  (emphasis mine - SG)

History of the English Calvinistic Baptists, 1771-1892
From John Gill to C.H. Spurgeon
Pastor’s Fraternal - Heritage Church, Fayetteville, Georgia
February 22, 2008