Pitfalls of the Gospel Proclamation

My friend and I were discussing Calvinism (hyper-Calvinism as well) and Arminianism recently, along with the beliefs each hold to on the doctrine of repentance. Its one subject, ( Calvinism verses Arminianism) which seems to bring our the ‘bear’ in those who strongly hold to one or the other; the only other topic which brings about as many heated debates is Eschatology–with my friend and I it doesn’t though; we usually just discuss the points [in both] we agree with and those we don’t. It makes for a good discussion among friends!

I’m one who does not believe we can repent whenever we decide to do so, …when its ‘convenient’; instead  it is the Holy Spirit who not only draws us to Christ but to Godly repentance. The example of Esau in Hebrews I believe proves this:

Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.  For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. Hebrews 12

This evening while doing a search on both views and repentance I came upon a very good quote from Spurgeon, along with equally good comments by the poster Nathan White at Shepherd The Flock

“It is to be feared that Calvinistic doctrine becomes most evil teaching when it is set forth by men of ungodly lives, and exhibited as if it were a cloak for licentiousness; and Arminianism on the other hand, with its wide sweep of the offer of mercy, may do most serious damage to the souls of men, if the careless tone of the preacher leads his hearers to believe they can repent whenever they please; and that, therefore, no urgency surrounds the gospel message.” – CH Spurgeon, Lectures to my Students

The above quote struck me as extremely relevant to this present age, even though its application is someone different in our time. In this quote Spurgeon is discussing the ministry, and more particularly the gospel message that is preached by men in authority.

“It is a terrible thing when the healing balm loses its efficacy through the blunderer who administers it.”

Do you not see that in our day, the most popular gospel message is a sort of mixture of the two errors Spurgeon details above?

That is, we have preachers today who have taken the eternal security from the 5th point of Calvinism, and they have wed it with the belief that men can repent of their sins whenever they please. Oh, what a poisonous combination!

Does your heart feel no pain when you consider the statement “…may do most serious damage to the souls of men, if the careless tone of the preacher leads his hearers to believe they can repent whenever they please”?

At least in Spurgeon’s day these men were consistent enough to preach that if you didn’t continue in this repentance until death, then you would lose your salvation! Now days we have the careless tone coupled with the eternal security, so that men are told they have the free-will to repent whenever they please, but they don’t have the free-will to chose to leave Christ if they were saved in the first place! A message of licentiousness indeed!

My friends, we should tremble that such a deadly message has such a wide hearing in our streets. Do not dishonor your Master by refusing to speak out against it…