Listening afresh to Spurgeon

Far too many communities of contempor-ary Western evangelicals are in a parlous state: some are captive to right-wing pol-itical ideologies (especially in the United States); others, if the truth be told, are dubious about any real success of the gos-pel in a secular state; while yet others are being consumed by faddishness in their pursuit of being relevant.

All of these various groups, indeed all of us, desperately need to realise our great need of the Holy Spirit, without whom we can do nothing of real spiritual value and without whom we can never hope to flourish. And here the Victorian preacher C.H. Spurgeon can help us enormously.

The necessity of the Spirit

During 1859, when a powerful revival swept through much of Great Britain, Spurgeon preached a series of sermons on what are sometimes referred to as ‘the five points of Calvinism’. He was firmly convinced that the proclamation of these doctrines would help further the revival that was then under way.