Different Songs of Praise for Every Century? Spurgeon on the Unchanging Gospel

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Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), often known as the Prince of Preachers, knew well what it meant to "contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). In mid-to-late nineteenth century England, rationalism was ravaging churches and denominations that traced their roots to the Protestant Reformation. It was argued that the old views of the absolute authority and infallibility of Scripture could no longer stand up to scrutiny. With that came assaults on key doctrines, including those related to the deity of Christ and substitutionary atonement. Spurgeon saw this devolution and stood in the gap, though it cost him dearly and quite likely contributed to his early death. 

In his biography of Spurgeon, my professor, Tom Nettles (that's Dr. Nettles to me), recounts Spurgeon's battle for the gospel. I wanted to pass along an extended quotation pointing to the absurdity of changing and improving the gospel. Dr. Nettles writes:

"To change such perfect good news as the gospel set forth made no sense and reached the depths of Spurgeon's disgust. 'My blood boils with indignation at the idea of improving the gospel. There is but one Saviour, and that one Saviour is the same forever. His doctrine is the same in every age, and is not yea and nay.' If modern proposal for theological change were authentic, what an absurd scene would eternity hold forth. 'What a strange result we should obtain in the general assembly of heaven,' Spurgeon envisioned, 'if some were saved by the gospel of the first century, and others by the gospel of the seventeenth, and others by the gospel of the nineteenth century!' Imagine the scene. 'We should need a different song of praise for the clients of these various periods, and the mingled chorus would be rather to the glory of man's culture than to the praise of the one Lord. No such mottled heaven, and no such discordant song, shall ever be produced.' The scene presents too ridiculous a vision to justify the movement of one inch. 'To eternal glory there is but one way; to walk therein we must hold fast one truth, and be quickened by one life. We stand fast by the unaltered, unalterable, eternal name of Jesus Christ our Lord.'"1


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1. Tom Nettles, Living By Revealed Truth: The Life and Pastoral Theology of Charles Haddon Spurgeon (Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 2013), 559.

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