Wednesday 26 March 2014

Ingram's Calvinists




 I listened to this message last night coming home from a meeting I was preaching in. Calvinists are always interested in revival. Many of the great Revivals and Awakenings in Evangelical History were Calvinist led e.g. Edwards, Whitefield etc. It is only this morning in preparing this post that I discovered that it was preached away back in 2006. Not that this matters that much. If what is said is true then 8 years isn't going to make any difference as far as the substantive issue is concerned.

I came across my Evangelist friend #Billy through Twitter. Let's say, we have clashed on a few occasions. He is the subject of this page here, which gives an idea of where this article is going. Billy has preached more or less this same sermon (doubtless among others) since 2006. Even this year and we are not out of March yet.  It crops up on Sermon Audio usually under the heading of Unbelief

I had an idea what would happen and, true to form, the anti Calvinist Revival preacher didn't let me down. Unbelief is the big problem. I agree. It is wickedness. I agree. Let's give a few quotes about unbelief. But where do we turn to get someone articulate our abhorrence of unbelief? The dread Protestants and the accurséd Calvinists. Right on cue. Protestant preacher, AW Tozer wasn't a Calvinist, but he cautiously sided with John Calvin on the sovereignty of God when contrasted with what he (Tozer) called the "teddy bear gods" of modern evangelism. Horatio Bonar was a Scottish Presbyterian Calvinist. Hudson Taylor was another who held to Reformed theology. The stuff, Billy declares to be, in the link above, another gospel and marked and avoided as such (Romans 16:17) Later on, we got CH Spurgeon and DL Moody thrown in for good measure.

Near the end of the message, Billy felt the obvious need to give a good working example of people who were sold out on revival. So where did he run? Again, right on cue: To a Scottish island where a Scottish, Presbyterian, Calvinist evangelist (Duncan Campbell) responded to the call to preach in a Scottish, Presbyterian, Calvinist church where two Scottish, Presbyterian, Calvinist ladies had been praying for revival to come for years. Warming to his theme, Billy actually told us that their minister was a real Spirit filled (or was it "Spirit led"?) man. Not bad for a purveyor of a damnable gospel whom we are to mark and avoid, but yet can hold up as an example of how God can bless His people when we are "right with God".

So, there you go. Say what you want about Protestant and Calvinists heretics, but many sermons would be a lot poorer without them.  

THE END 

* CALVINIST INDEX
* PROTESTANT INDEX
* CH SPURGEON INDEX
* EVANGELISM INDEX
* HERE AND THERE INDEX

* YOUTUBE VIDEO INDEX
* 3 MINUTE AUDIOBOO INDEX

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