Saturday Spurgeon: Ecumenism is a must

Joshua —  August 25, 2012 — 10 Comments

Spurgeon viewed communing with non-Baptists as a must. This week’s Saturday Spurgeon comes from a sermon delivered in February, 1861 titled The Earnest of Heaven.

I always say to Strict Baptist brethren who think it a dreadful thing for baptized believers to commune with the unbaptized [paedobaptists], ‘But you cannot help it; if you are the people of God you must commune with all saints, baptized or not. You may deny them the outward and visible sign, but you cannot keep them from the inward spiritual grace.’ If a man be a child of God, I do not care what I may think about him – if he be a child of God I do commune with him and I must, for we are all parts of the same body, all knit to Christ, and it is not possible that one part of Christ’s body should ever be in any state but that of communion with all the rest of the body.

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Joshua

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I am a disciple of the risen Christ Jesus, husband to Libby, grad student, blogger.
  • http://www.facebook.com/lesprouty Les Prouty

    I love this, especially since I am a member of a PCA church.

    • http://www.thedailybleat.com/ Joshua Breland

      Les,

      Some Southern Baptists detest the idea of Together 4 the Gospel or using non-Baptist authored literature in SBC churches. The gospel must be at the center and if it is we will be communing more with our non-Baptist brethren.

      • http://www.facebook.com/lesprouty Les Prouty

        I agree Josh. I see that as well. But we can maintain our non-gospel distinctives (eg Baptism) while cooperating in many ways. That may not mean jointly planting a church together, but it can mean other ways to join in together for the gospel (hey, somebody ought to use that phrase).

        Several years ago the PCA church where I served had a joint service with a SBC church and with an EFree church over the course of several years. Combined choirs, combined worship, a Baptist preaching in a PCA church, etc. It was glorious!

      • http://www.facebook.com/lesprouty Les Prouty

        Also, I think many evangelical churches (though there are too few of them) in the UK have done this well via the Banner of Truth. Maintain distinctives yet fellowship, cooperate, publish, preach together, etc.

  • Tom Estes

    I love Spurgeon, but I think he conflates the family of God with the church of God. The family is, of course, all the saved of all time, while the church is a local, visible body of saved, baptized believers.

    • http://www.thedailybleat.com/ Joshua Breland

      Tom,

      Thanks for stopping by. The sermon provides a broader context for his statements which might clear up some misunderstandings. I don’t think Spurgeon is conflating the local church with the body of Christ but pointing out that we should still commune with other Christians outside of our own local church family. We Southern Baptists have a poor track record of communing with other non-Baptists.

  • http://hereiblog.com/ Mark

    Is Spurgeon talking about the Lord’s Supper?

    • http://www.thedailybleat.com/ Joshua Breland

      Mark,

      No, he is speaking of fellowship.

  • Hugh McCann

    Joshua,
    Thanks for this.
    Spurgeon separated over the dowgrade in Baptist circles (or he WAS separated by the compromisers), but wasn’t he a bit too accomodating toward Arminians?
    T4G & the Banner of Truth (both paedo- & credo-baptists) are united under the gospel of God’s sovereign grace – how would you think Spurgeon would react to the Cooperative Program?

    • http://www.thedailybleat.com/ Joshua Breland

      Hugh,

      That’s a good question. Let me think about that some before commenting.