It Is Just That!

Over the years, as a Christian, I have heard warnings about many of the old Puritan writers. They always go something like this: "Well, Spurgeon was good, but you have to be careful. After all, he was a hyper-calvinist." This caveat is repeated for virtually all of the old guys that wrote such deep, mighty works for God. "You can use their stuff, but don't buy what they are selling!"
And in sermon after sermon, you hear quotes from Spurgeon, Bunyan, Luther, Calvin (him too?) and other of the good old writers. But there is always the caveat. " They were good, but . . . " or "They were good in spite of their Calvinism and their treatment of the sovereignty of God."

Here is the big deal, though. The real thing. They were not good in spite of their teaching on God's sovereignty. It was precisely the fact that they believed what they believed that makes their works live on today. They wrestled with these deep things of God, and bowed to His sovereign grace, sometimes after much struggle. But it is out of these struggles that we have such giants of the faith (though they would never have called themselves such). So, it is not "in spite of their doctrine" that they are so good. It is just that very doctrine that makes them good. Divorce them from what they believed, and they will become unbelievable.

Perhaps if we wrestled with these things ourselves, instead of rejecting them out of hand whenever the Spirit comes to teach them to us, we would finally find them sweet to the taste and health to our Christian lives.