CHARLES SPURGEON ON “FREE-WILL”


From a post at Symphony of Scripture:

Human responsibility we may (and certainly should) believe in. But “free-will” is simply ridiculous. The will is well known by all to be directed by the understanding, to be moved by motives, to be guided by other parts of the soul, and to be a secondary thing. It follows…it does not lead. Philosophy and religion both discard at once the very thought of free-will.

And I will go as far as Martin Luther, in the stony assertion of his, where he says: ‘If any man credits salvation (even in the very least degree) to the free-will choice of man..he knows nothing of grace, and he has not learned properly about Jesus Christ.’ It may seem to be a harsh sentiment. But he who in his soul believes that man turns to God of his own free-will, cannot possibly have been taught by God’s Spirit!

For that is one of the first principles taught us when God begins with us. His spirit teaches the true child of God first and foremost that we have neither the will, nor the power, but it is He that gives both…and that He is the “Alpha and the Omega” in the salvation of men!

(Charles Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Volume 1, “Free-Will A Slave” Ages Software Page 695).