Sword & Trowel 2015: Issue 1


page, should be instrumental in this. Of course, the vital work is performed by the Lord, so the apostle rises no higher than saying, ‘we are labourers together with God.’ But we are his spokespeople. Do you wrestle with souls


as a preacher? It is a wonder- ful calling to search the Scrip- ture, foraging for evangelistic arguments and parallels to salvation in both Testaments. The hallmark of the Ref- ormation was evangelistic preaching. And soon afterward the Puritans reasoned with, appealed to and expostulated with souls. Evange- listic preaching was a defining char- acteristic of the rise of the Baptists, particularly through the golden age of Baptist expansion. We may read the classic sermons of John Bunyan to see the tender affection for souls, and the striving to gain them. It was also the hallmark of preach- ing in the 18th-century Great Awak- ening (read the sermons of George Whitefield), not to mention the reviv- als of the 19th century and the high era of the Victorian pulpit, with all its persuasiveness. Why has such a limiting view of


regeneration seized many Calvinists today? One problem is that it comes from an undoubtedly good stable. One of its most influential promoters, long gone to be with the Lord, was John Murray, formerly professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, a great writer and theologian, who stood firmly for the free offer of the Gospel. But his book Redemption Ac- complished and Applied sets out a view


George Whitefield preaching in the open air to crowds during the 18th-century Great Awakening


of regeneration which is entirely out of step with mainline Calvinism, and this has been powerfully influential. I remember when I first read it


many years ago, I had been reading Puritan writers on the same subject, who gave real instrumentality and responsibility to the preacher. These authors, Goodwin, Flavel and Sibbes among them, urged the preacher to challenge the conscience, demon- strate the necessity of conversion, and seek to be instrumental in the turning of sinners to Christ. He must both warn and woo.


Preachers instrumental Redemption Accomplished and Ap-


plied, on the subject of regeneration, was very different in tone. The preacher was almost an irrelevance. He appeared to need no great fire or passion, at least, not in the treat- ment of regeneration. There was no real instrumentality for him, because regeneration was not the initial, life- giving act of God, putting in motion the elements of conversion, but an


Regeneration and Gospel Persuasion page 11


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