Sword & Trowel 2019: Issue 1


effectual call of the Spirit, did not tie their hands in preaching the Gospel freely, press- ing upon their hearers their responsibility, and calling upon them to repent and believe. A further quotation of the Articles of Faith reads:–


‘We believe that it would be unsafe, from the brief records we have, of the way in which the apostles, under the immediate direction of our Lord, addressed their hear- ers in certain special cases and circumstances, to derive absolute and universal rules for ministerial addresses in the present day under widely different circum- stances. And we further believe that an assumption that others have been inspired as the apostles were, has led to the grossest errors among both Romanists and Protestants. Therefore, that for ministers in this present day to address unconverted persons, or indiscriminately all in a mixed congregation, calling upon them to savingly repent, believe, and receive Christ, or perform any other acts dependent upon the new creative power of the Holy Ghost, is, on the one hand, to imply creature power, and on the other to deny the doctrine of special redemption.’


The above are two of the Arti- cles of Faith (quoted by us in full) of an English denomination which still has considerable membership and infl uence. With almost all their other Articles of Faith we are in


Vanity of Vanities and Answers to Questions by Dr Masters have been translated into Farsi. (Available from Tabernacle Bookshop.)


hearty accord, as with their marked separation from the world, and the simplicity of their worship. Nor have we one particle of sympathy with the delusive errors of creature ability or general redemption, rather do we unhesitatingly brand them both as lies of the devil. In his unregenerate state, fallen and depraved man is so completely the slave of sin and the captive of Satan, that he is altogether unable to deliver himself or take one step toward that deliverance; yea, his heart is so corrupt and his mind so at enmity against God, that he has no desire to be brought out of darkness into his marvellous light. Not until the Holy Spirit performs a miracle of grace upon the soul, does its pos- sessor have any spiritual appetite or aspirations; and that miracle he per- forms only in those for whom Christ died — God’s elect. Now if we resort to human reasoning it will logically follow that it is quite


Duty Faith – by A W Pink page 19


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