Quotes about Arminianism and Calvinism from Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
The controversy which has been carried on between the Calvinist and the Arminian does not so involve the vital point of personal godliness as to make eternal life depend upon our holding either system of theology. Between the Protestant and the Papist there is a controversy of such a character, that he who is saved on the one side by faith in Jesus, dare not allow that his opponent on the opposite side can be saved while depending on his own works. There the controversy is for life or death, because it hinges mainly upon the doctrine of justification by faith, which Luther so properly called the test doctrine, by which a Church either stands or falls. (1)
I think we are free to admit, that while John Wesley, for instance, in modern times zealously defended Arminianism, and on the other hand, George Whitfield with equal fervour fought for Calvinism, we should not be prepared either of us, on either side of the question, to deny the vital godliness of either the one or the other. (2)
The Calvinist has said, and said right bravely, that salvation is of grace alone; and the Arminian has said, and said most truthfully, that damnation is of man’s will alone, and as the result of man’s sin, and of that only. Then they have fallen out with one another. The fact is, they had each one laid hold of a truth, and if they could have put their heads together, and accepted both truths, it might have been greatly for the advantage of the Church of Christ. These two doctrines are like tram lines that you can travel on with safety and comfort, these parallel lines—
ruin, of man; restoration, of God:
sin, of man’s will; salvation, of God’s will:
reprobation, of man’s demerit; election, of God’s free and sovereign grace:
the sinner lost in hell through himself alone, the saint lifted up to heaven wholly and alone by the power and grace of God.
Get those two truths thoroughly engraven upon your heart, and you will then hold comprehensively the great truths of Scripture. You will not need to crowd them into one narrow system of theology, but you will have a sort of duplicate system. (3)
I do maintain there should be, and there must be if our churches are to be healthy and sound, a constant adherence to the fundamental doctrines of divine truth. I should be prepared to go a very long way for charity’s sake, and admit that very much of the discussion which has existed even between Arminians and Calvinists has not been a discussion about vital truth, but about the terms in which that vital truth shall be stated. (4)
1-Spurgeon: Heir of the Puritans
2-The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Volume 7
3-Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit,41:500
4-The Complete Works of C. H. Spurgeon, Volume 6: Sermons 286-347
