The Forgotten Spurgeon (Iain Murray)

The Forgotten Spurgeon

This book traces the main lines of Spurgeon’s spiritual thought in connection with the three great controversies in his ministry. To appreciate Spurgeon’s preaching but miss these are part of why The Forgotten Spurgeon needed to be written:

The first was Spurgeon’s stand against the diluted Gospel fashionable in the London which the young preacher confronted in the 1850s.

The second was, the equally important famous “Baptismal Regeneration” debate of 1864.

A third controversy was, the lacerating Down-Grade controversy of 1887 – 1891.  Spurgeon sought to awaken Christians to the danger of the Church “being buried beneath the boiling mud-showers of modern heresy.”

Iain Murray, historian par excellence

From the masterful pen of Iain Murray, this is probably the most incisive, brief historical and theological volume about the great 19th century Baptist, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. It focuses in particular on Spurgeon’s uncompromising stance in three major controversies of his times. These points of doctrine remain vital ones to this day, for Christians to stand on without apology.

This book seeks to throw light on the reasons which gave Spurgeon the superficial image of being a genial Victorian preacher, a kind of grandfather of modern evangelicalism. Even before his death in 1892, newspapers and church leaders disputed over the features of his life which entitled him to fame. It was not his “narrow creed”, as some called it, but his genuine loving character is what makes him most worthy of remembrance, said one periodical. This very much echoed the public’s general view in England at the time.

Still, distortions about Spurgeon continued, and he forecast himself how the positions he held might fare in the 20th century.  In his own words, “I am quite willing to be eaten by dogs for the next fifty years, but the more distant future shall vindicate me.”

About the Author

Iain Hamish Murray was born in 1931 and continues to write biography to this day, having written already on the lives John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, Amy Carmichael, and many more.  He has served as a British pastor and written numerous theological volumes.  He was educated in the Isle of Man at King William’s College and at the University of Durham before entering ministry in 1955.

Murray served as an assistant pastor to Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel from 1956 to 1959. He subsequently served at Grove Chapel in London, from 1961–1969. Murray moved to Australia in the 1980s and served at St. Giles Presbyterian Church, Sydney, Australia from 1981 to 1984). In 1957 he and Jack Cullum founded the Banner of Truth Trust, for which he remains a trustee.