Spurgeon vs. Hyper-Calvinism: The Battle for Gospel Preaching

C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) is best-remembered today for the remarkable ministry he exercised in London during the Victorian era. His influence was incalculable. Thousands listened to his preaching every week. While hundreds of thousands throughout the world later read his sermons in published form. A man of great natural gifts, charm and wit, Spurgeon’s master passion was evident in everything he did – to preach Jesus Christ to all as the only Saviour. But as early as 1855 this brought him into a serious and prolonged doctrinal controversy with Hyper-Calvinism By tracing this conflict, exploring the issues involved in it and showing what was at stake in them, Iain Murray underlines the contemporary relevance and importance of sharing Spurgeon’s convictions.

About the Author

Iain Hamish Murray, born in Lancashire, England, in 1931, was educated at Wallasey Grammar School and King William’s College in the Isle of Man (1945-49). He was converted in 1949 through the ministry at Hildenborough Hall, Tom and Jean Rees’ Christian conference centre in Kent. It was at Hildenborough later that same year that he first met Jean Ann Walters, who was to become his wife (they married in Edgeware on April 23, 1955).

After service with the Cameronians in Singapore and Malaya, he read Philosophy and History at the University of Durham with a view to the ministry of the English Presbyterian Church (his parents’ denomination). It was at Durham that he began to read the Puritans, whose writings were to become a lifelong passion. After a year of private study, he assisted Sidney Norton at St John’s Free Church, Oxford, in 1955–56, and it was here that The Banner of Truth magazine was launched, with Murray as its first editor.

From 1956 he was for three years assistant to Dr. Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel and there, with the late Jack Cullum, founded the Banner of Truth Trust in 1957. He left Westminster in 1961 for a nine-year pastorate at Grove Chapel, Camberwell. With the world-wide expansion of the Trust, Iain Murray became engaged full-time in its ministry from 1969 until 1981 when he responded to a call from St Giles Presbyterian Church, Sydney, Australia. Now based again in the UK, he and Jean live in Edinburgh. He has written many titles published by the Trust, in whose work he remains active. He is still writing.