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October 16, 2017:
Kurt M. Smith, author & pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church of Pine Mountain, AL who will discuss:
“GEORGE WHITFIELD”
Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio platform on which pastors, Christian scholars and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.
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Our host, Chris Arns. Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida and the rest of humanity living on the planet earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.
This is Chris Arns and your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio wishing you all a happy Monday on this 16th day of October 2017 and I'm so delighted to have back on the program somebody who has become one of my favorite guests, Kurt M. Smith, who is an author and he's also pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church of Pine Mountain, Alabama.
Today we are going to be discussing a very important figure in church history, George Whitefield, and this is largely because our guest, Kurt M. Smith, is presently writing a primer on the life and legacy of George Whitefield proclaiming Christ as a Calvinistic evangelist and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Kurt M. Smith.
Thanks, Chris. And if anybody would like to join us on the air, let me give you my email address where you can send questions for Kurt M. Smith. It's chrisarnsen at gmail .com. C-H-R-I-S-A-R-N-Z-E-N at gmail .com.
And please always give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside of the good old USA. Well, once again, why don't you tell our listeners who have not heard you yet on this program something about Providence Reformed Baptist Church of Pine Mountain, Alabama.
Reformed Baptist Church.
Now, is that something you do every year?
Yeah, that is it.
Great. Was that an idea that you came up with or did you know that another church did that kind of a yearly recommitment? That's an interesting tradition.
Yeah, it's a practice.
Great. Well, we'll be giving our listeners contact information later on in the program for your congregation, especially if anybody in your area wants to either visit, perhaps even join that church, or if folks listening are going to be visiting your area on vacation or something from out of state.
But right now, the website is prbc1689 .org. That's P-R-B-C for Providence Reformed Baptist Church, 1689 for the London Baptist Confession of Faith, dot O-R-G. And Whitfield is a really fascinating character from church history.
I love reading about Whitfield and he blows away the stereotype of Reformed or Calvinist Christians being dry, dead, lifeless, and passionless. The man was a very zealous preacher known a lot for his outdoor preaching and captivated the heart and mind of Benjamin Franklin, I know.
And Franklin, from all we know from history, was not a genuine believer, was not a genuine regenerate man, but he was still fascinated by Whitfield. And I can recall him giving some astronomical distance in measurement where Whitfield could be heard outside.
Do you happen to recall the distance where Benjamin.
Franklin was standing, where you could still hear Whitfield? Yes. Well, Whitfield has been called.
The greatest evangelist since the Apostle Paul, and E .C. Dargan said of Whitfield, in his history of preaching, the history of preaching since the Apostles does not contain a greater or worthier name than that of George Whitfield.
And Charles Adams Spurgeon said of Whitfield, I am conscious of distinct quickening whenever I turn to read Whitfield. He lived, other men seemed to be only half alive, but Whitfield was all life, fire, wing, force.
What a great comment. And Martin Lloyd Jones, more recent figure from history, 20th century figure from history, said of Whitfield, all of the men of the 18th century, Whitfield was the most lovable. He radiated warmth and joy, and wherever he went, he moved others to greater zeal and activity.
Above all, he was the greatest preacher. Indeed, one can say that he was the greatest preacher that England has ever produced. That is quite a commendation from Martin Lloyd Jones, and I don't know if it had anything to do with the fact that Martin Lloyd Jones was also a Calvinist Methodist that he made that comment, but I'm sure it is not far from the truth.
And one of the things that, well, first of all, before I go into some of these specific questions, I'd like you to give some more of the background, because there are people, I'm sure, who are either listening live or who will eventually be listening on the recording who don't know who Whitfield was, and perhaps it'd be a good idea for you to give us his history and the fact that he came out of the Anglican church and so on.
Yeah, that's right. He died an original founder of the Methodist movement in England. He also spearheaded, he established an orphanage, and he was the key. Wow. I heard a kind of a humorous quote by.
Whitfield. I'm almost positive it was Whitfield. He was somewhat lamenting that many of his converts were becoming Baptists because he was a Paedo-Baptist, and he said something to the effect that all my chicks are becoming ducks.
Do you know the exact quote? I don't have the.
Boat in front of me. Do you have the exact quote? Okay. Now, was he calling we who are Baptists.
Ducks because of the fact that ducks are actually in the water?
Yeah. That's right.
Okay. That's what I assumed, although I didn't know that for certain. And now he, as we said, was an Anglican, and although the Anglican church has been steeped in Calvinism, although it was never monolithically Calvinistic, and especially since you had the Anglican church going back and forth like a pendulum depending upon who was in power, a Roman Catholic or a Protestant, and then you had the Anglican church becoming somewhat of a hybrid to appease both sides at some points in history, and even today you have a really wide spectrum of Anglicans from a Romish Oxford movement, Anglicans, all the way to liberal apostates.
But what was the primary reasons that Whitfield was so disliked by many Anglicans and why he had problems himself with the Anglican church?
Well, clergy in that time, in that period, was the problem. And George Whitfield, he resisted.
That's interesting because the 39 articles of religion, the primary creed of Anglicanism, at least starting in the 17th century through even today, the more conservative Anglicans adhere to that. That is not a creed that endorses baptismal regeneration.
Not leave the Roman Catholic church at all.
And there are many Calvinist Anglicans who are furious right now hearing you say.
That. Yeah, right. Confessional, evangelical. In Whitfield's preaching, his preaching, it was preaching the saints, and that's really because of the content of the preaching. And these people, they had never heard that.
And on top of that, many hearing many of them as just or as not being permitted, and that was to preach. And that day, one Englishman goes out and begins proclaiming the gospel. You can't, you know, just contain the throngs of people to hear him if they heard that he was going to be anywhere close by and maintain 1738 all the way.
Yeah, the Anglican church, as I'm assuming other churches, probably especially the Roman Catholic church, had a very superstitious understanding. And of course, when I say the Anglican church, I don't intend to be broad-brushing, because I'm sure that that wasn't universally the case, but they had a superstitious understanding of the only proper way that the word of God was to be declared and taught and preached was to be in the confines of a church building.
Am I right?
Yeah, people in that day, it actually used was vulgar. You know, what, well, it just, and it called vulgar enthusiasts, you know, were...
Now, I don't know if they went, meaning the Anglican clergyman, went to the lengths of disruption for Whitfield's meetings as they did with Wesley, but I have heard from a Methodist minister who's now retired from the ministry, who was a frequent guest on my program.
He was an evangelical United Methodist minister, which is extremely rare on Long Island, New York, where I'm originally from and where my show was originally broadcast every day there in Babylon, Long Island, kind of an interesting name for the town.
But my friend, Dr. Dick Williamson, the former pastor of the Seaford United Methodist Church, told me that the Anglican clergy used to release bulls to trample through Wesley's open-air meetings. Did you know if anything like that or anything similar.
Was done to Whitfield? He did say a lot.
Sounds like college students today. Yeah, and the more liberal universities who, every time an allegedly conservative person or anybody remotely close to believing in the Constitution ascends to a podium at a liberal university today, that's what they're getting, typically.
Right, yeah.
We're going to a break right now. If anybody would like to join us on the air with a question about George Whitfield, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com, c-h-r-i-s-a-r-n-z-e-n at gmail .com.
Please, as always, give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence, if you live outside of the good old USA. And if you have a question that involves a personal and private matter and you wish to remain anonymous, for instance, if you disagree with your own pastor on theological issues or something like that, I can understand you wanting to remain anonymous, so you may feel free to do so.
But other than a personal and private question, please always give us at least your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence, if you live outside the USA. Don't go away, God willing, we'll be right back with Curt M. Smith right after these messages.
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Hi, I'm Pastor Bill Shishko, inviting you to tune into A Visit to the Pastor's Study every Saturday from 12 noon to 1 p .m. Eastern Time on WLIE Radio, www .wlie540am .com. We bring biblically faithful pastoral ministry to you, and we invite you to visit the Pastor's Study by calling in with your questions.
Our time will be lively, useful, and I assure you, never dull. Join us this Saturday at 12 noon Eastern Time for a visit to the Pastor's Study because everyone.
Needs a pastor. And Pastor Bill Shishko, whose voice you just heard, is going to be my keynote speaker, not this Thursday but the week after this Thursday, two Thursdays from now, October 26th from 11 a .m. to 2 p .m. at the Carlisle Fire and Rescue Banquet Hall in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, for the next Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Pastor's Luncheon, this one in honor of Reformation Day.
This is a tradition that was begun by my first, or should I say that was first begun, a little mix-up in vocabulary there, that was first begun by my late wife, my precious late wife, Julie, back in the 1990s.
And she came up with the idea one Christmas, and she said to me, you know, instead of you and I purchasing each other Christmas presents every year, why don't we treat your pastor friends to lunch? She knew that I had a lot of friends who were pastors because of my work in Christian radio, and I said that's a great idea.
And we started doing that in the 1990s, and we did it every year until the event grew and grew to a point where I needed to get corporate sponsorship for it. And she went home to be with the Lord in 2011, and after about a year or two after recuperating mentally after losing her, I resumed her pastor's luncheons in her honor and also to treat men in ministry to a wonderful time of fun, food, and fellowship, absolutely free of charge.
This was her dream, her goal, where nothing would be for sale at any of these events, and there would be no hidden agenda or ulterior motive. It was purely and 100 to treat men in ministry to a wonderful afternoon, absolutely free, where they could even leave their wallets at home and not worry about anything, not even the pressure or manipulation of trying to be involved with something like an Amway salesman pitch or something.
This is purely a way to feed the pastors, not only physically, but even spiritually, and as I said, Bill Shishko, who is the regional home missionary for Reformation Metro New York. He's also an adjunct faculty member for Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and retired pastor of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Franklin Square, Long Island, New York.
He's been a dear friend of mine since the 1980s, in fact, my precious late wife truly loved Pastor Bill, and I'm delighted that this is the first time he is going to be speaking at our luncheon. The theme is going to be Restoring Reformational Passion.
That's Thursday, October 26th, 11 a .m. to 2 p .m. It's absolutely free of charge to any man in ministry leadership, whether you are a pastor, an elder, and I happen to believe those are two of the same office, a deacon, a parachurch leader, any man in leadership is welcome, absolutely free of charge.
If you want to register for that, send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com, and put Pastors Luncheon in the subject line. I just found out there are actually some brethren in the ministry flying out from California all the way here to Pennsylvania to attend the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Pastors Luncheon.
I am so thrilled about that. I know already there are others coming from New York and Maryland and other far distances. It really blesses my heart to know that there are men that care that much about what we're doing here at Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
And by the way, I think I forgot to mention a very important factor. You'll be leaving that luncheon with a very heavy sack of free books donated by major Christian publishers all over the United States and the United Kingdom.
They've been doing that every year since we started the Pastors Luncheons, and they continue to do so, and I'm so delighted. The number of books that we are giving away for free continues to grow as more and more publishers want to join in on the festivities there and be a part of it.
So I look forward to receiving your registration at chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com. I apologize that we cannot offer this invitation to the wives. Perhaps someday when Iron Sharpens Iron Radio is able to rent bigger facilities and get a lot more food and so on provided, perhaps we can include the wives one day.
In fact, I did have one Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Pastors Luncheon where the wives were there. That was because we were working with Holland America Cruise Lines at the time, and they allowed me to have an Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Pastors Lunch on a cruise ship, a docked cruise ship, before it made its maiden launch.
So that was the only time we were able to do that because there was plenty of room and it was all being provided free by Holland America. But right now it's only the men that are invited, so I hope to hear from you soon, and I look forward to seeing you Thursday, October 26th, 11 a .m. to 2 p .m. at the Carlisle Fire and Rescue Banquet Hall in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Well, we are now back to our discussion with our guest Kurt M. Smith. And Kurt M. Smith, as I mentioned at the outset of the program, has become one of my favorite of all guests here on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, and he is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Pine Mountain, Alabama.
Today we are discussing George Whitfield, and if you'd like to join us on the air with a question, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com. Chrisarnson at gmail .com. Please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the USA.
We have a listener in Slovenia, Joe, who says, Dear Brothers Chris and Kurt, thank you for affording me this great opportunity to engage with great minds on an engaging topic. Well, one of us has a great mind, and I don't mean me.
I'm not sure that's me either.
I've read that Whitfield regularly sought out opportunities to preach to slaves, and that the response was so great that some historians date the beginning of the African American Christianity to his preaching ministry.
What can you say about the accuracy of those claims? Are they true, and do contemporary African American denominations recognize his ministry as their point of beginning? Thanks for bringing us great discussion on such formative subjects.
Well, I'm assuming that there were Christians, especially since slavery was in existence before Whitfield. I'm assuming there were Christians who were, there were slaves who were Christians, but, and even freemen who were Christians, but perhaps there was some more significant number of them that came to Christ through Whitfield.
What do you have to say about.
That? Do you know? Yes, here, he traveled here to America, and even more than he did his own. He did have one, Wheatley, I was thanking God for this. Wow, praise God. Well, Joe, you did.
Have an accurate assumption about that, and thank you very much for writing in, Joe. We always love to hear from you and keep spreading the word about Iron Sharpens Iron Radio there in Slovenia and beyond, and I'm hoping one of these days, Joe, that you do take advantage of the fact that your daughter lives in Georgia and the upcoming G3 conference in January is always in Atlanta, Georgia.
I hope that you take advantage of that and fly out here to the states to not only spend time with your daughter, but so I can meet you in person there at the G3 conference in Atlanta. This year, it's January 18th through the 20th, at least the English-speaking edition is 18th through the 20th of January, and the Spanish-speaking edition is the 17th, but I hope that you can fly out there and so I can meet you.
I will be manning, God willing, an Iron Sharpens Iron Radio exhibitors booth at the G3 conference, and we'll be giving you more details later on in the show about that, but the website is G3conference .com, G3conference .com.
We have David in Ada, Ohio, who says, in my church, we are studying the end times, pre, post, et cetera, millennial positions, as well as dispensationalism, so I wonder where George Whitefield was on his end times position, and did he have any influence or contact with premillennial dispensationalism?
I don't think that premillennial dispensationalism, especially the second half of that phrase, dispensationalism, I don't think that that.
Existed in Whitefield's day, did it? No, no. Well, thank you, Joe, in Slovenia, and by the way,.
I don't think that any of the major Reformed confessions, including the Westminster and the 1939 Articles, actually get very specific about any of the end times scenarios, other than what you just mentioned about Christ visibly returning, the resurrection of the dead.
There are premill, amill, and postmill, that is, historic premill, amill, and postmill Christians who adhere to all of the major Reformed confessions, including the 1689 London Epist Confession. Charles Spurgeon is the most famous one that I can think of right now, who was a historic premillennialist and also a thoroughgoing confessional Calvinist.
But thanks for that great question, David, in Ada, Ohio, and continue to spread the word about Iron Shepherd's Iron Radio in Ohio and beyond. We have Murray in Kinross, Scotland, who says,. Many apologies for this long quote, Chris, but I was wondering if Kurt Smith could comment on whether such a view of antinomians was fairly consistent in Whitefield's ministry.
I understand the doctrinal point he is making here, but feel he is a bit harsh in his dismissal. This is from his sermon, The Lord Our Light. Some allow that there is mourning before, that's m-o-u-r-n-i-n-g, some allow that there is mourning before, but no mourning after conversion.
Pray who says so? None but an antinomian, a rank antinomian, and when you hear a person say that after conversion you will have no mourning, you may be assured that person is at best walking by moonlight.
He does not walk by the sun. He has some doctrine in his head, but very little grace, I'm afraid, in his heart. Amen, as far as I'm concerned. That's Chris Arnzen speaking right now. My second, I'll move on to a second question after you respond to that.
I see that as a very legitimate quote because if you are not, I'm assuming Whitefield's talking about mourning over sin. Yeah. And if you don't have any mourning over sin,.
There's something wrong with your heart. Believer, wholeheartedly. Yeah, because that's a very serious.
Issue. That's not a minor difference that brothers in Christ can disagree over. When somebody says basically that they feel just fine and they are carefree and guilt-free and go on happy-go-lucky in their everyday life because, well, you know, Jesus has forgiven me for my sins, so I don't need to be concerned about disobeying God anymore.
That's a very.
Dangerous and damnably dangerous position to be in, isn't it? Great lamentation. Amen.
Well, we'll get to Murray's second question when we return from our midway break. If anybody else would like to join us with a question, our email address is chrisarnzen at gmail .com. C-H-R-I-S-A-R-N-Z-E-N at gmail .com.
And always please remember to give us your first name, city, and state and country of residence if you live outside the USA. Don't go away. We'll be right back with Curt M. Smith after these messages from our sponsors.
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Then just send an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com, and put advertising in the subject line. We would love to work out a campaign with you as soon as possible. And we are now back with our guest, Kurt M. Smith, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church of Pine Mountain, Alabama.
We are discussing George Whitfield today, and George Whitfield happens to be the subject of a new book that Kurt M. Smith is working on, and if you could repeat the the working title of that book that is not yet in.
Print. Kurt, that's a great title, and I love that thundering the word part especially. That's.
A perfect description of George Whitfield, obviously, from what we have heard about him.
Yeah, himself, actually where I got the title. Amen, amen. We have Murray in Kinross, Scotland.
He has a second question that we didn't get to before the break. He says, given the way the Lord used Whitfield's preaching in the open air to such large numbers, do we have any justification for ignoring open air preaching today?
That's a very good question because you'll have a lot of Reformed churches that would never say a word against open air preaching, but very.
Few do that. He did, that God quit. Secondly, here's the other thing we got. He was forced into the fields, into the highways and hedges. I'm thankful for what these brethren take it, you know, they actually try to, you know, is, I mean, is it if, you know, it's not something normally that's in the weak?
Yeah, I mean, look at Whitfield, not that he's saying this, maybe read about Whitfield. We just have to, the Lord has not used anybody in that.
When you said the Lord has not used anyone in that way, in that manner, I know people who are committed to open air preaching who have seen many souls come to Christ as a result of that. Are you talking about in regard to a phenomenon like Whitfield, where there was actually a revival?
Yes, yes, yes, that is exactly what I'm talking about. Exactly what I'm talking about, yeah. I'm not, I wasn't going to say, I'm not referring at all to, you know, to people who actually, but no, it's of what happened, you know, and empowered in such a revival.
Yeah, I guess the goal of those street preachers or open air preachers that I know, like Tony Miano, for instance, I don't know if you know Tony, Mike Gadosh actually published a book by him. He is one of these brethren who takes open air preaching very seriously and doesn't believe that just anyone should do it.
He believes that a person should be called by his church to do it. He believes that much of what goes on under the label of open air or street preaching is heretical and is filled with mavericks and lone wolves just preaching in the open air because they would never have been appointed to preach by their own churches, and many of them are not even members of churches.
So he recognizes the downfall of the open air preacher or street preacher, but at the same time, he and those like him who take it very seriously would say that they are reaching an audience that the confinements of the gathered assembly on a Sunday morning or evening or a Wednesday evening would not reach.
People that are, you know, maybe at a carnival or they're out doing something that might be innocuous and acceptable even by God, some kind of recreational activity, or they might even be involved in some wicked behavior, and the street preacher is to prick their conscience, of course, by the working of the Holy Spirit.
But that's just to give their side since they're not here to say anything about.
That. Yeah, well, I mean, he's certain, and so when you read his life, when you read how the Lord used him in the phenomenal way, and it was a fun to chide you for have nothing and can do nothing without God.
However, by the grace of God, please God to make me instrumental to do the least good unto him. Amen. That that he expressed for the 34 years that he ministered and he preached. It is.
How the Lord. Amen. And we have a question that has been on my mind as well from Christopher in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. He asks, when did the friendship between George Whitfield and John Wesley begin?
And did George Whitfield come out of an Arminian understanding of the that his friend, John Wesley, maintained throughout his life unto death? Or was he,.
From earliest memory, after being a convert to Christianity, a Calvinist? Called the Holy Club because of John Wesley. Wesley was... And that is in spite of the fact that they aggressively.
Opposed each other in quite a heated fashion over the doctrines known as Calvinism. John Wesley was openly an Arminian. In fact, so much so that many identify themselves today as Wesleyan Arminian. Those coming from the holiness background and some of the evangelical Methodists and Pentecostals today would call themselves Wesleyan Holiness or Wesleyan Arminian.
But George Whitfield and he disagreed strongly on the doctrines of grace, even to the point where some might question whether they were friends, but they were indeed friends. And did not Whitfield request of Wesley that he preach at Whitfield's funeral after he died?
And then subsequently he did.
Yes, yes. The divisiveness could not go on. It really gives you, and there's some hundreds by me being drawn away, refuses to print for me. And many, very many of my spiritual teachers from England would have plucked out their money to leave to assist me.
Wow, that's enormous. Yeah, it is enormous. Another thing that's really huge is this.
In fact, could you pick up there when we come back because we have one more final break and it's going to be...
Absolutely.
Don't forget what you were going to say.
Okay, I won't.
And we're coming back right after these messages, God willing, with our final segment of our interview with Curt M. Smith, so don't go away.
To you, and we invite you to visit The Pastor's Study by calling in with your questions. Our time will be lively, useful, and I assure you, never dull. Join us this Saturday at 12 noon Eastern Time for a visit to The Pastor's Study because everyone needs a pastor.
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Not only are we having our Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Luncheon on Thursday, October 26th from 11 a .m. to 2 p .m. that I mentioned earlier, with keynote speaker Bill Shishko, faculty member over at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Taylor, South Carolina.
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But also, coming up in November, November 17th through the 18th, we have the Quaker Town Conference on Reform Theology being held at the Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Quaker Town, Pennsylvania. The theme is for Still Our Ancient Foe, obviously a reference to Satan from Martin Luther's hymn, Mighty Fortress.
Speakers include Kent Hughes, Peter Jones, Tom Nettles, Dennis Cahill, and Scott Oliphant. If you want to attend that event, go to alliancenet .org, alliancenet .org, click on events, and then click on Quaker Town Conference on Reform Theology.
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January 17th will be exclusively a Spanish-speaking edition of the conference, but the 18th through the 20th will exclusively be an English edition of the conference, and that edition includes Stephen Lawson, Voti Baucom, Phil Johnson, Keith Getty, H .B. Charles, Jr., Tim Challies, Josh Bice, James White, Tom Askle, Anthony Mathenia, Michael Kruger, David Miller, Paul Tripp, Todd Friel, Derek Thomas, Martha Peace, and Justin Peters.
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And now we are back to our discussion, our final 20 minutes, with our friend Kurt M. Smith. We are speaking about George Whitefield, and moments before we went to the last station break, you had something you wanted to say that was of great importance.
This is right after you said that even though there was such serious and harsh and radical theological division between George Whitefield and John and Charles Wesley, he still sent that letter or however he communicated the request to Wesley.
George Whitefield still made the request that Wesley preach at his funeral after departing this earth. So what was it that you wanted to say right after we were talking.
About that? Yeah, well, he turned everything over to, of all people, John Wesley as its perennial leader, which is why to this day in another letter he says, let my name die, let even my friends forgive me, if by that means in another letter he preached, I care not.
And after I... Wow,.
Praise God. Let's see, we have RJ in White Plains, New York, and he asks, I have heard that there are Presbyterians that even to this day have a lot of problems with Whitefield and his theology, and for the life of me, I cannot understand it.
Do you have any.
Insights into this? And I assume you mean that he wasn't exclusively cerebral, because certainly the mind was involved there. Of diffusing that love for the work where without piety will only make you more capable of promoting the kingdom of Satan's forward, therefore into your studies, not to get a parish, nor to be polite preachers, but to be great saints.
Indeed is the most compendious way to true standing enlightened by the spirit of God is more... By the way... I mean, why anybody would have a problem. Yeah, I know. In fact,.
The biblical prohibition against being an ear tickler, I think, even though the, obviously, biblical, the main biblical reason for that prohibition or warning was because there would be people teaching unsound doctrine.
But at the same time, there are people who are teaching sound doctrine in an unsound way that are all about the exclusively the cerebral understanding of these things and use them as a reason to be proud and to view themselves as an elite group of Christians.
And they teach these things to tickle men's ears as long as they don't reach a point that makes them uncomfortable. If it actually results in their consciences being convicted that they actually must do something and obey James's command in his own epistle about being more than just Christians in name only, but to show their faith by their works, then you're going to have people who are even theologically sound on paper being very upset and being those that would be among those who despise Whitefield.
Would I be correct on that?
Yeah, yeah. Orthodoxy, there were orthodox men, and orthodoxy is essential, but orthodoxy alone, and it never will. So rightly, you need the power.
Amen. By the way, I don't know if I ever told you this, but I have mentioned it before on the program, but the Lord used George Whitefield's letter to John Wesley on election to open my eyes to the doctrines of sovereign grace.
When I first became a Christian, I was, as Charles Spurgeon once said, all men are by nature Arminians, or something close to that, he said. I had never heard of Calvinism, and I was raised Roman Catholic.
It was never brought up in my upbringing as a Catholic, and the Arminian churches that I had visited prior to my regeneration had never brought up Calvinism that I remember, and so this was all new to me and very bizarre, and I was militating against it, and then some brother from England in the congregation where I was a member handed me this booklet published by Chapel Library, George Whitefield's letter to John Wesley on election, and after I read it, I said to myself, oh no, this is true, but I hate it, this is horrible, but then within a month or so, I came to embrace and love the teachings of the doctrines of grace, and it personalized my salvation in a far, infinitely far greater way than ever before, where I realized that God was specifically drawing me to himself, because he was indeed going to save me, and that Christ died for me on that cross, not for a nameless, faceless sea of humans as a possibility of redeeming them.
He purposely and intentionally and successfully died on Calvary for me and redeemed me, and that just totally revolutionized my way of thinking in regard to salvation, and that's what the doctrines of grace do, that's what they do.
And by the way, if anybody wants to order that booklet from Chapel Library, go to chapellibrary .org, chapellibrary .org, and just type in George Whitefield, and you will see George Whitefield's letter to John Wesley on election.
In about a minute's time, can you just summarize what you most want to leave with our audience, what you most want etched in.
Their hearts and minds? Amen. Well, I want to make sure that our listeners have your church website,.
It's prbc1689 .org, PRBC standing for Providence Reformed Baptist Church, 1689 .org, and also the Solid Ground Christian Books website, so people can order some of your books that are already in print, solid-ground-books .com, solid-ground-books .com.
Do you have any other contact information? Great. Well, I look forward to having you back in the program, Curt, and if you could hold on, I'd like to schedule you for another interview. All right, thank you, Chris.
Great being on here today. Yeah, and I want to thank everybody who listened, especially those who wrote in, and I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater Savior than you are a sinner.