There are many parallels between what is going on the visible church at this time with what Charles Spurgeon called “the Down-Grade Controversy” in his time. In the latter part of the 19th Century, he began addressing the growing apostasy in the Baptist Union in Great Britain. This apostasy was fueled by those leaders who wished to move Christianity from its historical focus, i.e. preaching the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit with emphasis on sin and the need of a Saviour, to one that was more in line with “Modernism.”
1 He said to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come! 2 It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble. 3 Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”
5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6 And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea’; and it would obey you. Luke 17:1-6 (NASB)
There are many parallels between what is going on the visible church at this time with what Charles Spurgeon called “the Down-Grade Controversy” in his time. In the latter part of the 19th Century, he began addressing the growing apostasy in the Baptist Union in Great Britain. This apostasy was fueled by those leaders who wished to move Christianity from its historical focus, i.e. preaching the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit with emphasis on sin and the need of a Saviour, to one that was more in line with “Modernism.” He compared Biblical truth to the pinnacle of a steep, slippery mountain. The margin for error is very precise because one step away, and you find yourself on the downgrade. The following excerpt is from one of his sermons preached at the height of this controversy.
Doth that man love his Lord who would be willing to see Jesus wearing a crown of thorns, while for himself he craves a chaplet of laurel? Shall Jesus ascend to his throne by the cross, and do we expect to be carried there on the shoulders of applauding crowds? Be not so vain in your imagination. Count you the cost, and if you are not willing to bear Christ’s cross, go away to your farm and to your merchandise, and make the most of them; only let me whisper this in your ear; “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? 1
Spurgeon preached the sermon from which this excerpt is taken just after he was censured by the Baptist Union for his stance against the majority’s efforts to “modernize” their churches with de-emphasis of the biblical gospel in favor of being more open to those who would be offended by the cross and the insistence that they were sinners in need of a Saviour.
In or own time, we are in the midst of a different form of the very same downgrade. This downgrade is made up of all those forms of seeker-sensitive and new evangelism approaches to Christianity. This is so because they are contaminated with the very same disease, which is pragmatism. This pragmatism begins with basic assumptions. Those assumptions, of course, are all wrapped around changing how church is done from a “marketing” perspective, which is nothing more than works righteousness instead of ministering before God by faith.
The assumptions made by these “pragmatists” right at the beginning are still prevalent in both the seeker-sensitive and new evangelism churches. These assumptions also include the concept that to correctly market Christianity what was offensive has to be either removed or de-emphasized. That would be the preaching of the Biblical Gospel. Non-Christians do not like it when they are confronted by their sin and their need of a Saviour so that has to be downplayed or left out completely. This assumes, of course, that the easy-believism version of the Gospel is more effective than taking the risk of offense by preaching the full Gospel. Then the second error takes center stage. That would be to look at their results, i.e. numbers of converts, as proof of how effective this is. This mistake, of course, is that all they are doing is creating larger and larger ministries that are full of tares rather than born-again Christians.
