Has "The Sword of The Lord " become a psuedo Fundamentalist Newspaper?

Dr.Bob: recently I wrote to Dr. Smith and asked him why they published sermons of Calvinistic preachers and would literally gut the sermon. He responded with a question, asking exactly who those preachers might be and I sent him a list and added that they did the same thing on their bio page. As far as Spurgeon goes his reply was that he was not a 5 point Calvinist. When I reponded to that with proof he suddenly quit communicating with me.

Brutus,Psa.121

 

actually that has already been answered Bob..
things are snipped.. mostly for space available..
Of course if you want the uneditted version of
Spurgeon's works.. you can do what I did and
buy the whole package...
if you cna't afford that,,, then go to
www.spurgeon.org
they have quite a bit online.

They aren't... BTW... what is supposed to be hard
about salvation?
Sometimes walking the walk is hard..
Sometimes deciding to accept Jesus is hard..
Actually accepting Him is easy..

ttfn,
mark
&lt;&gt;&lt; </font>[/QUOTE]Well, Mark, what many IFBX churches preach is an easy believism that offers no real change in the believer. I even know of some that equate regeneration and the indwelling that, if you lay out what they believe on paper, it comes out that the old nature and the new nature in a person (which is equated in such a system with the Holy Spirit's indwelling) is the heresy of true dualism, which historic Christianity rejects.

Many IFBX churches believe, for example, in a form of eternal security that states the God perserves the believer, but not all believers persevere. The historic doctrine of perseverance of the saints differs in that it says that all true Christians persevere and they do so because God preserves them.

Now, y'all can claim that Spurgeon's sermons are cut for "space," but, frankly, that just not so, and anybody that thinks otherwise is sadly misinformed, even if that person is FBC Pastor's Wife. SWord of the Lord is Arminian and even goes out of its way to denounce Reformed theology. Spurgeon went out of his way to stand firmly for the doctrines of grace. Anybody that knows anything about Spurgeon should know this. Sword of Lord, however, goes out of its way to edit such references in Spurgeon's sermons under the guise of "space." The result is that you end up with people like David Hunt who will right whole books and reference Spurgeon (and others) and say that he/they supports/support his Arminian views. For example, Hunt has, on multiple occasions edited Spurgeon's sermons and said Spurgeon believed in general atonement, and, furthermore, when confronted publicly about it, he has not renounced such statements.

This is flat misrepresentation of the views of others. For those of us of the Calvinist persuasion with regard to our soteriology, it is seen on the same level, it is seen as an affront to what we believe. It would be like me publishing a sermon by Reinhold Niebuhr in SBC Life and saying that he was a renouned evangelical, when, in reality he is neo-orthodox, or the twisting of Paul's writings to say that he believed one should be circumcised in order to be a Christian, and then to say we only "edited the content for 'space' considerations.

 

If you will please read what I wrote in my first post, I think you will find...I did not say we cut sermons for space!!! I see most of the original copy, some that is more than fifty years old and has been preserved. Like I said before, the sermons are updated on their illustrations and figures/stats and perhaps I should add the language is updated as well. A lot of the sermons sometime may be cut because of redundancy but I never said they were cut for space.

Dr. Hutson had kind of ongoing battle with Falwell through letter and that caused the Sword to lose many subs.

And as most people know, Dr. Hutson died of cancer in the mid-90's and during his sickness and hospitalizations there was a lack of leadership such as his at the office. That will naturally result in some difficulties at a business/ministry.

 

First.. an apology to FBCPastorsWife..
I should have gone back and reread your post
before I replied to the subject of editing..


Bob....

I am not going to do this at this time for a
couple reasons.
Primary of which being that I am hanging out here
to relax from my Admin duties elsewhere..


Gene...erm... okay.. I am going to be a little more
blunt here than normal..
first.. you didn't answer the question as to
what is supposed to be hard about salvation...
Jesus did the hard part..
I have seen several referances here to:
'easy-believism'.. and I do not see how it ties
in with anything that the Sword is doing.. unless
things have changed greatly..


**stops self..**

mark

 

Quite okay Mark...

 

What I don't understand is why print sermon outlines at all. It's in every denominational circle out there. I am not blaming The Sword or others because of this; just the preachers who, for a lack of studying, use these word for word and attempt to feed there flock.

 

semstudent, when you speak of sermon outlines...are you talking about the Sword paper or the Sword books?

 

Okay...

Let me begin by saying thank you to Bill for bringing
this topic to life..
And thank you for those of you who expressed such
grave reservations..
It gave me the impetus to grab one of my Sword
issues from two years ago, and compare the text
of a Spurgeon sermon with the text I have from
the Sprugeon Library..

The language has indeed been updated..
A necessity I suppose, although mildly irritating
to myself...
I did, however, find the sermon to be doctrinally
intact and faithful to the original even if losing
a little with the language updates.

I then took a look at a copy that I picked up
this summer and hadn't managed to get back
around to finishing...
(Yes, I do stay that busy..)
I found in those pages, a column by Bro. Smith..
Those words that I read this morning were the
words of a Fundamentalist...
Calling for the brethren to stand fast against
the pressures of the culture.

I have now come to the conclusion that even though
Bro Smith most likely would not approve of the
ministry that I am called to.. mainly due to the
fact that I stand with those from many differing
denominations..

I still approve of the Sword..
and will be re-subscribing next month.

To the one who wishes that Bro Smith would come
in here and debate the issues with you..
I have a question..
Would that further the work of our Lord?

Anyway.. thank you once again for pointing my
thoughts towards the Sword of the Lord.


Mark Bishop
Forums Administrator
ExWitch Ministries

 

Reading the "Sword" is kind of like watching television (I'm sure some of you don't believe in that either) but it has an on/off switch and a channel selector. You do not have to agree with everything in the medium to get some good out of it. For you KJVO haters, skip the presumed bias and enjoy the rest....for you Calvinists get your Spurgeon somewhere else.... get over it

As a new believer 40 years ago one of my spiritual mentors gave me a subscription to the "Sword" and it has had its ups and downs, but continues to be have some excellent content. It seems that in some cases this BB (and particularly this thread) has become a means of "ragging" on everything and everyone who does not agree with me.

 

Mark and Circuitrider...thank you so much for your supportive comments.

P.O.Bill, I thank you for your kind words regarding my testimony. I love to share the story with whoever I can. I feel that through sharing the story, (1) people will realize the importance of organ donation (living and cadaveric), (2) people will see the wonderful relationship between brothers and sisters in Christ and (3) it gives me the opportunity to share the Gospel.

 

The sword is much like most other fundamental Baptist Publications, there is much I disagree with in it, and there is good content as well.

Where the teachings and opinions expressed in the sword, and any other work of fallible men, align with the scriptures, I can wholeheartedly agree. No different than when I am reading the opinions of people on a board such as this.

I don't have a subscription, I have been known to look at it on occasion. I barely read anything printed on paper as far as periodicals any more unless I'm at the Dr's office or something. If isnt a book, and its not online, for the most part I don't read it.