WHEN
WORD TRUMPS THEOLOGY

Topics: Authority of Scripture; Preaching; Theology; Truth

References: 2 Timothy 3:16; 4:2

It has been my earnest endeavor ever since I have preached the Word, never to keep back a single doctrine that I believe to be taught of God. It is time that we had done with the old and rusty systems that have so long curbed the freeness of religious speech.

The Arminian trembles to go an inch beyond Arminius or Wesley, and many a Calvinist refers to John Gill or John Calvin as an ultimate authority. It is time that the systems were broken up, and that there was sufficient grace in all our hearts to believe everything taught in God’s Word, whether it was taught by either of these men or not.

If God teaches it, it is enough. If it is not in the Word, away with it! Away with it! But if it be in the Word, agreeable or disagreeable, systematic or disorderly, I believe it.

—Charles Haddon Spurgeon, in a sermon delivered at Exeter Hall, London (March 1860)