• William Gadsby's Fragments (Complete)

    Why Did Christ Die?

    According to some people, Christ died to give all a chance of being saved! I do not know that I hate anything more in my soul than to hear that. It makes Jesus Christ so little that He should do so much, and after all only to get us a chance of being saved. Why, if a man is set up in business, you see how often it happens that he fails in it; and if man cannot manage the paltry things of time and sense without being insolvent, what will he do with eternal realities? And if you come a little closer, when God "made man upright" and he had no sinful nature, what did he do with his innocence? He lost it all!…

  • William Gadsby's Fragments (Complete)

    One of the Highest Insults

    About sixteen years ago, I heard a young man from Hoxton (Association Baptist) Academy make the following remarks: “I now offer you Christ, and Christ stands with open arms ready to receive you. Yea, he begs, and prays, and beseeches you all to come unto him and have life; and yet some of you will not come. Nay, it is as if God the Father came and fell upon his knees before you, begging and beseeching you to receive Christ, and come and be reconciled to him; and yet you will not come.” In this way he proceeded for a considerable length of time; and this he called “preaching the gospel to every creature.” From a professed Arminian such remarks might be expected; but for…

  • William Gadsby's Dialogues

    An Example Of Parents Explaining The Gospel To Their Child

    The Setting: It is morning and the family is busy preparing for work and school. Though the hour is running late, the father insists on reading a portion from the Bible before leaving the house: FATHER: Come, my dear, bring me the Bible. CHILD: Father, it is now nine o'clock, and if I stop while you read and pray I shall get scolded, for I ought to have been at school before now. FATHER: True, child, you ought to have been at school by this time; but I have been detained this morning, and I am not willing you should go before I have read part of God's word, and taken up a little time in prayer and thanksgiving to the God of all our…

  • Jared Smith On Various Issues

    Duty-Faith and the Free-Offer

    Duty-Faith and the Free-Offer are two of the most pernicious heresies infiltrating churches today. Preachers that demand sinners exercise faith, as the initiating cause of the new birth, are appealing to the flesh, wherein dwelleth no good thing. Subsequently, false converts are mass produced through manipulative devices in getting people to 'make a decision for Christ'. The scriptural concept of faith is this—the sinner believes because he has been born again; he is not born again because he believes. Hence, faith is a gift to the saint, not a duty of the sinner. In addition, preachers that 'offer' the gospel (as if it lies in the sinner to accept or reject it) contradict the central message of sovereign grace. The sinful heart must be made…