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Examined Doctrine

Charles Haddon Spurgeon on Election & predestination

1834 – 1892 · REFORMED BAPTIST
READ IN A PRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°
STANCE

Unconditional — grounded in God's free choice

"Did my Saviour die for me because I believed on Him? No... Could the Saviour, therefore, have died because I had faith, when I myself was not yet born?"
A Defence of Calvinism

THE POSITION

Grounded explicitly in God's free choice, not foreseen faith — and Spurgeon states the negative case directly, walking through and rejecting the foreseen-faith argument step by step: Christ could not have died for him because of a faith that didn't yet exist when Christ died, and faith itself is traced back to the gift and working of the Spirit rather than standing prior to grace.

SCRIPTURE
ROMANS 8:29-30 · BSB

29 For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.

16 OTHERS HOLD THIS

AquinasAugustineVoddie BauchamCalvinJonathan EdwardsTim KellerSecond London Baptist ConfessionLutherJohn MacArthurGavin OrtlundJohn OwenJustin PetersJohn PiperR.C. SproulWestminster ConfessionZwingli
Conditional — grounded in foreseen faithJACOBUS ARMINIUS · CHRYSOSTOM · PHILIP MELANCHTHON · WESLEY
Affirmed, held alongside real human responsibility, treated as non-dividingJOSH HOWERTON
See all 26 figures on election & predestination →

ABOUT THIS FIGURE

Pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, and the most famous preacher of Victorian England — the "Prince of Preachers." Preached roughly 3,500–4,000 sermons across 63 volumes; All of Grace and A Defence of Calvinism state his soteriology directly.

9 OF 9 POSITIONS QUOTED
Everything Charles Haddon Spurgeon holds →
Cite this page

"Charles Haddon Spurgeon on Election & predestination", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/spurgeon/election (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/spurgeon/election).

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