WHAT'S IN A NAME?

    The name of our site, “Cause of God and Truth,” is taken from the title of a book written by Dr. John Gill in defense of the doctrines of grace. In 1733 or 1734, a Dr. Whitby published a popular attack on the historic Baptist faith. Gill's book The Cause of God and Truth was a response published in four parts between 1735 and 1738.

     In the late 1800s, when Charles Haddon Spurgeon faced the possibility of the loss of friends and finances over his stand in the “Downgrade Controversy,” he found encouragement from Dr. Gill's example. Spurgeon wrote:

My eminent predecessor, Dr. Gill, was told, by a certain member of his congregation who ought to have known better, that if he published his book, The Cause of God and Truth, he would lose some of his best friends, and that his income would fall off. The doctor said, “I can afford to be poor, but I cannot afford to injure my conscience;” and he left his mantle as well as his chair in our vestry (C. H. Spurgeon, Autobiography, 2 Vols. [Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1973] 2:477).

    Our philosophy is that truth, not popularity, must be our goal; thus, we, too, identify with Gill. Our aim, in the words of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, is “to revive the old doctrines of Gill, Owen, Calvin, Augustine, and Christ” (Ian Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon, [Carlisle, PA.: Banner of Truth Trust, 1992], 58).

Who Was John Gill?

    Dr. John Gill was an eighteenth-century Particular Baptist minister in England. He was pastor of the Carter Lane Chapel in London for fifty-one years (later known as the Metropolitan Tabernacle under the ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon). Church historian Henry C. Vedder wrote that Gill was “the ablest and most learned of the Baptists of his time.”

    Dr. Gill was a prolific author, a theologian, and a defender of the faith. Raised up of God at a time when theological errors, particularly Unitarianism, were rampant among Baptists, Dr. Gill stood as a bulwark of biblical faith.

    As we also see serious doctrinal defection in our day, Dr Gill's memory inspires us to the dedication and resolve that he demonstrated for the truth. However, a word of caution must be inserted here least any reach erroneous conclusions such as a critic who wrote, “. . . a casual observer senses that the problem [a reference to our ministry] is in following Calvin and Gill more than Christ . . .” We vehemently declare that our only desire is to follow Christ and Him alone; but to follow Him, we must do so according to the truth.

Controversy, May It Live and Prosper!

    Modern times are characterized by a spirit of acceptance and accommodation. Each person is allowed to believe what he/she wants to as long as no one seeks to claim that his/her beliefs are exclusive. We believe the Bible requires a different stance. There is only one truth. God is “a God of truth” (Deut. 32:4; Psa. 31:5). To worship Him, one must “worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). Jesus is God come in the flesh. He claimed that He was the truth and that no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). His Word is truth (John 17:17). Therefore, we are set for the defense of the truth. As Spurgeon preached over a hundred years ago:

The great controversy which for many ages has divided the Christian Church has hinged upon the difficult question of “the will.” I need not say of that conflict that it has done much mischief . . . but I will rather say, that it has been fraught with incalculable usefulness . . . I believe there is a needs-be for this . . . The pebbles in the living stream of truth are worn smooth and rounded by friction. . . . When we cease each of us, to maintain our own views of truth, and to maintain those views firmly and strenuously, then truth shall fly out of the land, and error alone shall reign. . . (“God's Will, Man's Will,” Spurgeon's Sovereign Grace Sermons, pp. 2, 3).