Resources/Articles
"...And the Disciples Were Called..."
He was born in Kelvedon, Essex, to a family of clerics. His father and grandfather were Nonconformist ministers (meaning they weren’t Anglicans). At age 15, he broke with family tradition by becoming a Baptist. He attributed this conversion to a sermon heard by chance, when a snowstorm blew him away from his destination into a Primitive Methodist chapel. The experience forced him to reevaluate his idea on, among other things, infant baptism. Within four months he was baptized and joined a Baptist church.
His theology, however, remained more or less Calvinist, though he liked to think of himself as a “mere Christian.” “I am never ashamed to avow myself a Calvinist,” he once said. “I do not hesitate to take the name of Baptist, but if I am asked what is my creed, I reply, ‘It is Jesus Christ.’”
Later on, he would write, “I say of the Baptist name, let it perish, but let Christ’s name last forever. I look forward with pleasure to the day when there will not be a Baptist living. I hope they will soon be gone. I hope the Baptist name with soon perish, but let Christ’s name endure forever.”
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Who was this individual? It was Charles Spurgeon. The question for your consideration is this: Was Mr. Spurgeon right in the initial statement about the Baptist name, or in the latter statement? (Quote is from Spurgeon Memorial Library, Vol. 1, p. 168).
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And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
Acts 11.26
