These letters are little more than fragments. They do not aim at a
Truth and Error
by Horatius Bonar
Table of Contents
Introduction
General Principles
God's Will and Man's Will
Election
Predestination and Foreknowledge
The Work of Christ
Faith and Gospel
1. INTRODUCTION
These letters are little more than fragments. They do not aim at a complete statement of the truth, or a systematic arrangement of it. It is only a few important points that they touch. To have extended them and embraced a wider range of doctrine would not have suited my design. I wished to warn you against some of the prevailing
errors of the time, lest you, being "led away... from your own steadfastness" should follow after the "diverse and strange doctrines" of these last days. So it was necessary to dwell upon those errors which have been most prominently advanced, and to open up those truths which have been most perverted and denied.
My appeal is to the Word of God. "What are the reasonings, or opinions, or inferences of men? What is the chaff to the wheat?" saith the Lord. Let the Bible decide each question. It is for this that I have appended to each letter a selection of passages at length.
The real question of the present day is just this, Is man a totally and thoroughly depraved being by nature? Is he ruined, helpless and blind, dead in trespasses and sins? Many other questions have arisen, but this is the central one. According to the views we entertain regarding this will be our views upon other points. It is upon the truth of this doctrine that the whole Bible proceeds. And so modify or abate or dilute the statements of Scripture on this point.
Man being thoroughly depraved in nature, is it possible, I ask, to save him without a special and direct intervention of the Father, Son and Spirit, in his behalf? In other words, can he be saved in any way which does not involve personal election by the Father, particular redemption by the Son, and direct, immediate, overcoming operation of the Holy Spirit? Or, putting the question in another form, using the language of science — given a totally depraved being, is it possible to save that being by any plan which makes the previous concurrence of his own will an indispensable preliminary, or which makes it necessary that he should take the first step in the matter of return to God? If you place the different errors of the day before you in this light, you will find that they all more or less deny or encroach on the doctrine of man's original, actual depravity.
You will find, also, that the objections urged against God's sovereignty and man's helplessness, are just different manifestations of human pride — the pride into which Satan tempted Adam, "ye shall be as gods," and into which all his offspring have fallen along with him. Man will not consent to be nothing, that God alone may be all. And it is curious to observe that the objections urged against these truths are not passages of Scripture, but human reasonings — man's inferences and opinions. Take, as a specimen, the doctrine of God's sovereignty. We have passages broadly declaring this, but not one setting forth the opposite. How, then, do men contrive to deny this truth? They begin to reason and speculate upon it; and by means of certain inferences of their own, they try to make it appear inconsistent with other doctrines to which they attach great importance. They say, "Does not God invite the sinner to come to Christ, does He not tell us that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that he should turn and live? Now how can this be true if He is absolutely sovereign in His proceedings? We cannot reconcile these things together, therefore we must explain away the passages which assert God's sovereignty and electing will. They cannot be understood in their plain and literal sense; we must devise some other meaning for them which will accord with our ideas of God's love." So, pride of intellect, confidence in human reason, eagerness to establish one favorite doctrine and to make everything bend to it, supersede and overturn the Word of God. Scripture is not implicitly relied upon, unless borne out by the systems or the syllogisms of reason and the conclusions of man's poor fallen intellect.
Cleave, then, to the Word of God. Distrust your own heart, "lean not unto thine own understanding," but "receive with meekness the engrafted word." "The world by wisdom knew not God," and we must stoop to "become fools, so that we may become wise." The "natural