“Toward the end of his life, he took a firm stand in the famous “Downgrade Controversy” of 1887-1889. This was a time when many preachers turned from the Word of God in their pulpits, becoming more liberal in an effort to get more and more people into their churches. This, combined with his fragile health condition from rheumatoid gout, wore him down physically until his death at the age of fifty-seven in 1892.”
The preceding paragraph, found at the end of the biography on C.H. Spurgeon may have caused you to ask the question, “What exactly was the famous ‘Downgrade Controversy’”? If you indeed asked yourself that question, and have been losing sleep for many weeks, we apologize and we hope that the following will answer your query and solve your slumber problems!
The Downgrade Controversy
C. H. Spurgeon was the editor of The Sword and the Trowel, a monthly magazine that first published articles on the controversy. In 1887, the first article, written by Robert Schindler, a fellow pastor and friend of Spurgeon, sounded the alarm concerning the decline of true Biblical Christianity within the major Protestant denominations of England. The crux of the problem seemed to stem from those churches that strayed from sound doctrine in favor of liberal beliefs. The different forms of liberal beliefs were legion and it only took a step in this direction or that for the leaders of various churches to begin their downward slide. Schindler further suggested that the getting on the downgrade began to happen as some abandoned the faith openly, while others hid their heresy, sowing seeds of doubt while acting otherwise in orthodoxy. Then there were the groups of pastors who remained true to the faith, but did nothing to fight for what they believed. These men would not discern with whom they associated and would often have heretical ministers in their pulpits either as their own assistants or as guest preachers. They were more interested in keeping the peace than in truth.
In April of the same year, Schindler penned another article where he made it clear that the blame for this loss of purity of the doctrine of Christ was to be laid at the feet of the leaders of the church. He paraphrased Hosea 4:9, saying, “Like priest, like people.” Tolerance of impure doctrine and allowing impure doctrine to come from their pulpits had led to disaster. He cited the fact that Charles Darwin had first been introduced to skepticism by a pastor who was on the downgrade and we all know where that led Darwin (and one could argue the entire world). If the pastor does not remain firmly attached to the Bible, one cannot expect the people to remain so either.
By now, one obviously can surmise that this type of thing has been going on throughout the history of the church. It seems that the heresy is just repackaged for each succeeding generation, to catch the fancy of the contemporary society. Schindler noted this and asked the questions begging to be asked. Why does this happen again and again and is there some common thread between all the occurrences of churches and denominations that fall prey to the down-grade? His answer was that the first step astray happens when a person loses faith in the divine inspiration of the Bible. He said, “All the while a man bows to the authority of God’s Word, he will not entertain any sentiment contrary to its teaching. ‘To the law and to the testimony,’ is his appeal concerning every doctrine. He esteems that holy Book, concerning all things, to be right, and therefore he hates every false way. But let a man question, or entertain low views of the inspiration and authority of the Bible, and he is without chart to guide him, and without anchor to hold him. In looking carefully over the history of the times, and the movement of the times, of which we have written briefly, this fact is apparent: that where ministers and Christian churches have held fast to the truth that the Holy Scriptures have been given by God as an authoritative and infallible rule of faith and practice, they have never wandered very seriously out of the right way. But when, on the other hand, reason has been exalted above revelation, and made the exponent of revelation, all kinds of errors and mischiefs have been the result.”
In August of 1887, The Sword and the Trowel presented an article written by Spurgeon himself entitled, “Another Word Concerning the Down-Grade.” The article had an urgent tone, as the controversy was spreading and the debate was reaching a fever-pitch. The editorial office of the publication was inundated with many accounts from people complaining that their own beloved churches were falling prey to the “Down-Grade”. It seemed that despite sounding the alarm bell, The Sword and the Trowel had underestimated the severity of the situation. Spurgeon became convinced that he needed to “earnestly contend for the faith” and he did so without compromise. Unfortunately, all the latest trends were toward unification, seemingly a “peace at any price” type of situation. Historical hindsight tells us that this never works, yet we “thinking” humans careen every few years toward this disastrous notion when we apply it with our hope for better tomorrows. It’s hard to stand alone on the Word of God when the evangelical world is not. Those whom you thought were strong in the Word often cave in to compromise based on their feelings or the consensus of others’ feelings on a subject.
In September 1887, Spurgeon wrote another article, declaring that he had received corroboration after his last word. People were confirming that the “Down-Grade” was occurring in their own churches. Instead of dealing with the charges Spurgeon had leveled against those who no longer preached the true gospel in their pulpits, they made excuses for the reason Spurgeon was making his allegations. Spurgeon was having kidney problems and would have to be out of his pulpit, so those against him used this as a reason to ignore the articles written in The Sword and the Trowel. They said he was ill and obviously this illness was affecting his ability to reason. This is one of the classic ways people deal with, or should I say refuse to deal with things. Get the focus off the real issues, in this case, the fact that British evangelicalism was eroding, and attack the messenger, personally. At this point, Spurgeon was beginning to think the only move left was to withdraw from the Baptist Union, with whom he was affiliated. This article ended with Spurgeon asking all to avoid compromise, even at the cost of dissolving fellowship.
In October, the next issue of The Sword and the Trowel carried an article that consisted of excerpts from the letters Spurgeon had received in response to his previous articles. Some were from those who wanted to bring peace and compromise to the situation, while others were from readers who described the false teaching and compromises that were heard from those who were classified as evangelical.
Spurgeon believe that the Baptist Union would address these issues at the annual meeting held at Sheffield, but they did not. At this point, Spurgeon wrote his letter of withdrawal from the Baptist Union. This is the end of Article One; stay tuned to learn the outcome of this decision!
