What was The Down-Grade Controversy? 

 

The Undoing of the Faith stopped by Preaching Sensation—Spurgeon.

 

 It's my contention that Pastor Charles Spurgeon by his public ministry speaking out of his pulpit delayed the decline of the Faith in the 19th Century Britain.

On the subject of modernism, Spurgeon, the 19^th century Pastor, aka "Prince of Preachers," was disinclined to moderate which became the center of a controversy that would mark his last years in ministry.

The “Down-Grade Controversy,” as it came to be known, was started in 1887 when Spurgeon began publicly claiming that some of his fellow Baptist ministers were “down grading” the Faith. This was the late-nineteenth century, when Darwinism and overly-critical biblical scholarship were compelling many Christians to re-evaluate their understanding of the Bible. Spurgeon believed the issue was not one of interpretation but of the essentials of the faith. He proclaimed in his monthly, The Sword and the Trowel, “Our warfare is with men who are giving up the atoning sacrifice, denying the inspiration of Holy Scripture, and casting slurs upon justification by faith.”

In the famous controversy, Spurgeon had four main grievances with the Preachers of his denomination, the Baptist Union. He summarizes them in one of the early articles that precipitated the Downgrade Controversy:

 

“We cannot hold the inspiration of the Word, and yet reject it; we cannot believe in the atonement and deny it;… we cannot recognize the punishment of the impenitent and yet indulge the ‘larger hope.’ One way or the other we must go. Decision is the virtue of the hour.”

To summarise: 

 Spurgeon was concerned that some within the denomination were either flirting with or in some cases openly promoting the following errors:

1. The denial of the infallibility of Scripture.
2. The denial of the necessity and substitutionary nature of Christ’s atonement.
3. The denial of the existence and eternality of hell.
4. The affirmation of universalism.

Essay initially based on  Mark Galli and Ted Olsen,  131 Christians Everyone Should Know