September 2011

…read your book Trappings of Popery with which we would totally agree.  Would like a few extra copies…

Thought you might like to hear this – I gave your book on the Festivals of Christ-mas and Easter to an elderly lady I know quite well, having spoken a few words to her about the fact we did not keep these festivals, and she said she agreed!  She sent me an EASTER CARD as a thank-you!!!!

We met up again with a sovereign grace brother, but he and [my husband] got into some controversy, and he did not take it well at all! He is a regular preacher.  He believes in the five points of Calvinism and says he is sovereign grace, yet he nearly went mad when [my husband] said that Christ did not love EVERYONE!  He said that God loves EVERYONE, though not savingly!  We said that God is angry with the wicked every day, and what about Jacob and Esau?  Did God love Esau?  I said how can God love everyone, when many will go to hell?  Christ died for His people, His chosen elect and His blood was not shed in vain – to which he ignored me.  Such a shame as we have so very few brothers/friends we can truly relate to.

[My husband] is wanting to know why no preacher ever deals with the subject of family planning, as we have never heard anyone speak on this important matter.

What a time we are living in, and how we need to stand strong in these days of such compromise.

                                                                                                                                                         England

In reply:

Yes, sadly your account of the elderly lady who sent you an Easter card to thank you for the book is not uncommon.  People say they agree, but at heart they don’t want to make a complete break.  As for the sovereign grace man you spoke to, it’s very tragic but his situation, too, is not uncommon: professing to stand for the doctrines of grace, yet at the same time claims Christ loves everyone!  How they can separate the love of God into saving love for the elect, and some other kind of love for the rest, is astounding; but they do – at least to the satisfaction of their own minds, though certainly not so as to accord with the teaching of God’s holy Word.

Family planning: I agree wholeheartedly, and it is an issue I too have never heard a sermon on, and have only ever seen very little in print about it either, from any Christian.  For this reason I wrote a pamphlet about it, which is available on our website.  It is entitled Christian Couples and Contraception, and can be found under “Pamphlets” from where it can be downloaded and printed.  I can also send it via email.  I believe it is an important subject that needs to be biblically addressed and biblically understood. – Shaun Willcock.

A subsequent letter from the same sister in Christ:

Thank you so much for your email, and I found the article Christian Couples and Contraception, and found it most enlightening.  I know it will answer many of [my husband’s] questions….  You are most brave to tackle this sensitive subject, for we have never heard any Pastor even mention it!  Already a dear sister is also asking for the pamphlet which I have forwarded to her.  I have therefore sent it out to many, including many Pastors in different countries, for it needs to be said, as it is biblically dealt with.  I thank you for it.

We are quite shocked that the sovereign grace preacher we know well… should act the way he did regarding the true love of God.  As you say, God does not have two kinds of love – His love is for His people, His elect, and although he allows the others to enjoy the fruit of their labours and have other blessings, He does not love them, as He is angry with the wicked every day.  This man did say that he does not love them savingly, but what love is this then?

We are so alone here, hardly a Christian soul believes as we do, so we are constantly checking to make sure we are not too judgmental or pharisaical, as we have been accused in the past…. really there is no church we can join ourselves to in this whole area, so we spend our time with the Lord on our own, in prayer, we read Gadsby’s hymns, and listen to sermons….  I believe you have a small church, but it’s wonderful that you even have some true believers who are at one with you, and are happy to be under your ministry.  How we wish we were!  God richly bless and keep you.

                                                                                                                                                         England