J.B. Gambrell, onetime editor of the Baptist Standard , faculty member of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and president of the Southern Baptist Convention, was a defender of the doctrines of grace. He said: "Great revivals have accompanied the heroic preaching of the doctrines of grace, predestination, election, and that whole lofty mountain range of doctrines upon which Jehovah sits enthroned, sovereign in grace as in all things else. God honors the preaching that honors him. There is too much milk-sop preaching nowadays, trying to cajole sinners to enter upon a truce with the Maker, quit sinning, and join the church. The situation does not call for a truce, but for a surrender. Let us bring back the heavy artillery of heaven, and thunder away at this stuck-up age as Whitfield, Edwards, Spurgeon and Paul did..."
Gambrell disliked hyper-Calvinists as much as he disliked Arminians. He said a hyper-Calvinist is like a man who wants to dig a well and dig it in a certain place. He predestines where he predetermines to have it. But at that point he stops and makes no plans, buys neither pick nor shovel, and merely waits for the well to be dug. The Arminian also begins to dig. He knows not whether his digging will succeed or fail. He is simply digging. Gamprell said the Arminian is as foolish as the hyper-Calvinist, "but no more so." A third man decides to have a well, and he obtains all the means necessary for carrying out his purpose. His choices determine both the ends and the means. Gambrell said that this represents God's predestination. "It is wise in all its goings, selecting and making efficient all means leading to the end. 'If a man is going to be saved he will be saved anyway, ' is not true. He will be saved, but God's way, not anyway. And God's way is by the preaching of the gospel, which he has given command shall be preached to every creature. Through the preaching of the gospel, he will take out of all nations a people for himself."
Gambrell disliked hyper-Calvinists as much as he disliked Arminians. He said a hyper-Calvinist is like a man who wants to dig a well and dig it in a certain place. He predestines where he predetermines to have it. But at that point he stops and makes no plans, buys neither pick nor shovel, and merely waits for the well to be dug. The Arminian also begins to dig. He knows not whether his digging will succeed or fail. He is simply digging. Gamprell said the Arminian is as foolish as the hyper-Calvinist, "but no more so." A third man decides to have a well, and he obtains all the means necessary for carrying out his purpose. His choices determine both the ends and the means. Gambrell said that this represents God's predestination. "It is wise in all its goings, selecting and making efficient all means leading to the end. 'If a man is going to be saved he will be saved anyway, ' is not true. He will be saved, but God's way, not anyway. And God's way is by the preaching of the gospel, which he has given command shall be preached to every creature. Through the preaching of the gospel, he will take out of all nations a people for himself."
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