Compel Them to Come In: Calvinism and the Free Offer of the Gospel

If we believe in God’s sovereign predestination, how can we offer Christ to sinners indiscriminately? How could someone who knew that no one can come to Christ unless the Father draws them still plead with them to look to the Saviour? The Bible clearly entreats us to go after the lost, so Donald Macleod tackles the objections raised by those who argue that since there is no universal redemption there should be no universal gospel offer.

160 pages

CONTENTS

Introduction.............................................................................9

1 The Free Offer and Man’s Spiritual Bondage .....................15

2 The Free Offer and the Doctrine of Predestination ............39

3 The Free Offer and Limited Atonement ............................61

4 The Free Offer and Divine Sincerity..................................71

5 Delivering the Free Offer...................................................81

6 The Free Offer: Knowing Where the Fish are Hiding ......105

7 The Free Offer and the Messenger...................................121

Appendix – Sermon by C. H. Spurgeon: Compel them to Come In....................................................131

Too frequently the free offer of the gospel is hedged about with qualifications that distort the Biblical picture of the character of God and of Jesus Christ. This wonderfully clear book by a notable Reformed teacher and preacher will thrill the soul of any reader and encourage preachers to persuade sinners of every kind as they proclaim the Gospel to them.

Rowland S. Ward, Research Lecturer, Presbyterian Theological College, Melbourne

Compel Him to Come In has all the trademarks we have come to recognise in Professor Donald Macleod’s writings: mastery of doctrine, fulness of biblical insight, cogency of reasoning, clarity of expression, and an eloquence driven by the subject matter. At first you will think you are reading a powerful exposition of the free offer of the gospel in the face of criticisms and misunderstandings of reformed theology. It is indeed that. But by the end you will realise that it more. For Compel Him to Come In is really about the gospel itself. A book for all, it is a must–read for preachers, not least because it models the powerful, passionate appeals it commends.

Sinclair B. Ferguson, Chancellor’s Professor of Systematic Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi