Monergism Online Books


I highly recommend Monergism.

Monergism.com is a free directory of theology, whose main goal is to promote salvation by Christ ALONE. That salvation is a gift of Christ for guilty sinners not a reward for the righteous. The Bible and the gospel itself continually draw us back to Christ alone as our redemption. We do not contribute, even partly, to our right standing before God,but Jesus provides everything we need for salvation, including a new heart to believe (Deut 29:4, 30:6; Ezek 36:26; John 6:63, 65, 37) . It is precisely here that is the focal point for which the church has battled throughout its history because the enemy would have us dilute the gospel with something other than, or in addition to, Jesus Christ.

What is Monergism? The term "monergism" is a theological term in which the prefix "mono" means "one" and the suffix "ergism" (ergon) means "to work". Or together they mean, "the work of one", or salvation is of the Lord alone, not a cooperation of man and God. If anyone is to be saved Jesus must grant everything we need for salvation, including a new heart to believe. (Deut 29:4, 30:6: Ezek 36:26; John 6:63, 65, 37). The Trinity works in harmony to bring about the salvation of his elect. The Father elects us in Christ, the Son redeems the same, and the Holy Spirit applies regeneration to the all those the Father has given the Son. The gospel indeed goes out to all people who hear it, but in the stubbornness of people's hearts no one, left to themselves, responds to this outward call (1 Cor 1:23, 24; 2:14), so in love God extends mercy to a multitude of ill-deserving rebel sinners by opening their blind eyes, unstopping their deaf ears and turning their heart of stone to a heart of flesh, that they might believe and live ( Rom 9:15, 16). If anyone is to be saved, it is not because someone naturally had a good will, was more humble, was more wise, and someone else did not, but because Christ saved them, If someone trusts in Christ it is because He (Christ) gave them a good will that they might believe the gospel call. No one believes the gospel apart form effectual working of the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor 12;3; 1 Thess 1:4-5)

For a overview of Monergism.com's content and new features click here.

What is a Christian? One who, by the grace of God, can declare that he justly deserves the wrath of God, save for the mercy of Jesus Christ alone. He casts aside all hope in his self-righteousness and puts away all pride in his own goodness. One who is glad to be regarded as spiritually bankrupt, saved by the free grace and righteousness of Christ and, by the sheer mercy of God, has been granted a grateful heart which yields in allegiance to Him alone as LORD and sovereign. In a word, one who "glories in Christ Jesus and has no confidence in the flesh." (Phil. 3:3)

Monergism.com is a subsidiary of the Christian Publication Resource Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Portland, OR, which exists to aid in the growth and maturation of the worldwide Church by making available a wide array of free resources that support the historic, Reformed Christian faith, combat doctrinal error, and stir the flame of devotion which a right knowledge of the Savior must produce. It serves as a clearinghouse of electronic media addressing all aspects of the Christian faith from a historic, Reformed perspective; it is also a community weblog providing regular devotional and expositional thoughts which highlights various resources and ministries, with contributors from a variety of backgrounds who all share a solidarity in the Reformed faith.

The nature of this online work requires some explanation. This directory of theology is intended primarily to provide free resources for equipping the saints (as well as informing skeptics) in the historic Christian faith, with an emphasis on the truth, necessity and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. We pray that God would look favorably upon our visitors and that you would find the site useful for pastoral, family or private study, and because its content is completely free, our hope is that it would be liberally used by pastors, theologians, those who visit the sick, the poor and for missionaries sent abroad by the Lord to the unreached.

Monergism.com has the following goals:

1) To equip Christians in the truth by making available the finest classic articles and resources of historical orthodoxy. This is done in the hope that the church will embrace, and recover the gospel and true biblical doctrines of the historic Christian faith. 

2) To encourage the church to always be reforming its thoughts in order to be more God-honoring & consistent with the Word of God. To declare the whole counsel of God and not just aspects we feel comfortable with, that the Gospel would affect and transform all areas of our life. To stress important doctrines that have been lost or set aside in the belief that it will help us in one of the most urgent tasks facing evangelicals today - the recovery of the gospel. 

3) Bring glory and honor to God by stressing that the Scriptures are a divine Self-disclosure that is Christ-centered, not man-centered and that the work of salvation is a monergistic work of grace; that, prior to grace, man remains hostile, passive, unable and unwilling to turn to Christ until regenerated by the Holy Spirit. That salvation is not based on the fact that God knew which persons would believe of their own natural free will, for there is no person which fits that description (1 Cor 2:14; Rom 3:11; Rom 8:7; John 1:13; Rom 9:16,18;John 10:26). The decision was based in eternity upon God's sovereign good pleasure alone (Eph 1:4-6; 2 Tim 1:9, Titus 1:2) and enacted in time through the redemptive work of Christ and applied to the elect by the Holy Spirit on those He redemptively set His affection on. Affirming these doctrines did not come through philosophical or confessional routes but through the route of biblical exegesis. 

To proclaim the truths of Scripture as reiterated in the 16th century Reformation that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed in the Scripture alone to the glory of God alone.

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We find ourselves living in a day where an alarming number of those who call themselves evangelicals are abounding in obscurity, vagueness and indistinctness on doctrinal subjects with regard to our Lord Jesus Christ. The time is now that we come together as a body and publicly advocate a clear, well-defined, Spirit-illuminated, Bible-driven Christology, to demonstrate that the historic Reformed orthodox/evangelical view is thoroughly borne out by Scripture. We have endeavored to do so on this site on a multitude of topics and Scripture references.

The theological stand-point which the author(s) of this website holds should be obvious to any reader. Such an one will quickly discover that we belong to the historic evangelical school of theology. He will see that we hold firmly the doctrinal distinctives the Reformers and English Puritans. We are confessing Christians who affirm Covenant Theology and the five solas of the Reformation. We are Presbyterian, and unabashedly hold to the doctrines of grace ... but you will indeed find a great deal of resources on this website from other traditions such as the Reformed Baptists, Reformed Anglicans and Conservative Lutherans because we believe we are in agreement with them on most vital matters of our faith. And while, with sadness, we repudiate of the loose and broad theology of many modern "evangelicals", yet we should add, that in interpreting Scripture or espousing theology, we call no man master or father. We strive, by the grace of God. and your ongoing intercession, to never twist God's Word in order to make it support our own party's views. Throughout this Website we have endeavored honestly and conscientiously to ground every statement (and viewpoint) with the authority of the whole counsel of Scripture behind it. In doing so we seek to evade no difficulty and follow Scripture wherever it leads. We do not hesitate to express our disagreement with the views of others when occasion requires; but when we have done so we strive, by God's grace, to do it with gentleness and respect (1 Pet 3:15).

With this settled purpose of heart let us together seek the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ daily and long after more spiritual knowledge each year we live on earth. Let us deeply search the Scriptures together and pray over them with a growing dependence and zeal. Let us not just scratch the surface of Holy Scripture and thereby know very little of digging down into its hidden treasures. Instead we pray this ministry would be an engaging, vital resource to encourage the reading community to seek the LORD's face on an ongoing basis that His word dwell in you more richly. And to this end we pray that we would all read our Bibles more diligently and the Spirit would open our eyes to its life-giving contents.

Ignorance of the contents of Scripture and the centrality of Jesus Christ as its focal point is the root and foundation of every error. If the Lord would be pleased to allow this work to remove a few granules of ignorance, and to cast a few beams of light on God's precious word,it would be the greatest honor imaginable.

We now conclude this short introduction to our directory with an earnest prayer, that it may please God to pardon the many deficiencies of this website, and that, in spite of ourselves, He would use it for His own glory and for the benefit of saving and richly blessing multitudes of souls. It has cost us a large amount of time and labor to put this website together. But if the Holy Spirit should see fit to utilize it to benefit the church, we will be amply repaid.