Sovereignty and Predestination

"Why are the great and grand truths of the sovereignty of God, of eternal predestination, and of particular and sovereign grace so infrequently maintained throughout the history of the church, and when they are, why are they maintained only for very short periods of time? I can come to only one conclusion: Their unpopularity is due to the fact that these doctrines are thoroughly and completely God-centered and God-glorifying. Men, even in the church, will not have it that way. They want glory for themselves. They do not want God alone to receive glory. Man insists on his own place, his own prerogatives, his own importance. He wants to retain some of the tattered remnants of a pride that burns white-hot in his heart and is shattered only by the blow of the truth of the absolute sovereignty of God. So he attacks those doctrines, attacks them vigorously in one way or another. He attacks them by denying them. He attacks them by trying to kill them with silence. It would be interesting to ask a thousand people in any Reformed church, "When is the last time you have heard a sermon that was devoted exclusively to the doctrine of sovereign election or, much less, to the doctrine of sovereign reprobation? How many have you heard over the past year or two?" Silence is an effective weapon, it seems, to destroy these doctrines.

These doctrines are also openly attacked by those who profess to be Reformed and Calvinistic but introduce doctrines into the confession of the church that are at odds with and ultimately destroy the doctrines of the sovereignty of God. I refer to such teachings as God's love for all men without distinction; Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross for the whole world, head for head; a desire on God's part, expressed in the preaching of the gospel, to save everyone who hears the gospel — better known as the well-meant gospel offer, which has become a sacred cow in countless circles. In the British Isles, for example, it has repeatedly come to my attention that one can teach any heresy under the face of the heavens and no one will turn a hair. But let someone deny the well-meant gospel offer and the wrath of the entire evangelical and Presbyterian world comes crashing down on his head, as if the only heresy that is of any account in today's world is the truth of sovereign and particular grace.

That is the situation in the church world. It is sad"
                - From post below