The Door Charles Finney Opened and the Sound Doctrine That Was Lost

[Arial]

Charles Grandison Finney was born in 1792 and died in 1875. He began as a Presbyterian minister but even in that capacity began to to go against the Westminster Confession when it came to the doctrines concerning election and predestination. Rather than prove them wrong, he simply began to replace their theology with his own. Something we see to this day and is evident in the forum debates. It begins with free will being stated as a biblical doctrine, when it has been proven to not be in all the arguments over the same issue throughout history. The Bible teaches that man has a will, and that will freely makes choices, but that because of the nature of mankind, on its own it will not choose Christ. The Bible teaches that the human will is in bondage to sin.

Finney is credited with the first to employ the method of altar calls urging people to make a decision for Christ. He changed the face of evangelism.

He believed that revival was not dependant upon God but was purely the right use of constituted means. He wrote a book "How to Experience Revival" still in print and widely used today.


Charles Finney denied that mankind has a sinful nature inherited from Adam. Rather, Finney said, our sinfulness is the result of moral choices made by each individual. Christ’s death on the cross, according to Finney, was not a payment for sin as much as it was a demonstration that God was serious about keeping the Law. The reformation of a person’s morality is the essence of Christianity, according to Finney. It is the sinner who is responsible for his own regeneration, Finney said; while the Holy Spirit influences the decision, the choice to be saved is always man’s: “The sinner actually changes, and is therefore himself, in the most proper sense, the author of the change” (“Sinners Bound to Change,” 21–22). (from got questions)

That is a brief outline of who Finney was. But how did that open a door in which theology and doctrine escaped and the world came in. So far reaching was the "choose what appeals to you" the very warnings given in 2 Tim 4:1-4; Acts 20:28-30; Matt 7:15-20 that one can scarcely find a church that even likes the word doctrine, let alone have any that basis itself on any sound principles of systematic theology and exegesis, or that expounds on the word of God. Though the debate over free will has been going on for centuries, it was Finney who set a match to those embers, it caught, and became a wildfire, devouring sound Bible based doctrine in its wake.

As a result of that one premise of the free will of man to choose whether to be saved or not, combined with Finney's idea that methods could be incorporated to entice people to choose Christ, we have several generations of false conversions, and genuine conversions, because God can bring good out of what is bad, and He saves who He saves, that are not able to rightly divide the word---that is cut a straight furrow with the word,---so that its truths are consistent and remain consistent with who God is as He reveals Himself to be in the word, and who Jesus is and what He accomplished in actuality. The starting premise of free will in choosing Christ is inconsistent with the self revealed God of the Bible. It is inconsistent with dozens of dozens of scriptures that show it is God who saves and that He chooses who to save.

Every scripture that speaks of "called," "calling," "elect," "election," "predestination," "believe," "repent, "drawn," "come to Christ," etc. must be reworked and through various means and differing outcomes, to fit the bias of us choosing Christ. Imputation of Christ's righteousness becomes less, and less important than it is through this very means and wrong starting point. As do saving grace, justification, glorification, propitiation, atonement. A veil remains over the eyes to not be able to comprehend the fullness of those things, because mankind is standing at the center of salvation, and not God. And because the starting premise of man's free will choice in salvation clouds everything else, tens upon tens of scriptures cannot find a correct interpretation. The Bible is read looking for us, not looking at or for God and His glory.

And our pulpits often sport wolves in sheep's clothing going unnoticed and undetected because those sitting in the pews having nothing with which to discern the difference but the word of God which they do not know how to rightly divide. If it sounds right, if they use the name of Christ, if they quote scriptures that are left never expounded on with the word of God, if it provokes a good feeling and emotions, it must be true. And they run with it.

All because they have either never been taught or been taught to hate, and do not believe, that God is holy and man is contaminated to his core by sin, and therefore that not only can he not choose Christ, he cannot desire to do so. They do not believe that God elects who He will save, and that if He did that would be evil of Him. They do not believe that only those God elects are brought to Christ, or that those were created to belong to Christ and given to Him by the Father. They do not believe that God alone can bring one dead in their sins and tresspasses to life or that that is the only way anyone will ever come to Christ, they do not believe that the good work He began in us He will finish, or that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith.

And though many will say they agree in part with those things but that this grace to believe is given to all without exception, and only makes them able to make this decision, they have reduced saving grace to a maybe and in so doing removed both the power and grace of God from the picture. And through either view, those scriptures that say otherwise, because they do produce a consistency in the Bible's truths, must be reworked, words added, meanings changed, etc. to match the bias that already exists, without any consideration given to whether or not it produces inconsistencies.

The reasoning often given for doing this amounts to mankind thinking he needs to defend God. And many think that is what they are doing. But that too is an inconsistency, for God does not need to be defended and certainly not by a fallen creature. He answers to no one. What they are defending is how they want to see God and who they think God ought to be. And what is at the very core of this free will in choosing God? The very, very core, though it is seldom recognized and never admitted. It is maintaining a bit of independence from God. Keeping a bit of the supposed autonomy we so dearly loved as unbelievers. We still find it much easier to trust ourselves when it comes to salvation, to trust in our choice, than to actually be trusting God with our salvation. So high do they elevate their free will in being saved they declare, "God would never violate man's free will!"

This is the legacy of Charles Finney to the church.

The only reason doctrine has begun to be discussed in some mainstream churches, and only in the last twenty years or so, is because of the resurgence of Calvinism. They can't ignore it anymore. So the approach is to try and kill it again. And they argue against Calvinism with unsound doctrine.

 

[Josheb]

Charles Grandison Finney was born in 1792 and died in 1875. He began as a Presbyterian minister but even in that capacity began to to go against the Westminster Confession when it came to the doctrines concerning election and predestination. Rather than prove them wrong, he simply began to replace their theology with his own. Something we see to this day and is evident in the forum debates. It begins with free will being stated as a biblical doctrine, when it has been proven to not be in all the arguments over the same issue throughout history. The Bible teaches that man has a will, and that will freely makes choices, but that because of the nature of mankind, on its own it will not choose Christ. The Bible teaches that the human will is in bondage to sin.

Finney is credited with the first to employ the method of altar calls urging people to make a decision for Christ. He changed the face of evangelism.

He believed that revival was not dependant upon God but was purely the right use of constituted means. He wrote a book "How to Experience Revival" still in print and widely used today.


Charles Finney denied that mankind has a sinful nature inherited from Adam. Rather, Finney said, our sinfulness is the result of moral choices made by each individual. Christ’s death on the cross, according to Finney, was not a payment for sin as much as it was a demonstration that God was serious about keeping the Law. The reformation of a person’s morality is the essence of Christianity, according to Finney. It is the sinner who is responsible for his own regeneration, Finney said; while the Holy Spirit influences the decision, the choice to be saved is always man’s: “The sinner actually changes, and is therefore himself, in the most proper sense, the author of the change” (“Sinners Bound to Change,” 21–22). (from got questions)

That is a brief outline of who Finney was. But how did that open a door in which theology and doctrine escaped and the world came in. So far reaching was the "choose what appeals to you" the very warnings given in 2 Tim 4:1-4; Acts 20:28-30; Matt 7:15-20 that one can scarcely find a church that even likes the word doctrine, let alone have any that basis itself on any sound principles of systematic theology and exegesis, or that expounds on the word of God. Though the debate over free will has been going on for centuries, it was Finney who set a match to those embers, it caught, and became a wildfire, devouring sound Bible based doctrine in its wake.

As a result of that one premise of the free will of man to choose whether to be saved or not, combined with Finney's idea that methods could be incorporated to entice people to choose Christ, we have several generations of false conversions, and genuine conversions, because God can bring good out of what is bad, and He saves who He saves, that are not able to rightly divide the word---that is cut a straight furrow with the word,---so that its truths are consistent and remain consistent with who God is as He reveals Himself to be in the word, and who Jesus is and what He accomplished in actuality. The starting premise of free will in choosing Christ is inconsistent with the self revealed God of the Bible. It is inconsistent with dozens of dozens of scriptures that show it is God who saves and that He chooses who to save.

Every scripture that speaks of "called," "calling," "elect," "election," "predestination," "believe," "repent, "drawn," "come to Christ," etc. must be reworked and through various means and differing outcomes, to fit the bias of us choosing Christ. Imputation of Christ's righteousness becomes less, and less important than it is through this very means and wrong starting point. As do saving grace, justification, glorification, propitiation, atonement. A veil remains over the eyes to not be able to comprehend the fullness of those things, because mankind is standing at the center of salvation, and not God. And because the starting premise of man's free will choice in salvation clouds everything else, tens upon tens of scriptures cannot find a correct interpretation. The Bible is read looking for us, not looking at or for God and His glory.

And our pulpits often sport wolves in sheep's clothing going unnoticed and undetected because those sitting in the pews having nothing with which to discern the difference but the word of God which they do not know how to rightly divide. If it sounds right, if they use the name of Christ, if they quote scriptures that are left never expounded on with the word of God, if it provokes a good feeling and emotions, it must be true. And they run with it.

All because they have either never been taught or been taught to hate, and do not believe, that God is holy and man is contaminated to his core by sin, and therefore that not only can he not choose Christ, he cannot desire to do so. They do not believe that God elects who He will save, and that if He did that would be evil of Him. They do not believe that only those God elects are brought to Christ, or that those were created to belong to Christ and given to Him by the Father. They do not believe that God alone can bring one dead in their sins and tresspasses to life or that that is the only way anyone will ever come to Christ, they do not believe that the good work He began in us He will finish, or that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith.

And though many will say they agree in part with those things but that this grace to believe is given to all without exception, and only makes them able to make this decision, they have reduced saving grace to a maybe and in so doing removed both the power and grace of God from the picture. And through either view, those scriptures that say otherwise, because they do produce a consistency in the Bible's truths, must be reworked, words added, meanings changed, etc. to match the bias that already exists, without any consideration given to whether or not it produces inconsistencies.

The reasoning often given for doing this amounts to mankind thinking he needs to defend God. And many think that is what they are doing. But that too is an inconsistency, for God does not need to be defended and certainly not by a fallen creature. He answers to no one. What they are defending is how they want to see God and who they think God ought to be. And what is at the very core of this free will in choosing God? The very, very core, though it is seldom recognized and never admitted. It is maintaining a bit of independence from God. Keeping a bit of the supposed autonomy we so dearly loved as unbelievers. We still find it much easier to trust ourselves when it comes to salvation, to trust in our choice, than to actually be trusting God with our salvation. So high do they elevate their free will in being saved they declare, "God would never violate man's free will!"

This is the legacy of Charles Finney to the church.

The only reason doctrine has begun to be discussed in some mainstream churches, and only in the last twenty years or so, is because of the resurgence of Calvinism. They can't ignore it anymore. So the approach is to try and kill it again. And they argue against Calvinism with unsound doctrine.

Yep. Finney is a curious character in modern Church history. Finney is supposed to be one of the most intelligent people to have ever lived (not just among the smartest preachers) but he sure did go awry in places. How could a man first steeped in Reformed Theology and so effective in revival lapse in so many obvious ways? Personally, I attribute it to the influence of Wesley (lesser degrees to Whitefield) and the shift away from creedalism to experientialism.

 

[Arial]

Yep. Finney is a curious character in modern Church history. Finney is supposed to be one of the most intelligent people to have ever lived (not just among the smartest preachers) but he sure did go awry in places. How could a man first steeped in Reformed Theology and so effective in revival lapse in so many obvious ways? Personally, I attribute it to the influence of Wesley (lesser degrees to Whitefield) and the shift away from creedalism to experientialism.

I agree. He comes close to crossing the line of rejection of the Christ of the Bible in the limited things I have seen of his own writings. But it is said that the beginning of his ministry is based solely on an experience. And that is not to say that all experiences are bogus.I had an experience at conversion myself and a rather dramatic one, but even as one beginning in the A'ist camp I never based my salvation or the reality of it on the experience, but rather what happened inside of me, in my heart, and never left. So it is what the experience produces in the person, the fruit of it, that proofs the experience, not the other way around. And of course some 23 years later I realized it was not a conversion but a regeneration.

The fruit that multiplied and mutated from Finney is questionable. And no doubt God has reached many through his methods. I think, but am not sure, that though he used methods in his revivals to stir up emotional responses, I think he sometimes anyway, preached Christ and Him crucified. So some were responding to the gospel message, heard and believed. Not so much anymore.

 

[Josheb]

....that is not to say that all experiences are bogus. I had an experience at conversion myself and a rather dramatic one....

Me, too, and I completely agree. The problem is measuring one's salvation solely by the experience or emphasizing that experience over scripture. The rise of experientialism is understandable given the fact most people, even in the 18th and 19th centuries did not own Bibles and were not literate. With the introduction of the Scofield Bible and public schooling, suddenly lots of folks could read and were given scripture on a daily basis.

And then they went to church on Sunday where the preacher told them the Church is corrupt, the end was coming any day now, and they all needed to repent and surrender to Christ.

Over

and

over,

again

and

again,

revival

after

revival.


And it continues in some congregations to this day. Spend a month or two in many an evangelical congregation and the same people can be observed going to the altar week after week.

The fruit that multiplied and mutated from Finney is questionable. And no doubt God has reached many through his methods. I think, but am not sure, that though he used methods in his revivals to stir up emotional responses, I think he sometimes anyway, preached Christ and Him crucified. So some were responding to the gospel message, heard and believed.

Yep. I think all of that correct.

Not so much anymore.

Perhaps I can offer some encouragement because I was recently studying some statistics on the growth and waning of Christianity nationally and internationally. In the US, the rate of conversion has remained constant since the onset of the 1900s. The number of Christians worldwide has plateaued. Because of population growth numbers in America have decreased about 10% over the last half century but they've increased in Africa and Asia. Believe it or not, Presbyterian and Reformed missionaries are among the most effective. I've sponsored two African pastors' immigration to the US, both formerly Dispensationalist now growing in Reformed theology. Once a person begins to read the scriptures and consider the older Protestant theology(-ies) I've found change is common.

 

[Arial]

Perhaps I can offer some encouragement because I was recently studying some statistics on the growth and waning of Christianity nationally and internationally. In the US, the rate of conversion has remained constant since the onset of the 1900s. The number of Christians worldwide has plateaued. Because of population growth numbers in America have decreased about 10% over the last half century but they've increased in Africa and Asia. Believe it or not, Presbyterian and Reformed missionaries are among the most effective. I've sponsored two African pastors' immigration to the US, both formerly Dispensationalist now growing in Reformed theology. Once a person begins to read the scriptures and consider the older Protestant theology(-ies) I've found change is common.

That is encouraging, and I do think a change is taking place. I spent the first 23 years of my Christian life in charismatic churches, and many different ones as I was in many places. Not once was Calvinism mentioned. The were of course A'ist also and had at least a dispensational eschatology. Everywhere I went that was treated as true Christianity and I accepted it, thinking they all knew more than me.

I had a lot of questions though and realized I could not get an answer I could trust from those churches, not even the pastor because all I would get was his opinion. Things I read in the Bible did not jive with what I was hearing. And the charismatic stuff made me uneasy and at times raised the hair on the back of my neck. How I was introduced to Reformed theology in 2005 is quite a story of providence. For another time and place if you are interested.

In many of the books I was reading, Sproul, MacArthur, White, I was hearing that in the last twenty years (from then) Reformed theology was making a comeback. People were hungry for God, as I was, not hoopla and experiences. And since then I can tell in the forums and in talking with various Christians, that it is now being discussed in the churches that are against it, because they have no choice in their position but to try and destroy it again. That is where we get a lot of the misstatements and attitudes towards it that we find on the forums.

And I absolutely agree that it is the loss of all confessional methods of teaching and establishing sound doctrine, and the loss of studying and reading the works of the old Protestant writers has contributed much to the weakness of the postmodern church. There is a book written several years ago about the progression of what we see today, the loss of doctrine, how it came about, the damage it has done, that if you haven't read would probably enjoy. But I don't have it. I bought it for my brother and read it before I gave it to him, and my sister now has it. And I don't remember the name of the book or the author. But I will find out!

 

[Arial]

@Josheb
The book I mentioned is "No Place For Truth" by David F. Wells.

 

[Josheb]

@Josheb
The book I mentioned is "No Place For Truth" by David F. Wells.

I haven't read that book, but I just heard an old interview of him at the White Horse Inn that was great and bought his "God in the Whirlwind."

 

[makesends]

Me, too, and I completely agree. The problem is measuring one's salvation solely by the experience or emphasizing that experience over scripture. The rise of experientialism is understandable given the fact most people, even in the 18th and 19th centuries did not own Bibles and were not literate. With the introduction of the Scofield Bible and public schooling, suddenly lots of folks could read and were given scripture on a daily basis.

And then they went to church on Sunday where the preacher told them the Church is corrupt, the end was coming any day now, and they all needed to repent and surrender to Christ.

Over

and

over,

again

and

again,

revival

after

revival.


And it continues in some congregations to this day. Spend a month or two in many an evangelical congregation and the same people can be observed going to the altar week after week.

Yep. I think all of that correct.

Perhaps I can offer some encouragement because I was recently studying some statistics on the growth and waning of Christianity nationally and internationally. In the US, the rate of conversion has remained constant since the onset of the 1900s. The number of Christians worldwide has plateaued. Because of population growth numbers in America have decreased about 10% over the last half century but they've increased in Africa and Asia. Believe it or not, Presbyterian and Reformed missionaries are among the most effective. I've sponsored two African pastors' immigration to the US, both formerly Dispensationalist now growing in Reformed theology. Once a person begins to read the scriptures and consider the older Protestant theology(-ies) I've found change is common.

I have run into what seems to me an addiction to the feeling they find in church. Not solid pursuit of Christ, but of "the worship experience". I have been rather severely criticized for questioning some doctrine or method or, particular, some focus, when "the Spirit was obviously there with us", (or such), in the meeting where that doctrine etc was espoused.

 

[Arial]

I have run into what seems to me an addiction to the feeling they find in church. Not solid pursuit of Christ, but of "the worship experience". I have been rather severely criticized for questioning some doctrine or method or, particular, some focus, when "the Spirit was obviously there with us", (or such), in the meeting where that doctrine etc was espoused.

I have been in churches where the congregants openly say they come to see what will happen. Meaning the displays they attribute to the Holy Spirit. Many services where there was no preaching of the word at all.

 

[Josheb]

I have run into what seems to me an addiction to the feeling they find in church. Not solid pursuit of Christ, but of "the worship experience". I have been rather severely criticized for questioning some doctrine or method or, particular, some focus, when "the Spirit was obviously there with us", (or such), in the meeting where that doctrine etc was espoused.

I have been in churches where the congregants openly say they come to see what will happen. Meaning the displays they attribute to the Holy Spirit. Many services where there was no preaching of the word at all.

Whatever else it is (or isn't)..... it is a lack of faith and a lack of perseverance. I suspect if any of them were asked if they know of any scripture supporting God healing a person for only one week, and doing so over and over again and again for temporary healing the result would name calling. It happens in forums, too (and they'll eventually show up here given enough time). As a mental health professional, I have alternately confronted fools and aided the sincere and the testimony is always in the fruit they bear. Ad hominem is never a fruit of the Spirit. Others (from places like England, Australia, Kenya, and India(!), praise God!, have messaged me months later to report gratitude for a life changed. Seeing blessing administered by God through a text-based medium like an internet forum provides an interesting perspective for the show put on at the altar of some congregations where many get "blessed" in weekly increments ad no enduring change ensues.

James 1:2-8, 23-25
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways...... For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

I do not believe I have ever heard a pastor tell congregants not to come up week after week for the same condition after claiming to have been blessed. I wonder if any do .

2 Peter 1:2-11
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

It's extraordinary once owned. We have everything we need to live a godly life and participate in the divine nature, but we become short-sighted because we forget, we forget we have been made clean of past sins. Still, I try to have compassion, patience, and forbearance because I also know people change when they are ready and, unless God does something extraordinary to force the matter, not before then.