Thursday, January 10, 2008

Contemporary Christianity: The Progeny of Charles Finney

Found this over at "Truth In Context":





As I have stated on this blog at least a few times, Charles Finney was a heretic. However, his views and approach to evangelism have continued on and have been adopted widely by Christianity. Even Moody Bible Institute, considered by many to be a bastion of orthodoxy, lionizes Finney. Don't think so? I would ask you to do a google on "Stories of Great Christians", which is produced and broadcast by MBI.

Unfortunately, Charles Finney's legacy is contemporary "christianity" with its shallow conversions, mass evangelism focusing on results based on emotional manipulation.

Let Charles Finney stand as an example of what happens when you "do religion" with unsound theology. Sound familiar?

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I was surprised when I heard the history of it all, too. I had to post these so others would know who might not be aware. It amazes me that the altar call is less than 200 years old. I grew up thinking it was orthodox.

Here are some more I posted on Finney:

here.

Take care, Tim.

Tim Brown said...

Yeah, amazing isn't it?

A bit off your point, but a while ago, I visited my former church's website. I found the following under "what we believe"...I ask you, what about any of the following is distinctly Christian? And some of it is purely man-centered!

What do we believe?

That God is the Creator of all things.
That Jesus is God’s Son, the Savior of mankind.
That God has communicated to us through His book, the Bible.
That people are important to God and to us.
That immorality is the cause of most human problems.

Unknown said...

Good, grief. I hear that so often. "Confessions" like that entirely bypass the sin issue and dwell on the Savior, but a person can't appreciate grace if they don't understand what they've been forgiven of.

That Jesus is God’s Son, the Savior of mankind."

"...the Savior of all who believe" would be an accurate statement.

Alan said...

Tim
glad you could pass this along to your readers as well. It frightens me how many people look up to and praise Charles Finney. BTW, glad your mom is going home and will be praying for you all.

In Christ
Alan

Walter said...

The cross tv commentator, suggests that God will use some of Finney's method's to save a few, the most of which turn out to be false converts. I agree. But then he turns around and states that if people were told the truth there would be more true believer's. Is he suggesting that man's teaching method's are used in the conversion of soul's?

If man is totally depraved,then Why would God the Holy Spirit, in the book of Acts call men everywhere to repent? Is He expecting them to do something they are totally incapable of doing? Is it possible for God's sovereignty to work in union with men's free will? Are arminian's saved?

I can't help but think that there will be arminian's in heaven along with Calivinist's.