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| Charles Finney was the original fake, talking his way into certification,dividing believers. |
He was president of Oberlin College, which was a model of rationalistic do-goodism.
The man Oberlin was famous for good works.
Finney described his certification exam:
Unexpectedly to myself they asked me if I received the Confession of faith of the Presbyterian church. I had not examined it;—that is, the large work, containing the Catechisms and Presbyterian Confession. This had made no part of my study. I replied that I received it for substance of doctrine, so far as I understood it. But I spoke in a way that plainly implied, I think, that I did not pretend to know much about it. However, I answered honestly, as I understood it at the time
[Charles Finney, The Memoirs of Charles Finney: The Complete Restored Text (Grand Rapids: Academie, 1989), 53-54].
He went on to brag, according to this site:
"As soon as I learned what were the unambiguous teachings of the Confession of faith upon these points, I did not hesitate at all on all suitable occasions to declare my dissent from them," he boasted. "I repudiated and exposed them. Wherever I found that any class of persons were hidden behind these dogmas, I did not hesitate to demolish them, to the best of my ability" [Memoirs, 60]. The fact that Finney had obtained his own preaching credentials by professing adherence to the Confession did not faze him at all. "When I came to read the Confession of faith, and saw the passages that were quoted to sustain these peculiar positions, I was absolutely ashamed of it," he frankly stated. "I could not feel any respect for a document that would undertake to impose on mankind such dogmas as those" [Memoirs, 61].
He rejected justification by faith, the imputation of righteousness:
Finney spends a considerable amount of time in several of his works arguing against "that theological fiction of imputation" [Memoirs, 58]. Those who have any grasp of Protestant doctrine will see immediately that his attack at this point is a blatant rejection of the doctrine of justification by faith alone (sola fide). It places him outside the pale of true evangelical Protestantism. The doctrine of imputed righteousness is the very heart of the historic difference between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. The whole doctrine of justification by faith hinges on this concept. But Finney flatly rejected it. He derided the concept of imputation as unjust: "I could not but regard and treat this whole question of imputation as a theological fiction, somewhat related to our legal fiction of John Doe and Richard Roe" [Memoirs, 60].
Finney's effect, by preaching false doctrine, led to Joseph Smith inventing the Mormon religion:
Predictably, most of Finney's spiritual heirs lapsed into apostasy, Socinianism, mere moralism, cultlike perfectionism, and other related errors. In short, Finney's chief legacy was confusion and doctrinal compromise. Evangelical Christianity virtually disappeared from western New York in Finney's own lifetime. Despite Finney's accounts of glorious "revivals," most of the vast region of New England where he held his revival campaigns fell into a permanent spiritual coldness during Finney's lifetime and more than a hundred years later still has not emerged from that malaise. This is directly owing to the influence of Finney and others who were simultaneously promoting similar ideas.
The Western half of New York became known as "the burnt-over district," because of the negative effects of the revivalist movement that culminated in Finney's work there. These facts are often obscured in the popular lore about Finney. But even Finney himself spoke of "a burnt district" [Memoirs, 78], and he lamented the absence of any lasting fruit from his evangelistic efforts. He wrote,
I was often instrumental in bringing Christians under great conviction, and into a state of temporary repentance and faith . . . . [But] falling short of urging them up to a point, where they would become so acquainted with Christ as to abide in Him, they would of course soon relapse into their former state [cited in B. B. Warfield, Studies in Perfectionism, 2 vols. (New York: Oxford, 1932), 2:24].
One of Finney's contemporaries registered a similar assessment, but more bluntly:
During ten years, hundreds, and perhaps thousands, were annually reported to be converted on all hands; but now it is admitted, that real converts are comparatively few. It is declared, even by [Finney] himself, that "the great body of them are a disgrace to religion"
[cited in Warfield, 2:23].
B. B. Warfield cited the testimony of Asa Mahan, one of Finney's close associates,
. . . who tells us—to put it briefly—that everyone who was concerned in these revivals suffered a sad subsequent lapse: the people were left like a dead coal which could not be reignited; the pastors were shorn of all their spiritual power; and the evangelists—"among them all," he says, "and I was personally acquainted with nearly every one of them—I cannot recall a single man, brother Finney and father Nash excepted, who did not after a few years lose his unction, and become equally disqualified for the office of evangelist and that of pastor."
Thus the great "Western Revivals" ran out into disaster. . . . Over and over again, when he proposed to revisit one of the churches, delegations were sent him or other means used, to prevent what was thought of as an affliction. . . . Even after a generation had passed by, these burnt children had no liking for the fire
[Warfield, 2:26-28].
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GJ - When justification by faith is denied, Christianity becomes a law religion. As Hoenecke said about Pietism and The CORE in Appleton -
life over doctrine, sanctification over justification, piety not as a consequence but a stipulation of enlightenment, leading to a kind of synergism and Pelagianism.
Dogmatik, III, p. 253. Jackson Living Translation [unlike Mequon grads, I read German]
This is precisely where Werning, Kent Hunter, Valleskey, Paul Calvin Kelm, F. Bivens, Glende and Ski have led people. Why do they love the Babtists and New Agers so much? Denying justification by faith and the Means of Grace, they look for a source of comfort in their amalgamation of rationalism and subjectivism.
Missouri and WELS have fallen for these toxins because they did not teach or affirm the efficacy of the Word, the Means of Grace, and justification by faith. Their ministry is purely a ministry of condemnation, of works demanded but never sufficient to satisfy the leaders. Naturally, an emphasis upon grand effects rather than fidelity to the Word has led to criminal hypocrisy.
WELS excommunicates for questioning their Reign of Terror while publicly absolving a heinous felon shortly before he pleads innocent of all charges.
Many pastors are trembling in their offices, furtively reading this blog, knowing what they ought to do, but more afraid of spineless bullies than the Word of God.
Finney was famous for creating burnt-over districts, fertile ground for the growth of cults like Mormonism. He ruined minsters who fell by the wayside in their rationalism and infidelities.
Luther predicted it in his own lifetime.
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| The papal Antichrist is not persecuting Lutherans today, but the little Antichrists (DPs and SPs) are. |
