What Adam has to do with it is this—because Adam sinned, and because all after Adam have sinned—they all would inevitably have sinned whether Adam had sinned or not—the physical nature inherited by babies is to a certain extent disordered, and this makes their impulse to self-gratification perhaps somewhat more clamant than otherwise it would have been.381 In any case this impulse would have been strong enough to carry the day against the new ethical knowledge which comes to them when they become moral agents. B. Dod, “Finney’s Sermons,” in same, July, 1835, pp. The entire congregation, having never heard such a challenge, remained in their seats. According to this theory, disinterested benevolence can never be duty, can never be right, but always and necessarily wrong.… If moral agents ought to will the right for the sake of the right, or will good, not for the sake of the good, but for the sake of the relation of rightness existing between the choice and the good, then to will the good for its own sake is sin. IV. Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875). The next night, the entire town turned out, including a man so angry with Finney that he brought a gun and intending to kill the evangelist. Biography of Finney:—G. It will repay us to attend to Finney’s account of the origin and nature of this universal total moral depravity, with which mankind is afflicted. But others were opposed to the "plain and pointed preacher." Subscribe to CT and The human sensibility is, manifestly, deeply physically depraved; and as sin, or moral depravity, consists in committing the will to the gratification of the sensibility, its physical depravity will mightily strengthen moral depravity. A daily newsletter featuring the most important and significant events on each day in Christian History. And this seems strongly to suggest that there is an intrinsic difference between the objects of election and others, determining their different treatment. III. W. D. Snodgrass, “The Scripture Doctrine of Sanctification, Stated and Defended against the error of Perfectionism,” 1841. L. Woods, “Examination of the Doctrine of Perfection, as held by Rev. The Augustinian variety supposes that God, respecting the free will of men, approaches them, just as in the other variety, with “suasive grace” only; but Himself adapts this grace so wisely to the hearts of those whom He has sovereignly selected to save, that they yield freely to its persuasion and are saved. Persuasion—all that God does looking to the salvation of men is confined in its mode to persuasion. He admits that if a man pays his debts from a sense of justice, or feeling of conscientiousness, he is therein and therefore just as wicked as if he stole a horse. 406–438 (also issued in book form, 1841). “Freemasonry: its Character, Claims and Practical Working,” 1869. The “Higher Life Movement” which swept over the English-speaking world—and across the narrow seas into the Continent of Europe—in the third quarter of the nineteenth century, was not without traits which derived from Oberlin. This is a result of Finney’s teleological ethics. 411 Finney is even able to say (“Lectures on Systematic Theology,” p. 951): “Were it not for the relation that virtue is seen to sustain to happiness in general, no moral agent would conceive of it as valuable.”. A persuasion which is invariably effective has at least as remarkable an appearance as the uncaused unanimity of action which it alone breaks, and which, it is affirmed, it alone can break. We Must Find a Better Way to Talk About Race, Over 42.6M abortions conducted in 2020, surpassing world's leading causes of death, Social Justice Vs. Out of this objectified system they have no goodness: they acquire goodness only by being brought into, and as they are brought into each man’s actual subjective system. But it is not so easy to acquiesce when we are told that we must be miserable that others may be happy. And that is “intentionalism.” What he teaches is, not that our good intention cannot be secured unless we employ good means, but that our good intention makes the means requisite for securing it good. And when now we are told that this contrary effect, unexampled otherwise, nevertheless follows with invariable certainty, whenever the persuasive action of the Holy Spirit is exerted to that end—how can we help suspecting that the action of the Spirit in question is something more than persuasive? We have here of course only the familiar construction of the old Rationalismus Vulgaris; and no more here than there is the implication of God in bringing the human race into a condition of universal depravity escaped. A state of entire sanctification can never be attained … by any works of law, or works of any kind, performed in your own strength, irrespective of the grace of God. He has as much trouble with their salvation as with their dying. The affiliations of Finney’s notion here are obviously with that Pelagianizing doctrine of concupiscence which infested the Middle Ages and was transmitted by them to the Roman Church. G. Duffield, “A Warning Against Error,” 1847. “Reply to the ‘Warning Against Error,’ written by the Rev. Just as the A… John Morgan, “Holiness Acceptable to God,” 1875. And it turns secondly on the nature of the depravity attributed by the Augustinians to man. N. S. S. Beman, with whose collaboration Finney’s remarkable revival at Troy had been carried on, was the actual author of the uncompromising refutation put out in the same year by the Presbytery of Troy. And it is here that the benevolence scheme is most severely strained. A change of purpose is, naturally, an act of our own, and Finney therefore not only identifies regeneration and conversion, but polemicizes against all attempts to erect a distinction between them.398 We regenerate ourselves: only the man himself can “change his choice,” and if he will not do it, “it is impossible that it should be changed”—“neither God, nor any other being, can regenerate him, if he will not turn.”399 It is we ourselves then who make ourselves holy, and that at a stroke. The main thing in this exhortation is the staring Pelagianism of the whole construction. The precise thing he asserts is that sanctification is by faith as opposed to works. But neither are the holiness and salvation of the elect the ultimate end of God in His dealing with them. pp. “Letters on Revivals,” 1845. Changes have befallen Oberlin. On the other hand, though God is supposed in the doctrine Finney is criticizing to have attached the communication of sinfulness to Adam’s posterity descended from him by ordinary generation, He is not represented as having done so arbitrarily but in a judicial sentence; so that a ground is assigned for His act and a ground in right—and Finney has not shown that this ground did not exist, or that existing, it was not a compelling ground in right. It is all a sanctification of acts. Nov 15, 2016 - Explore Greg Robbins's board "Charles Finney Quotes" on Pinterest. And in view of the fact that half of the human race die in infancy, it offers a trying puzzle to the philosophical thinker. This is of course making himself again a new heart—this time a bad one, as Adam and Eve did. He is thrown back thus on the Scriptural declarations supported by the general doctrines of election and the initiative of grace—doctrines to which he gives a purer expression here (where he needs them) than in the residue of his system. Finney is called the "father of modern revivalism" by some historians, and he paved the way for later mass-evangelists like Dwight L. Moody, Billy Sunday, and Billy Graham. It may be condoned in those early leaders as their other foibles were condoned; it was a product of the earnestness of their purpose and of the strong determination of their high characters to holy living. “Lectures on Revivals of Religion,” 1835 (many subsequent editions). H. Clay Trumbull, “My Four Religious Teachers,” 1903, pp. He does not guide and control us, by irresistible power or force, but faith confides the guidance of our souls to him. Called the “father of modern revivalism” by some historians, he paved the way for later revivalists like Dwight L. Moody, Billy Sunday, and Billy Graham. “The fact is,” says Finney,370 “the actual turning … is the sinner’s own act”; “the sinner that minds the flesh, can change his mind, and mind God.” In all this Finney was but repeating the teachings of the New Divinity of which this very conception is declared by Lyman Beecher to have been the core. And in thus shifting the matter from the subjective to the objective sphere, the whole character of the scheme is altered. 381 “Lectures on Systematic Theology,” p. 381: “We can also predict, without the gift of prophecy, that with a constitution physically depraved, and surrounded with objects to awaken appetite, and with all the circumstances in which human beings first form their moral character, they will seek universally to gratify themselves, unless prevented by the illuminations of the Holy Spirit.”, 383 “Autobiography,” ii. 408–428. “To represent the (human) constitution as sinful,” he argues,384 “is to represent God, who is the author of the constitution, as the author of sin. Mahan, whose connection with Oberlin was severed in 1850, after an unfortunate venture at Cleveland (1850–1854) and a more successful one at Adrian, Michigan (1855–1871), had yet fifteen years or so to spend in England in active propaganda for his favorite doctrine (died 1889). 4 These beliefs, and a basic philosophical premise that led Finney to them, help explain his post-millennialism and views on revival. The atmosphere out of which it comes is that of theism, not of naturalism; and the righteous man is accordingly not the man whose conduct is suitable to his nature but the man whose conduct is in accordance with law. Beliefs; Contact; Charles Finney was Baptized in the Holy Spirit. James H. Fairchild, “The Doctrine of Sanctification at Oberlin,” in The Congregational Quarterly, April, 1876, pp. “This ability,” he says,359 “is called a natural ability, because it belongs to man as a moral agent, in such a sense that without it he could not be a proper subject of command, of reward or punishment. A rigid Calvinism dominated the theological landscape, but Finney urged his listeners to accept Christ openly and publicly. 568–619; cf. Those who, under this wise government, are not salvable, He leaves in their sins. “Out of Darkness into Light,” 1875. Charles Grandison Finney was born in Warren, Connecticut, on August 29, 1792. 38 quotes from Charles Grandison Finney: 'A state of mind that sees God in everything is evidence of growth in grace and a thankful heart. The originators of the doctrine never lost their hold upon it or their zeal for it. “We shall see that perseverance in obedience to the end of life is also a condition of justification …” Ibid., p. 735-737 Finney believed that man was saved when he decided to stop sinning and live the rest of his life in righteousness. On the incident see further, R. Wheatley, “The Life and Letters of Mrs. Phoebe Palmer,” 1876, p. 267, and for Henry Belden, see the “Princeton Theological Seminary Biographical Catalogue,” 1909, p. 128. The only place in the whole transaction in which any real sovereignty is shown, lies in God’s having established the particular government which He has established, and which determines who are salvable and who not. “Introduction to the Critical History of Philosophy,” 1893. Meanwhile, he began studying law and became an apprentice to a judge in Adams. Faith receives and confides in him, and consents to be governed and directed by him. “Scripture Doctrine of Christian Perfection,” 1839 (ed. 244 ff. 453–470, “The Oberlin Theology.”. The facts recited above are drawn from Leonard, pp. Fairchild does not mention them, but there were also scandals to accentuate the decreasing sense of the value of the doctrine. Both cannot be true. But the same ability which is adequate to resisting it, is adequate also to following it; and if it “secures” their salvation, it is only by this, their free following of it. The 29-year-old lawyer Charles Grandison Finney had decided he must settle the question of his soul's salvation. Charles Finney (1792-1875) But what kind of hero is Finney? Subscribers receive full access to the archives. He rode from town to town over what was known as the "burned-over district," a reference to the fact that the area had experienced so much religious enthusiasm that it was thought to have burned out. This special experience—the “blessing”—was not found to be always associated with an advance in Christian attainment and character. “Self indulgence becomes the master principle in the soul of every child, long before it can understand that this self indulgence will ever interfere with the rights, or entrench on the happiness of others. How can man be affirmed to be fully able and altogether competent to an act never performed by any man whatever, except under an action of the Spirit under which he invariably performs it? 5:12. The ultimate result is that, representing God as ordering the universe for the one end of the production of the greatest happiness of the greatest number, he finds himself teaching that men are left to perish solely for the enhancement of the happiness of others. He can, no doubt objectify the whole system of ends and means, and bid us conceive them—the end as the final term and all the means leading to it—as an objective entity which as a whole is good; a whole made up of its constituent parts all of which are good, standing off in a sort of conceptual reality to our contemplation. Accept—the determining factor in man’s salvation is his own acceptance. Experience has shown, however, that it was a delusion. Seeking the good of being, this is the government which an all-wise God must establish. W. Bartlett, “Modern Agitators,” 1854, pp. 15–27. “The best system of means for securing the great end of benevolence, included the election of just those who were elected, and no others.… The highest good demanded it.”351 A slightly different turn is given to this statement, when it is said: “The fact, that the wisest and best system of government would secure the salvation of those who are elected, must have been a condition of their being elected.” What is suggested by this is, that the reason, or one of the reasons, why just those who are elected are elected, is that they, and not others, would be saved under the system of government which God had in mind to establish. Obviously they are elected on the ground of their salvability—under the wise government which God has established. Charles Grandison Finney (Warren (Connecticut), 29 augustus 1792 – Oberlin (), 16 augustus 1875) was een Amerikaanse, presbyteriaanse predikant die uitgroeide tot een van de bekendste gezichten van de Second Great Awakening.. Finney staat ook bekend vanwege de vernieuwingen die hij invoerde bij het preken en tijdens religieuze bijeenkomsten. He takes us back to the primary sense of the word “right” and seeks to reduce even the connotation of the word itself to the “fit, suitable, agreeable to the nature and relations of moral agents.” This representation, however, is only partially correct, although there is of course a sense in which right and wrong express what is straight and what is crooked. “The Reviewer Reviewed, or Finney’s Theology and the Princeton Review,” 1847 (incorporated in the “Lectures on Systematic Theology” of 1851). “We deny,” he says,389 “that the human constitution is morally depraved … because it is impossible that sin should be a quality of the substance of soul or body. John Woodbridge, The Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review, 1842, pp. But this is only a feeling of the sensibility, and, if restrained only by this, he is just as absolutely selfish as if he had stolen a horse in obedience to acquisitiveness.” So, page 295: “If the selfish man were to preach the gospel, it would be only because, upon the whole, it was most pleasing or gratifying to himself, and not at all for the sake of the good of being, as an end. His nature is necessarily self-existent … God is not praiseworthy for having this nature, but for the voluntary use or exercise of it.” This comment invites remark at more than one point. He adds in a tone which may appear a little petulant: “All that can justly be said … is, that if infants are saved at all, which I suppose they are, they are rescued by the benevolence of God from circumstances that would result in certain and eternal death, and are by grace made heirs of eternal life. His Lectures on Systematic Theology (1846) teach his special brand of "arminianized Calvinism.". Francis of Assisi had a good end in view when he gave alms: he wished to relieve distress. Here is rather a full statement:352 “I suppose that God bestows on men unequal measures of gracious influence, but that in this there is nothing arbitrary; that, on the contrary, he sees the wisest and best reasons for this; that being in justice under obligation to none, he exercises his own benevolent discretion, in bestowing on all as much gracious influence as he sees to be upon the whole wise and good, and enough to throw the entire responsibility of their damnation upon them if they are lost.353 But upon some he foresaw that he could wisely bestow a sufficient measure of gracious influence to secure their voluntary yielding, and upon others he could not bestow enough in fact to secure this result.” The upshot is that God elects all that it is wise for Him to elect; and as He elects them both to grace and glory, He saves all that it is wise for Him to save. Perhaps if we press the word “agents”—but let us substitute “beings.” Are infants not moral beings? That is true; and one of the proofs that it is true is, that Finney, abandoning the simple formula of free-agency plus temptation, is himself compelled in the end to assume a bias to sin in order to account for the universality of sin. It was benevolent in God, says Finney,356 to create men who were destined to reprobation, because, “if he foresaw that, upon the whole, he could secure such an amount of virtue and happiness by means of moral government, as to more than counterbalance the sin and misery of those who would be lost, then certainly it was a dictate of benevolence to create them.” We may possibly be able to bow before reasoning which is directed to show that our reprobation is the unavoidable condition of the attainment of an end high and holy enough to justify any individual evils which are incurred in its achievement—say, the vindication of the right, the preservation of the divine integrity, the manifestation of God’s righteousness, the enhancement of His glory. The effect of this representation is to shift the whole matter from the subjective to the objective sphere. 151–169. 381–392, to “Dr. The right is not a means to something else conceived of as the supreme good, but is itself the supreme good imposed on us as our duty by an adequate authority. The soul, to him, consists of its substance and its acts; there is nothing more, and there is room for nothing more—for such things, for example, as permanent, though separable, dispositions. The majority of the students, perhaps also the majority of the inhabitants, were more or less deeply moved by the propaganda: many definitely adopted the new teaching and endeavored both to live it themselves and to communicate it to others. Walter E. C. Wright, The Bibliotheca Sacra, July, 1900, p. 431: “The religion of Oberlin from the first was intensely ethical: it concerned actions far more than feelings.”. God elects to salvation all those who are salvable under this wise government. Adam has nothing to do with it—despite Rom. “I admit and maintain,” says Finney,364 “that regeneration is always induced and effected by the personal agency of the Holy Spirit.” “It is agreed,” he says again,365 “that all who are converted, sanctified and saved, are converted, sanctified and saved by God’s own agency; that is, God saves them by securing, by his own agency, their personal and individual holiness.” The mode of the divine agency in securing these efforts, however, is purely suasive. Mahan’s lifelong propaganda of the earlier form of Oberlin Perfectionism was not barren of fruit. Neither proposal passed. At the same time Charles Finney became Oberlin’s professor of theology. The local periodical press of course reflected the state of feeling of the several communities. The most shocking of them was probably the lamentable fall from virtue in 1842 of H. C. 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