Linkathon!
Overstaying a visa isn’t a crime. Here’s why it matters…
The authority of the Christian faith…
Jesus doesn’t govern with a lightning bolt…
The Ash Wednesday tsunami...a fascinating report of young people coming to faith in France…
Drafted into the churches gender war…
Finney’s reinvention of worship…
SBC leaders still not listening to abuse claims…
The gospel according to Hobby Lobby…
Columbia House is finally shutting down…
First responders and crypt keepers…
Tom Buck accused of plagiarism…
List of Protestant leaders accused of abuse goes online…
Loving the God we don’t understand…
On a recent visit to Hobby Lobby I noticed that their music play list included a non-christian song. My critical spirit is alive and well.
I hope I’m not the only one to click on the Charles Finney link. Finney had an enormous impact on Keith Green as well as the missions organization YWAM. That was the world I lived in 45 years ago. Looking back, I knew he was out of balance but I had no idea his views on justification and the atonement qualify as heresy. That he was the OG of the modern worship service is the manipulative cherry on top.
Terry,
I hope you’re not the only one either.
Finney’s whole gig was to manipulate people to the ‘anxious bench’ then his version of conversion.
Not much has changed…
Finney was an American original in some very terrible ways.
My mom, I discovered, was a huge fan. A few years before her death she declared that Finney was the greatest Christian to have ever lived.
After a few seconds of silence she asked me “Do you not like Charles Finney?”
“Yes, that would be the nice way to put it. This clarifies so many things about theological disagreements we have had over the years.”
If it were strictly up to me I’d erase the influence of two high-profile American Christians. Finney would probably have to be first and a very, very, very close second would be R L Dabney.
The Finney Theology takedown:
• Anyone can live without sinning. The problem is you are just weak.
• Christ couldn’t have died for anyone’s sins but his own. It makes no sense legally.
• The Cross was primarily a Moral Example to convict sinning sinners of their sinfulness.
Keith Green didn’t actually believe any of this, he just fell for Finney’s manipulative conviction techniques. Other leaders around Keith admired Finney as a great revivalist and evangelist and could overlook his theology.