WAS CHARLES G. FINNEY AND HIS METHODS
IN
REACTION TO PEDOBAPTIST HYPER-CALVINISM?[06/28/04]
The
following consists primarily of a reply I made to a friend who wrote that
"The groundwork for Presbyterian apostasy lay in the work of Charles Finney,
who ruined American evangelism."
I rather think that filling the
churches with the unregenerate baptized in infancy was more responsible
for Presbyterian apoastasy than Charles Finney. Pedobaptism had previously led
to apostasy in New England. It has also led to apostasy in Scotland and England.
Wherever Pedobaptism prevails, in due course of time there is apostasy. You
can't fill-up the churches primarily with unregenerate persons on the pretext of
regeneration in infancy without in due time reaping the consequences.
Men such as Charles and A. A. Hodge and W. G. T. Shedd all taught that
children of believing parents are regenerated in infancy and are to be accounted
as members of the church. With churches filled with the unregenerate it is not
strange that in the 20th century the Pedobaptists fell victim to liberalism and
modernism.
As for Finney, is it not the fact that, whatever Finney
contributed, he did his work in the "ground" prepared for him by the
Pedobaptist hyper-Calvinists who baptized babies on the presumption of
regeneration in infancy, thereby filling the churches with the unregenerate? Was
it not the Pedobaptist hypers who ordained Finney to the
ministry?
Finney took advantage of the Pedobaptist
hyper-Calvinistic circumstances he found among the Pedobaptists, with which
he became acquainted when he was in law school in New Jersey
(Autobiography, page 7). He formed his concepts of theology and
evangelism in reaction to this hyper-Calvinism which dominated the
Pedobaptist theologians whose primary, or even exclusive, "evangelism" was
baptizing babies. As is usually the case, one theological aberration tends to
breed another just as bad or even worse.
Is not hyper-Calvinism
thereby responsible for spawning Finney and his methods? It was also
responsible for Pedobaptists Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell,
who likewise formed their theology and methods in opposition to the
hyper-Calvinism of their times. See the early chapters of Campbell's Memoirs. Memoirs
of Alexander Campbell; Works of
Elder B. W. Stone
The Pedobaptist hypers had no concept of
"immediate" salvation by faith such as Spurgeon and Moody
preached, but were hung-up on (1) infant regeneration and (2)
"preparationism" in the case of adults. Shedd was one of the worst on the
sinner's engaging in what he called "preparatives," almost as bad as
Joseph Alleine, making pre-conversion WORKS essential to "prepare"
for the new birth. Shedd even taught that the sinner is to pray for
regeneration, which is really a diversion from believing in Christ for
salvation, as taught by John 20:31 (Dogmatic Theology, Vol. 2, pages
512-515).
This was also the reason the Scottish Pedobaptist John
Kennedy opposed Moody -- he was hung-up on "preparationism." He
opposed what he called "sudden conversion," and viewed conversion as a
"process."
Pedobaptist Kennedy, who is favored by Pedobaptist Iain
Murray over Spurgeon's view, wrote:
>>The favorite doctrine of
sudden conversion is practically a complete evasion of the necessity of
repentance. Suddenness is regarded as the rule, and not the exception, in order
to get rid of any process preliminary to faith. And on what ground do
they establish this rule? Merely on the instances of sudden conversion
recorded in Scripture. True, there are cases not a few of sudden
conversion recorded in Scripture, and there have been such instances since
the Book of God was sealed. There was a wise and gracious design in making them
thus marked at the outset. They were intended, by their extraordinary
suddenness, to show to all ages the wondrous power of God. But was their
suddenness designed to indicate the rule of God's acting in all ages? This
it will be as difficult to establish, as that the miraculous circumstances
attending some of them were intended to be perpetual. The work of conversion
includes what we might expect to find detailed in a process. There can be no
faith in Christ without some sense of sin, some knowledge of Christ—such as
never was possessed before—and willingness, resulting from renewal
[which is the hyper view of pre-faith new birth advocated by Berkhof, Shedd,
Murray] to receive Him as a Savior from sin. If a hearty intelligent turning
to God in Christ be the result of conversion, it is utterly unwarrantable to
expect that, as a rule, conversion shall be sudden. Indeed, the
suddenness is rather a ground of suspicion than a reason for concluding
that the work is God's.>> (Hyper-Evangelism)
Spurgeon's sermon
in defense of salvation by faith was a reply to the views of men such as
Kennedy: <http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/1239.htm>
In
that sermon, Spurgeon defended "sudden" or "immediate" conversion, as
follows:
>>
What has been affirmed by a certain class of public
writers comes to this, if you boil it down—that it cannot really do any good to
tell men that simply by believing in Jesus Christ they will be saved, and that
it may do people very serious injury if we lead them to imagine that they have
undergone a process called conversion, and are now safe for life. We are told
by these gentlemen, who ought to know, for they speak very positively, that the
doctrine of immediate salvation through faith in Christ Jesus is a very
dangerous one, that it will certainly lead to the deterioration of the
public morality, since men will not be likely to set store by the practical
virtues when faith is lifted up to so very lofty a position. If it were so it
were a grievous fault, and woe to those who led men into it. That it is not the
fact we are sure; but meanwhile let us survey the field of battle.
Will
you please to notice that this is no quarrel between these gentlemen and our
friends Messrs. Moody and Sankey alone. It is a quarrel between these objectors
and the whole of us who preach the gospel; for, differing as we do in the style
of preaching it, we are all ready to set our seal to the clearest possible
statement that men are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, and saved the moment they
believe. We all hold and teach that there is such a thing as conversion,—and
that when men are converted they become other men than they were before, and a
new life begins which will culminate in eternal glory. We are not so dastardly
as to allow our friends to stand alone in the front of the battle, to be looked
upon as peculiar persons, holding strange notions from which the rest of us
dissent. So far as salvation through faith in the atoning blood is concerned,
they preach nothing but what we have preached all our lives; they preach nothing
but what has the general consent of Protestant Christendom. Let that be known to
all, and let the archers shoot at us all alike.
>>
-- Bob L.
Ross
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