‘This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil’ [1Timothy 3].

‘Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

 

When church leaders claim that theology gets in the way of growth and insist that it does not matter what a particular church believes, they have become Finney’s successors. Outward and immediate growth is no sign that fruit is forth coming. Those who think otherwise set themselves in opposition to Christ’s teaching in the Sower Parable. Finney’s revivalism is the method of coercive pragmatism and meant to provoke a response. They are like the plant that withers and dies because it has no root or depth of soil.

In Finney’s theology, God is not sovereign, man is not a sinner by nature, the atonement is not a true payment for sin, justification by imputation is insulting to reason and morality, the new birth is simply the effect of successful techniques, and revival is a natural result of clever campaigns.

Finney’s message is a radical departure from the faith of the Reformers and Edwards, as is the basic orientation of the movements we see around us today that bear his imprint such as: revivalism that is known by its modern label of Church Growth Movement, or Pentecostal perfectionism and emotionalism, or the anti-intellectual, and anti-doctrinal tendencies of many American evangelicals and fundamentalists or the political ideal of "Christian America" that promoted the social crusades built on a naturalistic moralism and faith in humanity's potential of self-salvation.

Of one thing Finney was absolutely correct: The Gospel held by the Reformers and Edwards is "another gospel" and distinct from the one he proclaimed. The question for the churches is with which gospel will we side?

Jonathan Edwards is consistent with Augustine and the Protestant Reformers. Charles Finney is consistent with Pelagius and Jacobus Arminius.

This is what guides and governs the will, namely, what we consider to be our delight. Everything springs from delight. The dispute with Pelagius was that it is not in our power to determine what this delight will be. Augustine augues…

“Who has it in his power to have such a motive present to his mind that his will shall be influenced to believe? Who can welcome in his mind something which does not give him delight? But who has it in his power to ensure that something that will delight him will turn up? Or that he will take delight in what turns up? If those things delight us which serve our advancement towards God, that is due not to our own whim or industry or meritorious works, but in the inspiration of God and to the grace which he bestows.”

So saving grace for Augustine is God’s giving us a sovereign joy in God that triumphs over all other joys and therefore sways the will. The will is free to move toward whatever it delights in most fully, but it is not within the power of our will to determine what that joy will be.

Therefore, Augustine concludes, “A man’s free-will, indeed, avails for nothing except to sin, if he knows not the way of truth; and even after his duty and his proper aim shall begin to become known to him, unless he also take delight in and feel a love for it, he neither does his duty, nor sets about it, nor lives rightly. Now, in order that such a course may engage our affections, God’s ‘love is shed abroad in our hearts’ not through the free-will which arises from ourselves, but ‘through the Holy Ghost, which is given to us’ [Romans 5:5].”

[credits to John Piper: God's Passion for His Glory]

Edwards’ thesis of God’s sovereignty over the fallen human will is given in his work Freedom of the Will.

Here is Finney’s assessment of Edwards’ book: “Ridiculous! Edwards I revere; his blunders I deplore. I speak thus of this Treatise on the Will, because while it abounds with unwarrantable assumptions, distinctions without difference, and metaphysical subtleties, it has been adopted as the textbook of a multitude of what are called Calvinistic divines for scores of years.” [Finney’s Systematic Theology]

This is Edwards’ argument that the Arminian notion of the will’s ability to determine itself is not a prerequisite of moral accountability.

Later in John’s Gospel Jesus gives us commentary on this parable, “[Father] sanctify them by Your truth; Your word is Truth” [John 17:17]. The word is used of God to conform the believer more and more into the image of His Son. The word also reveals the unbelieving heart as one unwilling to obey; he is conformed to this world and not willing to be 'transformed by the renewing of the mind' [Romans 12].

The healthy church is characterized by the faithful exposition of the word of God and a Biblical doctrine of regeneration. Spiritual regeneration is a necessity for bearing the fruits of the Spirit, and since men are dead in sin this work is of God alone…

“You must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit” [John 3:7-8].

Re: http://townhall.com/columnists/AllenHunt/2009/03/16/the_churchs_obituary

Prompted by my response to Paul Edwards’ recent article on praying for the president we will be considering this passage in coming weeks…

http://townhall.com/columnists/PaulEdwards/2009/03/13/how_im_praying_for_the_president

Obama has made himself an enemy of the cross while professing to be a man of faith. We are commanded to pray on behalf of all men and for those in authority [1 Timothy 2:1-2]. But how do we deal with the fact that the American people elected him and his ilk to power? We who had a birthright of liberty have sold it for a mess of pottage. We have become the heathen nation that rages against the Almighty and His Anointed.

Intolerance of Christianity is increasingly seen in public policy, because the progressives see us as the suppressors of human rights. Reputations and businesses of anyone who supported California’s Proposition 8 are being sought after with malicious intent. Western society is failing from inward corruption, and those who are supposed to be salt and light are seen as the enemies.

A healthy, thriving church is a blessing to any nation, but a nation in love with itself and at war with God does not deserve the blessing of a sound church. What we are seeing today with the perversion of marriage and the exaltation of deviancy is not what will bring the wrath of God; it is the wrath of God. [James White]

We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars we’ve spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures. [Michael Spencer; http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0310/p09s01-coop.html]