[Evangelical]

Originally Posted by UntoHim

Thanks for the Finney update, Evangelical, but you are still posting a lot of irrelevant, off-top things. You are clearly attempting to avoid, evade and deflect from the real issues at hand. Did Finney every proclaim that he was "the only person on earth speaking as God's oracle since 1945"? (paraph) Did Finney ever hire and fire elders or co-workers at his personal whim, and according to their personal loyalty himself? Did Finney ever have to relocate to a different continent because he ripped his followers off and was abusive to his fellow co-workers? Shall I go on?
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UntoHim..you have now quoted the very post you told me had nothing to do with this topic. So I will explain that post better below. You might find it insightful, the relationship between Lee and Finney, if you had not considered it before. It might be the first time anyone on this forum has raised it. The fact that Lee referenced Finney a number of times as one of the Great Revivalists. It is only my conjecture but I am guessing that at some level, Lee was inspired by Finney, and others like him.

You are asking me questions unrelated to the matter of denominations and criticism /slander. Or what is the relationship between these questions and the recent discussion?

Finney was critical of the church and not well received in many churches. He had a number of weaknesses that parallel those said of Lee. That was the point I was making in relation to Lees criticism and it being labelled as slander. I assumed most people here knew of Charles Finney. That was my mistake for not clarifying. Great men of God like Finney and Lee often make criticism and are not well received. Just like Gods prophets to Israel.

Here is a connection between Finney and Lee from
http://enrichmentjournal.ag.org/2006...118_finney.cfm

"Finney looked down on formal training. His preaching style was sometimes criticized for its harsh, judgmental spirit."

"Finney was outspokenly Pelagian. His other theological beliefs mentioned earlier further revealed his revulsion of theological training. "

Finney also had weaknesses that limited his long-term usefulness to the church, and in some cases have caused great harm among the undiscerning.

The first was his lone-ranger mentality — me and the Bible only. For Finney, theology and church history were flyover territory. Because of this, he was often unteachable and uncorrectable. (We have noted his unwillingness to listen to his seniors at the New Lebanon Conference in the summer of 1827.)

For example, Finney wrote, “There is a vast ignorance in the churches on the subject of revivals. … There are very few who have any real consistent knowledge on the subject.”14 But great revivals had been occurring in North America and England since 1790. Probably the greatest revival in history, the Great Awakening, took place under Whitefield, Edwards, and Wesley in the 1740s. Ignoring recent history, Finney assumed he was the first to really understand revival.

“Finney began his own religious quest,” notes Nathan Hatch, “by denying the force of inherited religious authority. He relied upon his own enlightened, albeit theologically untutored, reason.”15 This posture excluded him from historic confessional Christianity on many significant doctrinal issues. Some of these we have already noted.

His second weakness, which is related to the first, was the elevation of reason over revelation. Finney demanded that many biblical mysteries be pressed into rational human formulas. Finney struggled to “adjust the truths of Christianity into such a harmonious system of thought that no violence should be done to the dictates of reason,” observes Murray. “This, as he often said, was (after that of the actual conversion of souls) the great aim of his life.”16 Finney could not accept mysteries, like the congruence of the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man.

Lessons
We can learn many lessons from Finney’s life. First, God delights to use imperfect vessels. God perfected His power through Finney’s weaknesses (2 Corinthians 13:4). This should encourage every pastor. Despite Finney’s imperfections, God delighted to use him. Despite our imperfections, He will use us as well.


I was not trying to say Finney did anything like you say Lee did. That should have been obvious by the paragraph of mine you quoted and the context of the post I was replying to. But I think we can learn a lot from that last paragraph Lessons - God delights to use imperfect vessels.