Reference; Miller, Basil. Charles Finney The evangelist who sparked one of America's greatest revivals. Bethany House Publishers. Minneapolis, MN. 1941.
The prior two Champions about whom I have written, Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, were instrumental in revivals of the First Great Awakening in the period prior to our American Revolution. Our Lord moved another Champion of the Faith, Charles Finney, to move on America in our nation's Second Great Awakening in the 1800s. The extent of his influence for Christ was that "under his ministry a half million souls yielded themselves to his Master's touch." His thrust was to call people to repentance. Multitudes of individuals go about their daily lives not knowing or caring how they live each day. God requires us to repent of our sins. One of the major benefits of a life lived by God's will is to follow the Ten Commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. When I first became aware of this requirement to have my prayers met, the "pleasing in his sight" was somewhat mysterious and I needed to work on that subject. This is the requirement that is subject to review in each of our lives.
Charles Finney was born in 1792. The Lord guided his early years for his calling as an evangelist by preparing him in educational endeavors. Intense Bible study brought him to the conclusion that the Book was truly the word of God and that prayers must be prayed in faith. A major turning point in his faith walk was when he grasped the "doctrine of justification by faith" This is how he defined a new state of his deepened faith. "I could now see and understand what was meant by the passage, 'Being justified by faith, we have peace with God...' I could see the moment I believed while up in the woods all sense of condemnation had entirely dropped out of my mind; and from that moment I could not feel a sense of guilt or condemnation...My sense of guilt was gone; my sins were gone...I felt justified by faith...I was in a state in which I did not sin. My heart was so full of love that it ran over." He got the big picture! That is what he based his life's work on. That is a key for us all.
A 1970 movie Love Story had a line in it, "Love means never having to say you are sorry." In a secular setting this means loving someone to such a degree in a relationship that you never hurt their feelings or commit an unpleasant or mean action against them. Finney would indicate that his love for our Lord was so deep and strong that his life was one of sinlessness to such a degree that he need not repent because he did not sin!
"His style of preparation was as he went among the people 'to learn their wants. Then in light of the Holy Spirit I take the subject that I think will meet their present necessities...I pray much over the subject and then go and pour it out to the people.'" Finney was strongly convicted that his success was due to his baptism in the Holy Ghost, "...which is indispensable to ministerial success." One student of his at Oberlin College in his latter years said of him, "God had His giant at last."
"Springing from the inner fount of his own life, he heralded from the pulpit, the lecture room and the press 'that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.' This was his life-long theme song, this his white-hot passion." This he proclaimed until August 16, 1875. We need more heralds such as was he.!
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