Charles Finney on the Preaching of Religious Robbers WITHOUT Results in Saving Human Souls

December 30, 2010 · Adam Bondaruk, Baptists, Victor Belykh, AUCECB, Persecution, Interview, KGB, Books, Unregistered Pentecostals, Nikolay Kotyakov, On Emigration, United Church of Evangelical Christians, Vestibule, Petr Saenko, Pentecostals, Religious Mafia, Slavik Radchuk, Contemporary Persecution, Security Services

The famous 19th-century American evangelist Charles Finney, through whose preaching a vast number of people in America and beyond turned to Christ, and entire cities experienced spiritual awakening, wrote these words, seeing the liberal tendencies of his time to distort the meaning, content, and spirit of the biblical Gospel and the teaching of Jesus Christ. Compare with the preaching in your churches.

Charles Finney on preaching WITHOUT results in the salvation of human souls:

I. Let your main motive be the increase of your own popularity — then, of course, your preaching will be suitable for that purpose, and not for turning souls to Christ.

II. Avoid preaching on subjects that are unpleasant to carnal minds, so they will not say to you what they said to Christ: “What strange words! Who can listen to this?”

III. Do not formulate your thoughts clearly, and do not disturb the consciences of your hearers, otherwise they will become troubled about their souls.

IV. Avoid illustrations, repetition, and emphatic statements that might cause your hearers to remember what you say.

V. Avoid heart-felt earnestness and sincerity in what you say, otherwise it will appear that you really believe what you are saying.

VI. Address the emotions, not the consciences of your hearers.

VII. Do not give testimony from your own experience about the power of the Gospel, otherwise you will create the conviction in your hearers that you have something they need.

VIII. Do not stir up unpleasant memories in your hearers by reminding them of their sins.

IX. Condemn sin in general, but do not draw attention to the specific sins of the audience present.

X. Do not create the impression that God commands the hearers here and now to live according to the truth. Do not allow them to think that you expect them to surrender their hearts to God.

XI. Create the impression that you expect them to go away with their sins, and give no opportunity for their consciences to consider.

XII. Dwell at length on their inability to obey, and leave the conviction that they must wait for God to come and change their nature.

XIII. Preach salvation by grace, but ignore the condemned and lost condition of sinners, otherwise they will understand what you mean by grace and feel their need of it.

XIV. Preach the Gospel as a remedy for disease, but conceal or ignore the mortal sickness of the sinner.

XV. Do not speak of the spirituality of God’s law (through which sin is revealed), otherwise the sinner will see his fallen state and flee from the coming wrath.

XVI. Do not draw the attention of sinners to the fact of their responsibility for their sins; rather, leave the impression that they have nothing to fear.

XVII. Preach an endlessly friendly and kind Jesus Christ, but ignore the stern rebukes that often made His hearers tremble.

XVIII. Concede, either deliberately or as if by accident, that all people have some kind of moral goodness, otherwise sinners will realize that they need a radical change of the heart’s nature, from sinfulness to holiness.

XIX. Say little about hell, so that hearers may think that you yourself do not believe in its existence.

XX. Create the conviction that if God is as good as you are, He cannot bear to let anyone go to hell.

XXI. Do not make unpleasant reminders of the doctrine of self-denial, carrying the cross, and crucifixion to the world, otherwise you will convict and convert some church members.

XXII. Do not rebuke worldly tendencies in the church, otherwise you will wound their feelings and, as a result, convert some of them.

XXIII. Do not reprove lack of modesty in dress, otherwise you will make an unpleasant impression on the self-absorbed and worldly members of the church.

XXIV. Approve of the many social gatherings in the church and attend them yourself.

XXV. Make your popularity among all classes of your hearers a priority.

XXVI. Make your hearers satisfied with their condition and with you personally, and be careful not to wound anyone’s feelings.

XXVII. Especially avoid preaching to those present. Preach about sinners, but not to them. Say “they,” not “you,” avoiding the salvation of lost souls, otherwise someone will take the sermon personally and apply it in their own life.

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Charles Spurgeon in his sermons also repeatedly spoke about the importance of emphasizing the Day of Judgment:
“God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world, and we sigh and cry until He puts an end to the reign of the wicked and sets the oppressed free. Brethren, we must preach the coming of the Lord, and preach it more than we have done, for this is the driving force of the Gospel. Many have been silent on these truths and have thus taken the bone out of the arm of the Gospel. Its substance has been broken, its cutting edge blunted. The doctrine of the coming judgment is the power by which a man is lifted. There is life after death. The Lord will come a second time. Judgment is coming. The wrath of God will be revealed. Where this is not preached, I boldly declare, the Gospel is not preached at all. Preaching the Gospel of Christ, it is necessary to warn people of what will happen if they continue to sin.

Hey, Mr. Surgeon, you are too delicate to tell a man that he is sick! You hope to heal the sick without their knowing it. In so doing you flatter them, and as a result they laugh at you and dance on their own graves. In the end they will die! Your delicacy is cruel. Your flattery is poisonous. You are a murderer. Should we leave a man in a fool’s paradise? Should we lull him with soft dreams from which he will awake in hell? Are we not contributing to their condemnation by our soft speeches? In the name of the Lord we must not do so!”

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