True Christianity

274 Pages·2003·1.52 MB·English

by  Charles G. Finney

CHARLES G. FINNEY
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TRUE CHRISTIANITY
(cid:2)
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i
Preface
In December 1833, Charles Finney denied communion to those who
were slaveholders in his church. This bold stance, taken over thirty
yearsbeforeslaverywasmadeillegalintheUnitedStates,typifiesthe
character of this courageous preacher. On a national day of fasting
in 1841, the first sin he preached on was the manner in which Native
Americanshadbeentreatedbythegovernment. Finney’ssignificance
inshapingtheconscienceandveryhistoryofAmericaisunquestioned.
AsAllenGuelzowrites,“ItwouldbehardtotellthestoryoftheAmer-
ican Republic before the Civil War without giving Charles Grandison
Finneyoneofthestarringroles.”
However,Finney’smessagewasfarfromexclusivelyfocusedonsocial
orpoliticalcauses. Infact,tothefrustrationofmanysocialactivists,he
believedthatthebestwaytosolvesociety’sproblemswastopreachthe
gospel. Finneysoughttotransformpeoplewithagospelmessagethat
changed their hearts, and he insisted that it be all of their hearts. His
powerful and convicting messages challenged people to submit their
entire lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ — this included renounc-
ingmaterialism,worldlyfashion,secularentertainment,andofcourse,
slavery. Few people today have the courage to speak against the cul-
ture of the world as Finney did, but God surely blessed his ministry.
Over half a million people became Christians under Finney’s preach-
ing.
This book is a collection of lectures drawn from Lectures to Professing
Christians,theWayofSalvation,andLecturesonRevivalsofReligion. They
aregroupedintofourtopics: repentance,prayer,witnessing,andspir-
itual growth. The chapters were originally sermons or lectures deliv-
eredbyFinneythathelaterrevisedtobemoresuitableforprintform.
BecausemostofthebookisdrawnfromLecturesonRevivalsofReligion,
one will notice a continuity and cumulative progression from chapter
to chapter. (There is an appendix detailing the origin of each chapter
in this book.) When reading the book, it is easy to feel the passion
thatCharlesFinneypreachedwith. Oneisconvictedbyhisdirectstyle
thatheobviouslyhopeswillbeclearlyheard,understood,andapplied.
Someofthechaptersinthisbookareamongthemostconvictingpages
written in the last two hundred years. Chapter 4 on repentance is an
unforgettable experience, feeling more like a hammer than a lecture.
The chapters on prayer and witnessing (5-12) have more insight into
thesubjectthananymodernbookIhaveread. Fortunately,helovedto
tellrealillustrationsofthetruthshetaught—theseareofagreathelp
inunderstandingpracticalapplications.
ii
Finney greatly believed that his works should be simple and easily
understood by any audience. Thus he took much effort to make his
preaching easily comprehensible by using plain language and many
stories. Inthatspirit,Ihaveeditedeachchaptertomakeitmoreread-
able for the twenty-first century reader. Some words like damask,
groat, or weal are simply not used much anymore, while other words
like careless have changed their meaning somewhat. For example,
whenFinneydescribesthecarelesssinner,hemeanstheapatheticsin-
ner,someonewhohasnointerestinthethingsofGod. Ihavechanged
suchwordstotheirmodernequivalents. Ihavemodernizedthepunc-
tuation usage, and sometimes also his sentence structure to improve
readability. In the interest of brevity, as well as not wanting to stray
intotopicsunfamiliarorconfusingtotoday’sreader,manyofthechap-
ters have also been shortened. However, I have intentionally retained
the parts in each chapter where he asks the hearer to respond in ap-
plication. These are obviously derived from the fact that these were
originally sermons to a live audience. Hearing his pleas to the audi-
ence is very moving, and is part of the power of each chapter. My
goalwiththisbookistoproduceaneasilyreadabletextthatfaithfully
reproducesthesubstanceandstyleofFinney’soriginallectures.
IwouldespeciallyliketothankTylerVanderWeeleforhisproofreading
themanuscriptandforhisnumeroussuggestionstoimproveclarity. I
amverygratefultoRaymondYim,PeterPark,andNicoleRimfortheir
helpinthecoverdesignandtypesetting. Finally,Iwouldliketothank
Raymond for his being a constant source of encouragement to me in
thecompletionofthiswork.
MayGodcontinuetousethisworkforhisglory.
FinnyKuruvilla
Cambridge,Massachusetts
September2003
Table of Contents
I REPENTANCE 1
1 DISCERNINGYOURCHARACTER 3
2 THESALVATIONOFTHEWICKEDIMPOSSIBLE 11
3 TRUEANDFALSEREPENTANCE 21
4 HOWTOREPENT 35
II PRAYER 47
5 PREVAILINGPRAYER 49
6 THEPRAYEROFFAITH 67
7 THESPIRITOFPRAYER 81
8 MEETINGSFORPRAYER 103
III WITNESSING 117
9 HOWTOTESTIFYTOTHEGOSPEL 119
10 TOWINSOULSREQUIRESWISDOM 133
11 FALSECOMFORTSFORSINNERS 149
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iv TABLEOFCONTENTS
12 INSTRUCTIONSTOSINNERS 173
IV SPIRITUALGROWTH 189
13 INSTRUCTIONSTOCONVERTS 191
14 ADDITIONALINSTRUCTIONSTOCONVERTS 215
15 THEBACKSLIDERINHEART 233
16 GROWTHINGRACE 249
Part I
REPENTANCE
1